The Companion provides an accessible critical survey of Western visual art theory from sources in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance thought through to contemporary writings.

Paul Smith is Chair of the History of Art department at the University of Warwick. His previous publications include Impressionism: Beneath the Surface (1995), Interpreting Cézanne (1996) and Seurat and the Avant-Garde (1997).

Carolyn Wilde is now retired and was formerly Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Bristol. Her publications include articles on philosophical aesthetics, the most recent of which is 'Style and Value in the Art of Painting' in Richard Wollheim on the Art of Painting, edited by Rob van Gerwen, 2001.