Masterpieces of World Painting

“Everyone tries to understand painting. Why don’t they try to understand the singing of birds?” said the famous artist Pablo Picasso once, hinting that the art of painting is beautiful but does not lend itself to interpretation. When visiting a museum and admiring the works of great masters, we ask ourselves various questions:

• What did the artist mean?

• What do certain symbols or details in the painting mean?

• Why did the artist depict this particular subject?

• In what technique is this canvas painted?

• In what year and in what genre is the painting created?

• How do artists create paintings? Without the commentary of an experienced art historian, the viewer cannot do without it.

This beautifully illustrated book, written by art historian Nataliya Kortunova, a senior researcher at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, curator of the museum's collection of 19th-20th century sculpture and curator of several exhibitions and lecture courses, will help you find answers to the following questions:

• How has the art of painting changed its forms?

• Why did artists turn to certain subjects?

• What means did they use to bring their desired images to life?

• How is a painting born?

Additionally: 

 It will introduce you to the art of Western European painting in all its diversity of genres, techniques, and styles.

• It will provide an opportunity to embark on an exciting journey through time and trace the entire history of the development of visual art – from primitive times to the early 20th century – and learn how and why its forms changed and which great artists played the most significant role in this.

• It will reveal the secrets of the painting techniques and methods of famous masters.

About the author:  Kortunova Nataliya Dmitrievna – senior researcher at the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, curator of the museum's collection of 19th-20th century sculpture, art historian, author of lecture courses on the history of Western European art and the history of sculpture, author of the books “How to Read and Understand Painting,” “How to Read and Understand Art,” “Modern. Klimt, Gaudi,” “Alfons Mucha,” “Signs, Symbols, and Allegories in Art.”