Richard G. Tansey Book order (chronological)

This classic art history survey text has sold over 2 million copies since 1st published in 1926. An ideal text for the full-year art history course, it surveys the entire span of Western art from prehistory to the present & offers overviews of significant areas of non-Western art. Heightened visual appeal & superior accuracy of color results from printing at 175-line resolution. Adds new maps, timelines & improved photographic views. Reorganized, expanded & revised chapters in Part I reflect significant changes in the field of ancient art over the last decade. Increases attention to sociopolitical context of works of art in the ancient world. Presents more classical works of art created for non-elite patrons. Reorganized Early Christian, Islamic & Byzantine material. Expands coverage of Chinese art & introduction of Korean art. Expands coverage of Mayan ceramics & stelae, new coverage of Peruvian textiles & Colombian goldwork. Revision of African art, updated in a separate chapter with twice as many images. Reorganized chapters covering Northern & Italian Renaissance. Increases coverage of women & minority artists. Reorganized 18th, 19th & 20th-century material. New images from 19-20th-century artists.

The fundamental belief that guided Helen Gardner and her successors is that the history of art is essential to a liberal education. The study of art history, like its fellow humanistic studies, the history of literature and the history of music, has as its aim the opening of student perception and understanding to works of high esthetic quality and expressive significance -- works that humankind has produced throughtout history and around the world, and that -- especially now -- are cherished and conserved by the peoples of the world as representative of their cultural identities. The awareness, comprehension, and informed experience of these works are what a survey like this would encourage and hope to achieve. The art experience can only be informed, expanded, and made selective in its judgments if it is at the same time a historical experience. This means understanding works of art within the contexts of their times and places of origin and the temporal sequences of their production.