Review of 'A handbook to the art and architecture of the Boston Public Library' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This was a small handbook and very quickly read. It does nicely address its subject, but you need to keep in mind its publication date of 1978. The Library has changed a bit since then, even the McKim Building.
Writing has also changed since 1978, I think. One of the most striking passages for me concerned the murals "Church" and "Synagogue" in the Sargent Hall, 3rd floor:
"The Hebrew faith, which the artist has sympathetically shown as the great forerunner of Christianity was regarded by medieval churchmen as having forfeited its high place through its failure to recognize the claim of Christ as the expected Messiah, and was accordingly represented as blind and dethroned; the Church itself was naturally depicted as having succeeded to both the vision and the leadership lost by the Jewish religion. This view was expressed in the art of the Middle Ages by the opposition of …
This was a small handbook and very quickly read. It does nicely address its subject, but you need to keep in mind its publication date of 1978. The Library has changed a bit since then, even the McKim Building.
Writing has also changed since 1978, I think. One of the most striking passages for me concerned the murals "Church" and "Synagogue" in the Sargent Hall, 3rd floor:
"The Hebrew faith, which the artist has sympathetically shown as the great forerunner of Christianity was regarded by medieval churchmen as having forfeited its high place through its failure to recognize the claim of Christ as the expected Messiah, and was accordingly represented as blind and dethroned; the Church itself was naturally depicted as having succeeded to both the vision and the leadership lost by the Jewish religion. This view was expressed in the art of the Middle Ages by the opposition of two figures, the Synagogue, sightless and fallen; the Church, out looking and triumphant."
Ummm. Wow!