Introduction: On Art and Artists.
1. Strange Beginnings: Prehistoric and Primitive Peoples; Ancient America.
2. Art for Eternity: Egypt, Mesopotamia, Crete.
3. The Great Awakening: Greece, Seventh to Fifth Century BC.
4. The Realm of Beauty: Greece and the Greek World, Fourth Century BC to First Century AD.
5. World Conquerors: Romans, Buddhists, Jews and Christians, First to Fourth Century AD.
6. A Parting of Ways: Rome and Byzantium, Fifth to Thirteenth Century.
7. Looking Eastwards: Islam, China, Second to Thirteenth Century.
8. Western Art in the Melting Pot: Europe, Sixth to Eleventh Century.
9. The Church Militant: The Twelfth Century.
10. The Church Triumphant: The Thirteenth Century.
11. Courtiers and Burghers: The Fourteenth Century.
12. The Conquest of Reality: The Early Fifteenth Century.
13. Tradition and Innovation I: The Later Fifteenth Century in Italy.
14. Tradition and Innovation II: The Fifteenth Century in the North.
15. Harmony Attained: Tuscany and Rome, Early Sixteenth Century.
16. Light and Colour: Venice and Northern Italy, Early Sixteenth Century.
17. The New Learning Spreads: Germany and the Netherlands, Early Sixteenth Century.
18. A Crisis of Art: Europe, Later Sixteenth Century.
19. Vision and Visions: Catholic Europe, First Half of the Seventeenth Century.
20. The Mirror of Nature: Holland, Seventeenth Century.
21. Power and Glory I: Italy, Later Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
22. Power and Glory II: France, Germany and Austria, Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries.
23. The Age of Reason: England and France, Eighteenth Century.
24. The Break in Tradition: England, America and France, Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries.
25. Permanent Revolution: The Nineteenth Century.
26. In Search of New Standards: The Late Nineteenth Century.
27. Experimental Art: The First Half of the Twentieth Century.
28. A Story without End: The Triumph of Modernism; Another Turning of the Tide; The Changing Past.
A Note on Art Books.
Chronological Charts.
Maps.
List of Illustrations by Location.
Index and Glossary.
Acknowledgments.
