Many of us travel to pursue our love of art: with this book, the artists themselves are your guides. Imagine being led through the backstreets of 17th-Century Rome with the dazzling but dangerous Caravaggio as your guide. You call at the spectacular palazzo of his great patron, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, stop in a tavern to meet his lover and model, Fillide Melandroni.

And then he leads you past the Pantheon to the church of San Luigi dei Francesi to see his latest painting, one which – we now know – is about to change the course of art history. Four hundred years later, that painting – the Calling of St Matthew – is still hanging in the same place in the same church. And the Caravaggio trail is just one of a dozen itineraries through which this book traces the lives and works of more than twenty artists, from Giotto to Tiepolo and Raphael to Artemisia Gentileschi.

By following their footsteps you will be immersed in their worlds and discover paintings and sculptures which are still in situ – in the churches and chapels, palaces and villas for which they were originally made. These seminal works, some famous, many little seen or appreciated by visitors, offer an inspiring take on art history, as well as an imaginative travel guide. Illustrated with sumptuous photography, detailed reproductions and beautiful maps, and paired with contextual and engaging accounts of specific works, In the Footsteps of the Great Artists brings your travels vividly to life, as you stand where they stood, see what they saw, feel what they felt…