The genesis of this collection came from a session at the 2004 meeting of the College Art Association that Pearson (art history, Bloomsburg University) organized. Her interest was in exploring the creation of portraits of women in the early modern period. The essays she selected speculate on the agency of women in the forms their portraits took, the purpose of the portraits and how they change or confirm contemporary gender beliefs. Portraits studied cover most of western Europe within a time frame from the late fifteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)