Art history, Classical Greece, Classical Rome, Rome (Empire), Roman Empire, Gothic architecture, Medieval art, European History, Renaissance art, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism 

This splendidly illustrated volume records and illumines the progress of art from prehistoric times to the twentieth century.

Here is a dazzling array of art treasures, reproduced in more than 650 plates, 300 of them in full color. Gathered from museums, galleries, and private collections the world over, the illustrations include paintings, drawings, etchings, lithographs, illuminated manuscripts, scrolls, mosaics, tapestries, and frescoes. In addition, there re superb photographs of sculpture, architecture, and rare objects in porcelain, glass, gold, silver, and bronze. The color pictures include many full pages and double spreads.

A sensitive and skillful text by Eleanor C. Munro traces the course of art across the ages, showing the development of styles, the innovation and refinement of techniques, and the emergence of individual artists who crystallized the spirit of their times in masterpieces of art. Painting, sculpture, architecture, and ornaments of the various ages are shown and described; each example is analyzed for its aesthetic distinction as well as its historical importance.

A separate section of the book is an encyclopedia of art terms and artists' biographies, compiled by a team of experts in art history and architecture. Comprehensive and abundantly illustrated, it explains every important technique and style in art, and provides concise, accurate information concerning the lives of artists from the Greek sculptor Myron (490-420 B.C.) to Pablo Picasso. For quick reference, a three-page chronological chart shows the major periods of art and their outstanding artists.

In the opening pages, words and pictures show how portrait sculpture and architecture first developed into great art forms in ancient Egypt. Then follows a discussion of Classical art in Greece, the golden age that produced lithe, controlled beauty of the discus thrower and the ordered magnificence of the Parthenon. The art of the Roman Empire preserves a record of a civilization - its military might exemplified in triumphal arches and equestrian statues, its material luxury symbolized by the Baths of Diocletian, its gods and heroes depicted on the wall frescoes of Pompeii.

Here are early Christian mosaics, Coptic tapestries, and demon masks from Thailand - in which are mirrored the cultural heritage of the early Eastern Empires. Oriental scrolls and paintings, their delicate brushwork and detail exquisitely reproduced in color, convey the spirit and discipline of one of the world's oldest civilizations.

Medieval works of art - sculpted ornament of Romanesque churches, the architecture and stained glass of the cathedrals of Notre Dame and Chartres, manuscript illustrations - reflect the spread of Christianity throughout the West, and unfold both the grand and homely dramas of the time.

The Renaissance, the most extraordinary period in art history for its profusion of great artists and masterpieces, is accorded especially rich treatment. Botticelli, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Brunelleschi, Piero della Francesca, Ghiberti, Michelangelo - these are but a few of the artists whose achievements are discussed and shown in superb reproductions.

Representing the Baroque period are paintings by Caravaggio, Rubens, Breughel, Holbein, Durer, El Greco, Velasquez, Rembrandt, Ruysdael, Vermeer, Hals, and others. A review of eighteenth-century Rococo and Neo-Classical styles is succeeded by an extensive section on nineteenth-century art, encompassing Goya, Ingres, Delacroix, Corot, Courbet, the Impressionists, and the post-Impressionists. Among the many color reproductions are paintings by Manet, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat, and Renoir. American currents of art in the nineteenth century are seen in the work of Ryder, Audubon, Eakins, and Winslow Homer.

Clarity and insight are brought to bear on the manifold aspects of twentieth-century art, including Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. Here, among many others, are paintings by Picasso, Vlaminck, Klee, Dali, De Kooning, and Jackson Pollock; sculpture by Giacometti, Lipchitz, Moore, and Marini; architecture by Wright, Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Saarinen.

In the preparation of color plates, every effort has been made to achieve utmost fidelity to the original works. Each page of the book has been designed with meticulous care to insure that words and pictures are true compliments, one amplifying the other. The result is a volume of imperishable beauty and value - that the reader may return to them again and again, with enriched understanding and pleasure.

About the Author

Eleanor C. Munro was born in Brooklyn, New York and educated at the Hathaway-Brown School in Cleveland, Ohio, and Smith College (B.A., 1949). In 1950 she attended the University of Paris on a Fulbright grant. Miss Munro was Associate Editor of Art News from 1952 to 1956 and Managing Editor of Art News Annual from 1956 to 1959. She has contributed articles to Perspectives USA and Horizon magazine. She is married to the noted art critic and editor Dr. Alfred Frankfurter, and is the mother of a young son.

Taken from the back cover.