Art in History, 600 BC - 2000 AD

A richly detailed guide to our culture, our history, our heritage and our art from religious painting to postmodernism by one of the world's greatest art historians.

Art has always been part of history. But we often think of it as outside history. When we look at a painting by Raphael, Rembrandt or Rubens it speaks to us directly, but it's also an historical document, part of a living world. Renowned art historian Martin Kemp takes the reader on an extraordinary trip through art, from devotional works to the revolutionary techniques of the Renaissance, from the courtly Masters of the seventeenth century through to the daring avant-garde of the twentieth century and beyond.

Along the way we encounter the great names of art history: Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; Vermeer and Velasquez; Picasso and Pollock. We get under the skin of the many 'isms', schools, styles and epochs. We see the complex sweep of art history with its innovations, collaborations, rivalries, breakthroughs and masterpieces. Above all, Kemp puts art in context; art isn't about disembodied images, art itself is history.

Part of the Ideas in Profile series, uniquely enlivened with animations and illustrations from the award winning studio Cognitive Media, Art History is an indispensable, accessible and richly detailed guide to our culture, our history, our heritage and our art.

About the Author

Martin Kemp is Emeritus Professor of the History of Art, Oxford University and a world-renowned authority on Leonardo da Vinci. He is the author of Christ to Coke: How Image Becomes Icon, Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man and The Science of Art: Optical Themes in Western Art from Brunelleschi to Seurat amongst others.