Over 2,500 entries

Based on the highly praised Oxford Dictionary of Art, this is an authoritative and up-to-date guide to Western Art from ancient Greece to the present day. Written in clear, lively prose, this invaluable reference maintains a careful balance between fact and appraisal. In its pages, we encounter artists ranging from Polyclitus of Argos to Andy Warhol, with entries on younger contemporary artists, such as, Damien Hirst, Julian Schnabel, and Rachel Whiteread. Here also are periods and movements, including the Classical period, the Renaissance, Impressionism, the Ashcan School, and Cubism, as well as techniques and styles such as encaustic painting, encarnado, lithography, cabinet painting, and blot drawing.