Moshe Barasch is Jack Cotton Professor of Architecture and Fine Arts at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and author of numerous books on art, including The Languageof Art: Studies in Interpretation (1997) and Icon:Studies in the History of an Idea (1995).

Introduction; I. Antiquity; 1. Introduction; 2. The Philosophers; 3. Teachings of the Workshops; 4. The Problem of the Artist; 5. Plotinus; II. The Middle Ages; 1. Iconoclasm; 2. The Early Middle Ages: The West; 3. Workshop Literature; 4. Aesthetic Values in the Late Middle Ages; 5. Scholasticism; III. The Early Renaissance; 1. The Imitation of Nature: A Concept Emerges; 2. Alberti: The Birth of a New Theory of Art; 3. Correct Imitation: Art and Science; 4. Anatomy; 5. Leonardo da Vinci; 6. Durer; 7. Formal Correctness: Perspective; IV. The Artist and the Medium: Some Facets of the High Renaissance; 1. Paragone; 2. Rise of the Creative Artist; 3. Michelangelo; V. The Late Renaissance; 1. New Authors and New Readers; 2. Florence and Rome; 3. Venice; 4. Northern Italy; 5. Rebelling Against the Rules: The Last Phase of Renaissance ARt Theory; VI. Classicism and the Academy; 1. Foundations; 2. The Academy in Paris: Rule of Rules; 3. The Crisis of the Academy; Bibliographical Essay; Index