If our world can be divided into three parts--sea, land, and sky--the sea is, of the three, the most alien and mysterious. Characterized by movement and change, by random patterns of light and dark, by transcendental calm and tempestuous anger, the sea assaults our senses and stokes our imagination.


A spectacular portfolio, Peter Neill's On a Painted Ocean contains images from around the world that revel in the visual language of the ocean. Captured in this full-color volume are some of the great classics, and undiscovered treasures, of maritime art. The work of the 17th and 18th century Dutch and English masters are featured alongside a number of less familiar works, many heretofore outside the established marine tradition. Sculpted figures from Africa, painted bowls from ancient Greece, wall murals from pre-Columbian Mexico, tomb decorations from Egypt, and manuscripts from Arabia join the European masters in evoking the force and beauty of the sea. The book's essays take readers from exploration to war, from conflict to commerce, from sustenance to trade, from wreck to technological revolution, examining along the way historical depictions and folk tales, chronicles of endurance, some celebrations, and many tragedies.


For anyone who has ever set sail or merely admired the oceans and its vessels from shore, On a Painted Ocean will instill a greater appreciation of the maritime world.