This fascinating book takes a stunning, visual approach to exploring and deconstructing everything you could want to know about 45 of the world's favourite paintings. Introductory text sets the scene for each picture, then captions and numerious annotations guide the reader all around the work, detailing the painter's techniques and intentions and explaining the picture's meaning and symbolism. A short biography of each artist places the work in its appropriate personal and historical context. The book's generous size and accurate colour reproductions display every detail of each painting, allowing the reader to study and understand the outstanding qualities of each painting.