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Graven Images
New England Stonecarving and its Symbols, 1650–1815
Sales Date: 2000-02-28
532 Pages, 7.75 x 10.00 in
The classic study of gravestone art
In Puritan New England, with its abiding concern for things not of this world and its distrust of forms and ceremonies, one art flourished: the symbolic art of mortuary monument stonecarvers. This carefully researched, beautifully illustrated work was the first to consider this art in depth as a meaningful aesthetic-spiritual expression. It is reissued for today's readers, with a new preface outlining changes in the field since the book appeared in 1966.
List of Plates and Maps
Preface to the Third Edition
Preface Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Puritan Background
The Language of Religious Symbols Chapter I. Puritan Religion
The Function of Symbolism in Normative Puritan Theory
Puritan Symbolism in Religion Until 1800
Puritan Theology, Symbolism, and Imagery
Symbolic Mediacy and Immediacy in New England: Religion and Art
Symbolic Stonecarvings: A Study in Realized Eschatology
English Burial Rituals
Burial Rituals in New England
Chapter II. Iconography
New England Funerary Art
The Repertory of Symbols
Modalities of Meaning
Chapter III. Sources and Definitions of the Major New England Styles
English Stonecarving: 1550-1850
Engravings, Woodcuts, and Emblem Books
The Origins of the Provincial Baroque Style in Massachusetts: 1647-1735
The Growth of the Provincial Baroque Style in Massachusetts: 1722-1815
The Provincial Baroque Style in Rhode Island: 1690-1815
The Provincial Baroque Style in Connecticut in the 18th Century
The Origins and Development of the Neoclassical Style
The Origins and Development of the Ornamental Styles in New England
Summary
Conclusions
Puritanism and Puritan Art
The Vernacular and the Cultivated Traditions in Art
American Art and New England Stonecarving
Notes
Bibliographical Note
Maps
Index
"The classic exemplar of the method of looking at icons on gravestones and relating them to religious texts in an effort to reveal their meaning was perfected by Allan Ludwig in his Graven Images, first published in 1966...This edition provides the young scholar with a time-tested model of scholarship and analysis and the seasoned scholar with new reflections on old work."
~Journal of American Folklore
"'A big, superbly printed collection . . . To leaf through this book is to confront a vanished community trying to make sense of itself through art."
~Greil Marcus, Rolling Stone
"Graven Images is a classic text in American Studies. It led a generation into the graveyards of New England to look with fresh eyes on a neglected American art form. Ludwig's insights are as original and inspiring today as they were in 1966, and this book still provides the best single source for images of New England gravestones, with its hundreds of beautiful photographs. ... Students, scholars, and anyone who brakes for old graveyards will welcome this indispensible book."
~David Watters, former editor of Markers
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