Word and Image: French Painting of the Ancien R Gime - Paperbackby Norman Bryson (Author) This 1982 book, now recognised as a classic, has done perhaps more than any other single work to change the face of art criticism in the twentieth century. Whereas previous books on French painting looked only at the history of painting as an evolution of artistic styles (baroque, rococo, neo classical, and so on), Norman Bryson examines the evolution of narrative styles: the kinds of stories paintings tell, the ways they