John GageReviews

I frankly thought this would be in the category of psychology when the title caught my eye. Gladly, it’s not. I’m reminded of [[David Hockney]]’s work evaluating the old masters.
This is denser, with more theories of perception and language of color. There is some repetition of material, chapters appearing to be modified from lectures or previously published articles. It’s also jumpier, lacking a steady flow of exposition. This is probably meant to be a textbook for art majors, but I was able to mine good stuff as a layperson.
Early Christian mosaics used raked tiles for halos in order to catch the light and glow. These works were built particularly to be experienced by lamplight and with the observer in motion, contrary to the electric lights now used for display. He quotes an early patriarch, Photius (how apt!), concerning the impressions of spectators on entering his church: “It is as if one had entered heaven itself with no one barring the way from any side, and was illuminated by the beauty in all forms shining all around like so many stars, so one is utterly amazed. Thenceforth, it seems that everything is in ecstatic motion, and the church itself is circling round. For the spectator, through his whirling about in all directions and being constantly astir, which he is forced to experience by the variegated spectacle on all sides, imagines that his personal condition is transferred to the object.”