Art: Red Men’s Wonders

“I saw the things which were brought to the King from the New Golden Land: a sun entirely of gold, a whole fathom broad ; likewise, a moon, entirely of silver, just as big. … I have never seen in all my days what so rejoiced my heart, as these things.” Thus wrote the great Albrecht Dürer in his diary, 28 years after Columbus discovered America. At Brussels, Dürer had just seen the treasures the conquistadors brought back from the New World. Last week, “for the first time in any language, the astounding achievements of allartistically important cultures in medieval America . . . [could be read] in one work.” The work: Medieval American Art (Macmillan; 2 vol., $22.50). The author: Pál Kelemen.

One volume contains 960 superb photo graphs, the other 381 pages of text. Budapest-born Kelemen worked on his super-album for ten years.