Caves to Cathedrals: Visual Arts in Ancient and Medieval Texts

Caves to Cathedrals: Visual Arts in Ancient and Medieval Texts is a compilation of primary sources, in English translation, that help clarify or contextualize artistic production in the pre-modern Western world. The visual arts and sources regarding them, however, are more broadly defined here than is typical of most other sourcebooks. A wide array of ancient and medieval visual culture is considered, including fashion, stage scenery, and other types of display such as triumphal and funerary processions, a lavish dinner party, and gladiatorial games.

Readers will also find texts with something of a practical or even archaeological bent: an eyewitness account of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, excerpts from the law code of Hammurabi, and descriptions of such things as the process of mummification, how to make a stained glass window, and a Viking ship burial. The selected texts are often amusing and occasionally even a little shocking but always meant to make the past come to life. Caves to Cathedrals is an ideal textbook companion for Survey of Western Art courses.

Lee Ann Turner is an associate professor in the Art Department at Boise State University, where she has taught the first half of the Survey of Western Art since 1996. There, she initiated the first, and so far only, History of Art degree in the state of Idaho. She received her PhD in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania, where she also studied Latin and ancient Greek. She was a fellow of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and has participated in either archaeological programs or field projects in Cyprus, Greece, Rome, and Crete.