The Hidden Life Of Art

• Why does the chandelier only have a single candle in place and why is it alight?
• Who are the two extract figures reflected in the mirror?
• What does the wooden finial on the bedhead represent?
• Are oranges usually found in a bedroom, or is their presence a concealed message?
• Why have the couple kicked off their shoes in such an otherwise ordered composition?

This captivating book will open your eyes to the messages that great artists convey through symbols and visual codes. As you linger over its stunning pages, you'll learn how to decipher all manner of hidden clues to the deeper meanings that lie beneath the sublime artistry of a painting's dazzling surface - and you'll discover that, in art as in life itself, things are never quite what they seem. From archaic, esoteric vocabularies to deliberate riddles and puzzles, the key to interpreting the meanings embedded in art from ancient Egypt through the modern age is here for you to discover.

• Fifty stunning plates decoded in detail
• Thousands of symbolic meanings from mythology, religion, nature and allegories
• Spans more than two millennia of human creativity