Looking at works of art can be an enjoyable, exciting or moving experience, but some images-and these are often the most rewarding-require some explanation before they can be fully understood. Delving into the origins, designs and themes of more than one hundred works from different periods and places, this volume helps us understand how to look at and analyze paintings. Susan Woodford shows how to read a painting by examining the formal and stylistic devices used by artists, and explores popular themes and subjects and the relationship of paintings to the societies that produced them.

At the end of the book you will find a glossary with key terms (from art movements and technical terms to religious and classical terminology.

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