Author Description

Published to coincide with the first exhibition in the new Great Court exhibition space, opening in November 2000, this book gathers together 60 of the most remarkable representations of the human image from the collections of the British Museum. Chosen from all epochs and civilizations, from prehistory to the present, the images illuminate a number of themes, including abstractions and primitivism; the ideal form; the inscribed body; creation and fertility; gender; monarchs, chiefs and ancestors; guardians and warriors; drapery and dress; altered states; "other people"; and portraits.