Off the shelf
Apollo’s selection of recently published books on art, architecture and the history of collecting
The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution
Dan Hicks
Pluto Press, £20 ISBN 9780745341767
A professor of contemporary archaeology at Oxford and curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Hicks sets out ‘to bring British colonial violence […] into view and into focus’ and make the case for restitution.
A Catalogue of the Sculpture Collection at Wilton House
Peter Stewart (ed.); Guido Petruccioli (photographs)
Archaeopress Publishing, £90
ISBN 9781789696554
The collection of classical and neoclassical sculpture formed in the th century by the
th Earl of Pembroke – of which about half remains in the cloisters of Wilton House – was regarded as one of the finest of its time.
Egyptologists’ Notebooks
Chris Naunton
Thames & Hudson, £22.99 ISBN 9780500295298
Describing the efforts of explorers and archaeologists as ‘the golden age of Egyptology’ may seem like a one-sided view, but Western adventurers left undeniably vivid and decorative accounts of their activities, some of which are presented here.
America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Their Circles
Esmée Quodbach (ed.)
Penn State University Press/ The Frick Collection, $69.95 ISBN 9780271086088
The latest instalment in the Frick Collection’s ‘History of Collecting’ series looks at how Flemish Old Masters have been highly prized and hotly pursued by private-collectors-turned-public-benefactors such as Robert Gilmor and J. Paul Getty.
Music in the Art of Renaissance Italy, 1420–1540
T. Shephard, S. Raninen, S. Sessini and L. Stefanescu Harvey Miller, €140
ISBN 9781912554027
Representations of music in Renaissance art were especially prevalent in settings where real music was made: from church interiors to palaces and private houses where performances were commanded.
Textiles of India
Helmut and Heidi Neumann Prestel Publishing, £75
ISBN 9783791386850
This lavishly illustrated book, with an introduction by Rosemary Crill, presents the different textile traditions from the Indian subcontinent – from Patoli silks in Gujarat to the embroidered kanthas of Bengal – that can be found in the collection of Helmut and Heidi Neumann.