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Title: One man's observations on the history of European art
Review: This book is one man's random observations on some aspects of European art mostly from 15th to 19h century.The title is indeed misleading. The book does not cover the history of civilization, western civilization or even history of western art. Many of these random observations are downright silly and mass-pleasing in my opinion. It is quite gossipy as it gets into private lives of artists and tries to make conclusions about their art based on assumptions about their inner lives. The truth is that we cannot fairly judge people and their art based on simple biographical facts known from their lives. Freud's incorrect views of the human mind influenced many people's ways of thinking including Kenneth Clark's. I never saw the TV series so my judgement is solely based on what I see in the book.
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