Women of the Bible - Hardcover

Carole Armstrong

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 071121185X ISBN 13: 9780711211858

Publisher: Frances Lincoln Ltd, 1998

Synopsis

This pictorial album of 20 women of the Bible, from Eve to Mary, celebrated for their courage, their independence of spirit and the stories that surround them. For centuries, these women have figured prominently in art and culture as symbols of courage and strength: Judith, elegantly portrayed by Giorgoine, saves her city by killing the enemy, General Holofernes; and the innocence of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, shines out from Fillippo Lippi's tender painting of mother and child. The stories of Delilah, Salome and Bathsheba illustrate beauty's power to deceive and enslave. Temptresses, heroines, saviours of their people - the women of the Bible springs to life in this collection of great portraits, matched with Carole Armstrong's re-tellings. Each spread carries a brief commentary on the painting shown, and full details appear in the four-page picture index.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Armstrong (Lives and Legends of the Saints, 1995, etc.) continues her felicitous union of celebrated paintings with stories from the religious tradition, this time relating the achievements of a series of women in brief, biographical sketches and presenting their portraits by medieval, Renaissance, or 17-century artists from Cranach to Rogier van der Weyden. This handsome volume brings to life the actions of women in arenas as seemingly disparate as the domestic and the international, the traditionally nurturant and the politically (and so ruthlessly) expedient. Of the 22 women featured, 13 are from the Old Testament (Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, Deborah, Delilah, Ruth, Naomi, Abigail, Bathsheba, Esther), 2 are from the Apocrypha (Judith, Susanna), and 7 are from the New Testament (Elisabeth, the Virgin Mary, Herodias, Salome, Lazarus's Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene). A paragraph of critical appreciation of the paintingappearing in high-quality reproduction concludes the text of every spread; succinct bibliographic information appears in a final pictorial index. The book will entice both students of religion and of art history to further study, yet it stands so sturdily on its own as a satisfying survey that it's difficult to conceive of the forum in which it would not be welcome. (Nonfiction. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist:

Gr. 7^-10. As she has done in a previous book, Lives and Legends of the Saints (1995), Armstrong uses paintings from art museums all over the world, this time to introduce 17 women from the Bible--everyone from Eve to Mary Magdalene, with women such as Rachel and Leah, Deborah, Delilah, Bathsheba, Judith, the Virgin Mary, and Herodias and Salome in between. The handsomely designed book is broken into two-page spreads: a full page of text that tells the story of the biblical figure facing a painting by a medieval or Renaissance painter. Bible stories are not always for the faint of heart, and Armstrong does a good job of keeping the truth of the stories while making them palatable to a young audience. Still, readers may be surprised by stories such as that of Susanna, in which two elders of the city, struck by her beauty, try to seduce her: "We are in love with thee; therefore consent unto us, and lie with us." The paintings by artists such as Rossetti and Caravaggio are exceptionally reproduced; just make sure that kids know the medieval garb worn in many of the pictures is artistic license, not an actual representation of biblical fashion. Adults may find this useful as well. Ilene Cooper

About this edition

• Publisher: Frances Lincoln Ltd
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 071121185X
• ISBN 13: 9780711211858
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 48