Books Received

triumphant, the sitter as hero, and the anonymous hero. The succinct text is complemented by well-chosen (although not well-produced) illustrations, not all from what aregenerallyconsidered ‘great’ works of art, but all with pedagogic purpose. This is an enjoyable treatise. OPERA, IDEOLOGY AND FILM by Jeremy Tambling. Manchester UniversityPress, Manchester, U.K., 1987. 232 pp., illus. Trade, E25.00. ISBN: 0-7190-2238-X. Relatively few operas have been filmed, either in the opera house or ‘out there’ on location, but the two media continue to influence and affect each other. The author examines first the impact of opera on film-using the many versions and reworkings of Carmen (with and without the music of Bizet) as illustration-and then, reflecting the new cinematic medium’s increasing confidence and ability, thereciprocal impact isdetailed in a number of case studies of filmed opera, including Bergman’s The Magic Flute, Ziffirelli’s La Traviata, Syberberg’s Parsifal. Tambling’s book is a valuable contribution to the mythology of ‘high culture’. ADOLPHE APPIA THEATREARTIST by Richard C. Beacham. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1987. 204 pp., illus. Trade, €27.50, $44.50. ISBN: 0-521-23768-8. Appia (1862-1928) was a Swiss theatre designer and theorist. Although he was well known as an important innovator in the use of stagelighting, much of hiswork and ideas remains unpublished and unexplored. Many of his concepts on scenic design and the use of theatrical space, which were ahead of their time, are now widely practised but without Appia receiving due credit. This critical evaluation of his work will do much to redress the imbalance and should serve to introduce Appia’s advanced ideas to an appreciative new audience. VisualizationinScientific Computing,B.H. McCormick et al., eds. Special Issue of Computer Graphics 21, No. 6 (November 1987). Visualization in scientific computing (ViSC) is emerging as a major computerbased field. As a tool for applying computersto scienceit offers a way to see the unseen. The most familiar of these new methods of seeinginclude false color imaging of remote sensing data from space and visual images of mathematical sets. Computer graphics, computer modelling and simulation and the new methodsfordisplayingvisualinformation have progressed. It has become clear to researchers in the field that a new synthesis needs to be made and that sophisticated new tools areemergingthat go beyond the simple displaying of visual data. The authors of this report statethat in many fields ViSC is changing the ways scientists work. This specialissueof Computer Graphics is the report of the Workshop on Visualization in Scientific Computing held February 1987and sponsored by the US. National Science Foundation. The report defines the new field of ViSC, enumerates the many fields where similarities of approach are beginning to emerge and makes recommendations on support for this new field. It provides a fascinating document of the current state of the art and projections of future research. These are developments that artistsshouldnot ignorefor they hold the promise of revolutionising thetechnology of visual images. The report is accompanied by 2 hours of videotape published as two issues of SIGGRAPH VideoReview. They can be obtainedfrom ACM Order Dept., P.O. Box 64145, Baltimore, MD 21264, U.S.A. BOOKS RECEIVED Aesthetics:AnIntroductionto thePhilosophyofArt.Anne Sheppard.Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., 1987. Paper, €4.95; trade, E15.00. ISBN: 0-19-289164-2; ISBN: 0-19-219180-2. AntiqueJade. Oscar Luzzatto-Bilitz. Cassell, London, U.K., 1987. 160 pp., illus. Paper, €4.95. ISBN: 0-304-32155-9. Art and Archaeology Technical Abstracts, Vol. 24, No. 1-2. Curt W. Beck et al., eds. The Getty Conservation Institute, 4503-B Glencoe Avenue, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, U S A . 498 pp. Paper, $30.00. ISSN: 0004-2994. Art Kunst 15. InternationalBibliography of Art Books, 1986. W. Jaggi AG, Postfach 332, CH-4001 Basel, Switzerland. 206 pp. Paper. ISBN: 3-906430-15-4. Art Nouveau. Renato Barilli. Cassell, London, U.K., 1987. 160 pp., illus. Paper, E4.95. ISBN: 0-304-32156-7. Blasted Allegories. An Anthology of Writingsby ContemporaryArtists. Brian Wallis, ed. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1988. 429 pp., illus. Trade, $19.95. ISBN: 0-262-23128-X. The CameraLucida inArt andscience...