Year One

Two thousand years ago, widely diverse cultures in the Roman Empire, Egypt, the Near East, Asia, and the Americas had rich artistic lives and created magnificent works of art. This unusual and beautifully illustrated volume presents more than 140 of these objects, discusses each of the cultures that produced them, and illuminates the connections among them.The book describes Rome in its first days of empire, when public and private art reached an extraordinary level of sophistication, which is evident in the portraits, figure sculpture, wall paintings, silver, glass, and jewelry. The Celts, master metalworkers who lived north of Italy at the time, produced splendid weapons and jeweled ornaments. Egyptian statuettes, funerary masks, and other traditional objects made during this era incorporated both Roman and Hellenistic stylistic elements. In the Near East, a wide range of metal and ceramic objects and stone carvings reflected both ancient traditions and ones learned more recently from Greece and Rome. Indian art of two millennia ago emanated eastern vitality, and Gandhara art from the area of present-day Afghanistan and Pakistan was an astonishing mix of East and West. Elegant bronze vessels and lively terracotta sculptures created in China during the Han dynasty are described, as well as distinctive works from Korea and Japan and impressive weapons, jewelry, and musical instruments of bronze produced by the cultures of Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Lastly, art from different cultures in Central America includes ceramic vessels of great simplicity and beauty, gold face masks, and extraordinary ceramic figures.