What makes a masterpiece? : encounters with great works of art / edited by Christopher Dell.

With 285 illustrations, 265 in colour.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The birth of art : up to 500 BC -- The art of power : 500 BC-AD 1000 -- The blending of cultures : 1000-1300 -- A new beginning : 1300-1500 -- Perfecting the art : 1500-1600 -- Past and present : 1600-1800 -- Towards the modern world : after 1800.

The Chauvet cave / Jean Clottes -- The Mycerinus triad / Tom Phillips -- Olmec colossal head 8 / Michael D. Coe -- Ashurbanipal's lion hunt / Julian Reade -- The "New York kouros" / Jaś Elsner -- The "seven against Thebes" relief / Giovanni Colonna -- The Ludovisi "throne" / Robin Osborne -- The Riace bronzes / Robin Osborne -- The lady of Elche / Rubí Sanz Gamo -- The Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii / Mary Beard -- The equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius / Nancy H. Ramage -- The Buddha preaching the first sermon / John Guy -- The Virgin and Child with angels and two saints / Jaś Elsner -- Moche portrait vessel / Christopher B. Donnan -- The relief of Ahkal Mo' Nahb III, ruler of Palanque / Michael D. Coe -- Zhang Zeduan, Spring festival on the river / Roderick Whitfield -- Vishnu reclining on the serpent Anantha / John Guy -- The Vézelay tympanum / Jean-René Gaborit -- The Cefalù mosaics / John Julius Norwich -- The reclining Buddha of Polonnaruwa / Antony Gormley -- Unkei, Muchaku and Seshin / Donald F. McCallum -- The stained glass of Chartres Cathedral / Painton Cowen -- Ife copper mask / Suzanne Preston Blier -- Giotto, the Scrovegni Chapel frescoes / Giuseppe Basile -- Kim U-mun and other artists, Water-moon Avalokiteshvara / Youngsook Pak -- Claus Sluter, the "Well of Moses" / Susie Nash -- Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, the Ghent altarpiece / Christopher Dell -- Masaccio and Masolino, the Brancacci Chapel frescoes / Ornella Casazza -- Fra Angelico (and Lorenzo Monaco), The Deposition / Magnolia Scudieri -- Rogier van der Weyden, The descent from the cross / Gabriele Finaldi -- Donatello, David / Ulrich Pfisterer -- Aztec eagle knight / Susan Toby Evans -- Piero della Francesca, the Montefeltro altarpiece / Marilyn Aronberg Lavin -- Alessandro Botticelli, The birth of Venus / Paul Joannides -- Albrecht Dürer, Self-portrait / Ulrich Pfisterer -- Leonardo da Vinci, Portrait of Lisa del Giocondo (Mona Lisa) / Martin Kemp -- Giovanni Bellini, the San Zaccaria altarpiece / Peter Humfrey -- Hieronymus Bosch, The garden of earthly delights / Grayson Perry -- Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel ceiling / William E. Wallace -- Raphael, The school of Athens / Ingrid D. Rowland -- Matthias Grünewald, the Isenheim altarpiece / Joseph Leo Koerner -- Titian, The Assumption of the Virgin / Francesco da Mosto -- Sultan Muhammad, The court of Gayumars / David J. Roxburgh -- Qiu Ying and Lu Shidao, Pavilions in the mountains of the immortals / Craig Clunas -- Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The proverbs / Stephan Kemperdick -- Tintoretto, The Crucifixion / Quentin Blake -- El Greco, The burial of the Count of Orgaz / Xavier Bray -- Caravaggio, The supper at Emmaus / Helen Langdon -- Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith slaying Holofernes / Germaine Greer -- Bichitr, Portrait of Jahangir preferring a Sufi shaikh to kings / Deborah Swallow -- Peter Paul Rubens, Minerva protects Pax from war ("Peace and war") / David Jaffé -- Rembrandt van Rijn, The night watch / Christopher Dell -- Gianlorenzo Bernini, The ecstasy of Saint Teresa / Marina Warner -- Nicolas Poussin, The Phocion paintings / Pierre Rosenberg -- Diego Velázquez, Las meninas / Avigdor Arikha -- Johannes Vermeer, The art of painting / Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. -- Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, The jar of olives / Pierre Rosenberg -- Utamaro, "Lovers" from Erotic book: the poem of the pillow / Julie Nelson Davis -- Francisco de Goya, The third of May, 1808 / Manuela Mena Marqués -- Caspar David Friedrich, The wanderer above the sea and mist / Werner Busch -- Eugène Delacroix, Liberty leading the people / Barthélemy Jobert -- J.M.W. Turner, The burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, October 16, 1834 / Andrew Wilton -- Thomas Cole, The oxbow / Michael J. Lewis -- Claude Monet, Wild poppies / John House -- Edgar Degas, Le petite danseuse de quatorze ans / Quentin Blake -- Édouard Manet, A bar at the Folies-Bergère / Philip Pullman -- Vincent Van Gogh, Sunflowers / Louis van Tilborgh -- Auguste Rodin, Iris, messenger of the gods / Anthony Caro -- Paul Cézanne, Apples and oranges / Christopher Dell -- Vilhelm Hammershøi, Dust motes dancing in the sunbeams (Sunbeams) / Anne-Birgitte Fonsmark.

In this exploration of the idea of the masterpiece, distinguished artists, critics and art historians write about their personal encounters with the greatest artworks of all time, representing cultures from all over the world, and stretching from prehistory and the birth of art to Cézanne at the cusp of cubism