The expanded text also includes an introduction to current methodologies in the field of art history. In Chapter 15 these approaches are applied to van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding Portrait and are integrated into discussions of other works throughout the text. Boxes help solve the problem of how to construct a rich portrait of a period or culture while maintaining a clear narrative flow. Furthermore, certain reference material that is needed as background to the text can be more easily organized in a boxed format. For example, the main events from the life of Christ are necessary to any study of western art, as are the functions and attributes of the Greek and Roman gods.
Boxes are also useful for presenting interdisciplinary information.
When the arts and other literary texts are interrelated, boxes can be used - for excerpts of Romantic and Dada poetry, and for explaining the mechanisms of dreaming as identified by Freud to explain Rousseau's painting of 1910, The Dream . Philosophies and methodologies of art are also present in boxes, along with media and techniques, and certain social developments, such as feudalism. The history of art history can also be found in boxes - for example those on Plato, Pliny, Vasari, Winckelmann, Marx, Burke, and Greenberg. This book attempts to show students that art is neither alien nor elitist, but part of their everyday life and of the culture in which they live. Laurie Schneider Adams received a Ph.D. in Art History from Columbia University.