Florence and Baghdad is a refreshing appeal to view the genesis of the unconscious visual foundations in both cultures in all their historical complexity and to illuminate their interdependence. -- Die Tageszeitung You will find no better guide through this thicket of philosophy, optics, crafts and theology in East and West than Belting - and certainly no one else could make it so clear that these are not just old problems we can gladly leave to historians... If we look carefully we can still discover that most of what we thought we knew was wrong. Belting gives us a fresh new eye for art and the world. -- Frankfurter Rundschau The connection Belting establishes between long-known facts in the history of science and the origins of the "window view" is a stroke of genius. -- Suddeutsche Zeitung This book is an eye-opener for readers who will come to understand the limitations and drawbacks of the kinds of images that are omnipresent in our society in the form of films and photographs. -- Art: Das Kunstmagazin

Hans Belting is Professor for Art History and Media Theory at the Academy for Design in Karlsruhe, Germany.