This stunning volume features masterpieces of sculpture from the Renaissance through the 19th century. Well-known works by the great European sculptors - including Luca and Andrea della Robbia, Juan Martinez Montanes, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Francois Girardon, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Bertel Thorvaldsen, Antoine-Louis Barye, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, and Auguste Rodin - are joined by recent additions to the collection, notably Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's mesmerizing psychological study of an introspective man. The ninety-two selected examples are diverse in media (marble, bronze, stucco, wood, terracotta, ivory) and size - ranging from a tiny oil lamp fantastically conceived and decorated by the Renaissance bronze sculptor Riccio to Antonio Canova's eight-foot-high Perseus with the Head of Medusa, executed in the heroic Neoclassical style. Incorporating information from recent conservation studies and the latest scholarly research, Ian Wardropper discusses the history and significance of the highlighted works, each reproduced with glorious new photography.