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Come with David Hockney on a journey as he rewrites the story of how the masterpieces of Western art were created. It was after a chance observation in London's National Gallery that Hockney became gripped by a desire to find out how the artists of the past managed to depict the world so accurately and vividly. As a painter constantly faced with similar technical problems, he asked himself: "How did they do this?" He set aside his brushes, stopped painting and, for the next two years, sacrificed his own time as an artist to follow this mystery trail, obsessively tracking down the hidden secrets of the Old Masters. Now, Hockney recounts the story of his quest as it unfolded. He explains how he uncovered piece after piece of scientific and visual evidence, each one yielding further revelations about the past. Hundreds of paintings and drawings - among them the best known and best loved works in the history of Western art - are reproduced and accompanied by Hockney's close, passionate and accessible decriptions. His own photographs and drawing illustrate the various methods used by past artists to capture accurate likenesses and present the results they would have achieved. In addition, extracts from the many historical and modern documents that he uncovered offer further intriguing evidence while correspondence between him and an array of international experts provides an exciting account of the remarkable story as it happened.