This large and lavish book, filled with full-color reproductions, surveys roughly two centuries of European painting, from the period following the close of the Italian Renaissance to the dawn of the modern era. Masterpieces by 100 of Europe's most important seventeenth- and eighteenth-century painters are shown and described in these pages. Artists include Caravaggio, Tiepolo, and Canaletto from Italy; Breugel, Hals, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vermeer from among the Dutch and Flemish masters; El Greco and Velasquez from Spain; Reynolds, Hogarth, and Gainsborough from England; Watteau and Fragonard from France, and many more. Illustrations show faithful reproductions of paintings from museums around the world, representing the entire spectrum of European Baroque painting. Here is a wonderful volume for holiday gift giving, and a fine addition to every art lover's home library. 500 full-color reproductions of major artworks.