The Books that Shaped Art History · From Gombrich and Greenberg to Alpers and Krauss

Written by some of today’s leading art historians and curators, this new collection

provides an invaluable road map of the field by comparing and reexamining canonical

works of art history. From Émile Mâle’s magisterial study of thirteenth-century

French art, first published in 1898, to Hans Belting’s provocative Likeness and

Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art, the book provides a concise and

insightful overview of the history of art, told through its most enduring literature.

Each of the essays looks at the impact of a single major book of art history,

mapping the intellectual development of the writer under review, setting out the

premises and argument of the book, considering its position within the broader

field of art history, and analyzing its significance in the context of both its initial

reception and its afterlife. An introduction by John-Paul Stonard explores how

art history has been forged by outstanding contributions to scholarship, and by

the dialogues and ruptures between them.