{"product_id":"painted-mysteries-interpreting-great-paintings-hardcover-22","title":"Painted Mysteries: Interpreting Great Paintings - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eCaroline Chapman\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn\u003ci\u003e Painted Mysteries\u003c\/i\u003e Caroline Chapman aims to encourage art lovers to look more deeply into pictures and to understand better what they see.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen looking at a painting of the Madonna with the Christ Child, do you know why Jesus is clutching a goldfinch? Or why a peacock often appears in paintings of the Annunciation? Can you use your knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology to interpret what is going on in Botticelli's \u003ci\u003ePrimavera\u003c\/i\u003e? Are you so steeped in the Bible that you know why Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt? Past generations would have known the answers: religious belief and the mythology of antiquity permeated people's lives and decoding symbols within a painting was automatic. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eToday we no longer have the background knowledge and the layers of meaning contained in some of the greatest works of art escapes us. Our gaze is superficial; recent research has shown that on average a visitor to an art gallery looks at a painting for less than two seconds, reads the label for ten seconds, glances again at the painting, then moves on. Even the Mona Lisa receives only about fifteen seconds of a viewer's attention. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003ePainted Mysteries\u003c\/i\u003e Caroline Chapman aims to encourage art lovers to look more deeply into pictures and to understand better what they see. In over 100 images, many of them famous masterpieces, she dissects the paintings, recounting the stories the artists were depicting and unravelling the layers of meaning that modern viewers may find elusive or mysterious.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eCaroline Chapman worked as a picture researcher for many of the principal UK publishers before becoming an editor and an author. Her previous books published with Unicorn are \u003ci\u003eA Place Apart: The Artist's Studio 1400 to 1900, Eighteenth-Century Women Artists: Their Trials and Tribulations\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNineteenth-Century Women Artists: Sisters of the Brush.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 160\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 07, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47509669642489,"sku":"9781917458290","price":42.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/2A0MzCfriD9781917458290_096a1779-a53e-4b42-b6a8-c1370746856b.webp?v=1773378092","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/painted-mysteries-interpreting-great-paintings-hardcover-22","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}