This volume is more than "just another history of art."

It is a fresh, lively, creative interpretation of the major visual arts—painting, sculpture, architecture—since the days of the cavemen.  With a background of great erudition and an enthusiasm not diminished, but sharpened and augmented, by years of teaching and writing, Dr. Janson here distills his thoughts and insights, his reflections on mankind's achievements in the arts.

This book is not a dry recital of dates and "facts," of pedantic or pedestrian statements now become dreary through uncritical repetition.  It is, to begin with, a pleasure to read—in the tradition of the world's best history-writing; it has the accuracy, wit and brilliance that have earned for its author the highest honors from his fellow art historians; it reflects the most recent scholarly thinking; and—almost alone in the field—it makes the story an adventure, an engrossing and continuing search for forms and techniques to satisfy man's ceaseless drive for effective expression in images and buildings.

Dr. Janson has wisely given added emphasis to forms of art not so well known to the young student and the general reader.  He relates familiar to unfamiliar forms, and modern to "traditional."  The book thus has a dynamic forward surge; its vividness comes from the focus on successive objects as they stream by, so that our understanding of the history of the arts comes from the paintings, the sculptures, the architectural structures themselves—and not from mere data about them.  Every object or building is placed in a setting of time, environment, culture, and the total aeuvre of the individual artist or builder.  Each one is made to leave the imprint of its qualities upon us.

Following a most stimulating introduction, "The Artist and His Public," an overture on the creation of art and the position of the observer, the book goes into four main sections: The Ancient World, The Middle Ages, The Renaissance and Baroque, and The Modern world; plus a postscript on Oriental and Pre-Columbian art.  Its hundreds of illustrations, in black-and-white gravure and color, make the work a gallery of fabulous richness, for Dr. Janson has assembled not only the standard "musts," but also a surprising quantity of seldom-seen objects and new revelations of familiar ones.  The reader will be delighted with the novel juxtapositions of many of the images. Every illustration is commented upon.  Thus the reader taken from the dawn of history right down to the 1960s—from paleolithic art to abstract expressionism, from the cave to the glass and pre-stressed concrete skyscraper, from primitive clay figurines to mobiles and "assembled" sculptures.

The author defines and explains all difficult or technical terms as they occur instead of relegating them to a glossary; a carefully selected list of books for further reading and a detailed index add to the usefulness of the volume.  The colorplates, many with gold, and the generous format of the book give it a sumptuousness without rival among general histories of art.  It is a volume to read, to pore over, and to enjoy.  Published simultaneously in several languages, the Janson History of Art will unquestionably take its place as one of the great artbooks of our time.

Dora Jane Janson, the author's wife, herself an accomplished art historian and teacher, assisted in the creation of this History of Art.

From the dust jacket