United States
£ GBP
Dolphins have long featured in Western art as religious and political symbols, but never before has there been an art book devoted to these beautiful and intelligent animals.
Published to celebrate the sixtieth Anniversary of the founding of Thames & Hudson – for whom of course the dolphin has special significance – this endearing little volume combines charm, scholarship and serious art history.
The subject proves to be surprisingly rich and has been too much neglected by specialists in iconography, mythology, symbolism and art. The illustrations are equally various, showing dolphins not only as having inspired artists over several millennia, from ancient Knossos to the Thames Embankment.
- Prologue – Man and Dolphin
- Myths, Legends and Dolphin Lore
- The Symbolic Dolphin
- Furniture and Fountains
Charles Avery was previously Deputy Keeper of Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Among his other books is Bernini: Genius of the Baroque, also published by Thames & Hudson.
|This book bears many of the hallmarks of Thames & Hudson [...] it is elegantly designed, handsomely bound and full of lavishly reproduced pictures. [...] a triumph of picture research."
– Telegraph.co.uk
"Fascinating [...] the images are plentiful, rich and powerful'"
– The Art Book
"Scholarship and an impressive knowledge are interspersed with a readable style and humorous touches [...] delightful"
– The Art Newspaper
"Utterly charming"
– V&A Magazine
