Book excerpt: First published in 1966, Classicism and Romanticism is a collection of important articles originally published in the author's famous book, Florentine Painting and its Social Background. Dr. Antal, a Hungarian by birth, was a man of the wildest culture. He studied art history in the universities of Budapest, Berlin, Paris and Vienna; thereafter, he travelled extensively in Italy, where he devoted himself to pioneering research in the history of mannerist painting. His exceptional sensitivity to the visual arts is apparent in such brilliant stylistic analyses as the essays on Netherlandish mannerism and on Girolamo da Carpi. He is known especially, however, for his application to art history of the sociological method. By returning art to its place in the general history of ideas and relating it to its economic, social, and political environment, he sought to give to the history of art a wider significance ad deeper meaning. This book will be of interest to students of art, history, literature, art history and European studies.