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John Onians
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Neuroarthistory: From Aristotle and Pliny to Baxandall and Zeki Hardcover – March 19, 2008

by John Onians (Author)
3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
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This provocative book offers a fascinating account of neuroarthistory, one of the newest and most exciting fields in the human sciences. In recent decades there has been a dramatic increase in our knowledge of the visual brain. Knowledge of phenomena such as neural plasticity and neural mirroring is making it possible to answer with a new level of precision some of the most challenging questions about both the creative process and the response to art.

Exploring the writings of major thinkers (among them Montesquieu, Burke, Kant, Marx and Freud), and leading art historians (including Pliny, Winckelmann, Ruskin, Pater, Gombrich and Baxandall), as well as artists such as Alberti and Leonardo and scientists from Aristotle to Zeki, John Onians shows how an understanding of the neural basis of the mind contributes to an understanding of all human behaviors―including art.
Previous page
  1. Print length
    225 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  4. Publication date
    March 19, 2008
  5. Dimensions
    9.48 x 6.36 x 0.95 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0300126778
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0300126778
  8. See all details
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About the Author

John Onians recently retired as director of the World Art Research Programme in the School of World Art Studies at the University of East Anglia and is the former director of Research and Academic Programs at the Clark Art Institute.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press (March 19, 2008)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 225 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300126778
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300126778
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.48 x 6.36 x 0.95 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

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John Onians

John Onians

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Customer reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
3.3 out of 5
6 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Oguz Tascioglu
5.0 out of 5 stars Norobiology of visual perception.
Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2008
Visual arts (especially paintings, for they are basicly 2 dimensional the third dimention expressed by perspectival representation) contains two form of evaluation. One being cultural and seasonal that they chance , felt and evaluated differently by different cultures at different times. The other dimension is basical being the reception of the visual image by the brain unclauded by personal and cultural biases. This book gives the history of neurological basis of visual perception. I think it is of enormous value both to the historian
and neuroscientist. It is precise, condensed and focused to visual system.
6 people found this helpful
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Mitchyde
2.0 out of 5 stars Nothing Gained
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2012
Onians' book adds nothing to the knowledge of art, art history, or neuroscience. It is, rather, a collection of brief accounts of the work of other people who have indeed added much to our understanding of these fields. He attempts to tie them all together with the prefix "neuro" but there is nothing in this book to warrant that term. In the end, the only common neuro denominator here is that all the work discussed was done by beings possessing brains. What a concept. The title, Neuroarthistory, seems to be merely an attempt to tack the popular buzzword that neuroscience has become onto another area of interest in order to get in on the publicity. On page 191, he embraces a quote that "most painters are neurologists." The ridiculousness of this statement is completely lost on Onians, making it clear that he has no real knowledge of what neurologists or painters do. This ignorance is on display throughout the book, as when he describes a very basic explanation of vision suitable for a 12 year old as being something "that could be at home in a textbook of neuroscience." This book was mostly a waste of time, interspersed with a few interesting snippets of other people's ideas. My suggestion is to just read the work of the people he writes about, and skip his "oh, wow, this all must have something to do with the brain" commentary.
11 people found this helpful
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Alvaro Lewis
4.0 out of 5 stars mind's eye
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2008
Onians' new book quickly treats the insights of 25 men who wrote on art over the past 2000 years, with an emphasis on the details of perception that these figures noticed in the process of persistent observation of art and viewing. Onians corroborates and explains their insights in the light of the brain science that has emerged in the last two decades. This book is far more likely to instruct the reader in the history of art history than in the history of art. In the end Onians' goal is to foster curiosity and further discovery about the relationship between art and the brain and about human responses to art over the past 30,000 years. In this sweeping story there are cursory discussions of race, biology, genetics, culture, nature, optics, environment, and, obviously, neuroscience. I am not an expert in science or art but I think I will be little interested in the story of art if its history will be largely reduced to rods, cones, and some spastic pizazz at the crossroads between dendrite and axon. Onians does not forsake the humanistic tradition for the scientific but champions a new way forward in the history of art.
7 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

artful
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2016
Verified Purchase
very interesting challenging and well written
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