During the last years of France's ancien regime, an outpouring of creative activity and patronage resulted in the production of many works of painting and sculpture. In this book, Michael Levey discusses the major painters and sculptors of this perio...

Until around 10,000 BC art in Europe appears to have been in advance of the rest of the world and throws light on the total history of early man. The great masterpieces of cave-painting at Lascaux are well known, and one tradition of early sculpture...

How do pictures tell stories? Why does the literary romance so often refer to paintings and other visual art objects? Beginning with these two seemingly unrelated questions, Wendy Steiner reveals an intricate exchange between the visual arts and the...

Contents: List of Illustrations Preface Introduction 1. The Power of Images: Response and Repression 2. The God in the Image 3. The Value of the Commonplace 4. The Myth of Aniconism 5. Consecration: Making Images Work 6. Image and Pilgrimage 7. The...

Contents: Preface Historical Table 1. Introduction 2. Physical History of the Painting 3. The Sources of the Composition 4. The Setting 5. The Portraits 6. The Subject 7. Art Historical Context Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations In...