Masterpieces of World Painting

You hold in your hands a richly illustrated edition that will become an indispensable guide to world art and a practical manual for understanding it. The author tells the story of the creation, hidden meanings, and themes of the most iconic and popular works of visual art in human history in an accessible and engaging way. The book will teach you to "read" a painting: to decipher symbols, allegories, and signs, to understand the artist's intent, and to appreciate the skill of execution. The edition covers a vast time span, allowing you to trace the evolution of the language of painting from cave drawings to bold experiments at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries.