Features works from great artists through the ages including Zhang Zeduan, Rothko, and Botticelli; examines the story behind each piece; and explores the social context of each. A sumptuous, visual guided tour of 66 of the world's greatest paintings, each examined in unrivaled depth. Ranging from works by Zhang Zeduan, a 12th-century Chinese master, to modern masterpieces by Rothko and Anselm Kiefer, this book provides an excellent visual introduction...

"Do you know a capella from zarzuela, or your major from your minor? Can you distinguish between a serenade and a symphony? If you have only one minute, there is time - using Know It All: Classical Music - to understand the creative journey taken by classical music from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Our early ancestors understood pitch and rhythm and the basic tools that have been worked and ordered by composers and performers over the past 400...

Presents ten paintings, including works by artists from Hieronymus Bosch and Jan Breughel the Elder to such modern painters as Marc Chagall and Georges Seurat, surrounded by six close-up views, with notes about pictures, dates, and artists.

Discover the properties of line, another essential element of art, as "descriptive" (describing reality) or "expressional" (conveying feeling). Learn about the use of geometric lines, implied lines, and directional lines within a composition. Also, study the compelling, psychological use of line in Picasso's works, Seurat's "The Circus", and in key Modern and Expressionist works.

This lecture integrates elements including color, line, shape, composition, light, symbolism, point of view, and focal point. Using the viewing tools you've developed, look deeply at four diverse masterpieces, including a sculpture by Thorvaldsen, a "vanitas" still life by Van Oosterwyck, a lithograph by Bonnard, and a painting by Van der Weyden.

In examining the diverse functions and types of portraits, study the important elements of facial presentation and the subject's position and gaze with relation to the viewer and the pictorial space. See how Rembrandt added dramatic power to his group "corporation" portraits, and how David carefully rendered Napoleon in symbolic terms.

Many of us are terrified of public speaking, let alone performing! COMPOSED explores the many ways we experience and face performance anxiety, through the experiences of professional musicians. Faced with the judgment of peers, the audience, and themselves, these musicians spend years trying to understand and overcome their anxiety. Through their stories we find that we are not alone with our fear of failure.

Invites young children to see pictures by Marc Chagall, Vincent van Gogh, John Singer Sargent, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and others. Encourages them to study the pictures and asks questions which are answered under the flaps.

Brings together Portis' writings other than his four novels, including journalism, travel stories, short fiction, memoir, and even a play.

A graphic-led book explores and explains the key ideas underpinning the world's greatest classical compositions and musical traditions; defines their importance to the musical canon; and places them into their wider social, cultural, and historical context.