Kelly Grovier is a feature writer for BBC Culture and the author of several acclaimed studies of art, including 100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age, Art Since 1989 and On the Line, all published by Thames & Hudson. His writings have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, the Sunday Times, the Observer, the RA Magazine and Wired magazine. His history of London’s Newgate Prison, The Gaol, was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book of the Week’. He is co-founder of the scholarly journal European Romantic Review.

• Introduction: A Touch of Strangeness Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions (c. 645–635 BC)Parthenon Sculptures (c. 444 BC)Terracotta Army of the First Qin Emperor (c. 210 BC)Villa of the Mysteries murals (c. 60–50 BC)Laocoön and his Sons (c. 27 BC–AD 68)Trajan’s Column (AD 113), Apollodorus of Damascus The Book of Kells (c. AD 800)Travellers among Mountains and Streams (c. 1000), Fan K’uanBayeux Tapestry (c. 1077 or after)The Universal Man (c. 1165), Hildegard of Bingen The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (c. 1427), Masaccio Ghent Altarpiece (1430–32), Jan van Eyck The Descent from the Cross (1430–32), Rogier van der Weyden The Annunciation (c. 1438–47), Fra Angelico The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1480), Andrea Mantegna The Birth of Venus (c. 1482–85), Sandro Botticelli Mona Lisa (c. 1503–6), Leonardo da Vinci The Garden of Earthly Delights (1505–10), Hieronymus Bosch Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes (1508–12), Michelangelo The School of Athens (1510–11), Raphael Isenheim Altarpiece (1512–16), Matthias Grünewald Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23), Titian Self-Portrait (1548), Catharina van Hemessen Crucifixion (1565–87), Tintoretto The Supper at Emmaus (1601), Caravaggio The Ecstasy of St Teresa (1647–52), Gian Lorenzo Bernini Las Meninas (1656), Diego Velázquez Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665), Johannes Vermeer Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665–69), Rembrandt van Rijn An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), Joseph Wright of Derby The Nightmare (1781), Henry Fuseli The Third of May 1808 (1814), Francisco Goya The Hay Wain (1821), John Constable Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844), J. M. W. Turner Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist’s Mother) (1871), James Abbott McNeill Whistler The Thinker (1880–1904), Auguste Rodin A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), Édouard Manet Bathers at Asnières (1884), Georges Seurat The Scream (1893), Edvard Munch The Large Bathers (1900–6), Paul Cézanne Group IV, No. 7, Adulthood (1907), Hilma af Klint The Kiss (1907), Gustav Klimt Dance (1909–10), Henri Matisse Water Lilies (1914–26), Claude Monet Fountain (1917), Marcel Duchamp American Gothic (1930), Grant Wood The Persistence of Memory (1931), Salvador Dalí Guernica (1937), Pablo Picasso L’Égypte de Mlle Cléo de Mérode: cours élémentaire d’histoire naturelle (1940), Joseph Cornell Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940), Frida Kahlo One: Number 31 (1950), Jackson Pollock Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953), Francis Bacon Brillo Boxes (1964), Andy Warhol Backs and Fronts (1981), Sean Scully Betty (1988), Gerhard Richter Maman (1999), Louise Bourgeois The Artist is Present (2010), Marina Abramovic Sources and Further ReadingAcknowledgmentsPicture CreditsIndex

'Finally, a book that asks, with a restless and sensitive eye, what it is that makes masterpieces sing across the centuries. A highly enjoyable history of art that is also a fascinating meditation on excellence' - Jonathan Jones, art critic

Kelly Grovier is a feature writer for BBC Culture and the author of several acclaimed studies of art, including 100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age, Art Since 1989 and On the Line, all published by Thames & Hudson. His writings have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, the Sunday Times, the Observer, the RA Magazine and Wired magazine. His history of London’s Newgate Prison, The Gaol, was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book of the Week’. He is co-founder of the scholarly journal European Romantic Review.

