What made the Romans laugh? Was ancient Rome a carnival, filled with practical jokes and hearty chuckles? How did Romans make sense of laughter? What role did it play in the world of the law courts, the imperial palace, or the spectacles of the arena? This book explores one of the most intriguing, but also trickiest, of historical subjects.

David Hockney reflects upon life and art as he journeys through lockdown in rural Normandy.

A succinct but thorough introduction to abstract art since 1900, revised and updated.

A concise account of the history of fashion and costume from prehistoric times through to today.

The Greek myths are so much part of our culture that we tend to forget how they entered it in the first place. Visual sources – vase paintings, engraved gems and sculpture in bronze and stone – often pre-date references to the myths in literature, or offer alternative, unfamiliar tellings. In some cases visual art provides our only evidence, as there is no surviving account in ancient Greek literature of such important stories as the Fall of Troy, or Theseus and the Minotaur.

T. H. Carpen...

A new, significantly revised edition of Julian Bell’s 1999 book, taking a fresh, focused look at the situation of painting in contemporary culture.

Explores specific categories of materials glass and ceramic, altered naturals, high-performance composites, digitally fabricated metals and polymer films applied to an extensive range of projects, from the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision to the Ordos Art and City Museum in Mongolia.

The Books That Shaped Art History provides an invaluable roadmap of the field by reassessing the impact of the most important texts of art history published during the 20th century. Each of the sixteen incisive chapters, focusing on a single book, is written by a leading art historian, curator or one of the promising scholars of today. In bringing these cross-generational contributions together, the book presents a varied and invaluable overview of the history of art, told through its most en...