Edwin Mullins (–2024)

Once he begins to look, Mullins finds misogyny in nearly every prominent artist of the Western world. The book is organized chronologically within each chapter, with a chapter for each major topic. These include "Wise and Foolish Virgins", "Man-Eaters", "Clothes-Pegs" and "Mothers and Heroines." Nearly all the major artists within the Canon are reviewed, from Fra Angelico to Picasso. Fear and loathing of female sexuality, proprietory interest in women as objects of status, or women as show more objects of desire or scorn are found in nearly every example. The final chapter, "In Love and Laughter," is devoted to artists that Mullins perceives as portraying women in a loving and respectful way. They include Rembrandt, Goya and Toulouse-Lautrec.

The book is Illustrated by 120 black and white photos and 23 color reproductions. Many of the themes are painted by more than one artist. For example , there are three examples of the myth of Danae, seduced by Zeus in the form of a shower of gold.

Mullins forces readers to reappraise their reactions to these works in terms of what they are actually telling us to feel about the women who are their subjects. How are we to react appropriately to a scene of rape if the victims are painted as objects of desire for the viewer as well as for the rapist? Especially if the rapists are heroicly armored and the victims are coyly nude, with expressions that suggest their resistance is merely token. What do learn from art about women in general if the only women presented as wholely admirable are unapproachable virgins or desexualized mothers?

This book should, I think, be part of any art history curriculum. show less

Edwin Mullins' book on the Cluny Abbey was a surprising read in that I had never realised before the power and influence that some religious leaders exercised during the Middle Ages. Cluny was founded by the Duke of Burgundy in the 11th century; it was unique in its time in that the Duke established the Abbey so that it reported solely to the Pope - the Abbot of Cluny had no feudal overlords or local bishops to contend with.

This unique foundation was leveraged by a series of wise, show more influential and long-serving Abbots that took Cluny from humble beginnings to being the master monastery for thousands of other cloisters and commanding vast endowments and income from their lands. The Abbots, especially Hugh of Semur, used these riches to construct one of the greatest cathedrals of the time, as well as to further the influence of the Cluniac order. Hugh was one of the most influential men in Christendom, a confidante of the Pope, the Holy Roman Emperor and the kings of Spain, England and France. Cluny played a key role in the establishment of the Crusades, in the spread of the Church to Plantagenet England, the rift between the Pope and the Emperor and in the tragedy of the doomed philosopher Peter Abelard.

Covering the hundreds of years between Cluny's foundation and its ultimate destruction by a trio of greedy businessmen, Mullins' book is necessarily cursory at times, but he does manage to convey the grandeur of Cluny and the wisdom of its greatest leaders (and the folly of the not-so-great). I feel, however, that the author has been badly let down by his publisher. A book that talks so lovingly of grand buildings and art, and describes great and influential men deserves a sumptuous treatment. I would expect at least some plates showing portraits of the main players, photos of some of the many extant buildings Mullins discusses as well as of the very few museum pieces that still remain of the great Cluny church. Instead the book is just text, with the odd desultory thumbnail drawing tossed in at intervals. These drawings are uncaptioned, and it is left up to the reader to surmise what they represent. Cluny is a really interesting book let down badly by a publisher that has cranked out an el cheapo edition that fails to breathe life into it. show less

This very readable book gives, with the portraits of the seven popes and two anti-popes who resided there, the story of the rise and decline of Avignon itself in these years of turbulence (1305-1423).
It shows the connectedness between the being French of the popes and the liquidation of the Knights Templar & the last heretical Cathars (you meet i.a. Jean Fournier who becomes pope Benedict XII some time after his doings in Montaillou); the connectedness between the beginning & dragging on of show more the Hundred Years War and the end of the crusading dream. The book tells about Petrarca, his life in the Provence and his criticisms of the papacy, you learn about the Black Death and its aftermath: many deaths, more grandezza. About the effects of the many truces: more violence.
I read about these past turbulences most happily on terraces between visits to the Palais des Papes and some of the livrées of the cardinals (now museums) in both Avignon and Villeneuve-les-Avignons, under the hot Provencal sun. Under such circumstances the perfect book. show less

A fine but unremarkable overview of the period during which the papacy was based at Avignon. Does the job, but oddly enough I found myself wanting more about the popes themselves and their administrations rather than the city.