Literature

Art History 101

The Complicated History of Norse Mythology in Art

Literally speaking, mythology is an old-school kind of storytelling. “Mythos” is a Greek word for “story” while “logia” means...

Lana Pajdas 17 April 2024

Review

Book Review: The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession

In his collection of short stories The Vanitas & Other Tales of Art and Obsession, debut author Jake Kendall revisits various iconic eras of art...

Jenna Burns 26 February 2024

Artist Stories

Jean Cocteau – Prince of Parisian Bohème

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (1889-1963) was a prince of bohème. A significant figure in the European art of the 20th century, Cocteau...

Valeria Kumekina 18 January 2024

William Blake The Ancient of Days, from Europe A Prophecy, 1794, watercolor etching, The British Museum, London, UK. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Ancient of Days by William Blake

The Ancient of Days, designed, printed, and hand colored by William Blake, was the frontispiece of his 1794 poem Europe a Prophecy. An epic...

Catriona Miller 3 January 2024

Renaissance

Titian’s Poesies: 7 Paintings Inspired by Ovid’s Metamorphoses

In the 1550s and early 1560s, Titian attempted to deliver a series of seven large canvases to King Philip II of Spain. Each translated a small...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 9 November 2023

Christine de Pizan presenting her book to Queen Isabeau, detail from The Queens Manuscript, 1410-1414 Review

Medieval Mystery: Cities of Women – A New Novel by Kathleen B. Jones

Cities of Women is a novel spread across the centuries where we seek the female artist who produced one the finest medieval illuminated manuscripts in the world for Christine de Pizan. 

Candy Bedworth 19 October 2023

Romanticism

William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience Explained

William Blake was undoubtedly a genius. And, as it usually happens with geniuses and people ahead of their time, he was scorned and disregarded by...

Magda Michalska 22 August 2023

Literature

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

Review

On Ugliness by Umberto Eco – A Sublime Journey Through Horrid Texts and Faces of the Western World

This book stood on one of my shelves for far too long. The compelling ugliness of its cover attracted me each time I longingly glanced at it. Now...

Giordana Goretti 26 June 2023

Lucas Cranach The Elder, The Suicide of Lucretia, 1525-30, Staatliche Museen, Kassel, Germany. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Ancient Rome

A Woman with A Knife: The Story of Lucretia

If you see a woman with a knife in a painting – think of Lucretia. She was an ancient Roman heroine whose fate played a vital role in the...

Zuzanna Stańska 11 June 2023

Ancient Greece

Three Unique Portrayals of Europa’s Abduction Myth

The mesmerizing realm of Greek mythology is one of the greatest sources for artists to exhibit their technical brilliance and unique interpretations.

Erol Degirmenci 9 May 2023

Jacob Peter Gowy, The Fall of Icarus, 1635-1637, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. Detail. Baroque

The Fall of Icarus: Drama in Baroque Painting

Imagine you’re standing in front of a painting that tells the tragic story of Icarus falling from the sky. The artist’s task was not only...

Lana Pajdas 11 March 2023