Ancient Art

Surrealism

Gradiva: What Did Freud and the Surrealists See in Her?

A woman who walks. That’s what Gradiva (the name of an anonymous woman from an antique bas-relief) means, as given by a fictional character...

Magda Michalska 27 April 2020

Art Travels

Roman Holidays: Italian Landscapes Through the Eyes of Russian Artists

It is well known that Italy is a motherland of world masterpieces. Renaissance paintings, baroque architecture and Italian opera are the children of...

Kateryna Martynova 23 April 2020

Museum Stories

LEGO Masterpieces. The Art of the Brick

The Art of the Brick is the first major museum exhibition in the world to exclusively use LEGO® blocks as a medium. It is on display at the...

Maya M. Tola 7 April 2020

Bizarre

A Great Mystery: Sanxingdui Masks

Who doesn’t love a mystery? Especially an art history mystery. Made by a previously unknown Chinese kingdom, the 3,000 year old bronze...

Nadine Waldmann 1 April 2020

Michael Rakowitz: His Lost Heritage and Enemies

In March 2020 the Fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in London, which since 1998 temporarily hosts sculptures and installations by contemporary...

Magda Michalska 23 March 2020

Museum Stories

Troy at the British Museum: Myth and Reality

This excellently curated exhibition on Troy at the British Museum in London takes visitors on a journey spanning thousands of years. There’s...

Chris Dobson 28 January 2020

Museum Stories

Tutankhamun in London: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh

For the first time in decades, the treasures of Tutankhamun – who ruled over Egypt from approximately 1334 – 1325 BCE – are on display...

Chris Dobson 20 January 2020

Renaissance

Titian’s The Death of Actaeon (Metamorphoses VIII)

A whistle-stop tour of each of the seven Poesies, which the Renaissance master delivered Philip II of Spain in the 1550s and early 1560s, finally...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 13 January 2020

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Fowling in the Marshes

Ancient Egypt. The famous land of Tutankhamun evokes popular images of pyramids, mummies, and tombs. It left an artistic heritage that is still...

James W Singer 1 December 2019

Erotica

Venus Vincit Omnia. Venus in Art

Venus (also known by her Greek name Aphrodite) is the Goddess of Love. We’ve explored some famous Venus’ here. Next, Velázquez’s...

Isla Phillips-Ewen 9 September 2019

Ancient Greece

Pentelic Splendour: The Erechtheion Caryatids

I visited Athens, Greece in the summer of 2016. Naturally a visit to the Acropolis was mandatory, and it was as beautiful and epic as you can...

Nadine Waldmann 3 June 2019

Ancient Greece

The Ancient Greek Kouros and Kore

Classical Greek statues depicting male and female bodies are iconic, legendary and set the standards for numerous artists and art movements to come.

Nadine Waldmann 14 January 2019