Baroque

Caravaggio, Cardsharps, ca 1596-1597, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, USA. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Cardsharps by Caravaggio

The Cardsharps is an early masterpiece of Baroque art by Caravaggio that explores the revolutionary theme of crooked card playing. Let’s delve...

James W Singer 11 January 2026

Georges de La Tour, The Fortune Teller Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Fortune Teller by Georges de La Tour

The Fortune Teller is one of Georges de La Tour’s early masterpieces. The Baroque oil painting, once questioned by the Louvre Museum for its...

Anna Ingram 11 January 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Children Eating Grapes and a Melon by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Children Eating Grapes and a Melon, currently located in the Alte Pinakothek, is one of the most famous paintings by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. This...

Vithória Konzen Dill 11 January 2026

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Young Bacchus by Mary Beale

Mary Beale is a rarity: a prolific, well-documented, successful, 17th-century woman artist. Her painting of Young Bacchus perfectly illustrates how...

Catriona Miller 11 January 2026

Adam Elsheimer, Flight into Egypt, 1609, oil on copper, Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Flight into Egypt by Adam Elsheimer

Flight into Egypt is a masterpiece found in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany. Human dramas are depicted with vivid...

James W Singer 21 December 2025

Jacobus Vrel (act. ca. 1650-1670), A Woman at a Window Waving at a Child, Fondation Custodia, Frits Lugt Collection, Paris Artist Stories

A Dutch Mystery: Jacobus Vrel

Jacobus Vrel is a ghostly figure in art history because, up to this moment, there is almost no official data about him. No record of his existence...

Irina Diana Calu 19 December 2025

Baroque

Frans Hals in 10 Paintings

Frans Hals, the prominent Dutch Golden Age painter, left an enduring legacy through his exceptional mastery of portraiture. The way he captured the...

Nicole Ganbold 19 December 2025

History

How Did the Dutch Become Dutch: Propaganda Prints in the Dutch Golden Age

The Golden Age of the Dutch Republic was a flourishing period for culture and economy, yet it wasn’t characterized by peace. The Dutch Republic...

Andreea Iancu 19 December 2025

Museum Stories

8 Reasons to Visit Rembrandt House in Amsterdam

If you happen to find yourself in Amsterdam, then you simply can’t miss the Rembrandt House Museum (Museum het Rembrandthuis). It was the Rembrandt...

Zuzanna Stańska 19 December 2025

Painting

Carel Fabritius in 10 Paintings: Rembrandt’s Most Promising Pupil

Any biography of Carel Fabritius (Dutch, 1622–1654) is necessarily short; there simply is not much known about him. He was born in Beemster, a...

Tom Anderson 18 December 2025

Animals

The Goldfinch: Singing Across Time

See the lonely little bird, trapped in a situation over which it has no control. Chained, isolated. Sounds familiar? In these strange times we need...

Candy Bedworth 17 December 2025

Artist Stories

Artemisia Gentileschi: The Rape Survivor and Her Revenge

Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the best Italian Baroque painters. This strong woman painted plenty of paintings of strong and suffering women from...

Zuzanna Stańska 11 December 2025