Painting

Renaissance

Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo, the Warrior Pope and God’s Bottom

No, I am not indulging in casual profanity, in this painting, we are actually looking at God’s bare bottom and it graces the ceiling of the Sistine...

Guest Profile 6 March 2024

Rosalba Carriera, The Allegory of Music, 1712 Bavarian National Museum, Munich, Germany. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Rococo

Rosalba Carriera: The Accomplished Pastellist

Do you know the great Rococo portraitist Rosalba Carriera? She was one of the most famous painters of the early 18th century. Carriera became known...

Maia Heguiaphal 5 March 2024

Art History 101

The Most Pioneering Painters of the Venetian Renaissance

The Venetian School refers to the painters of the Venetian Renaissance. It developed in Venice in the late 15th century and lasted until around 1580.

Charlotte Stace 5 March 2024

Artist Stories

Everything You Need to Know About Giorgione

Giorgione was an Italian painter from Venice whose career was cut off by his death at a little over 30. And that is a problem – everyone knows his...

Zuzanna Stańska 5 March 2024

Renaissance

Power, Victory and Death: Titian in 5 Paintings from Venice

Titian was the most famous painter of the Venetian Renaissance. Even during his lifetime the artist had been acclaimed as the greatest painter of his...

Alina Manevskaya 5 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Charles Demuth and the Figure 5

This one-sentence poem by the American poet William Carlos Williams was the inspiration for an incredible abstract work by American artist, Charles...

Wendy Gray 4 March 2024

Franz Xaver Winterhalter, Empress Elisabeth of Austria (detail), 1865. Oil on canvas. The Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Austria. Herstory

Empress Sisi: What Art Doesn’t Show Us

Elizabeth of Austria, more commonly known as Sisi, was Empress of the Austrian-Habsburg Empire from 1854 until 1898. Captivating paintings and...

Errika Gerakiti 4 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Vision After the Sermon by Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin’s Vision after the Sermon is one of the most important works in the artist’s oeuvre. Painted in Brittany, its rich symbolism...

Zuzanna Stańska 4 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Saint George and the Dragon

There is a skirmish between the hero and the villain. Fabrics whip about, horse hoofs trample, and a dying scream erupts as Saint George slaughters...

James W Singer 4 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Virginia Woolf by Vanessa Bell

Rebellious, creative and productive. Three of the so many adjectives to depict the two very intelligent artists sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia...

Merve Parla 4 March 2024

Alexandre Cabanel, Cleopatra, 1887, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Cleopatra by Alexandre Cabanel

Queen Cleopatra is a popular subject today – as she was in the late 19th century. Alexandre Cabanel’s Cleopatra explores a single moment of her...

James W Singer 3 March 2024

Sculpture

A Painterly Look Into Sculptors’ Studios

Painting and sculpture have always had a rather complicated relationship, with artists arguing for the superiority of one or the other. Yet, in the...

Magda Michalska 2 March 2024