With this volume, the author contributes an analysis of the present state of art history, the practice of interpreting art and making it intelligible. He aims to relocate the discussion of theory and method in art history away from models borrowed from other disciplines. Sketching the history of trends in art history - from description and biography, to social-historical methods, to the wave of postmodernist approaches - he seeks to set out a course that affirmsthe tools of language and methodology developed by generations of art historians.