When she became interested in painting, the author would visit museums and wonder about all the information she was missing. How did one style develop after another? What meanings were hidden in these works? What were these artists' lives like? How did their works survive for so many years? She longed for the kind of essential knowledge that would enable her to decode a painting loaded with references. The result of her curiosity is a highly accessible and vividly illustrated book that brings together the fundamentals of eight centuries of art. It covers the basics about such topics as how museums are structured, how painters use proportion and perspective, the anatomy of a painting.
Jouneaux offers surprising comparisons between artists such as Sandro Botticelli and Mary Cassatt, Claude Monet and Joan Mitchell, Delacroix and Rubens. Terms such as Baroque, Ukiyo-e, Graffiti, Cubism, Degenerate Art, and De Stijl are explored and explained. Non-western traditions are given much greater prominence than in other art history books - Chinese, Indian, Australian Aboriginal, and African Art are all included in the timeline. Numerous women artists who were overlooked during the author's own education are restored to the canon. Accompanying the unpretentious but authoritative texts are hundreds of illustrations, reproductions, timelines and sidebars.