Art in Europe: From the Vandals to the Avant-Garde

Before there was ever a question of a common market or a single currency, Europe had a shared culture. Centuries before the European Union became a political reality in 1994, Europe was a union of artists. This book represents a voyage through time. It takes the pilgrimage route to Compostela, dotted with chapels and monasteries. It follows Thomas Aquinas, who studied in Naples and Cologne before teaching in Paris in the days when cathedral spires soared toward heaven. It takes us from Rotterdam with Erasmus to study Greek in Italy and teach in Cambridge. It joins Velázquez in Venice, examining paintings by Titian and Tintoretto on the advice of Rubens. It meets Liszt, the Hungarian pianist, in the Parisian salons where he encounters Chopin, Paganini, Heine, Mickiewicz and Berlioz. And so on. . . This book explores how art molded a European awareness through the centuries. Art in Europe also serves as a guide, listing the 300 most important museums, with a description of their collections and their addresses.