The Bird in Art Hardcover – Illustrated, October 9, 2012

This is the kind of book one savors. Like a fine wine, you want to take your time to enjoy every nuance of its composition. If you like birds, if you like art and history, if you like learning something new and engaging on every page you turn, you will not be disappointed. I cannot write enough good things about The Bird In Art. You must get it and then you will know what I mean.

This is a lovely coffee table book. It gives explainations of various birds in art staring with early masters up to modern periods.

Bought this as a gift for my Grandma. She loves it. The book is large and heavy, good quality. The pictures in the book look great.

The reproductions in this book are beautiful. Great not only from the ornothological viewpoint but simply as masterpieces of art.

Beautiful illustrations and a great overview of how birds are depicted in art. Great price for this substantial book.

Beautiful pictures

While there have been many books on bird art over the years, most have been aimed at birdwatchers rather than art lovers. None has really explored the study of the birds in historical art and the wealth of complex meanings associated with them in different cultures. If you are thinking of buying this book it is important to understand this emphasis as the contents reflect that focus. So if you were hoping to see the works of popular bird artists you will find a few, but you are more likely to see the works of major artists such as Dalí, Dürer, Ernst, Freud, Goya, Klee, Stubbs and TurnerIn total this book shows us some 250 works of art from both the ancient and modern world. There are nine chapters covering themes as the Christian bird, mythical bird, the eastern bird, the domestic bird and the modern bird.. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on The Bird Observed, which shows how accurate some early illustrations were. Take, for example, the watercolour by Italian artist Pisanello (Antonio Pisano) of five European Jays Garrulus glandarius from about 1440. It is hard to imagine that this is nearly six hundred years old - and yet feels quite modern. Probably the best example for me is that of three Ivory-billed Woodpeckers Campephilus principalis by John James Audubon from 1929 - which adorns the book's front cover. Similarly I was drawn to John Gould's colour lithograph of three Marvellous Spatultails Loddigesia mirabilis. Interestingly, Gould had never seen a hummingbird alive when he created this around 1850.This is an attractive book, but onje for art lovers rather than bird lovers. It follows other Merrell books on the horse, dog and cat in art.

A pleasant enough book to leaf through, this provides an interesting survey of the depiction of birds in artworks created across the centuries; it centres mainly on Western culture, but gives ample consideration to depictions from ancient cultures and the near and far East; it`s nicely illustrated in colour throughout and the texts deal with different aspects of the subject as stated above in the blurb.It`s quite a big solid hardback, well-presented and providing high quality illustrations.It`s wide-ranging, as one would expect from a volume of this kind, but is a useful reference if one has a general interest in birds as symbols in art.

This really is a superb book, the quality of the illustrations is excellent and you will not be disappointed. I liked the way the book was set out charting the bird as a subject in art throughout the ages and I liked the informative and interesting text. There were a lot of illustrations of works of art I had not seen before and was unaware of and hope one day to see for real. This book is an absolute bargain you will not regret purchasing it !

Great book, great art, just no contemporary art work from today.

Fantastic book!

Outstanding book in every way.