Background
Moffitt, John Francis was born on February 25, 1940 in San Francisco, California, United States.
(O Brave New People explores the myths and preconceptions ...)
O Brave New People explores the myths and preconceptions early European explorers brought with them to the New World and the ways in which such ideas have shaped misperceptions about American Indians to the present. Thinking he was in the Far East, Christopher Columbus labeled native inhabitants "Indians" in 1492, and so fixed a misnomer that carries with it a whole host of medieval and Renaissance European beliefs and legends. The authors find in both graphic and literary sources evidence of evolving attitudes about the legends of paradise on earth and the invention of the notion of the noble savage. They reveal that long before Columbus's discovery, Europeans used the same imagery to convey subcultural traits belonging to a non-European "Primitive Other."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0826319890/?tag=2022091-20
( From the foreword: "I am now wholly convinced that the ...)
From the foreword: "I am now wholly convinced that the Lady of Elche is a blatant counterfeit." "Moffitt makes clear the important archaeological and art historical position the Lady of Elche has occupied within the history of ancient Mediterranean art and then sets about to reveal its true nature as a clever late 19-century forgery. . . . Although his conclusions are certain to be resisted by those with 'vested interests' in preserving belief in the antiquity of the sculpture, the author's arguments are most persuasive. . . . This reads like a good intellectual who-done-it and at its end we know who did do it. Contrary to both popular and scholarly belief, it wasn't some ancient Iberian. "--Charles Mack, University of South Carolina Until now, all experts have dated the celebrated Lady of Elche, the beautiful and patriotic symbol of timeless Iberia, to pre-Christian Spain, some time between 500 B.C. and A.D. 150. John F. Moffitt dates it to "ca. 1897." The Lady, a magnificent sculpted bust of perhaps a princess or priestess, has been regarded as a major work of "ancient" Spanish art ever since it was unearthed near the village of Elche in 1897. Displayed at the Louvre until 1941, the sculpture has resided since then in a place of honor in Madrid's national archaeological museum. To every reputable art historian and archaeologist, European and American alike, it has defined the very essence of Iberian art and the foundations of Spanish art and culture. Moffitt's detective work will change all that. Pitting twenty years of research (and intuition) against voluminous scholarship and against Spanish pride and nationalism, Moffitt shows that the Lady of Elche is a carefully crafted fake. Further, he offers a detailed, wide-ranging analysis of the means of dissecting any suspected art forgery, and discusses what he calls the "collective psychological need for certain kinds of hoaxes." By his own account, Moffitt became obsessed with this project. Because he assigned the execution of the sculpture to 1896-97, he felt obliged to ground it in the artistic and cultural milieu of that moment, the Symbolist period. He concludes the book with comments on the contributions to early modernism of primitivism and of an artistic technique known as direct carving. John F. Moffitt is professor of art history at New Mexico State University. He is the author of Spanish Painting, Occultism in Avant-Garde Art: The Case of Joseph Beuys, and Velázquez: Práctica e idea, and he has written more than a hundred scholarly articles on the history of art and architecture published in journals in Europe and the United States.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0813013305/?tag=2022091-20
(This text presents a representative anthology of examples...)
This text presents a representative anthology of examples of painting, architecture and sculpture to provide a critical overview of Spain. From Iberian and Roman beginnings, the book traces the development of the arts in Spain, examining the magnificent Islamic and Christian foundations at Cordoba and the Escorial, the idiosyncratic masterworks of El Greco, the Golden Age of Zurbaran and Velazquez, the art of Goya, and the innovative works of Picasso, Dali and Miro, and revealing that many of the most characteristic Spanish artistic currents had their origins at the dawn of history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0500203156/?tag=2022091-20
Moffitt, John Francis was born on February 25, 1940 in San Francisco, California, United States.
Bachelor of Fine Arts, California College Arts and Crafts, 1962. Master of Arts in Art History, California State University, San Francisco, 1963. Doctor of Philosophy, University Madrid, 1966.
Assistant professor art and art history East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, 1966-1968, Sonoma (California) State College, 1968-1969. From assistant professor to professor history of art New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, 1969-1996, professor art history emeritus, from 1996.
(O Brave New People explores the myths and preconceptions ...)
(This text presents a representative anthology of examples...)
( From the foreword: "I am now wholly convinced that the ...)