| ANOTHER fabulously useful
study for my research. Although in many ways Meisel's project is aligned
with Altick's (Pictures
from Books), Meisel goes Altick one better by fully incorporating
theater into his study. He also makes some useful distinctions in terms
(realization vs. illustration, for example) that Altick neglects.
Meisel's organizational principles are different from Altick's: Meisel
devotes entire chapters to specific artists and to popular categories of
subjects (for example, "Perils of the Deep," and "Prisoner's Base"). He
also includes historical information not of the social-history variety
that Altick favors: for example, "Royal Situations," or "Napoleon; or,
History as Spectacle." Happily, the two do not duplicate each other too
much in the paintings chosen for plates. (Still no color, though). (Rachel
Mines.) |