Angela Falco Howard

This is a superb volume; an absolute 'must' for anyone seriously interested in the history and development of Chinese sculpture. If its heft and cost put you off (521 pages), I can assure you that it's more than worth its weight in the information, insights, and excellent illustrations. Rarely does one find a volume on this subject that includes bronze, wood and stone sculptures that includes so much useful information. Enhancing one's understanding of the evolution of sculpture in China are references to the events in China's history that have caused the stylistic or iconographic changes documented. Its authors are all respected experts in their fields but Angela Falco Howard, a special consultant in Chinese Buddhist art at the Metropolitan Museum, stands out as a particularly hard-working, dedicated scholar who not only knows her subject but writes extraordinarily well. Her knowledge of early China (particularly from the Han to the Tang) is formidable and her other major volume on early China is also highly recommended (unfortunately, a smaller former work on the Imagery of the Cosmological Buddha is out of print and very hard to find). If there are any docents or lovers of Chinese art out there, you are forewarned: this volume is so rich in useful information that it will be a classic you will want to return to over and over again. Just buy it.… (mere)