Nicola Hodge

The flyleaf claims: "This stunning art book provides a guide to 360 of the world's greatest artists . . . from medieval times to the present day". Off course any such claim as to who are the greatest is open to debate, but I did not detect any glaring omissions, but I might question some of the inclusions; however that is a minor point as there are bigger problems with this book.

The book is arranged alphabetically, although this make it very easy to find a particular artists with a book such as this it might have been more instructive to have it arrange chronically. The page layout is consistent throughout: each artist allocated a page and a painting, alongside each artist's name are his/her date and place of birth/death, and at the bottom of the page about 150 words by way of description along with a short list of "Other Masterpieces".

With 360 artists that means 360 illustrations, all in full colour, but herein lies the big let down of the book, the quality of reproduction is poor. Ye, the colours are rich and intense, but I would say too intense with the red area of the spectrum particularly being too strong, add to that the problem that the colours are flat, with the dark areas completely lacking in detail this gives a false impression of the artwork. In addition the page design is rather intrusive and detracts from the paintings.

This is should be an ideal book for someone who is looking for an introduction to art, but I find it hard to recommend due to the poor quality of the printing.… (meer)

A compact, coffee table book filled with glossy pages of select significant works of art, all styles with brief synopses. I browse through this treasure every now and then. While I have no background in art to say the least, it amazes me how these paintings and photographs, whether I find them beautiful or strange can affect me, so differently. For example, on page 262, Jean Francois Millet's The Angelus is a stunningly simple scene but evokes beauty, gratitude and even love between the couple, while on page 298, Francis Picabia's Portrait of a Doctor is odd, disturbing and not a picture I want floating around my mind. There are other paintings to which I find myself totally indifferent.… (meer)