Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art

The nine essays in this book are among Coomaraswamy’s most accessible and rewarding. They address such subjects as the true function of aesthetics in art, the importance of symbolism, and the importance to artists of the intellectual and philosophical backgrounds of their culture. They demonstrate also that abstract and primitive art, despite superficial resemblances, are completely divergent; and they deal with the common philosophy that pervades all great art, the nature of medieval art, folklore, and modern art, the beauty inherent in mathematics, and the union of traditional symbolism and individual portraiture in premodern cultures.