This art history book is not just about the lost techniques of the Old Masters. It is also about how we see, treat and make images in an age of computer manipulation. Taking nothing for granted, questioning received ideas and practice, Hockney opens our eyes to the way we perceive and represent the world a privileged insight into the history of art> by an outstandingly prolific and original artist.

David Hockney's enthralling story of how some of the great works of Western art were created with the help of mirrors and lenses and how the optical look came to dominate painting attracted major media attention around the world and generated intense debate in the fields of science and art history. Now in this expanded art history book, Hockney takes his thesis even further, revealing for the first time new and exciting discoveries.

Hockney recounts the story as it unfolded. He examines the major works of art history and reveals the truth of how such artists as Caravaggio, Velazquez, Van Eyck, Holbein, and Ingres used mirrors and lenses to help them create their famous masterpieces.

For this new art history book, Hockney demonstrates, with the aid of drawings, paintings and photographs of his own experiments, how Renaissance artists developed perspective and chiaroscuro radically challenging our view of how these foundations of Western art were established.

Hundreds of paintings and drawings among them the best-known and best-loved works in the history of Western art are reproduced and accompanied by Hockney's infectious and enthusiastic descriptions. His own photographs and drawings illustrate the various methods used by past artists to capture accurate likenesses, and present the results they would have achieved.