Secret Knowledge (New and Expanded Edition)

Author: David Hockney
Publisher: Avery
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description
"Secret Knowledge created an international sensation when it was first published. David Hockney's theory of how the great works of Western art were created with mirrors and lenses attracted major media attention around the world and generated intense debate in the fields of science and art history. Now, in this expanded edition, Hockney takes his thesis even further, revealing for the first time new findings." "In Secret Knowledge, Hockney explains how he uncovered piece after piece of scientific and visual evidence, each one yielding further revelations about the past. With the benefit of his painter's eye, he examines the major works of art history and reveals the truth of how artists such as Caravaggio, Velazquez, van Eyck, Holbein, da Vinci, and Ingres used mirrors and lenses to help them create their famous masterpieces. For this new edition, Hockney delves still deeper into art history, disclosing the evidence that Renaissance artists also used these methods to develop perspective and chiaroscuro - radically challenging our view of how these two foundations of Western art were established." "Hundreds of paintings and drawings are reproduced and accompanied by Hockney's descriptions. His own photographs and drawings illustrate the various methods used by past artists to capture accurate likenesses and present the results they would have achieved. In addition, extracts from the many historical and modern documents he uncovered offer further intriguing evidence, while correspondence between him and an array of international experts provides an account of the remarkable story as it happened." "Secret Knowledge is not just about the lost techniques of the Old Masters. It is also about now and the future. It is about how we see, treat, and make images today, in an age of computer manipulation."--BOOK JACKET.

Secret Knowledge

Author: David Hockney
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780500600207
Category : Painting
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Book Description

Vermeer's Camera

Author: Philip Steadman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780192803023
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Book Description
Art historians have long speculated on how Vermeer achieved the uncanny mixture of detached precision, compositional repose, and perspective accuracy that have drawn many to describe his work as "photographic." Indeed, many wonder if Vermeer employed a camera obscura, a primitive form of camera, to enhance his realistic effects? In Vermeer's Camera, Philip Steadman traces the development of the camera obscura--first described by Leonaro da Vinci--weighs the arguments that scholars have made for and against Vermeer's use of the camera, and offers a fascinating examination of the paintings themselves and what they alone can tell us of Vermeer's technique. Vermeer left no record of his method and indeed we know almost nothing of the man nor of how he worked. But by a close and illuminating study of the paintings Steadman concludes that Vermeer did use the camera obscura and shows how the inherent defects in this primitive device enabled Vermeer to achieve some remarkable effects--the slight blurring of image, the absence of sharp lines, the peculiar illusion not of closeness but of distance in the domestic scenes. Steadman argues that the use of the camera also explains some previously unexplainable qualities of Vermeer's art, such as the absence of conventional drawing, the pattern of underpainting in areas of pure tone, the pervasive feeling of reticence that suffuses his canvases, and the almost magical sense that Vermeer is painting not objects but light itself. Drawing on a wealth of Vermeer research and displaying an extraordinary sensitivity to the subtleties of the work itself, Philip Steadman offers in Vermeer's Camera a fresh perspective on some of the most enchanting paintings ever created.

The Secret Knowledge

Author: David Mamet
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110151535X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
David Mamet has been a controversial, defining force in nearly every creative endeavor-now he turns his attention to politics. In recent years, David Mamet realized that the so-called mainstream media outlets he relied on were irredeemably biased, peddling a hypocritical and deeply flawed worldview. In 2008 Mamet wrote a hugely controversial op-ed for the Village Voice, "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal'", in which he methodically attacked liberal beliefs, eviscerating them as efficiently as he did Method acting in his bestselling book True and False. Now Mamet employs his trademark intellectual force and vigor to take on all the key political issues of our times, from religion to political correctness to global warming. The legendary playwright, author, director, and filmmaker pulls no punches in his art or in his politics. And as a former liberal who woke up, Mamet will win over an entirely new audience of others who have grown irate over America's current direction.

Secret Wisdom

Author: Ruth Clydesdale
Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
ISBN: 1398810045
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 243

Book Description
Throughout the course of our history, a secret few have sought to acquire profound occult knowledge which reveals the inner truth of our existence. From the Mystery cults of Ancient Greece to the Persian knowledge of astrology, Secret Wisdom is an exhilarating exploration of two and a half millennia of occult practices. Learn about the hidden messages in Renaissance art, the alchemy practices of Issac Newton and secret societies which passed on spiritual rites including the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Theosophists and the Golden Dawn. New light is shone on well-known historical figures and the part they played in the global quest for divine understanding including: • John Dee, Elizabeth I's magician • Aleister Crowley, the English occultist • Poets William Blake and William Butler Yeats • Dante, the Italian writer and philosopher Featuring photographs and illustrations which breath life into ancient beliefs, this book is a marvelous journey to discover the most arcane of wisdom.

