Our Distance from God: Studies of the Divine and the Mundane in Western Art and Music

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2008. Cloth, xii, 198 pages, [20] pages of plates, illustrations, maps; 27 cm. PRESENTATION COPY. Signed and warmly inscribed by the author. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. "In this encounter between reflections on Christian theology and the history of art and music, James D. Herbert considers how specific works of art establish a relation between the divine and the earthbound audiences for whom the art was created. He looks at five case studies over four centuries: the architecture and artworks that glorified Louis XIV at Versailles, the interaction of libretto and music in Richard Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung, Claude Monet's enormous paintings of water lilies mounted at the Orangerie of Paris in 1927, the inaugural performance in 1962 of Benjamin Britten's War." - Publisher. CONTENTS: Louis XIV's Versailles; Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung; Monet's Orangerie; Spence's Cathedral & Britten's War requiem; Wilson's 14 stations.. SIGNED. 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Fine. 4to. Collectible.