Dracula

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Summary: Reproduces more than 200 artworks of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Review: Kyra Belan's Madonnas: From Medieval To Modern is a truly stunning, full-color book that reproduces more than 200 artworks of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Christ, and widely revered symbol of both Christianity and motherhood. Accompanying Belan provides an informative commentary text informing the reader of the context of each artwork, the name of the artist, and countless other relevant factors that affected the Virgin's enduring presence in paintings, murals, and sculptures, up to the present day. A truly beautiful artbook, Madonnas: From Medieval To Modern is enthusiastically recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of Christian art in general, and portrayals of the Blessed Virgin Mary in particular.

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Summary: Nice coffee table book on Madonnas
Review: This coffee-table book barely even meets the expectations of the genre; that is, the title would lead one to anticipate pages of glossy, dazzling plates of famous Madonna images over the centuries. Many of the plates here are of mediocre quality, and the choice of works is eccentric, with some well-known paintings and sculptures illustrated among many obscure or unrepresentative examples of certain subjects and periods. About the text, the less said the better. The author's narrow reading of the place of Mary in the tradition of Western Christendom offers an overly simplistic, reductive, and repetitive take on the "Great Mother Goddess suppressed by Patriarchal Society" idea; it is not that there is no truth here, but the presentation of this notion is almost completely lacking in serious scholarly argument. Furthermore, though a charitable view might attribute the constant inaccuracies in factual information to careless proofreading, the result is a volume with virtually no value to professionals or advanced students, and one that might be misleading or worse for beginners (encouraging them, for example, to continue confusing Mary's "Immaculate Conception" with the conception of Jesus).