Janetta Rebold Benton is the Distinguished Professor of Art History at Pace University, New York, and the author of several books and articles on art including How to Understand Art in the Art Essentials series (Thames & Hudson, 2021). She is the recipient of two Fulbright Scholar Awards as Visiting Professor (China 2018; Russia 2012), and lectures at the Smithsonian Institution, 92nd Street Y, and previously at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• Introduction Part One Prehistoric through ancient Roman art Chapter 1. Antecedents of the Western Tradition: Prehistoric, Mesopotamian and Egyptian artChapter 2. Aegean and Greek artChapter 3. Etruscan and Roman art Part Two Early Christian through medieval art Chapter 4. Early Christian and Byzantine artChapter 5. Early Medieval and Romanesque artChapter 6. Gothic art Part Three Renaissance through Neoclassical artChapter 7. Renaissance and Mannerist artChapter 8. 17th-century Baroque artChapter 9. 18th-century Rococo and Neoclassical art Part Four Romanticism to todayChapter 10. Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism and Post-ImpressionismChapter 11. Earlier 20th-century artChapter 12. Later 20th- & early 21st-century art

'As well as providing perceptive comments on key individual works of art and architecture, Janetta Rebold Benton gives us a very precise understanding of their historical contexts' - Richard Cork