BE - Fine Arts

1996

BE-96-2/3 -- Fine Arts

96-2/3-289

Le guide du patrimoine. Centre, Val de Loire [Guide to the National Architectural Heritage: Center, Val de Loire]. Ed. Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos. Paris: Hachette, 1992. 711, 22 p. ill., maps. 25 cm. ISBN 2-01-018538-2: FF 250.00

96-2/3-290

Le guide du patrimoine. Champagne-Ardenne [Guide to the National Architectural Heritage: Champagne-Ardenne]. Ed. Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos. Paris: Hachette, 1995. 432 p. ill., maps. 25 cm. ISBN 2-01-020987-7: FF 250.00

96-2/3-291

Le guide du patrimoine. Ile-de-France [Guide to the National Architectural Heritage: Ile-de-France]. Ed. Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos. Paris: Hachette, 1992. 750, 16 p. ill., maps. 25 cm. ISBN 2-01-016811-9: FF 250.00

96-2/3-292

Le guide du patrimoine. Paris [Guide to the National Architectural Heritage: Paris]. Ed. Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos. Paris: Hachette, 1994. 587, 19 p. ill., maps. 25 cm. ISBN 2-01-016812-7: FF 250.00

The volumes of the Guide du patrimoine dispense with the practical information of the usual tourist's guide, making them more like travel-ready reference works for those interested in art. The volume for Paris, which is here taken as an example for the entire series, describes 1,000 Parisian monuments of art. They are arranged in alphabetical order rather than in the order of a typical tour itinerary such as in the Paris volume of the Guides bleus or Reclams Kunstführer. The text provides only factual information; additional descriptions or aids to interpretation are omitted. The numerous illustrations consist of plans, views, historical and contemporary images, etc. Gardens, parks and streets are also listed. More cross-references and index entries would have been helpful. Art collections are not included (with the exception of those of the Louvre), as the contents are limited to architecturally important monuments. In this respect the Guide bleu for Paris is more informative and better suited to the needs of travelers interested in art. In view of the general lack of sufficient documentation for monuments in France, a continuation of this series, covering other regions, is particularly desirable. [sh/mjc]

96-2/3-293

Dictionnaire des monuments historiques d'Alsace [Dictionary of Historical Monuments of the Alsace]. Dominique Toursel-Harster, Jean-Pierre Beck and Guy Bronner. 2d ed. Strasbourg: Editions La Nuée Bleue, 1995. 662 p. ill. 24 cm. ISBN 2-7165-0250-1: FF 260.00

This reference work lists 1,200 cultural and artistic monuments of the Alsace (including industrial and military monuments), arranged alphabetically by place. It is unclear how the material within each entry is organized, making use difficult. General historical information about the locality is not included; details are given only for the monuments themselves. It contains numerous illustrations. Now the Alsace, already well served by guides of this kind, has another. It was so well received by the public that the second edition appeared in the same year as the first. [sh/mjc]

96-2/3-294

Le guide du patrimoine industriel, scientifique et technique [Guide to the National Industrial, Scientific, and Technical Heritage]. Ed. Gérard Marie de Ficquelmont. Paris: La Manufacture, 1990. 529 p. ill., maps. 23 cm. (Les guides de La Manufacture). ISBN 2-7377-0188-0: FF 150.00

96-2/3-295

Le guide du patrimoine rural: 400 musées et collections d'agriculture [Guide to the National Rural Heritage: 400 Museums and Agricultural Collections]. Association Française des Musées d'Agriculture. Sylviane Cousin. 2d rev. and updated ed. Besançon: La Manufacture, 1991. 381 p. ill., maps. 23 cm. (Les guides de La Manufacture). ISBN 2-7377-0237-2: FF 150.00

Both volumes provide brief information about extant monuments and museums of technology, industrial history, and agriculture in France. Although a work group affiliated with the Inventaire général has been documenting the "patrimoine industriel" and has published its preliminary efforts in the series Cahiers du patrimoine, a complete inventory for these areas is still a distant goal. For the time being, these two reference volumes fill a gap in the present documentation. [ak/sbd]

96-2/3-298

Atlas de la France romane [Atlas of Romanesque France]. Pauline de La Malène. Saint-Léger-Vauban: Zodiaque, 1995. 333 p. ill., maps. 30 cm. ISBN 2-7369-0217-3: FF 313.00

