Painted caves and giant stones
Ancient Egypt and the origins of style
Palace art in the ancient Near East
Greek art: idealism versus realism
Rome: an art set in concrete
Monotheism: basilica, mosque and tomb
Dynamics of the Dark Age North
The climax of cathedral art
The rise of creative individualism under Christianity
Rediscovery and transformation of Graeco-Roman culture
The apotheosis of the statue
The great masters of Italian painting
The Roman climax of art and its confused aftermath
The new realism of the seventeenth century
The first great landscape paintings
The golden century of Spanish art
The Dutch attain 'the perfection of professional art'
Towns, palaces, churches, gardens
Splendours and mysteries of the eighteenth century
Classical and religious revival
The Western penetration of Asia: India, China, Japan and their art
The watercolour and its global spread
Painting the American world and its wonders
The belated arrival and sombre glories of Russian art
The internal conflicts of nineteenth-century art
Art and the realities of the industrialised world
Skyscrapers, Art Nouveau, Art Deco
The beginnings of fashion art
The resurgence of the primitive
The rule and ravages of ideological art
The dangers and opportunities of twenty-first-century art.
