Painting and Experience in Italy of the 15th Century by Michael Baxandall, first published in 1972, is one of the most significant works in art history over the past forty years. Using Italian painting of the Quattrocento era as an example, Baxandall suggests that artists and their contemporaries viewed the world and art very differently than we do today. Works of fiction have been incorporated into various social practices and relationships: domestic, religious, trade, and political.