The National Gallery Companion Guide

Book excerpt: The Companion Guide introduces art lovers to one of the richest and most representative collections of Western European paintings in the world, including famous works by the greatest painters -- Piero della Francesca, Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, Ingres, Degas and many others and masterpieces by less familiar artists. Through her commentaries on 200 of the National Gallery's finest works of art, Erika Langmuir enables the visitor and reader to trace the history of European painting from the thirteenth to the twentieth century, to develop an eye for style, technique, imagery and genre, and to appreciate the talents of individual artists producing paintings for different locations and patrons, in a variety of artistic and cultural contexts.