Spanning 500 years of Western art history from 1400 to 1900, and accompanied by glorious images, Caroline Chapman describes the skilful techniques employed in a Renaissance workshop; Michelangelo's agony and ecstasy while painting the Sistine Chapel; the murky world of the artist's model; the looting by Napoleon of Veronese's masterpiece; Van Gogh's wretched first studio; how Géricault painted his Raft of the Medusa; the way Rodin worked in his plaster-spattered environment and the ateliers of the Impressionists in Paris.