Surveys the sculpture and paintings in the museums of countries such as France, Great Britain, Germany, and Switzerland and discusses outstanding European architecture

Explore Europe's top 100 works of art with America's most trusted travel authority, Rick Steves. Travel through time and discover Europe's most iconic paintings, sculptures, and historic buildings. From Venus to Versailles, Apollo to David, and Mona Lisa to The Thinker, Rick and co-author Gene Openshaw will have you marveling, learning, and laughing, one masterpiece at a time. Whether you're traveling to Europe or just dreaming about it, this book both stokes your wanderlust and kindles a greater appreciation of art, with historical context and information on where to see it for yourself. With Rick's trusted insight and gorgeous, full-color photos throughout, Europe's Top 100 Masterpieces celebrates nearly 20,000 years of unforgettable art.

Excerpt from The Index Guide to Travel and Art Study in Europe; A Compendium of Geographical, Historical, and Artistic Information for the Use of Americans: Alphabetically Arranged Those who have visited Europe know full well that, however good may have been one's knowledge of history, mythology, and art, he is met at every turn by some object whose story he can not recall, by some work or name with which he is not familiar. It would be beyond reasonable anticipation that any suitable hand-book could meet all such exigencies. But by discarding the unfrequented routes, the localities rarely visited, and the numberless objects paraded as of vast importance by local guides and books, but of no greater interest or value than multitudes of similar ones in our own country, a larger amount of the more indispensable information has been crowded into a single volume, than was at first deemed possible. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.