How to Read a Painting

Beneath the striking reality of the Old Masters' paintings lies a system of symbols, themes, and motifs whose meaning has been obscured over time. Christian iconography, Greek and Roman mythology, and artists' knowledge of popular culture, which was very much alive in the minds of their contemporaries, are only a small part of what prepares modern museum-goers to look at a painting.

How to Read a Painting, lessons from the Old Masters, deciphers hundreds of pictorial representations by Italian, Dutch, German, and Spanish masters. It explains clues to understanding the meanings of ordinary depictions such as flowers, plants, food, and animals, and provides a comparative reading with other paintings containing similar symbols and themes.

Designed to present the perspective of an art historian with easily understandable anecdotes, this book is a guide to the Old Masters that you will always want to have at hand. An indispensable companion for museum visits, How to Read a Painting offers readers an entirely new experience with the most renowned and frequently seen paintings in Western art. It leaves the reader with the question their friends will ask: "How do you know that?"