Published by Merrell (London & New York, 2008)
ISBN 978-1-8589-4420-3
The writer and art historian Tamsin Pickeral chose Chris Gollon’s Anubis & Charon (1997), devoting a page to the Gollon painting in the chapter entitled The Mythical Dog to feature alongside works by Breughel, Rembrandt, Titian, Velasquez, Oudry, Gainsborough, Reynolds and Rubens. She writes very intelligently and insightfully about Chris Gollon’s work and his image of ‘Anubis & Charon’. This hardback book contains powerful images and well-researched text about Man’s ever-changing view of the dog, from one of Man’s earliest beliefs in the dog as deity or psychopomp (conductor of souls), dwelling both in the physical and supernatural worlds, to a whole spectrum of belief across many cultures depicting the dog as deity or devil, noble or bestial, adored or abhorred. As the author remarks: "In many ways, the emergence of the dog in art, from its first marginal depictions to its increasingly central role, particularly in paintings, mirrors the dog’s creeping steps over the threshold of human society. Conversely, the prevalence of the dog’s appearance in art through the ages has left a vivid account of its place, and role, in human history.”
"Absurd, superb, this richly illustrated and impeccably designed narrative stretches from Eyptian sarcophagi to ‘Cave Canem’ Roman mosaics to Franz Marc’s harmonious zoos, and Lucien Freud’s whippets, with art history triumphing over sentiment.”
The Financial Times, November 29/30. Voted one of the top fifty books of the year, and reviewed by Jackie Wullschager, Chief Visual Arts Critic, Financial Times
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