Barasch expertly guides the reader from the interwoven traditions of antiquity, through the aesthetic values of the Middle Ages, to the branching out of art history, art criticism, abstract aesthetics in the late Renaissance.

Introduction; I. Antiquity; 1. Introduction; 2. The Philosophers; 3. Teachings of the Workshops; 4. The Problem of the Artist; 5. Plotinus; II. The Middle Ages; 1. Iconoclasm; 2. The Early Middle Ages: The West; 3. Workshop Literature; 4. Aesthetic Values in the Late Middle Ages; 5. Scholasticism; III. The Early Renaissance; 1. The Imitation of Nature: A Concept Emerges; 2. Alberti: The Birth of a New Theory of Art; 3. Correct Imitation: Art and Science; 4. Anatomy; 5. Leonardo da Vinci; 6. Durer; 7. Formal Correctness: Perspective; IV. The Artist and the Medium: Some Facets of the High Renaissance; 1. Paragone; 2. Rise of the Creative Artist; 3. Michelangelo; V. The Late Renaissance; 1. New Authors and New Readers; 2. Florence and Rome; 3. Venice; 4. Northern Italy; 5. Rebelling Against the Rules: The Last Phase of Renaissance ARt Theory; VI. Classicism and the Academy; 1. Foundations; 2. The Academy in Paris: Rule of Rules; 3. The Crisis of the Academy; Bibliographical Essay; Index