“How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization”, by Mary Beard

 

240 pages, Liveright, ISBN-13: 978-1631494406 

I find I have mixed feelings regarding Mary Beard as an author. On the one hand she wrote SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (reviewed on January 12^th, 2017), a brilliant introduction to Roman history, while on the other she also wrote Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures and Innovations, which was nothing more than a bunch of book reviews. But when I found How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization at 2^nd & Charles I figured “what the hell” and hoped that the Beard of SPQR wrote it and not the Beard of Confronting the Classics. Turns out How Do We Look is a companion to the “How Do We Look” and “The Eye of Faith” episodes of the miniseries Civilization produced by the BBC in 2018 (which I never heard of). And it shows, seeing as how it is jam-packed with color photographs. What is strange are the dimensions; not only is it a mere 240 pages, but the book overall only measures 8¾” x 6”. How I wish Taschen had produced this thing; we would have gotten a brick that one could build houses out of.

As Beard states in the introduction, How Do We Look is “inevitably and unashamedly selective”, with Part One concentrating on the art of the human body and Part Two on images of the divine. Seeing as this is a companion book to a television show, it serves mostly as a primer to its subject. Apart from the many pretty pictures, it provides a general overview of its subject as it attempts to cram several centuries and numerous cultures into its slender form. It should be noted that it is mostly Beard’s opinions that are being related as she raises one Meta subject after another, not all of which I found persuasive. If you are a serious student of art in general or in one of these cultures in particular I doubt any of this will move you; but if all you want is an introduction to the field then How Do We Look will fit the bill – as would the TV series, I imagine. And most of the pictures are top-notch, too – even if some include the author, as if she was some kind of obnoxious tourist scrambling over priceless artifacts.