First-time visitors to the Louvre can hardly fail to be overwhelmed: how to choose among so many treasures? This guide, like the visitor, is necessarily selective. Its aim is not to show everything, but to cover everything. Through a choice of some 600 masterpieces from antiquity to the mid-nineteenth century, the reader is given as comprehensive as possible an idea of all the departments. Accompanying the commentaries on the Louvre's foremost masterpieces, presentations of the various periods and collections situate each in its artistic context and throw light on the personalities of its most famous artists. Visitors can consult this book as a prelude to their visit and return to it afterwards to learn more about their discoveries. --From publisher description.