Do artists see the world the rest of us see? Or are their works purely self-expression, with no tangible connection to historical reality? These questions might seem crude, the implied distinctions dubious. Clearly Vermeer, for example, captured something of 17th-century Dutch life, both the people and their houses. And although Italian Renaissance painters took classical and Christian mythology as their subject, an impression of their own time (clothes, faces, decor) does seep through in their work. Still, we would be unwise to deduce from a comparison of Corot and Courbet with Renoir and Monet that French life became more colourful - literally - over the 19th century. And if we want to know what the bombing of Guernica looked like, we are better off studying photos and newsreels than consulting Picasso's famous painting.
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