IN A VERY SHORT TIME, Marilyn Stokstad's Art History has become the gold standard of introductions to the history of art. It also has transformed the way the field of art history is perceived and experienced. Engaging, accessible, and, just as important, fun, Art History gives today's readers cultural and social contexts for art along with eloquent visual explanations of art's special qualities and particular vocabularies. Its animated yet clear narrative tells the many-sided story of art, starting with the earliest prehistoric paintings and sculpture through today's wildly varying works in new mediums. THE SECOND EDITION is illustrated with more than 900 color illustrations-including 360 new color pictures of recently cleaned and restored monuments, buildings, and art objects, and also many works that were previously illustrated in black-and-white. A new design enables larger pictures and more drawings and diagrams than ever. The art object is honored in the Second Edition with more than 20 one- and two-page features called "The Object Speaks" that offer tantalizing insights into art history's particular lure: matters of authenticity, provenance, intention, patronage, technical processes, and the like. Art History's widely acclaimed special-topic boxes on architecture and technique and its many new text boxes strengthen this edition. Coverage of the modern era-chapter 26 through chapter 29 has been thoroughly reworked by modernist art historian David Cateforis, complementing the revision of material in chapters 17, 18, and 19 from the Renaissance through the Baroque periods. Throughout the book, authors Stokstad and Cateforis have balanced canonical works of art with works not seen in other introductory books. WITH ITS EXCELLENT COLOR and black-and-white illustrations and Abrams, unparalleled color printing, Art History, Second Edition, is a book to learn from and treasure as a lifelong resource.