Looking At European Sculpture - a Guide To Technic Terms

This is an excellent small dictionary, illustrated with works from the collections of the Getty and the Victoria & Albert and best suited for use in museums. Less technical in its definitions than Jack C.Rich's Materials and Methods of Sculpture (1974) and briefer than Nicholas Penny's excellent narrative The Materials of Sculpture (LJ 3/1/94), it aims to be useful to the general gallery visitor viewing post-medieval through 19th century European sculpture. A few terms are art historical (e.g.effigy) rather than technical, but most entries define materials and techniques succinctly and very clearly. Although created almost empirically from terms encountered on the labels at the Getty and Victoria & Albert, this handy book will be useful for understanding European sculpture collections anywhere.