Renaissance

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters

To a 21st-century viewer, the portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées might seem homo-erotic. However, pictured with her sister, the Duchess of Villars,...

Anna Ingram 10 December 2023

Leonardo da Vinci, Vitruvian Man, c. 1490, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice Renaissance

11 Things You Might Not Know About Leonardo da Vinci

You may think you know everything about the genius of the Renaissance. But there are a few unknown facts about Leonardo da Vinci’s life that may...

Zuzanna Stańska 7 December 2023

Renaissance

Here’s an EASY QUIZ about Leonardo da Vinci. Will You Get 100% Correct Answers?

Zuzanna Stańska 7 December 2023

Renaissance

Who Are the Women in Leonardo da Vinci’s Paintings?

The life and work of Leonardo da Vinci have been dissected and analyzed in detail by the sharp eye of art critics and historians. Yet, the biography...

Maria Frazzoni 7 December 2023

The Last Supper da vinci Renaissance

10 Facts About The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci You Should Know

The legendary 15th-century painter Leonardo da Vinci has an impressive legacy of artworks. The maestro left behind a huge number of works that played...

Guest Profile 7 December 2023

Pieter van Aelst, Christ's Charge to Peter, from the Acts of the Apostles Renaissance

Renaissance Tapestries 101: Religious, Political, and Magical

Renaissance tapestries are the most underestimated subject in art history. As expensive and enormously large works of art, tapestries attributed to...

Anna Ingram 2 December 2023

God Appears to Abraham, Pieter Coecke van Aelst Renaissance

Henry VIII’s Story of Abraham Tapestries

Everyone knows King Henry VIII for having six wives and an infamous divorce that shook England’s religious core. He is renowned due to art...

Anna Ingram 2 December 2023

Fresco in the Sassetti Chapel, Florence. Renaissance

Redemption of Sins: Frescoes in Florentine Family Chapels

Renowned for its artistic flourishing, Renaissance Florence saw prominent families investing their fortunes into the city’s artistic...

Nikolina Konjevod 30 November 2023

Giorgione and Titian, Sleeping Venus, 1508-10, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Sleeping Venus by Giorgione and Titian

Giorgione and Titian’s Sleeping Venus is a masterpiece of the Venetian Renaissance school of painting. It explores sensual nudity through a...

James W Singer 20 November 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Pieter Bruegel’s Children’s Games Explained

Children’s Games is one of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s most famous paintings. Just like in other works of his, it is debatable whether it was just...

Irina Diana Calu 20 November 2023

Correggio, Jupiter and Io, 1530, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Jupiter and Io by Correggio

Jupiter and Io by Correggio is a masterpiece of the Northern Italian Renaissance. It explores sensual nudity through the lens of a Roman...

James W Singer 19 November 2023

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