30, 000 Years of Art.

Rather than organized by region or style, this book is ordered chronologically, comparing art from around the world through 30, 000 years of history. With 1, 000 full-color illustrations, each page is devoted to one piece of art and includes a concise yet sophisticated description that provides historical context, requiring no formal background in art. It begins in the Upper Paleolithic (ca. 28, 000 B.C.) with a hand-carved mammoth ivory depiction of a lion-human from the Aurignacian culture and ends with a piece of modern "Land Art" located in the cinder of an extinct volcano crater near Arizona's Painted Desert. Two comparative history timelines trace the development of art and civilizations across 13 distinct world regions, allowing you to note that the creation of a floor mosaic in 750 A.D. in modern-day Jordan occurred at the same time an artisan in Gotland etched the final strokes of a picture-stone monument depicting Norse warriors sailing to Valhalla. 1, 064 pages. 12" H x 12" W x 3" D. (12 3/4 lbs.)