"...Seamless interface of history and art history, enhanced by the contributors. ... Adopting, as Stephen Banns foreword notes, 'a strictly historical point of view in tracking the development of historical representation in that century', highlighting 'the intersection of historical studies and artistic representations of the past' (p.xvii). The chapters usefully consolidate one another, yet introduce something new each time, thereby enriching knowledge and appreciation of that obsessively historicising century."
--The Burlington Magazine "...Seamless interface of history and art history, enhanced by the contributors. ... Adopting, as Stephen Banns foreword notes, 'a strictly historical point of view in tracking the development of historical representation in that century', highlighting 'the intersection of historical studies and artistic representations of the past' (p.xvii). The chapters usefully consolidate one another, yet introduce something new each time, thereby enriching knowledge and appreciation of that obsessively historicising century."
--The Burlington Magazine
"For anyone new to discourse about historical art, Potters introduction is sufficiently thorough and approachable to serve as a stand-alone reading Another strength of the collection is the tendency toward interdisciplinarity. Potter draws on historical philosophy and historiography in the introduction to explain how artists may have understood the purposes and narratives of history differently, depending on their specific chronological and geographical contexts. These interdisciplinary connections further support the collections argument that historical art is not about depicting past events with precision and accuracy but rather about conveying or complicating broader cultural narratives about history."
-- Early Popular Visual Culture