• Introduction: A Touch of Strangeness Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions (c. 645–635 BC)Parthenon Sculptures (c. 444 BC)Terracotta Army of the First Qin Emperor (c. 210 BC)Villa of the Mysteries murals (c. 60–50 BC)Laocoön and his Sons (c. 27 BC–AD 68)Trajan’s Column (AD 113), Apollodorus of Damascus The Book of Kells (c. AD 800)Travellers among Mountains and Streams (c. 1000), Fan K’uanBayeux Tapestry (c. 1077 or after)The Universal Man (c. 1165), Hildegard of Bingen The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (c. 1427), Masaccio Ghent Altarpiece (1430–32), Jan van Eyck The Descent from the Cross (1430–32), Rogier van der Weyden The Annunciation (c. 1438–47), Fra Angelico The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1480), Andrea Mantegna The Birth of Venus (c. 1482–85), Sandro Botticelli Mona Lisa (c. 1503–6), Leonardo da Vinci The Garden of Earthly Delights (1505–10), Hieronymus Bosch Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes (1508–12), Michelangelo The School of Athens (1510–11), Raphael Isenheim Altarpiece (1512–16), Matthias Grünewald Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23), Titian Self-Portrait (1548), Catharina van Hemessen Crucifixion (1565–87), Tintoretto The Supper at Emmaus (1601), Caravaggio The Ecstasy of St Teresa (1647–52), Gian Lorenzo Bernini Las Meninas (1656), Diego Velázquez Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665), Johannes Vermeer Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665–69), Rembrandt van Rijn An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), Joseph Wright of Derby The Nightmare (1781), Henry Fuseli The Third of May 1808 (1814), Francisco Goya The Hay Wain (1821), John Constable Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844), J. M. W. Turner Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist’s Mother) (1871), James Abbott McNeill Whistler The Thinker (1880–1904), Auguste Rodin A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), Édouard Manet Bathers at Asnières (1884), Georges Seurat The Scream (1893), Edvard Munch The Large Bathers (1900–6), Paul Cézanne Group IV, No. 7, Adulthood (1907), Hilma af Klint The Kiss (1907), Gustav Klimt Dance (1909–10), Henri Matisse Water Lilies (1914–26), Claude Monet Fountain (1917), Marcel Duchamp American Gothic (1930), Grant Wood The Persistence of Memory (1931), Salvador Dalí Guernica (1937), Pablo Picasso L’Égypte de Mlle Cléo de Mérode: cours élémentaire d’histoire naturelle (1940), Joseph Cornell Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940), Frida Kahlo One: Number 31 (1950), Jackson Pollock Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953), Francis Bacon Brillo Boxes (1964), Andy Warhol Backs and Fronts (1981), Sean Scully Betty (1988), Gerhard Richter Maman (1999), Louise Bourgeois The Artist is Present (2010), Marina Abramovic Sources and Further ReadingAcknowledgmentsPicture CreditsIndex

'Finally, a book that asks, with a restless and sensitive eye, what it is that makes masterpieces sing across the centuries. A highly enjoyable history of art that is also a fascinating meditation on excellence' - Jonathan Jones, art critic

Kelly Grovier is a feature writer for BBC Culture and the author of several acclaimed studies of art, including 100 Works of Art That Will Define Our Age, Art Since 1989 and On the Line, all published by Thames & Hudson. His writings have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, the Sunday Times, the Observer, the RA Magazine and Wired magazine. His history of London’s Newgate Prison, The Gaol, was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book of the Week’. He is co-founder of the scholarly journal European Romantic Review.

• Introduction: A Touch of Strangeness Ashurbanipal Hunting Lions (c. 645–635 BC)Parthenon Sculptures (c. 444 BC)Terracotta Army of the First Qin Emperor (c. 210 BC)Villa of the Mysteries murals (c. 60–50 BC)Laocoön and his Sons (c. 27 BC–AD 68)Trajan’s Column (AD 113), Apollodorus of Damascus The Book of Kells (c. AD 800)Travellers among Mountains and Streams (c. 1000), Fan K’uanBayeux Tapestry (c. 1077 or after)The Universal Man (c. 1165), Hildegard of Bingen The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (c. 1427), Masaccio Ghent Altarpiece (1430–32), Jan van Eyck The Descent from the Cross (1430–32), Rogier van der Weyden The Annunciation (c. 1438–47), Fra Angelico The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (c. 1480), Andrea Mantegna The Birth of Venus (c. 1482–85), Sandro Botticelli Mona Lisa (c. 1503–6), Leonardo da Vinci The Garden of Earthly Delights (1505–10), Hieronymus Bosch Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes (1508–12), Michelangelo The School of Athens (1510–11), Raphael Isenheim Altarpiece (1512–16), Matthias Grünewald Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23), Titian Self-Portrait (1548), Catharina van Hemessen Crucifixion (1565–87), Tintoretto The Supper at Emmaus (1601), Caravaggio The Ecstasy of St Teresa (1647–52), Gian Lorenzo Bernini Las Meninas (1656), Diego Velázquez Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665), Johannes Vermeer Self-Portrait with Two Circles (c. 1665–69), Rembrandt van Rijn An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), Joseph Wright of Derby The Nightmare (1781), Henry Fuseli The Third of May 1808 (1814), Francisco Goya The Hay Wain (1821), John Constable Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844), J. M. W. Turner Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artist’s Mother) (1871), James Abbott McNeill Whistler The Thinker (1880–1904), Auguste Rodin A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), Édouard Manet Bathers at Asnières (1884), Georges Seurat The Scream (1893), Edvard Munch The Large Bathers (1900–6), Paul Cézanne Group IV, No. 7, Adulthood (1907), Hilma af Klint The Kiss (1907), Gustav Klimt Dance (1909–10), Henri Matisse Water Lilies (1914–26), Claude Monet Fountain (1917), Marcel Duchamp American Gothic (1930), Grant Wood The Persistence of Memory (1931), Salvador Dalí Guernica (1937), Pablo Picasso L’Égypte de Mlle Cléo de Mérode: cours élémentaire d’histoire naturelle (1940), Joseph Cornell Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940), Frida Kahlo One: Number 31 (1950), Jackson Pollock Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1953), Francis Bacon Brillo Boxes (1964), Andy Warhol Backs and Fronts (1981), Sean Scully Betty (1988), Gerhard Richter Maman (1999), Louise Bourgeois The Artist is Present (2010), Marina Abramovic Sources and Further ReadingAcknowledgmentsPicture CreditsIndex

'Finally, a book that asks, with a restless and sensitive eye, what it is that makes masterpieces sing across the centuries. A highly enjoyable history of art that is also a fascinating meditation on excellence' - Jonathan Jones, art critic