Studies of the old masters are often implicitly based on modern notions, which do not necessarily tally with ideas contemporary with the art of the time being studied. With "Looking for Lines," Paul van den Akker offers a survey of the concepts and controversies of artistic value since the eighteenth century. Drawing from the writings of art historians, critics, and philosophers such as Hogarth, Comte de Caylus, Goethe, Carl Schnaase, Burckhardt, Heinrich Wolfflin, and John Shearman, and focusing particular attention to the historiography of mannerism, van den Akker traces the evolution of...