The Pelican History of Art was a series of handbooks in art history, published first by Penguin Books under its Pelican Books imprint, and then republished (with new additions) by Yale University Press as the Yale University Press Pelican History of Art from 1993 until the mid-2010s.The series' commissioning editors at Yale were laid off in 2016 without being replaced . The founding editor was Nikolaus Pevsner, followed by Peter Lasko; no successor to Lasko has been named.
The series was widely hailed for the depth of its contributions and the eminence of its contributors, even as it has been criticized for its EurocentrismNewall, Diana, ed. Art and Its Global Histories: A Reader. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017. pp. 136, 203–4 and formalist approach. E.H. Gombrich, reviewing the first two volumes and the series plan, called it “a thrilling succession of important monographs by some of the greatest authorities in the field”.
History Allen Lane approached Nikolaus Pevsner in 1945 for a series of illustrated books that would match the success of the King Penguins. Pevsner recalled his response: "Allen said, 'You have done the King Penguins now and we are going on with them, but if you had your way, what else would you do?' I had my answer ready—and the answer was very formidable, because I outlined both The Pelican History of Art and The Buildings of England on the spot, each about 40 to 50 volumes. Allen said, 'Yes, we can do both,' and that was the end of the meeting."Peter Draper, Reassessing Nikolaus Pevsner, 2004, p. 73. Pevsner's industry quickly bore fruit with the first contracts signed by 1946 for John Summerson's Architecture in Britain, Anthony Blunt's Art and Architecture in France, and Rudolf Wittkower's Italian art and architecture, the first title Painting in Britain, 1530–1790 by Ellis Waterhouse was issued in 1953. By 1955, Pevsner produced a prospectus for the series announcing the publication of four new volumes and a plan for the rest of the series totalling 47 titles. The ambition of the series exceeded previously published multi-volume histories of art such as André Michel's Histoire de l'art (17 vols., 1905–28), the Propyläen Kunstgeschichte (25 vols., 1923–35). Forty-one volumes were published by the time Pevsner retired from editing in 1977. His work was continued by Judy Nairn (his editorial assistant on the Buildings of England) and the medievalist Peter Lasko. Yale University Press acquired the series in 1992 when 45 titles had been completed; by 2004 they had published 21 volumes, mostly revisions of existing editions.Draper, Reassessing Nikolaus Pevsner, p. 75. New volumes continued to be produced up to the mid-2010s, alongside new editions of older ones.
Reception
For Penguin the series was a departure from their commercial mainstay of paperbacks as the histories of art were the first large format, illustrated hardback books they had produced.Though paperback issues were begun in 1966, designed by Gerald Cinamon "Penguin paperback cover designs". Despite their relatively high price they were a financial success, yet for Pevsner they were intended primarily as graduate level texts in what was, for the English speaking world, the newly emerging academic discipline of art history.Harries, Pevsner, p. 562. Nevertheless, the series was criticised from within the academy for its evident biases. Many of its authors were German émigrés, consequently there was a methodological preference for the kunstwissenschaft practiced in Vienna and Berlin between the wars; a formalism that ignored the social context of art.The point of view maintained at the Courtauld, for example: "After the war many older art historians took the view that the primary tasks of art history had already been accomplished, and that the time had come for summaries. This was the platform from which Pevsner launched his Pelican History of Art project, but it was not how the situation was perceived at the Institute." "A History of the Courtauld". Robert Branner thus ended his review of Paul Frankl's volume on Gothic architecture by saying that although the book “has much to offer,” it “should bear an imprint date not of 1962, but of 1920.”Branner, Robert. Gothic Architecture, by Paul Frankl. The Art Bulletin 50, no. 2 (1968): 199. This sense of datedness was compounded later, as most of the Yale volumes reprinted older Pelicans with only minor changes from their original 1950s–70s text, although Paul Crossley did add a lengthy historiographic foreword to his revision of Frankl's volume in particular.
Moreover, the weight given to some subjects seemed disproportionate to some critics, with seven of its original 47 volumes dedicated to English art, a "tributary of the main European current" as the Burlington Magazine observed.Harries, Pevsner, p. 566; Burlington Magazine, October 1953. After the series moved to Yale, the revised plan folded much of English art back into the pan-European volumes.Lasko, Ars Sacra, 2nd ed. p.x
Though the 1955 plan was never fully executed—the volumes on Greek painting and sculpture, quattrocento painting and cinquecento sculpture were not written—the Pelican History remains one of the most comprehensive surveys of world art published.
