Art Forms

Group of three figurines, Early Cycladic II, early spedos type, museum number K9, Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, Germany. Detail. Ancient Art

Demystifying Cycladic Figurines

Cycladic figurines have a mythical aura. Their gleaming abstract forms speak of timeless beauty. But what actually are they? Why do they look like a...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 28 July 2023

Ancient Art

Living Memories: The Funerary Stelae of Ancient Cyprus

The majority of sculpture that survives from ancient Cyprus are funerary stelae, elaborate grave markers to commemorate the dead. Possessing an...

Marga Patterson 28 July 2023

Art State of Mind

It’s Too Hot to Move – Paintings for the Heatwave

As the heatwave rolls across Europe, it is certainly becoming too hot to move. And when we’re not moving, nothing is more pleasant than to lie...

Joanna Kaszubowska 27 July 2023

Ancient Greece

Not So Dark After All: Greek Designs from the Dark Ages

Despite lasting only a century (c. 1100-1000 BCE), the dark ages in Greece were an era of material poverty, cultural isolation, and artistic decline.

Lauren Dorsey 25 July 2023

Artist Stories

A Search for Solace at Innisfree Gardens

Art itself is often closely associated with some form of solace or peace. Though not all art exists to establish in oneself an inner tranquility,...

Alina Manevskaya 24 July 2023

Saltimbanques Harlequin, 1901 and his Companion by Pablo Picasso (1901) Art State of Mind

Feeling Blue? Color Psychology and Its Use in Art

The year was 1901 when Picasso’s dear friend, Carles Casagemas, committed suicide. That same year, Picasso sank into a deep depression during...

Bruno Guerra 24 July 2023

Architecture

Art Creating Art: Old Westbury Gardens

When Jay Phipps and Margarita Grace married on November 4th, 1903, they wed at Battle Abbey in East Sussex, England. There the 1066 Battle of...

Anthony de Feo 24 July 2023

View of the Menagerie at Kew, Thomas Sandby European Art

William Chambers’ Designs for the Royal Gardens at Kew

During the middle of the 18th century, landscape gardening became valued higher than a work of art in England. Landscape gardener William Chambers...

Anna Ingram 24 July 2023

Asian Art

Mughal Gardens: Paradise on Earth

The Mughal regime is a well-documented era and the cultural achievements of this period are an important landmark in South Asian art history. While...

Maya M. Tola 24 July 2023

Volcanoes in Painting:Joseph Wright of Derby, Vesuvius from Portici, 1774. Romanticism

When Romanticism Meets Eruptions: Volcanoes in Paintings

Active volcanoes are great places to visit, but the danger of a potential eruption is always there. When some of them erupted with artists as...

Maia Heguiaphal 24 July 2023

Maria de Knuijt Baroque

Meet Maria de Knuijt: Was Vermeer’s Main Patron a Woman?

We all know Girl with a Pearl Earring, but have you ever wondered to whom the piece originally belonged? In light of the recent, largest Vermeer...

Nicole Ganbold 23 July 2023

Johannes Vermeer, Art of Painting, ca 1666-68, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Art of Painting by Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer is an enigmatic figure in the history of art. He is considered one of the most famous artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Why are his...

James W Singer 23 July 2023