This atlas of romanesque buildings and art in France (and also Corsica and Andorra) serves primarily as an index to the expansive series and numerous works published since 1954 under the Zodiaque imprint at the Benedictine Abby Sainte-Marie de La Pierre-Qui-Vire in St. Léger Vauban, including the serial Zodiaque and the numbered series La nuit des temps. This atlas covers these and other Zodiaque titles, and provides an easy way to determine in which of these many volumes a specific location is discussed: until now, one had to be very well versed in French geography to locate a given site. The first part of the atlas consists of maps (without scale) indicating the location of romanesque buildings or objects, accompanied by directions for locating them using major highways, national roads and departmental boundaries. In this sense, these maps provide no more helpful detail than the maps in the individual volumes of the series, which at least identify the smaller roads. The second part consists of an index of place names or names of specific structures, referencing the number of the Département, the map and coordinates in the atlas, as well its location on the Carte Michelin 1:200.000. This information is followed by a reference to the specific volume of the series where an object or place is described. This atlas offers numerous color illustrations, but lacks the quality black and white illustrations which characterize the Zodiaque volumes. It represents the first topographical arrangement of the material covered in the Nuit des temps series, which, in the absence of a more comprehensive listing, must itself serve as a partial inventory of romanesque objects in France. [sh/sbd]

96-2/3-299

Terres de Bourgogne [Lands of Burgundy]. Raymond Oursel. Saint-Légér-Vauban: Zodiaque, 1995. 399 p. ill., maps. 23 cm. (La nuit des temps, 84: Série art et terroir). ISBN 2-7369-0216-5: FF 250.00

From 1954 through 1992, Zodiaque issued La nuit des temps, a 37-volume series which covers romanesque art and architecture in France. The publishers have now begun a second walk through the French landscape with a subseries entitled Série art et terroir. Following the precedent established by the parent series, they have initiated the subseries with a volume on Burgundy. The foreword outlines a rather vague program. The (pseudo-)poetic chapter titles and the titles of the 15 sections are similarly vague, and the work suffers considerably from a haphazard, unsystematic approach to the subject, which makes the work barely suitable as a travel guide. It makes no attempt to link maps with specific text passages, and the lack of an index makes it impossible to determine if a particular place on a map is discussed in the text. Although it provides illustrations, they depict Gothic structures more frequently than those from the romanesque period, and their inclusion seems as arbitrary as the text itself. [sh/sbd]

96-2/3-300

Initiation à l'art roman [Introduction to Romanesque Art] [Database]. Angelico Surchamp and Régine Pernoud. St.-Léger-Vauban: Zodiaque [et.al.], 1995. 1 CD-ROM in case. FF 395.00

The multimedia age has reached the Zodiaque publishing house. In keeping with the firm's publishing focus, it uses the new technical possibilities of electronic publishing to offer the French-speaking public a multimedia introduction to romanesque art and architecture in France. With its audio and interactive components, the multimedia CD-ROM provides good basic information about romanesque art and architecture and visual explanations of technical terms. An interactive component allows users to test and grade their knowledge. The CD-ROM will appeal to children of all ages but is probably not suitable for college and university needs. Although at present only a French-language edition is available, this CD-ROM would be more appropriate for public library settings. System requirements: Multimedia PC with 486 SX processor; 8 MB RAM; 2x or greater CD-ROM drive; sound card; color display capable of 256 colors; mouse; Microsoft Windows 3.1. An Apple Macintosh version is also available. [ak/sbd]

96-2/3-301

Die Kaiserdome Speyer, Mainz, Worms und ihr romanisches Umland [The Imperial Cathederals of Speyer, Mainz, and Worms, and Their Romanesque Environs]. Dethard von Winterfeld. Würzburg: Zodiaque-Echter, 1993. 382 p. ill. 22 cm. (Romanik in Deutschland). ISBN 3-429-01489-1: DM 78.00

96-2/3-302

Romanik in Altbayern [Romanesque Art in Pre-Napoleonic Bavaria]. Richard Strobel and Markus Weis. Würzburg: Zodiaque-Echter, 1994. 417 p. ill. 22 cm. (Romanik in Deutschland). ISBN 3-429-01616-9: DM 78.00

96-2/3-303

Romanik in der Königslandschaft Sachsen [Romanesque Art in Royal Saxony]. Walter Wulf. Würzburg: Zodiaque-Echter, 1996. 422 p. ill. 22 cm. (Romanik in Deutschland). ISBN 3-429-01737-8: DM 78.00

The famous French series on romanesque architecture, La nuit des temps, published its first volume on a region outside France in 1958 with its volume 8, devoted to Switzerland. Germany has had to wait its turn until 1993 (vol. 79, Palatinate). The texts on Germany are written in German and published more or less at the same time in French translation. The authors of Romanik in Deutschland are art historians or preservationists; they do not cover secular structures. The descriptions are very precise in detail and matter-of-fact in tone. Since most of what is described is not depicted in photos, these guides are best used in situ. One could wish for greater uniformity in the five remaining volumes to be published in the German subseries (e.g., only one volume has a name index).They don't work very well as introductions to German romanesque art, but, omitting secular architecture and everything non-romanesque, they are not really adequate as guides either. [sh/sl]

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