Get Hold Of From Giotto To Cezanne: A Concise History Of Painting Planned By Michael Levey Available As Readable Copy

beautifully illustrated and refreshingly unpretentious introduction to art history, Michael Levey's classicbook displays a depth of thought and technique that makes you annoyed at the charlatans who populate the creative world today.
It is reliably astute in charting the arc of Western painting from Giotto to Cézanne, introducing and discussing along the way an honour roll of potent artists, including da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bosch, Botticelli, Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Turner, Monet, Gauguin and van Gogh, as well as some lesser lights whose work is instructive in Levey's narrative.
There are some notable omissions in the paintings selected the part on da Vinci doesn't discuss the Mona Lisa, van Gogh's doesn't discuss Starry Night, or The Astronomer for Vermeer, etc.
but the book is, as its subtitle says, a concise history rather than an encyclopaedia,

With Levey's guidance, the reader begins to see the development of Western artistic expression over hundreds of years, and can appreciate the use and importance of certain techniques, such as the alwaysrevolutionary use of light, even in seeminglybenign landscapes and still lifes.
You begin to understand the wealth and intricacy of the art form and again, despair at the current state of the medium, You develop an ability to differentiate between masters and regular painters, and it makes you want to reclaim that muchabused word 'masterpiece' for the things that really deserve it.
In our postmodern, relativistic and antiWestern/antiChristian times, appreciation of this sort of thing helps you acquire something approaching taste, or at least an awareness of objective standards.
As an interested novice who has always wanted to explore this kind of art but has been wary of the pseuds, I could scarcely have conceived of anything more suitable than Levey's book.
As someone relatively uneducated about visual arts, I bought up a bunch of used World of Art series books over the years, One consequence of buying older used books, while providing a general survey of Western art history, they ignore the contributions of global art and the textual analysis suffers from retrograde concepts and at times unsavory commentary, especially on women.
I still a lot of these series books to read through, which I intend to do, as it's the only way for me to have hard copies of art on hand on a budget, but I will most likely find myself cringing and annoyed at the dated curation of these books.
A highly critical author takes a stroll through the history of art, or at least the bits everyone loves to talk about, He makes many arbitrary value judgements and freely gives the best history has to offer his critical eye, over all a bore and a philistine will be your guide, so maybe try another book.
I'd recommend The Story of Art by Gombrich for this sort of thing, This book is a fine tool for analyzing the evolution technique and style, but it falls short as a “history”, It analyzes art through a purely Eurocentric and patriarchal lens with little to no attention paid to female painters or painters beyond the European tradition, It neglects the incredible women of the baroque era such as Roych and Gentileschi and ignores the accomplishments of non European painters such as the masters in

Islamic Persia and India.
If youre looking for an evolution of European art, this is a great book to have, but like all canons, it falls victim to SWM straight white man and must be viewed critically.
Actually, this is the art book I've found most useful, It is light to pick up and the illustrations are plenteous and brilliant in terms of deep, rich colours, and the paper isn't glossy which I prefer.
Some art books you're almost frightened to touch and turn the pages for fear of creasing them and leaving marks, but this one you can rifle through back and forth with no qualms.
I especially like the earlier painters like Lippi, Uccello his Rout of San Romano used to hang in my school, not the original of course, Masaccio and Carpaccio.
I have the book in my hand now, I went to an exhibition of Cranach and Durer in Madrid, I think it was last year, I do love this book, the feel of it as well as the content, You can orient yourself in terms of periods and who's who at a glance, I'd give it six if I could, Difficult to read as it almost lacks editorial review, The prose does not flow naturally, maybe because of lack of enough commas, and you have to return and reread passages, The images are plentiful, but a little faded, which takes away from the impact, but this maybe because it was published my copy in, I also wish the painters' appartenence to a certain art/painting current would have been more clearly stated, An excellent general introduction to the history of western painting, Covering the period from the early/pre Renaissance to the first begining of theth century, all the major figures are included as are a selection of there most significant works in the form of delightful colour prints.
For someone like me who knows only the rudiments of the history of art it has provided an invaluable guide to that most important of phenomena, the big picture.
Wat ouder overzicht. Reproducties niet zo mooi van kleur, Alleen westerse kunst, beginnende bij de Italiaanse vroegrenaissance waarom niet ook de oudheid en middeleeuwen Waarom stopt Levey bij Cezanne Wel een mooi'concise'overzicht, Such an inspiring book. Loved the story behind the artists and their incredible paintings beautifully printed and written, Lovely primer to the major artists and movements of the lastyears or so, cutting off at the point that abstraction became a thing, Lots of good quality reproductions, it could almost be a companion to a tour of the National Gallery, which is not surprising given the author's association with that institution.
It is dated only by its refusal to acknowledge in the title that its only concern is Western Art, a sin of omission in these globallyinfluenced times.
'Outstanding accurate, free from prejudice, always neat, often stimulating, No better introduction to Western painting has ever been produced, ' The Sunday Times Sir Michael Vincent Levey was an English art historian and was the director of the National Gallery fromto, .