One of the most successful books ever written on art history... "Outstanding … accurate, free from prejudice, always neat, often stimulating. No better introduction to Western painting has ever been produced" – The Sunday Times "Combining serious scholarship with presentation simple enough to interest the general reader and a standard of reproduction good enough to make the result both an intellectual and an aesthetic pleasure"– The Burlington Magazine "His clarity of thought, elegance of style and utter rightness in the way he presents his material show how this sort of book ought be written"– The Times Literary Supplement "A triumph in terms of lucid condensation" – Arts Review