A legend within his own lifetime, Michelangelo has been universally admired in the centuries since his death. Anthony Hughes employs the latest evidence from research and restoration projects to take a fresh look at what Michelangelo was and what he has become....

Amid the background of social turbulence in the mid-nineteenth century, Gustave Courbet\"s unconventional paintings of real people in everyday scenes came to embody values with radical political implications. James Rubin addresses the entire range of Courbet\"s work: from his hunting scenes and spirited landscapes, to his portraits and erotic nudes....

With his distinctive paintings of landscapes, figures and still lifes, Paul Cezanne profoundly influenced the Cubists and the direction of twentieth-century art in general....

Few artists of the fifteenth century are as revered today as Piero della Francesca. The favourite artist of many painters and sculptors of our own time, he is admired especially for the balance of his compositions, the geometric perfection of his forms and the emotional coolness of his style....