"Palmer's (art history, Univ. of Oklahoma; Historical Dictionary of Architecture) work encompasses the Western world's romantic era (approximately 1750-1850) in art and architecture and will suit a range of audiences. The 200-plus entries are uniformly clearly written and comprehensive. Palmer avoids catering to one audience or another, eschewing both confusing snobbery and extraneous bloat and filling the entries with cross-references for possibly unfamiliar art terms and artists from the period.An informative introduction and chronology, along with a well-organized, extensive bibliography. BOTTOM LINE Although Palmer's Historical Dictionary is surprisingly short and, for a reference book, inexpensive, it is also comprehensive, well written, and easy to read. Recommended for both high school students writing papers and for academics who don't specialize in the area." -- Library Journal "Part of the "Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts" series, this volume by Palmer on Romantic art and architecture is a welcome addition.

Although abundant specialized scholarship on Romanticism is available, this dictionary's introduction provides excellent historical context for understanding this disparate and complex artistic era. A short chronology focuses on major political events of the time, along with seminal artistic achievements. The 200-plus dictionary entries include artists, architects, and movements. A generous and helpful bibliography is organized by movements and styles; philosophers and aesthetic philosophies; individual countries; and individual artists. Entries, although succinct, are authoritative. The strength of this reference title lies in the scholarly overview it provides by way of introduction, in the entries, and in the bibliography. Recommended." -- Choice Reviews "Romantic art and architecture departed significantly from their predecessor movement, the neoclassical.

Events such as the American and French Revolutions and the rise and fall of Napoléon are among the factors that gave rise to a wide variety of movements and styles. These include the Gothic revival, classical revival, Orientalism, and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as well as regional movements such as the Hudson River school of landscape painting in the U.S. and the German Nazarene movement. This volume provides a succinct overview on Romanticism while at the same time giving access to more topic-specific sources for further study. Entries cover art movements, styles, and aesthetic philosophies, but most deal with artists--painters, printmakers, sculptors, and architects. Focus is on the nineteenth century, although some articles treat eighteenth-century precursors, and others deal with offshoots in the early years of the twentieth, such as the Arts and Crafts movement. A detailed chronology and informative introduction precede the body of the work.

Fourteen black-and-white reproductions are well placed with the articles that apply to them.The bibliography is substantive enough to require a table of contents and provides citations to print resources on Romanticism generally, the specific styles within the movement, and specific artists. More current than Lorenz Eitner's Neoclassicism and Romanticism (Prentice-Hall, 1970), this is a sound addition to larger college and university collections." -- Booklist.