Dreaming of Italy is about the love western-European artists have felt for centuries for Italy - the land of light, warmth, art and culture. By means of fifty small master works by, among others, Maarten van Heemsterck, Claude Lorrain, Poussin, Corot, Turner and Feuerbach, Henk van Os outlines for the first time the artistic development that occurred as a result of this dreaming about Italy. The book begins with the sixteenth century, when artists wanted to study and document the remains of Italy's ancient civilisation. Later, their seventeenth-century successors acquired an eye for the beauty of the landscape and the golden glow of the Italian sun. With their idealised landscapes, these artists set the tone for a long time to come. Painting outdoors, which became fashionable in Rome around 1800, led to new visions about the country. There was growing attention for the ordinary people and their obvious religious convictions and unquestioning faith. Italy became a place of perfect harmony, where ar