Light as Experience and Imagination from Paleolithic to Roman Times

This book is an interdisciplinary synthesis and interpretation about the experience of light as revealed in a wide range of art and literature from Paleolithic to Roman times. Humanistic in spirit and in its handling of facts, it marshals a substantial body of scholarship to develop an explication of light as a central, even dramatic, reality of human existence and experience in diverse cultural settings. David S. Herrstrom underscores our intimacy with light—not only its constant presence in our life but its insinuating character. Focusing on our encounters with light and ways of making sense of these, this book is concerned with the personal and cultural impact of light, exploring our resistance to and acceptance of light. Its approach is unique. The book’s true subject is the individual’s relationship with light, rather than the investigation of light’s essential nature. It tells the story of light seducing individuals down through the ages. Consequently, it is not concerned with the “progress” of scientific inquiries into the physical properties and behavior of light (optical science), but rather with subjective reactions to it as reflected in art (Paleolithic through Roman), architecture (Egyptian, Grecian, Roman), mythology and religion (Paleolithic, Egyptian), and literature (e.g., Akhenaten, Plato, Aeschylus, Lucretius, John the Evangelist, Plotinus, and Augustine). This book celebrates the complexity of our relation to light’s character. No individual experience of light is “truer” than any other; none improves on any previous experience of light’s “tidal pull” on us. And the wondrous variety of these encounters has yielded a richly layered tapestry of human experience. By its broad scope and interdisciplinary approach, this pioneering book is without precedent.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Hunter Light of the Sky: The Paleolithic Era Cro-Magnon Ancestors, the Image-makers The Shaman’s Transformation and the Light-Body The Shaman’s Art of Light – the Cave Paintings 2. Planter Light of the Sun:TheNeolithic Era Shaman to Seer, Being Light to Seeing Light The Brightness, the Rays, and Quartz Light Trapping the Rays – Newgrange and Stonehenge 3. The Great Illuminator: The Egyptian Classical Age and the Amarna Period Lightland of the Sunfolk Stone-Light on the Plain, Shadow-Light in the Temple Naked-Light of the Natural World Akhenaten’s “Great Hymn to the Aten” Innocence Lost, Light and Darkness 4. Scenes of Light & Shadow, the Luminaries: The Greek Classical Age Thales’ Light & Shadow Adventure Athenian Light: Homer’s Radiance and the Potters’ Light-Shadow Contraries Parmenides’ Refusal to Name Light and Night Aeschylus’ Actor Light and The Law of Light and Shadow Plato’s Light-Show The Bones of Light – Euclid 5. Acts of Light, the Refractors: The Roman Classical Age Brilliant Mosaic Skin The Light of the Walls Lucretius’ Swerves of Light Systems of Light – John’s Gospel and Hadrian’s Pantheon Poimandres Says, “Think About the Light and Understand It” Biographies of Light – Plotinus’ Flash and Augustine’s Seducer Conclusion Bibliographies Index

About the Author :
David S. Herrstrom is an independent scholar who has taught and lectured at various universities and museums, including Queens College (City University of New York), Monmouth University, and Drew University, as well as the Woodmere Art Museum (Philadelphia).

Review :
A lyrical journey on a sunbeam, David S. Herrstrom’s volume is short but ambitious. . . . Herrstrom’s small poetic book is really something of a delight to read. It is in his Introduction that he is at his best, this is where his warm enthusiasm for the topic shines forth, nearly in John’s rhetoric of light.