Product Description

As fascinating as a real visit to the world's famous museums and architectural sites, GARDNER'S ART THROUGH THE AGES: A GLOBAL HISTORY gives you a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated tour of the world's great artistic traditions—plus all the study tools you need to excel in your art history course! Easy to read and understand, this 13th Edition of the most widely read history of art book in the English language is the only textbook that includes a unique "scale" feature (accompanying the book's photographs of paintings and other artworks) that will help you better visualize the actual size of the artworks shown in the book. You'll also find materials that will help you master the key topics quickly and help you study for your exams—for example, "The Big Picture" overviews at the end of every chapter, a special global timeline, and ArtStudy Online (a free interactive study guide that includes flash cards of images and quizzes).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #687594 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Review
"The writing is snappy and engaging, the content is excellent with substantial contextual information including patronage and reception, and the "boxed information" is useful and not just flashy graphics to make the book seem interesting and trendy."

"The superior quality of its photos and illustrations is one of the principal reasons that the Department of Art History has consistently used Art through the Ages."

"Three strengths of Gardner's are: the choice of imagery discussed; the quality and size of the images, and the clarity; and detail of the discussion which includes a strong balance between style and history."

About the Author
Fred S. Kleiner received his Ph.D. in art history and archaeology from Columbia University. He is the co-author of the 10th, 11th, and 12th editions of Gardner's Art through the Ages and more than a hundred publications on Greek and Roman art and architecture, including A History of Roman Art, winner of the 2007 Texty Prize as the best new college textbook in the humanities and social sciences. He has taught the art history survey course for more than three decades, first at the University of Virginia and, since 1978, at Boston University, where he is currently Professor of Art History and Archaeology and Chair of the Art History Department. Long recognized for his inspiring lectures and devotion to students, Professor Kleiner won Boston University's Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching as well as the College Prize for Undergraduate Advising in the Humanities in 2002 and is a two-time winner of the Distinguished Teaching Prize in the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program.

Customer Reviews

Gardner's Art Through the Ages
This is a massive text, but it is filled with full-color, lush, beautiful pictures of art works through all time periods. Many of the illustrations are the quality of DK books. Far superior to most art texts I have worked with,and unlike some architecture texts that use black and white photos. The only real shame of using this as a class text is the fact that it is so big, it's hard to lug around without damaging it over time. A fine reference book to hold onto after using for a class. Built in pagemarkers make it convenient to find the correct chapter. A bit pricy, but worth the investment, especially if you are an art major.

So much more than a text book
After 4 years of nursing school and now attending art school I have seen a good amount of books. This book Gardner's Art through the ages is probably the only college text book other than my anatomy book I will keep.

The hard cover is manufactured like many older books I have. The pages are heavy stock with beautiful colored images on it. It comes with 2 silk binding bookmarks, which is fantastic for quick reference. I actually leave this book out on my coffee table for guests to look at, its that good.

If you need this book for class, you might just want to keep it when you are done with the class. The images are small on some pages. Like I said before the text is more inline with quick reference, like a coffee table book. One of my classes required that I make an outline of a chapter of any of our books. I chose this one and the outline I made, made logical sense.

I have spent many hours with this book and while not perfect it is a very well made book. No book today can compete with the internet as a source. Instead they must condense the points the class is trying to achieve; to that end this book does a fine job.

Yes the photos could be larger, yes you can find more information about a piece out on the web, that will always be the case as books go away and we go completely electronic. Until that time books are required for school and if you are required to get this text I cannot think of a better book to buy and keep.

Thank you for reading my review.

OVERPRICED MEDIOCRE BOOK
(Please note that this review was written by Cigdem Gokce, medical doctor and amateur artist.) Hello fellow Amazon lovers! I returned this book the day it arrived because it was, quite briefly, a HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT! Amazon was great and caused me no trouble in the refund process. I am writing this review to warn other potential buyers. Misled by the fancy and lengthy comments provided by the publisher, I thought this book would provide me not only with an excellent text on the history of art, but with extra learning materials as well. The truth is very different from the advertised. The text is basically a very superficial and simplistic summary of art; it does not help increase the aesthetic appreciation of art or provide the means to see different forms of art within their historical, socioeconomical and cultural contexts. The images are of low resolution and most are only 1/4th the size of the page. Furthermore, there is NO CD INCLUDED AND NO SPECIAL MEANS TO ACCESS ITS COMPANION SITE. On the contrary, access to the publishers site is open and does not require any code number from the book!!! However, the supposedly companion site itself is NOT any more useful than the book; it contains some of the images of the book in addition to some test-type questions to be answered in text again and sent to teachers for grading and some links to museum sites, which are free to access anyway. I therefore would suggest that, unless you are an art student specifically requested to buy this book, you shouldn't waste your money! I would suggest the excellent reference of Marilyn Stokstad, entitled ART HISTORY, the latest edition of which comes with a CD containing many images. Another wonderful alternative would be the DK reference on art history, entitled Art, A World History (Millenium Edition). This is my first negative review for Amazon and I generally try to see the better part of books if only for the sake of the effort they represent; but I really do think that this latest edition of Gardner's book is nothing but an unfair abuse of what once must have been a useful reference, when it was first published. The latest writers and editors should be ashamed of failing to achieve the ideals and aspiration of the original writer, Ms. Gardner.