European Vision And The South Pacific
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of art history and imperial exploration, European Vision and the South Pacific presents one of the most compelling accounts of how Western eyes — trained on classical tradition and Enlightenment ideals — were irrevocably transformed by their encounter with the peoples and landscapes of the Pacific. Bernard Smith chronicles the voyages of Cook and other great maritime explorers not merely as geographic conquests, but as profound visual and intellectual confrontations, tracing how artists and scientists aboard these expeditions struggled to reconcile what they witnessed with the aesthetic and philosophical frameworks they had inherited from Europe. Smith argues with meticulous scholarly rigour that the South Pacific was not merely a destination but a catalyst — a force that reshaped European art, science, and ideas about humanity itself. Drawing on a vast archive of paintings, drawings, and written records, he illustrates how the tension between empirical observation and romantic idealisation gave birth to entirely new modes of representation. This landmark work of art history and cultural scholarship remains as provocative and indispensable today as when it first appeared, leaving the reader to wonder just how much of what we call Western art was quietly remade on the shores of distant, uncharted seas.
Author: Bernard Smith
Format: Paperback
Genre: Australasion & Pacific history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of art history and imperial exploration, European Vision and the South Pacific presents one of the most compelling accounts of how Western eyes — trained on classical tradition and Enlightenment ideals — were irrevocably transformed by their encounter with the peoples and landscapes of the Pacific. Bernard Smith chronicles the voyages of Cook and other great maritime explorers not merely as geographic conquests, but as profound visual and intellectual confrontations, tracing how artists and scientists aboard these expeditions struggled to reconcile what they witnessed with the aesthetic and philosophical frameworks they had inherited from Europe. Smith argues with meticulous scholarly rigour that the South Pacific was not merely a destination but a catalyst — a force that reshaped European art, science, and ideas about humanity itself. Drawing on a vast archive of paintings, drawings, and written records, he illustrates how the tension between empirical observation and romantic idealisation gave birth to entirely new modes of representation. This landmark work of art history and cultural scholarship remains as provocative and indispensable today as when it first appeared, leaving the reader to wonder just how much of what we call Western art was quietly remade on the shores of distant, uncharted seas.