西方油画名作是人类文明的一笔特殊财富，它以图像的方式记录了人类走向文明的历史，表达了不同时期艺术家真挚的情感，也凝聚着他们深刻的思想和探索、追求的勇气。本书是从摆脱中世纪的绘画风格、与中世纪的传统美术做彻底决裂并首开意大利文艺复兴先河的西方绘画之父乔托开始，从选择的作品上看，经历了文艺复兴时期的萌芽阶段，也看到了意大利文艺复兴时期欧洲绘画的蓬勃发展；尤其是北方的文艺复兴，从现实主义到风格主义，以及后来的巴洛克与罗可可绘画，成为17、18世纪绘画的主流。Western oil painting masterpieces are a special asset of human civilization. They record the history of human civilization by the form of image, express sincere feelings of artists at different periods and also embody their profound thoughts and courage of exploration and pursuit. This book begins with Giotto, the father of Western painting who got rid of medieval painting style, made a clean break with the traditional art and first set the precedent for Italian Renaissance. From the works selected in the book, it went through the early stages of the Renaissance, but also reflected the vigorous development of European paintings during the Italian Renaissance; especially the Renaissance in the north, from Realism to Mannerist, and Baroque and Rococo paintings later, became the mainstream of paintings in the 17th and 18th century.