overall this was a great book, its beautifully written and i liked read’s style (i was pleasantly surprised that he LOVES mexican art, usually these kinds of books never mention any sort of mesoamerican art) alas, like any other book that tries to tackle the “entire” history of art, this book focuses mostly in europe and even though it is very well written and suuuuper informative, once it reaches romanticism, it rushes past the last art periods and doesn’t go as deeply as it did in the earliest periods, again, this is what usually happens in these kinds of books. i loved how read talks about the relationship between art and religion and art and society (WHICH IS SO IMPORTANT) and how he compares art to music and how he moves from one period to another, clearly this man knows his shit. even though this was written in the thirties it felt very modern and was genuinely such an easy read and i love how accesible and understandable it is, its literally a book for ANYONE.
I DO HAVE TO SAY I THINK HE MENTIONED ONE (1) FEMALE ARTIST SO DO WITH THAT AS YOU MAY (that's literally the only reason why this gets 4 stars bc i really enjoyed this book)