Books in the Res Monographs in Anthropology and Aesthetics series

Gottfied Semper was the most important German theorist of the nineteenth century. Originally published in 1989, this book provides an English translation of a number of Semper's published writings, and its introduction seeks to trace the course of Semper's theoretical development over thirty-five years.

This 1996 book examines the evolution of Dali's art during the 1920s and 1930s when he was associated first with the Catalan avant-garde and then with the Surrealist group in Paris. Haim Finkelstein's study examines these writings in detail as the foundation for the evolution of Dali's unique artistic vision.

This study of the cattle-horned initiation masks of southern Senegal and the Gambia weaves together art history, history, and cultural anthropology to give a detailed view of Casamance cultures, as they have interacted and changed over the past two centuries.

Traces the development of the Italian Renaissance palace facade as a cultural as well as architectural and spatial phenomenon. The author draws on literary evidence as well as analyses of significant Renaissance buildings, noting the paucity of explicit discussion of the theme in an era of extensive architectural publishing.

This 1999 book provides an analysis of Hegel's art history. Analogous to his philosophy of history, Hegel viewed the history of art in dialectical terms: with its origins in the Ancient Near East, Western art culminated in Classical Greece, but began its decline already in the Hellenistic period. Yet modern art refuses to abide by Hegel's programmed demise.