Art Movements

Bizarre

The Intriguing Tale of Shocking Sheela Na Gig and Its Art References

Everyone remembers their first sighting of a Sheela Na Gig. Wandering around an old church, breathing in the architecture, the history, the silence.

Candy Bedworth 3 July 2023

The Duchess of Alba and "la Beata" painted by Francisco Goya, 1795 Artist Stories

The Story Of Duchess of Alba – Francisco de Goya’s Muse

Few women in 18th-century Spain captured the imagination of contemporaries as thoroughly as Doña María de Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Álvarez...

Zuzanna Stańska 1 July 2023

Baroque

Dark Shadows of Seville in Murillo’s Paintings

Apart from fulfilling commissions for churches and noblemen’s mansions, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo painted genre scenes depicting poor children in...

Soledad Castillo Jara 30 June 2023

Contemporary Art

Modern Transgender Art

Are There Non-Modern Transgender Depictions in Art? How do you make a picture of something you can’t see? – Archie Barry, visual artist, in his...

Marta Wiktoria Bryll 28 June 2023

Music

Farinelli – The Best Castrato In Portraits

What does “castrato” mean? Castrati were male singers who had been castrated before puberty to retain the so-called voce bianca, that is...

Magda Michalska 26 June 2023

Artist Stories

Francisco Goya: The First Modernist?

Renowned as one of the most influential Spanish artists, Francisco Goya’s artistic prowess continues to bewitch and intrigue art enthusiasts...

Wendy Gray 17 June 2023

Artist Stories

Did Goya Make a Career?

Goya’s paintings are often disturbing and very very dark. It’s because his activity coincided with the last period of the Enlightenment, the...

Magda Michalska 17 June 2023

Romanticism

Francisco Goya’s Tapestry Cartoons

Francisco Goya’s work is well-known as dark and pessimistic. This reaction to his work is not uncommon, mostly due to the circumstances of his...

Anna Ingram 17 June 2023

Nicaise de Keyser, William II (1792-1849), King of the Netherlands, when Prince of Orange, 1846, Royal Collection, UK. History

Willem II: The Queer King of the Netherlands

Willem II ruled the Netherlands from 1840 to 1849. In modern terms he would be considered a bisexual man, as he had relationships with both women and...

Jimena Escoto 14 June 2023

Herstory

The Hundred Faces of Kiki de Montparnasse

Kiki de Montparnasse was an actress, singer, and muse of Man Ray. Known as the “Queen of Montparnasse,” she influenced the trajectory of...

Zuzanna Stańska 12 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 Rome

The Portrait of Rome’s Decline: Bust of Decius

The turmoil of Rome’s decline in the 3rd century enclosed the 21-month reign of Decius. His tenure as emperor was not exceptionally short for the...

Guest Author 11 June 2023