The Annotated Mona Lisa, Third Edition

A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to the Present

An illustrated tutorial of prehistoric to contemporary world art, from cave paintings to video art installations to digital and Internet media in an easy-to-understand format.

This heavily illustrated crash course in art history is revised and updated from the second edition published in 2007, including a new chapter about recent artists and movements. Featuring succinct page-length essays, instructive sidebars, and more than 300 photographs, The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to the Present takes art education out of the realm of dreary textbooks, demystifies jargon and theory, and makes the history of art movements accessible to beginning art museum-goers—even at a cursory reading. 

From Stonehenge to the Guggenheim and from African art to Warhol, more than 25,000 years of art is distilled into five sections (prehistoric and medieval, renaissance and baroque, the nineteenth century, modern art, and contemporary art) covering a little more than 230 pages.

About the Author

Carol Strickland has written six books on art, architecture and literature, including The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to the Present. This popular introduction to art history is now in its 3rd, updated edition. Her two enhanced eBooks, released by Erudition Digital, are Impressionism: A Legacy of Light and The Eagle and the Swan, a historical novel portraying the life of Empress Theodora in sixth-century Constantinople. Strickland has a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and, as a cultural journalist, has contributed feature stories to The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Art in America, and MOMUS. She writes a monthly column on art and politics for www.clydefitchreport.com

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