Table of Contents
Introduction 6
Renaissance 8
Cimabue finds the young Giotto drawing on a rock 10
Ghiberti wins the competition to make doors for Florence Baptistery 12
Brunelleschi demonstrates linear perspective 16
Jan van Eyck completes the Ghent Altarpiece 20
Michelangelo unveils his monumental sculpture of David 24
Raphael applies to paint the pope's private quarters 28
Dürer publishes his print of the rhinoceros 32
Emperor Charles V picks up Titian's brush 34
Early Modern
Iconoclasts attack Antwerp Cathedral 38
Veronese is interrogated by the Inquisition 42
Caravaggio murders a young man 46
The French Academy is Founded 50
Rembrandt declares bankruptcy 52
Velázquez is granted a knighthood 56
'Hogarth's Act' grants engravers copyright in their work 58
David is commissioned to make a portrait of the assassinated revolutionary Marat 60
The Louvre opens as a museum 64
Nineteenth Century 68
The Parthenon Marbles go on show at the British Museum 70
William Blake sees the ghost of a flea 74
Constable wins a Gold Medal 76
The invention of the Daguerreotype is made public 78
The patent is issued for the collapsible paint tube 80
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood is formed 82
Opening of the Salon des Refusés 86
Japan shows at the Exposition Universalle in Paris 90
Rodin defends himself 94
Cézanne's father dies 98
Monet buys his house in Giverny 102
Gauguin leaves for Tahiti 104
The Vienna Secession is founded 108
Early Twentieth Century
The term 'Cubism' is coined 112
The Futurist manifesto is published on the front page of Le Figaro 116
Mona Lisa is stolen from the Louvre 120
'Der Blaue Reiter' exhibition opens 122
'0,10' exhibition introduces Suprematism 126
Duchamp's Fountain is rejected 128
Brancusi's sculpture Bird in Space is seized by US customs 130
Premiere of Un Chien Andalou 132
The Nazis open the 'Degenerate Art Exhibition' 134
Frida Kahlo meets André Breton 136
Post-War 140
Pollock appears in Life magazine 142
Rauschenberg asks de Kooning for a drawing to erase 146
Warhol pays $50 for an idea 148
Kusama organizes a naked Happening on Wall Street 152
Beuys is shut in a gallery with a coyote 154
A protest outside MoMA leads to the formation of the Guerrilla Girls 156
The exhibition 'Freeze' opens 160
Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr Gachet sells for a record price 162
Whiteread's House is demolished 164
Eliasson brings the weather inside Tate Modern 166
Glossary 169
Index of artists 173
Acknowledgements 175
