How to Read a Painting: Lessons from the Old Masters

i am not an art major by any stretch, but i enjoy visiting museums and marvelling in these detailed and complex creations. i purchased this book after several visits to the art museum. now, after reading - actually devouring every page - i have a much greater and deeper appreciation and understanding for these masterpieces. true, as it is not a substitute for an in-depth examination and education into the whole of the painting, it does highlight various areas of the work and also relates some history of the time, why it is located/depicted in that manner, and of the master. it also has given me the desire to linger longer over many other masterpieces to see where i might look for significances and meanings to the placements of persons or objects gaining another perspective of the work - instead of 'just looking at a nice painting'.

Excellent book, the quality of the pictures if great and very useful content. It is one of the best book for your library.

This book is a tremendous read. And you don't need to be an art historian or student to appreciate the information. Easy to understand, you will never look at those "boring old masters" the same way again.

If you have never been particularly interested in art but want to start learning about the great European artists between the 14th century and the early 19th century, this is a great book to start with. And I am sure it has a lot to offer to advanced students of Art too. The book offers comments on about 180 significant paintings painted over 500 years. The earliest painting in the book is Maestà (1308-11) by Duccio di Buoninsegna of Italy. The most modern is The Third of May, 1808 by Francisco de Goya of Spain. Every painting is dissected with numerous sub-illustrations and the various historical, artistic and social significances of it discussed in detail. Since all the paintings are European in nature, the originals are located mainly in English and European museums but a surprising number of paintings are located in American Museums too. Here are the ones from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Adoration of the Magi (1310) - Giotto The Annunciation Triptych ("Merode Triptych") (1425-30) - Robert Campin Diptych: The Crucifixion and The Last Judgement (1430s) - Jan Van Eyck A Goldsmith in his Shop, Possibly St Eligius (1449) - Petrus Christus The Opening of the Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse (1608-14) - El Greco The Rape of the Sabine Women (1633-34) - Nicolas Poussin The Preaching of St John the Baptist (1634) - Bartholomeus Breenbergh The Death of Socrates (1787) - Jacques-Louis David The majority of the paintings focus on Biblical topics, but there are a great number of secular and political paintings too especially in the later years. For example, there is a fascinating one called "An experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump" (1768) by Joseph Wright of Derby. It is a study of various peoples reactions to a scientific experiment in which a bird is suffocated to death in an air pump.

This book is worth every cent, just for the 1,000 glossy photos of major European "Old Master" works!! I wish I had read this book instead of struggling to stay awake in very boring art history classes!