Throughout history artists have often acted as a mirror to society. Goya, for example, offers us a glimpse of Spaion at one of the most trubulent times in her history. Manet painstakingly details the citizens of a France rapidly changing at the end of the 19th century. Bruegel clearly shows he has strong views on the state of the 16th century Europe. This books explores all these themes by giving us vivid accounts of the lives and times of the most important painters in Western history and, perhaps more importantly, focuses in great detail on some of their most important paintings.