Introduction: Understanding Art History -- 1. Painted Caves and Giant Stones -- 2. Ancient Egypt and the Origins of Style -- 3. Palace Art in the Ancient Near East -- 4. Greek Art: Idealism Versus Realism -- 5. Rome: An Art Set in Concrete -- 6. Monotheism: Basilica, Mosque and Tomb -- 7. Dynamics of the Dark Age North -- 8. The Climax of Cathedral Art -- 9. The Rise of Creative Individualism Under Christianity -- 10. Rediscovery and Transformation of Graeco-Roman Culture -- 11. The Apotheosis of the Statue -- 12. The Great Masters of Italian Painting -- 13. The Roman Climax of Art and Its Confused Aftermath -- 14. The New Realism of the Seventeenth Century -- 15. The First Great Landscape Paintings -- 16. The Golden Century of Spanish Art -- 17. The Dutch Attain 'The Perfection of Professional Art' -- 18. Towns, Palaces, Churches, Gardens -- 19. Splendours and Mysteries of the Eighteenth Century -- 20. Classical and Religious Revival -- 21. The Western Penetration of Asia: India, China, Japan and Their Art -- 22. The Watercolour and Its Global Spread -- 23. Romanticism and History -- 24. Painting the American World and Its Wonders -- 25. The Belated Arrival and Sombre Glories of Russian Art -- 26. The Internal Conflicts of Nineteenth-Century Art -- 27. Art and the Realities of the Industrialised World -- 28. Skyscrapers, Art Nouveau, Art Deco -- 29. The Beginnings of Fashion Art -- 30. The Resurgence of the Primitive -- 31. The Rule and Ravages of Ideological Art -- 32. The Dangers and Opportunities of Twenty-first-Century Art.