These art history books were consulted to determine 250 Masterpieces; their authors provide the art criticism shown on each Masterepice Card. Here they are:
- Laurie Schneider Adams, Art Across Time. McGraw Hill.
- Carol Strickland, Ph.D. and John Boswell, The Annotated Mona Lisa. Andrew McMeel.
- H. H. Arnason and Peter Kalb, History of Modern Art. Pearson Education.
- Robert Cumming, Annotated Art. Dorling Kindersely Ltd.
- Jonathan Fineberg, Art Since 1940. Pearson Education.
- Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Wadsworth, Div. of Thomson Learning.
- Frederick Hartt, Art: A History of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Pearson Education.
- Hugh Honour and John Fleming, The Visual Arts: A History. Pearson Education.
- H. W. Janson, History of Art. Pearson Education.
- H. W. Janson and Anthony F. Janson, A Short History of Art. Pearson Education.
- Martin Kemp, The Oxford History of Western Art. Oxford Press.
- Penelope J. E. Davies, Walter B. Denny, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Joseph Jacobs, Ann M. Roberts, and David L. Simon. Janson's History of Art: Western Tradition. Pearson Education.
- Marilyn Stokstad, Art History. Pearson Education.
- Sister Wendy Beckett and Patricia Wright, The Story of Painting. Dorling Kindersely Ltd.
These art history books (below) were used in research:
- The Art Book. Phaidon.
- Dr. Robert Belton, The World of Art, from Aboriginal to American Pop, Renaissance Masters to Postmodernism. Watson-Guptill.
- E. H. Gombrich, The Story of Art. Phaidon.
- Thomas Hoving, Greatest Works of Art of Western Civilization. Artisan.
- Herbert Read, A Concise History of Modern Painting. Thames & Hudson.
- M. Therese Southgate, M. D. The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Mosby.
- Ingo R. Walther, Art of the 20th Century and Masterpieces of Western Art. Taschen.
- Stefano Zuffi, Modern Painting. Barron's.