<P>The discovery of magnificent ancient bronze sculptures that spent millennia on the seabed and emerged unscathed is just one factor to have fed the continued fascination with this prized artistic medium. This sumptuous book examines bronze's earliest beginnings in North Africa, the Middle East, and China, celebrating its durability and variability. Leading authorities chart the virtuosity of artists working with bronze in ancient Greece and Rome; showcase bronze's great flowering in the European Renaissance through the work of such artists as Ghiberti, Donatello, Cellini, and, later, Giambologna; and examine bronze's use in the late 19th century through the modern era by artists ranging from Rodin, Boccioni, Picasso, Johns, Giacometti, and Moore to Beuys and Bourgeois. Lavish color plates of over 150 masterworks provide a unique testament to the works of art that one medium has inspired from antiquity to the present day.</P>