MASTERPIECES OF PAINTING from The National Gallery of Art

This is the art book of the season -- and nothing was available in advance for report. But don't miss it. 85 color plates of masterpieces in the National Gallery in Washington, with interpretative passages from literary classics. Through careful selection, the editors have told the story of Western art from the 13th century to the modern, -- from Giotto and Botticelli to Cazanne and Renoir,: while the text matter includes such authors as Henry Adams, Santayana, Henry James, Proust, D.H. Lawrence, and so on. The format is excellent -- color reproduction extraordinarily faithful to the original, in almost all cases.