Breaking away from the conventional approach to art as chiefly painting and sculpture, Eric Newton, formerly Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford University, here makes his selection from the masterpieces in all mediums, from the most diverse cultures and periods. Mosaics, tapestries, stained glass, ceramics, enamels, coins, primitive masks, etchings and illuminated manuscripts are all included in this far-ranging yet personal survey. He has surrounded some of those familiar works which one can gaze at again and again with a large number that have rarely or never been reproduced before. His extremely perceptive text focuses on the works of art themselves and attempts a definition of the essence of immortality to be found in them. This is a book that is itself a treasure house of art. ‘An unusually wide-ranging and deeply informed survey of man’s achievement in the arts.’ — Time and Tide ‘He has chosen the 174 works with a combination of love and knowledge which is wholly admirable, and what he has to say about them is genial and sensible and never trite. The text and the selection deserve very high praise.’ — The Guardian ‘The commentary is brilliant.’ — The Daily Mail ‘Nothing but pleasure comes from The Arts of Man; it has been arranged as a work of art in itself.’ — The Oxford Mail