[This book] treat[s] the visual arts ... within the essential contexts of history, geography, politics, religion, and other humanistic studies ... [The authors] reach beyond the Western tradition to examine the arts of other regions and cultures, from their beginnings to the twenty-first century. [They] cover not only the world's most significant paintings and works of sculpture and architecture but also drawings and prints; photographs; works in metal, ceramic, and glass; textiles; jewelry; furniture and aspects of interior design (things that were once considered only utilitarian); such temporal arts as happenings and performance art; and new mediums such as video art, installation art, and digital art.-Pref.