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Review
an engrossing study, deeply and imaginatively researched... [the book] oozes credibility. (Keith Miller, Times Literary Supplement )
A grippingly enjoyable, profoundly insightful, excitingly provocative book (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The Art Newspaper )
...brilliant book... (Andrew Marr, Start the Week )
The right versus left issue is fascinating...[a] searching new book. (Michael Glover, The Independent )
This pioneering and entertaining book does much more than succeed in its modest aim of prompting 'further reflection and research.' (John McEwan, The Tablet )
Hall is refreshingly broad in his approach. (John McEwan, The Tablet )
This is a clever book that has the great merit of persuading us to look more closely at familiar paintings. (Paul Johnson, Literary Review )
An excellent entry point for a close look at a painting, especially one we take for granted, and there is no denying that James Hall has written a stimulating and valuable book. (Paul Johnson, Literary Review )
A grippingly enjoyable, profoundly insightful, excitingly provocative book (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, The Art Newspaper )
...brilliant book... (Andrew Marr, Start the Week )
The right versus left issue is fascinating...[a] searching new book. (Michael Glover, The Independent )
This pioneering and entertaining book does much more than succeed in its modest aim of prompting 'further reflection and research.' (John McEwan, The Tablet )
Hall is refreshingly broad in his approach. (John McEwan, The Tablet )
This is a clever book that has the great merit of persuading us to look more closely at familiar paintings. (Paul Johnson, Literary Review )
An excellent entry point for a close look at a painting, especially one we take for granted, and there is no denying that James Hall has written a stimulating and valuable book. (Paul Johnson, Literary Review )
Product Description
Why does the Mona Lisa have an uneven smile? Was Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon an exploration of Satanism? Why did Michelangelo depict so many left-handed archers? Why did the British Queen look so different when Annie Liebowitz lit her from her left side in a recent official portrait? The answer to all these questions lies in a hidden symbolic language in the visual arts: that of the perceived differences between the left and right sides of the body. It is a symbolism that has been interpreted by artists through the centuries, and that can be uncovered in many of our greatest masterpieces, but that has been long forgotten about or misunderstood by those concerned with the history of art and the human body. The Sinister Side reveals the key, and sheds new light on some of the greatest art from before the Renaissance to the present day. Traditionally, in almost every culture and religion, the left side has been regarded as inferior - evil, weak, worldly, feminine - while the right is good, strong, spiritual and male. But starting in the Renaissance, this hierarchy was questioned and visualised as never before. The left side, in part because of the presence of the heart, became the side that represented authentic human feelings, especially love. By the late nineteenth century, with the rise of interest in the occult and in spiritualism, the left side had become associated with the taboo and with the unconscious. Exploring how works of art reflect our changing cultural ideas about the natural world, human nature, and the mind, James Halls'Sinister Side is the first book to detail the richness and subtlety of left-right symbolism in art, and to show how it was a catalyst for some of the greatest works of visual art from Botticelli and Van Eyck to Vermeer and Dali.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Left me feeling not right
28 Jun 2009
Format:Hardcover
I was very attracted to "The Sinister Side" and its discussion about the effect of left-right symbolism in Western art. Indeed, skimming the book revealed some interesting discussions of how artists used the left (heart) side to signal the subject's feelings of love or passion, and the right to signal more rational or moral personality elements. Author James Hall dissects a number of mostly 18th and 17th century paintings this way, which promised to be fascinating. But attempting to read the book, I was stopped by two major flaws. First, Hall's prose style is ponderous and dense, though not technical, making it rather slow going and unenjoyable. Worse, though was the quality and small number of paintings actually reproduced. Half the fun in reading about a glistening tear in a subject's eye or a long "love lock" (a 17th century fashion that demonstrated one's passion) was to see it for oneself in an illustration. But many of the paintings discussed are not illustrated at all, and the one that are included are murky, black-and white repros.
"The Sinister Side" is best suited to those who already know the rather obscure paintings under discussion, or who are willing to look up each and every piece on the internet. Too much work for me.
"The Sinister Side" is best suited to those who already know the rather obscure paintings under discussion, or who are willing to look up each and every piece on the internet. Too much work for me.
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