The second of three text books, published in association with the Open University, which offer an innovatory exploration of art and visual culture. Through carefully chosen themes and topics rather than through a general survey, the volumes approach the process of looking at works of art in terms of their audiences, functions and cross-cultural contexts. While focused on painting, sculpture and architecture, it also explores a wide range of visual culture in a variety of media and methods. "1600-1850 Academy to Avant-Garde" interrogates labels used in standard histories of the art of this period (Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Classicism and Romanticism) and examines both established and recent art-historical methodologies, including formalism, iconology, spectatorship and reception, identity and difference. Key topics, including "Baroque Rome", "Dutch Painting of the Golden Age", "Georgian London", the "Paris Salon", and the impact of the discovery of the South Pacific.