Janson's Basic History of Western Art (9th Edition)

Pretty good condition

Cover of the book is tearing.

This book had a lot of the paintings on the artists that we're learning about in my art museum class and more. Easy reading, informative with high quality images of the actual paintings and architecture. I would certainly recommend this book to all art lovers and to beginners who are just starting to take up art as a hobby and/or career.

Look, if you're getting this book it is because you're taking a class somewhere. Likely, you're taking this class because you have to fulfill some oddball requirement that likely isn't relevant to anything you care about in your degree path.That doesn't mean the book isn't informative. If you actually take the time to read it, you will find that the "direction" of the book is pointing out the impact of geopolitical events on various art forms and styles and how events of the times dictated the direction of many artists. Often times the book will spend half a page talking about the intricacies of a specific piece of art but will NOT provide you anything to see what they are talking about. Its a shame really. This book is best used in conjunction with the internet so you can actually read up on some of their glossed over topics and see the works in detail that they attempt to describe but fail to show.

used for a class in college, no problems.

I've read several art history books including several editions of Janson, and every book has it's strengths. But Janson is still my favorite. The images are large, the text is concise, historical context is provided, and you learn how to read art. Art has a vocabulary and Janson explains it best.

I needed this book for my Art 110 Class. It arrived on time but as for the product it was pretty worn, not unusable but definitely in ok to fair condition, lots of bends in the cover, also there was someone elses paperwork inside so i am guessing they dont have time to go through as understandable to get all the papers out. I half expected a better condition which is for the lower rating but so far no pages missing so that's not bad and i can read it so it will serve its purpose.

Seems to covers material well. Consists of fairly easy reading with good information on the topics at hand. Paperback so it does not hold up as well as the hardcover so there is a need to be gentle with it at times.