The fascinating story of more than 1,000 years of western painting, from early Gothic art to the present day. "The story of painting is one that is immensely rich in meaning, yet its value is all too often hidden from us by the complexities of its historians. We must forget the densities of 'history' and simply surrender to the wonder of the story." -Sister Wendy Beckett Internationally renowned art historian Sister Wendy Beckett brings her knowledge, her deep love of art, and her luminous insights to The Story of Painting- making a difficult subject accessible and stimulating to all. The Story of Painting features more than 450 masterpieces- all faithfully reproduced in rich, full color- chronicling the developments and movements in the history of painting over the past 800 years, from Gothic to Renaissance, Romanticism to Impressionism, Post-Impressionism to Modernism. Each movement is introduced by visual timelines to provide an instant overview of the significant artists and paintings of the era. This enhanced and expanded edition of The Story of Painting has almost doubled in size. It expands the existing 400 pages to 736, focusing on the approximately 450 paintings with facing pages of details for almost 200 of them. This classic art book presents the masterpieces in two ways: as the original painting appeared and, on double spread pages, as enlarged close-ups of the paintings' most pertinent details. Now the reader can study a painting as though standing in front of it in a museum, seeing the powerful effect of the whole and then studying the minutest details of brushstrokes, textures, quality of lines, and overlays of color.

This ambitious new volume, a product of [Sister Wendy's] continuing intense study of art, continues her crusade for the value of art (Baton Rouge Magazine)

Entertaining and educational. (Long Beach Press)

The best descriptive word for this books is 'sumptuous'. (Knoxville News-Sentinel)

Sister Wendy is back with this expanded version of her popular book, which features more than 450 masterpieces, 150 oversized details from key paintings, and 250+ photos, drawings, and documents that place paintings in their historical context.

Well-known for her successful PBS television series on the history of art, Sister Wendy Beckett has earned popular acclaim and an international reputation as an art historian. Originally from South Africa and having taught there for several years, she moved to England in 1970, beginning her serious study of art history at Oxford in 1980. She now leads the contemplative and disciplined life of a nun in which the careful study of art plays a major role.