Great Paintings is a sumptuous, visual guided tour of 66 of the world's greatest paintings. Ranging from works by Zhang Zeduan, a 12th-century Chinese master, to modern masterpieces by Rothko and Anselm Kiefer, the paintings are arranged chronologically, providing an excellent visual introduction to the history of art.
The book starts with how to "read" a painting. Annotated paintings show how to identify the key elements of a picture. The major part of the book is a magnificent visual gallery of iconic paintings. The story behind each painting is fully explained, unlocking the often hidden meanings of symbols and details. Each painting is then
analyzed visually, using pull-out details and overlays, to help the reader understand the key features, composition, and techniques. Artists' biographies and features on historical and social context explore how landmark paintings have been influenced by what has gone before and how they go on to inspire what comes after them.
Reading Great Paintings is like being taken around a gallery by a personal guide who helps you to look at paintings-both familiar and new-in fresh and fascinating ways. Understanding paintings has never been so easy.
Contents
(provisional list of paintings)
PRELIMS
INTRODUCTION: LOOKING AT ART
PREHISTORY TO 15TH CENTURY
1. Quingming Riverside, Zhang Zeduan (Chinese)
2. Lamentation of Christ, Giotto (Italian)
3. The Madonna Enthroned, Duccio di Buoninsegna (Italian)
4. The Annunciation, Fra Angelico (Italian)
5. The Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck (Flemish)
6. The Baptism of Christ, Piero della Francesca (Italian)
7. The Hunt in the Forest, Paolo Uccello (Italian)
8. Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli (Italian)
16TH CENTURY
9. The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch (Netherlandish)
10. Great Piece of Turf, Albrecht Du¨rer (German)
11. Mona Lisa, Leonard da Vinci, (Italian)
12. The School of Athens, Raphael, (Italian)
13. The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Michelangelo, (Italian)
14. Bacchus and Ariadne, Titian, (Italian)
15. The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger (German)
16. Spring Morning in the Han Palace, Qiu Ying (Chinese)
17. The Peasant Wedding, Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlandish)
18. Spring, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, (Italian)
19. Birds and Flowers of the Four Seasons, Kano Eitoku ( Japanese)
20. Akhbar Tames the Savage Elephant, Hawa'l, Basawan and Chatai (Indian)
17TH CENTURY
21. David with the Head of Goliath, Caravaggio (Italian)
22. Self Portrait as "La Pittura", Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian)
23. The Judgement of Paris, Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish)
24. Charles I on Horseback, Anthony van Dyck (Flemish)
25. Portrait of Rembrandt, Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch)
26. Las Meninas, Diego Velásquez (Spanish)
27. The Art of Painting (The Artist's Studio), Johannes Vermeer (Dutch)
18TH CENTURY
28. Still Life with Flowers and Fruit, Jan van Huysum (Dutch)
29. Marriage a la Mode: The Toilette, William Hogarth (British)
30. Mr and Mrs Andrews, Thomas Gainsborough, (British)
31. Allegory of the Planets and Continents, Giambattista Tiepolo (Italian)
32. Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, Joseph Wright of Derby (British)
33. The Death of Marat Jacques-Louis David (French)
19TH CENTURY
34. The Valpinçon Bather, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres (French)
35. The Third of May 1808, Francisco de Goya (Spanish)
36. The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, Casper David Friedrich (German) (with inset: The Great Wave off Kanagawa,
Hokusai (Japanese)
37. The Hay Wain, John Constable (British)
38. The Fighting Temeraire, J.M.W. Turner (British)
39. The Artist's...
