Although Religious Art in France has come out in five French editions since 1908, this volume and its companions form the first translation of the complete work into English. Like other volumes in the series, it includes completely new photographs and a new index, and the author's original footnotes have again been extensively supplemented by citations of recent scholarship.
Émile Mâle was a French art historian, one of the first to study medieval, mostly sacral French art and the influence of Eastern European iconography thereon. He was a member of the Académie française, and a director of the Académie de France à Rome.