List of volumes in the series Volumes of the original series Year Title Author(s) Notes / Revised Editions 1953 Painting in Britain, 1530 to 1790 Ellis Waterhouse Revised 1969, 1978; 4th edition 1994 (Yale). 1953 The Art and Architecture of India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jain Benjamin Rowland Revised 1956, 1967. Later replaced in the series by Harle's 1986 volume. 1953 Architecture in Britain, 1530 to 1830 John Summerson Revised 1955, 1963, 1969, 1977, 1983, 1993 (Yale). 1953 Art and Architecture in France, 1500 to 1700 Anthony Blunt Revised 1957, 1970, 1980; 5th edition revised by Richard Beresford 1999 (Yale). 1954 The Art and Architecture of Russia George Heard Hamilton Revised 1975, 1983. 1954 Painting in Britain: The Middle Ages Margaret Rickert Revised 1965. 1954 The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient Henri Frankfort Revised 1958, 1969, 1970; Yale edition 1996. 1955 The Art and Architecture of Japan Robert Treat Paine and Alexander Soper Revised 1975, 1981. 1955 Sculpture in Britain: The Middle Ages Lawrence Stone Revised 1972. 1956 Architecture in Britain: The Middle Ages Geoffrey Webb 1956 The Art and Architecture of China Laurence Sickman and Alexander Soper Revised 1968, 1971. 1957 Greek Architecture A. W. Lawrence Revised 1967, 1983; 5th edition revised by R. A. Tomlinson 1996 (Yale). 1958 Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Henry-Russell Hitchcock Revised 1963, 1968, 1977, 1987. 1958 The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt W. Stevenson Smith Revised 1981; 3rd edition revised by William Kelly Simpson 1998 (Yale). 1958 Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600 to 1750 Rudolf Wittkower Revised 1965, 1973, 1980. Expanded into three volumes in 1999. 1959 Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture, 800 to 1200 Kenneth John Conant Revised 1966, 1973, 1978. 1959 Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and their American Dominions, 1500 to 1800 George Kubler and Martin Soria Later replaced in the series by separate, more specialized volumes. 1960 Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1780 to 1880 Fritz Novotny Revised 1971, 1978. 1960 Art and Architecture in Belgium, 1600 to 1800 Horst Gerson and E. H. ter Kuile Later replaced by Vlieghe's 1998 volume. 1962 The Art and Architecture of Ancient America: The Mexican, Maya and Andean Peoples George Kubler Revised 1975, 1984. 1962 Gothic Architecture Paul Frankl Revised by Paul Crossley 2000 (Yale). 1964 Sculpture in Britain, 1530 to 1830 Margaret Whinney Revised by John Physick 1988. 1965 Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture Richard Krautheimer Revised 1975, 1979; 4th edition revised by Slobodan Ćurčić 1986. 1965 Baroque Art and Architecture in Central Europe Eberhard Hempel 1966 Art and Architecture in Italy, 1250 to 1400 John White Revised 1987, 1993 (Yale). 1966 Dutch Art and Architecture, 1600 to 1800 Jakob Rosenberg, Seymour Slive, and E. H. ter Kuile Revised 1972, 1977. Later split and replaced by individual volumes (i.e., Slive 1995). 1966 Sculpture in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Spain: 1400 to 1500 Theodor Müller 1966 Sculpture in Italy, 1400 to 1500 Charles Seymour Jr. 1967 Painting and Sculpture in Europe, 1880 to 1940 George Heard Hamilton Revised 1972, 1981, 1993 (Yale). 1968 Prehistoric Art in Europe N. K. Sandars Revised 1985, 1995 (Yale). 1969 Painting and Sculpture in Germany and the Netherlands, 1500 to 1600 Gert von der Osten and Horst Vey 1970 Etruscan and Roman Architecture Axel Boëthius and J. B. Ward-Perkins Later split into two distinct volumes (Boëthius 1978, Ward-Perkins 1981). 1970 Early Christian and Byzantine Art John Beckwith Revised 1979. 1971 Painting in Italy, 1500 to 1600 S. J. Freedberg Revised 1975, 1983, 1993 (Yale). 1971 Painting in Europe, 800 to 1200 C. R. Dodwell Later replaced by Dodwell's 1993 volume. 1972 Art and Architecture of the Eighteenth Century in France Wend von Kalnein and Michael Levey Later split into two separate volumes (Levey 1993, Kalnein 1995). 1972 Ars Sacra, 800–1200 Peter Lasko 2nd edition 1995 (Yale). 1974 Architecture in Italy, 1400 to 1600 Ludwig H. Heydenreich and Wolfgang Lotz Later split into two separate volumes (Lotz 1995, Heydenreich 1996). 1976 Roman Art Donald Strong Revised 1988, 1995 (Yale). 1976 American Art John Wilmerding 1978 The Arts in Prehistoric Greece Sinclair Hood 1978 Etruscan Art Otto Brendel Reissued 1995 (Yale). 1978 Etruscan and Early Roman Architecture Axel Boëthius Revised split of the 1970 joint volume. Yale edition 1994. 1981 Roman Imperial Architecture J. B. Ward-Perkins Revised split of the 1970 joint volume. Yale edition 1994. 1986 The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent J. C. Harle Replaced the 1953 Rowland volume. Yale edition 1994. 1987 The Art and Architecture of Islam, 650–1250 Richard Ettinghausen and Oleg Grabar Yale edition 1994. Expanded in 2001 (Ettinghausen, Grabar, Jenkins-Madina).
Volumes added or revised for the Yale University Press Pelican History of Art