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The History of Western Art

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The History of Western Art

By: Peter Whitfield
Narrated by: Sebastian Comberti
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About this listen

What is art? Why do we value images of saints, kings, goddesses, battles, landscapes or cities from eras of history utterly remote from ourselves? This history of art shows how painters, sculptors and architects have expressed the belief systems of their age: religious, political and aesthetic.

From the ancient civilisations of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Greece, to the revolutionary years of the 19th and 20th centuries, the artist has acted as a mirror to the ideals and conflicts of the human mind. He has always started with reality, but has selected and reshaped that reality to create a parallel world; a world of the imagination.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2011 Naxos AudioBooks (P)2011 Naxos AudioBooks Art Ancient History Middle Ages
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I came to this book knowing almost nothing about art history, and found it to be a wonderful introduction. I made sure to pause the audio every time a painting, building or sculpture was mentioned, so I could see for myself what was being discussed. Doing this made me get so much more out of it than I otherwise would have I think. It ended up taking me about 15 hours to get through the 5 hour book, because I loved looking at the paintings carefully and reading the Wikipedia pages on the periods/artists as I went. This book has sparked an interest in art history, and I have since purchased a college-level art history book to explore it much more deeply. The narrator had a very pleasant voice. I couldn’t be happier with this introduction to the intimidating world of art history.

Fantastic introduction to western art

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