History of Pictures

Author: David Hockney
Publisher: ABRAMS
ISBN: 9781419750281
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 372

Book Description
A compact edition of Hockney and Gayford's brilliantly original book, with updated material and brand-new pieces of art Informed and energized by a lifetime of painting, drawing, and making images with cameras, David Hockney, in collaboration with art critic Martin Gayford, explores how and why pictures have been made across the millennia. Juxtaposing a rich variety of images--a still from a Disney cartoon with a Japanese woodblock print by Hiroshige, a scene from an Eisenstein film with a Velazquez paint-ing--the authors cross the normal boundaries between high culture and popular entertainment, and argue that film, photography, paint-ing, and drawing are deeply interconnected. Featuring a revised final chapter with some of Hockney's latest works, this new, compact edition of A History of Pictures remains a significant contribution to the discussion of how artists represent reality.

The Secret of Our Success

Author: Joseph Henrich
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691178437
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 464

Book Description
How our collective intelligence has helped us to evolve and prosper Humans are a puzzling species. On the one hand, we struggle to survive on our own in the wild, often failing to overcome even basic challenges, like obtaining food, building shelters, or avoiding predators. On the other hand, human groups have produced ingenious technologies, sophisticated languages, and complex institutions that have permitted us to successfully expand into a vast range of diverse environments. What has enabled us to dominate the globe, more than any other species, while remaining virtually helpless as lone individuals? This book shows that the secret of our success lies not in our innate intelligence, but in our collective brains—on the ability of human groups to socially interconnect and learn from one another over generations. Drawing insights from lost European explorers, clever chimpanzees, mobile hunter-gatherers, neuroscientific findings, ancient bones, and the human genome, Joseph Henrich demonstrates how our collective brains have propelled our species' genetic evolution and shaped our biology. Our early capacities for learning from others produced many cultural innovations, such as fire, cooking, water containers, plant knowledge, and projectile weapons, which in turn drove the expansion of our brains and altered our physiology, anatomy, and psychology in crucial ways. Later on, some collective brains generated and recombined powerful concepts, such as the lever, wheel, screw, and writing, while also creating the institutions that continue to alter our motivations and perceptions. Henrich shows how our genetics and biology are inextricably interwoven with cultural evolution, and how culture-gene interactions launched our species on an extraordinary evolutionary trajectory. Tracking clues from our ancient past to the present, The Secret of Our Success explores how the evolution of both our cultural and social natures produce a collective intelligence that explains both our species' immense success and the origins of human uniqueness.

The Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups: The Second File

Author: David Wisniewski
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0688178545
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Book Description
Urgent!It's happened again! David Wisniewski has completed another daring raid into the vault of parent rules. Within these forbidden pages lurk the real reasons why grown-ups want you to brush your teeth, eat your breakfast, and clean under your bed. The truth has been hidden for centuries, but the time of mystery is over. Grab a flashlight! Get under cover! It's time for ... The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups! The Second File

Western Esotericism

Author: Nicholas Goodricke-Clarke
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351537156
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
Esotericism is the search for an absolute but hidden knowledge accessed through mystical vision, the mediation of higher beings, or personal experience. In Western cultural history esoteric approaches to religion have often been in conflict with - and suffered at the hands of - more established forms of religious belief and practice. 'Western Esotericism' presents a very broad and engaging history of the people and ideas which have shaped occult history from antiquity to today. Throughout the history of esotericism the dynamic of concealment and revelation has characterized the search for secret knowledge. Pursued both publically and privately, esotericism has come to influence more mainstream religious practice and culture and has significantly shaped our understanding of modernity. Today, esotericism continues to be practised by a range of both established and new religious movements. 'Western Esotericism' presents the essential guide to one of the most fascinating, provocative, and sustained of religious traditions.

The Toltec Secret

Author: Sergio Magana
Publisher: Hay House, Inc
ISBN: 1781804397
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Book Description
Discover the powerful dreaming techniques of the ancient Toltecs in this eye-opening read from a renowned Mexican healer In this remarkable book, Sergio Magaña explores the history and wisdom of the ancient Toltec tradition. Closed to outsiders until now, this rich spiritual tradition is over 5,000 years old and was a touchstone for the Aztecs. The original holders of this secret knowledge, the Chichimeca, were considered to be masters who had a deep understanding of the dream state. They had a working knowledge of the power of our perceptions—how they can form our reality and even influence matter itself. The Toltec Secret guides you, step-by-step, through the Toltec rituals and symbols that will enable you to: · Become lucid in your dreams · Create your life through your dreams · Send healing to others while in the dreaming state · Communicate with your ancestors · Develop your intuition and use Toltec techniques to see the aura · Heal and rejuvenate your body by connecting with the energy of the sun · Use the mysterious obsidian mirror for healing yourself and others · Practice the powerful dances of the Toltecs and Mexihcas · See your “teyolia,” or path of the soul, to learn who you were in past lives and release parts of yourself that are trapped in old experiences. An in-depth study on the hidden power of dreams and expanded consciousness, this is recommended reading for fans of Don Miguel Ruiz and Carlos Castaneda who want to grow their Toltec library.