The Image of the Black in Western Art ─ From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire

In The 1960s, as a response to segregation in the United States, the influential art patron Dominique de Menil began a research project and a photo archive called The Image of the Black in Western Art. Now, fifty years later, as the first American president of African American descent serves his historic term in office, her mission has been re-invigorated through the collaboration of Harvard University Press and the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research to present new editions of the coveted five original books and the anticipated new volumes which shall complete the series. The completed set will include ten sumptuous books in five volumes with up-to-date introductions and more full-color illustrations, printed on high-quality art stock for books that will last a lifetime.

This monumental publication offers expert commentary and a lavishly illustrated history of the representations of people of African descent ranging from the ancient images of Pharaohs created by unknown hands to the works of the great European masters such as Bosch, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Hogarth to stunning new creations by contemporary black artists. Featuring thousands of beautiful, moving, and often little-known images of black people, including queens and slaves, saints and soldiers, children and gods, The Image of the Black in Western Art provides a treasury of masterpieces from four millennia---a testament to the black experience in the West and a tribute to art's enduring power to shape our common humanity.

The new edition of Volume I offers a comprehensive look at the fascinating and controversial subject of the representation of black people in the ancient world. Classic essays by distinguished scholars are aptly contextualized by Jeremy Tanner's new introduction, which guides the reader through enormous changes in the field in the wake of the "Black Athena" theory.

David Bindman is Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at University College London.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.