Essays in the Arts⁴

Books in this series are critical in approach, drawing upon the fields of aesthetics, visual arts, music, literature, drama, cinema, and other theatrical arts. Contributions may develop an idea in any of the single fields, but preference is given to studies seeking to build bridges across these disciplines.

Inventing Falsehood, Making Truth: Vico and Neapolitan Painting Malcolm Bull
How the philosophy of Giambattista Vico was influenced by eighteenth-century Neopolitan painting
The Melancholy Art Michael Ann Holly
Why the art historian's craft is a uniquely melancholy art
Mute Poetry, Speaking Pictures Leonard Barkan
The skirmish between painting and poetry—from Plato and Praxiteles to Rembrandt and Shakespeare
Wartime Kiss: Visions of the Moment in the 1940s Alexander Nemerov
A deeply personal meditation on the haunting power of American photos and films of the 1940s