The most important duty of all is to look at art long and often, and above all to look at it with our own eyes, Facts are external and need to be learned. But the love of art is a subjective phenomenon, which comes to us through our sympathetic eye, and no expert should be allowed to mediate. In the end, our own eyes are the key to making art our guide and solace, our delight and comfort, our clarifier and mentor. We should use our own eyes; train them, and trust them. This book is specifically designed to aid that process.

In Art: A Neu' History: Paul Johnson turns his great gifts as a world historian to a subject that has enthralled him all his life: tile history of art.This narrative account, from the earliest cave paintings up to the present day, has new things to say about almost every period of art. Ta king account of changing scholarship and shifting opinioils, he draws our attention to a number of neglectd artists and styles, especially in Scandinavia, Germany, Russia and the Americas.

Paul Johnson puts the creative originality of the individual at the heart of Ills Story; He pays particular attention to key periods: the emergence ot the artistic personahty in the Renaissance,the new realism of the early seventeenth century,the discovery of landscape painting as a separate art form, and the rise of ideological art. He note the division of'fashion art" and fine art at the beginning or the twentieth century, and how it has now widened.

Though challenging and controversial, Paul Johnson is not primarily a revisionist.He is a passionate lover of beaulv who finds creativity in many places. With 300 colour illustrations, this book is vivid, evocative and immensely readable,whether the author is describing the beauty of Egyptian low-relief carving or the meddieval cathedrals of Europe, the watercolours of Thomas Girtm or the utility of Roman bridges ('the best bridges in history'), the genius of Andrew Wyeth or the tranquility of the Great Mosque at Damascus, the paintings of llya Repro oi a carpelpage from the Lindisfarne Gospels. The warmth and enthusiasm of Paul Johnson's descriptions will send readers hurrying off to see these wonders for themselves.

Preface

Introduction: Understanding Art History

1 Painted Caves and Giant Stones

2 Ancient Egypt and the Origins of Style

3 Palace Art in the Ancient Near East

4 Greek Art: Idealism Versus Realism

5 Rome: An Art Set in Concrete

6 Monotheism: Basilica, Mosque and Tomb

7 Dynamics of the Dark Age North

8 The Climax of Cathedral Art

9 The Rise of Creative Individualism Under Christianity

10 Rediscovery and Transformation of Graeco-Roman Culture

11 The Apotheosis of the Statue

12 The Great Masters of Italian Painting

13 The Roman Climax of Art and Its Confused Aftermath

14 The New Realism of the Seventeenth Century

15 The First Great Landscape Paintings

16 The Golden Century of Spanish Art

17 The Dutch Attain 'The Perfection of Professional Art'

18 Towns, Palaces, Churches, Gardens

19 Splendours and Mysteries of the Eighteenth Century

20 Classical and Religious Revival

21 The Western Penetration of Asia: India, China, Japan and Their Art

22 The Watercolour and Its Global Spread

23 Romanticism and History

24 Painting the American World and Its Wonders

25 The Belated Arrival and Sombre Glories of Russian Art

26 The Internal Conflicts of Nineteenth-Century Art

27 Art and the Realities of the Industrialised World

28 Skyscrapers, Art Nouveau, Art Deco

29 The Beginnings of Fashion Art

30 The Resurgence of the Primitive

31 The Rule and Ravages of Ideological Art

32 The Dangers and Opportunities of Twenty-first-Century Art

Index

Picture Acknowledgements