This is the English version of Otto Pacht's text on art
history. His approach to art history is shaped by his conviction that visual
art, like music, can express ideas in its own medium that no other can. He aims
to sharpen the reader's perceptions by recreating the social and cultural
context in which an object was made, clarifying unfamiliar notions of space and
time or significant gestures and symbols which are no longer
recognizable.