Description

There are many reasons why works of art become famous; few have anything to do with quality. Art museums are filled with masterworks that are unknown to the general public. This book raises questions about how fame is achieved, and ultimately how a work either retains that fame, or passes from the public consciousness. The works of art—which include sculptures, paintings, a photograph, and architecture—examined in individual chapters are:

The Great Sphinx
Tomb of Tutankhamen
The Parthenon Sculptures
The Apollo Belvedere
Nike of Samothrace
Birth of Venus by Botticelli
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
Sistine Madonna by Raphael
The Burial of Count Orgaz by El Greco
Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer by Rembrandt
Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze
Luncheon on the Grass by Edouard Manet
The Thinker by Auguste Rodin
Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh
The Scream by Edvard Munch
American Gothic by Grant Wood
Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange
Guernica by Pablo Picasso
Campbell’s Soup by Andy Warhol
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Maya Lin