Different perspectives

Title: How do we look: The eye of Faith

Author - Mary Beard

Publisher: Profile Books

Publication: 2024

ISBN: 9781805222460

Price: £12.99

Mary Beard tackles two themes: how we all view art in very different ways, and how both religion and art have always grappled with the challenge of giving the divine a visual form.

The book centres on the experience of the consumer of ancient art through two lenses: the body and faith. Beard cautions us against thinking of art and architecture in the context of a museum and, instead, to engage with it as people of the time did. For instance, many of the beautifully painted Greek ceramics were the result of a commercial industrialised process. Beard has also taken a broader view of civilisation than the very west-centric approach that is often taken when writing about any subject from a macro view.

For someone who doesn't know much about Art History, this is an accessible introduction to it, partly because Mary Beard isn't writing as an Art Historian.

First, how through different ages and cultures the human form has been used as propaganda (Ramesses’ massive statues), an exemplifier of power (the Xi’an terracotta army) or on a more personal level a reflection of loved ones lost (Greek and Roman portraits). She shows that the human fascination with depicting and immortalising its own form is quite universal and that cross-pollination exists between, for instance, Egyptian statues and the Greek Kouros.

For Western eyes, art has a lot to do with the perfect as possible mimicry of reality and this view is often used as a barometer of one’s civilisation, handily making the Greek/Roman civilisation come out as the most civilised.

Part Two dives into the contrast between the statue/portrait and the concept (like The Virgin Mary), a balancing act between piety and idolatry for many religions throughout the world.

Professor Beard deserves credit for tackling this complex subject. She makes her points concisely and well, and the photographs scattered on nearly every page help make things clearer. If one goes in aware that this is a very limited discussion, then there are interesting things to learn.

I was especially interested in the subject of iconoclasm, the destruction or defacement of artwork, which is covered a bit here. Anyone interested in art and psychology or sociology would find this small book to be a worthy read.

Beard's works tend to leave the reader keen to begin their own explorations. The value of a book like this is how it can inspire readers to contemplate the purpose and function of art and remind us how art can impact our reality.

Shirley Murphy