Though born in Britain, Francis Haskell is a truly European art historian, a perfect connoisseur of French and Italian cultures, and a researcher who prefers "the shadows and the sweet solitude of centuries past" to the spotlights. He nonetheless agreed to let Renan Pollès follow him on a journey from Cambridge to Rome, through the museums, churches, libraries, and archives that nourish his work as a historian. This original and innovative thinker, a specialist in the relationships between artists and patrons, has extended his research to the history of taste, a central issue.