Art: The Definitive Visual Guide (DK Definitive Cultural Histories)

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This is well worth the investment to purchase, whether to supplement your child's institutional schooling or if you are homeschooling. What the artists did to create each work — and how — is revealed with the help of graphics, overlays, and detailed close-ups.

It has a mostly objective approach in which each artist is respected while having a slightly contemporary tone through phrasing and word choice. For more than 20 years, he has published a weekly column on art, first in the Independent and, more recently, in the Sunday Telegraph. Dedicated spreads explain how art works, for example introducing how artists use colour and composition. From Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper to Francis Bacon’s Screaming Pope , 22 key works are analyzed at full-page size in terms of composition, story, and techniques.Created in collaboration with Bridgeman, the biggest art library in the world, Art: The Definitive Visual Guide is a must-have for your bookshelf. I think this is the biggest flaw, although one that'd be hard to rectify easily given what the book is trying to do. It also looks at cultures around the world but there is a focus on the West (which may disappoint some people). The book also discusses the different Art movements that came about and dominated European- and Asian-thoughts in the processes of their paintings, such as the well known ones like Gothic; Romanesque; Renaissance, and; Baroque, and perhaps the less well known ones such as Mannerism; Fauvism; Rococo, and; Neoclassicism.

I'll also note that the modern art descriptions and stuff are often absolutely laughable but tbh I hate a lot of the modern art stuff they have in this book so I guess I would say that. Identity politics-based quips in a section ostensibly about explaining to the audience the basics of art was unexpected and came across as angry squawking in amongst an otherwise detached presentation which is cleanly carried out through the rest of the book. He has written a number of acclaimed books, on subjects ranging from medieval painting and sculpture to the art of the present, including Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane, Art: The Definitive Visual Guide, and Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel.Discover the history of art movements from classical Greek art to the Italian Renaissance, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the masters of Impressionism with a brand new edition of this classic bestseller. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. Some choices of representative works were questionable but combined with the little blurb about each artist everything seriously important to know about them is covered. This book will take me forever to get through and I am leaving it on my coffee table to pick up and learn about different art styles, era, themes and artists as the mood takes me. It's a visual guide - I guess that means that they cram in references to every major and most minor painters and sculptors since time began plus many non-Western artists too, refreshingly, so A+ for inclusiveness - BUT everything is squished and rammed and crammed into fun-sized paragraphs and thumbnail illustrations.