A Closer Look: Allegory Erika Langmuir

Formerly part of the popular "Pocket Guides" series, "Allegory" is published in a new edition as "A Closer Look", with a wealth of beautiful reproductions. This informative guide helps readers understand the language of allegory within Western painting - be it from the National Gallery or from other collections. When we say that 'Love is blind' or 'Time flies' - making concepts sound like living beings - we are using the language of allegory. Painters have long relied on allegory to create 'message pictures'. Once thought to rival literary works or political oratory in influence and prestige, such paintings, with their references to ancient myth, the Bible or astrology, all too often puzzle modern viewers. This book explains types of visual allegory in Western art, and the contexts in which they were originally created and viewed, through some of the most beautiful and intriguing pictures in the National Gallery, London.

Erika Langmuir, OBE, was educated in France and the United States. She has taught at the University of Sussex and held the Chair of Art History at the Open University. She was Head of Education at the National Gallery (1988-1995).

"An excellent series, 'A Closer Look at...', which guides us through the collections of the National Gallery...so lavishly illustrated, they represent very good value for money indeed"
-Michael Glover, The Independent