一次邂逅并不足以完全理解一幅伟大的画作；我们总是可以从这样的画作中得到更多的东西。艺术爱好者可能会在一生中反复审视和思考这些杰作，但只有通过详细分析这些画作，无论是主题的位置、光线、笔触风格还是主题，我们才能获得更深入的理解。

《艺术细节》研究了西方典籍中的100幅**画作，并突出了快速浏览几乎肯定无法揭示的细微之处。这些细节包括微妙的内部细节，如隐藏的符号和画家为达到特定效果而采用的艺术技巧。此外，苏西•霍奇还写出了对艺术家的外部影响——从他或她大获成功的社会经济环境，到较小的地方困难，如绘画创作时的空气污染程度。

Great paintings cannot be fully understood in a single encounter; there is always more to be derived from them. Art lovers may revisit and reconsider the masterpieces throughout their lives, but a deeper understanding can only be gained by analysing the painting in detail, be it the placement of the subject, the lighting, the style of brushstrokes or the themes.

Art in Detail examines 100 iconic paintings from the Western canon and spotlights the finer points a quick glance will almost certainly fail to reveal. These include subtle internal details, such as hidden symbols and artistic tricks employed by the painter to achieve particular effects. In addition, Susie Hodge writes intelligently ab

out external influences on the artist –

everything from the socioeconomic context in which he or she flourished, to smaller local difficulties, such as the level of air pollution at the time the painting was created. And she treats each of her subjects not only, to quote Matthew Arnold, ‘as in itself it really is’, but also as part of a tradition that links the oldest painting to the most recent, as artists pass a metaphorical baton down through the ages.