Memling, Van Eyck, Antonello da Messina, Raphael, Holbein, Titian, Leonardo . . . these are the greatest names of the Renaissance, symbolizing the ultimate in artistic achievement. All were masters of the portrait, but the genius of these artists allowed them to overcome the limits of the genre and inscribe the art of portraiture into the universal history of mankind. Sharply focused, spectacularly reproduced in an extraordinarily large format volume, and featuring meticulously researched illustrations, this beautiful book is the first of its kind to shed new light on some of the most familiar images in art history.

A graduate from ESSEC business school in 1987, Nathalie Mandel discovered the art market when she worked for the great Parisian auctioneer, Jacques Tajan. She's been working for Sotheby's since 2001 as an expert of the Old Master Paintings Department.