NEW YORK, NY.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings is the first complete survey of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s unparalleled collection. This impressive volume offers a veritable history of painting while serving as the art-lovers ideal companion volume to the iconic masterworks of this world-renowned institution. Lavish color illustrations and details of 500 masterpieces, created over the course of 5,000 years in cultures across the globe, are presented chronologically from the dawn of civilization to today.

This monumental anthology represents a grand tour of paintings from ancient Egypt and classical antiquity, to Asia, India, Africa, and the Americas along with works by the greatest European and American artists.

Featuring an introduction and engaging texts about each painting written by Kathryn Calley Galitz, whose experience as both a curator and educator at The Met makes her uniquely qualified, this unprecedented book includes celebrated works from master in their domain including Raphael, Botticelli, Rembrandt, Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh, Picasso, Pollock, and Warhol. It is an essential volume for those wishing to experience The Met’s extraordinary collection or to study masterpieces of painting from throughout history and is sure to become a classic cherished by art lovers around the world.

A scholar, author, and lecturer specializing in European art, Kathryn Calley Galitz works at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where she has been both an educator and a curator of major international exhibitions. Thomas P. Campbell is the director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.