20000 Years Of World Painting

Great history in six small volumes on very high-quality, glossy paper so the repros really look good. Great way to learn about many of the important paintings in Western art, although there is one volume covering Chinese and Japanese painters, so artists like Hokusai get covered. I loved these books because each painting has its own page with the article on it opposite, so you can just flip through the book and read what you want, or go through it step by step. The volume with G.C. Argan's comments, on the early and high Renaissance period, is especially good. These little gems were $1.45 each when I bought them 25 years ago. I have the entire set and it's been extremely useful in gaining a quick understanding of many different paintings and artists.