Book description
In Puritan New England, with its abiding concern for things not of this world and its distrust of forms and ceremonies, one art flourished: the symbolic art of mortuary monument stonecarvers. This carefully researched, beautifully illustrated work was the first to consider this art in depth as a meaningful aesthetic-spiritual…
Why read it?
1 author picked Graven Images as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
This book is densely illustrated (I’d guess that about three-quarters of the 430 8”x10” pages of the main text are filled with images). This was what first led me to travel to New England to see these stones for myself, which I did six years later.
This combination of rich art and Puritan values should challenge anyone’s assumptions about early American sensibilities.
From James' list on New England gravestones and stonecutters.
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