PAINTED WORLD: FROM ILLUMINATION TO ABSTRACTION

the long version

"This alternative history of painting takes the outstanding collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum as the starting point for an all-inclusive survey of the painted world." "The history of painting is often reduced to the story of a tiny elite of easel pictures, composed exclusively of old masters and avant-garde works. Many British paintings, watercolours, miniatures, icons and non-European works, as well as modern pictures which are no longer perceived as 'cutting edge', relate uneasily to this twin canon of old and modern masters. A broad range of paintings, from stained glass to painted ceramics, furniture, textiles and items of costume are implicitly excluded as belonging to the realm of applied art. Copies of any type are routinely discounted, unless transfigured by the authority of a master of higher status than their original. This illustrated account, based upon the multifarious collections of the V & A Museum, seeks to redress the balance by exploring the wider history of painting, from the Middle Ages to the present day."--Jacket.