A sequel to Phaidon's That Divine Order, (2005), which surveyed the relationship between music and the visual arts from ancient times until the mid-eighteenth century, The Music of Painting continues this fascinating study in the period covering the emergence and development of Modernism, c.1850-1950. Composers and artists repeatedly borrowed from one another, yet their motives have seldom been explored. Professor Peter Vergo provides a broad analysis of changes in the character of the analogies drawn at different times, using in his analysis critical and philosophical sources as well as evidence about artistic and musical practice.

Music has inspired some of the most progressive art of our time from the abstract painting of Wassily Kandinsky to the mid-century experimental films of Oskar Pischinger. The most complete examination of this phenomenon to date, The Music of Painting features major works of art plus related documentation, focusing on abstract and mixed-media art forms and their connections to musical forms as varied as classical and jazz.