Allegory

The National Gallery Pocket Guides series, beautifully illustrated from one of the greatest collections of Old Master paintings in the world, introduces central themes in the history of Western art.Painters in the past and commercial artists in our own day have relied on allegory to create "message pictures". Once thought to rival literary works or political oratory in influence and prestige, such paintings, with their references to ancient myth, the Bible, or medieval astrology, all too often puzzle modem viewers. This book illustrates and explains the main types of visual allegory in Western art and the contexts in which they were originally created and viewed.