Beyond providing light and air, windows also have symbolic, expressive, and architectural qualities that have inspired artists for centuries. Art historian Christopher Masters celebrates the multiple roles of the window in Western art through five key themes, including the window as a status symbol and as a provider of physical or spiritual illumination, as a perspective on the world outside and as a mirror reflecting the artist or the individuals depicted, and as an architectural contribution to interior and exterior scenes. Color reproductions of 100 works by artists from Jan Vermeer to Edward Hopper are accompanied by Masters' spirited analyses of the paintings' meanings.
Beyond providing light and air, windows also have symbolic, expressive, and architectural qualities that have inspired artists for centuries. Art historian Christopher Masters celebrates the multiple roles of the window in Western art through five key themes, including the window as a status symbol and as a provider of physical or spiritual illumination, as a perspective on the world outside and as a mirror reflecting the artist or the individuals depicted, and as an architectural contribution to interior and exterior scenes. Color reproductions of 100 works by artists from Jan Vermeer to Edward Hopper are accompanied by Masters' spirited analyses of the paintings' meanings.