Icons of the 15th Century

What is Christ doing beside Lake Geneva? How did the Florentine banker Tommaso Portinari find his way into an altarpiece by the Flemish artist Hugo van der Goes? Who is the beautiful young woman lying dead on the sand and why are there dogs around her? What was Botticelli really trying to say with his celebration of the birth of Venus? The maqority of paintings from the 15th century portray figures from the Bible and the world of mythology, but they also tell us much about the era in which they arose - about the conflicts between ruling forces, about the hope of the poor, about everyday life, and about the meaning and symbolism which were attached to the past. The masterpieces selected for this volume are intended not to teach art history, but to focus out attention in each case on a specific image. The authors discuss what we are seeing and provide background information which makes the pictures more accessible. They see each painting not just as a work of art, but as a document of its day. The articles were originally published under the title "What Great Paintings Say" in the magazine ART.