European Art

Ancient Greece

Not So Dark After All: Greek Designs from the Dark Ages

Despite lasting only a century (c. 1100-1000 BCE), the dark ages in Greece were an era of material poverty, cultural isolation, and artistic decline.

Lauren Dorsey 13 June 2025

Design

The Charm of Colorful and Shiny Italian Maiolica Ceramic Wares

Maiolica ceramic wares are exquisitely decorated and vibrantly colored handmade artworks made popular during the Italian Renaissance. Their timeless...

Marga Patterson 13 June 2025

Women Artists

Frauhaus: Gunta Stölzl and the Women of the Bauhaus

The women of the Bauhaus, attracted to the school by a lie, were marginalized by their male masters and forced into a single workshop. Under the...

Geoffrey Bunting 12 June 2025

Women Interior Designers: Dorothy Draper, The Greenbrier Hotel, 1946-1948, White Sulphur Springs, WV, USA. Architecture

5 Exceptional Women Interior Designers of the 20th Century

Meet the five women designers who changed the face of 20th-century interior design. Their work has been inspiring many designers and their interiors...

Joanna Kaszubowska 12 June 2025

Women Artists

The Practical Side of Modernism—Aino Aalto

Aino Marsio-Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. She was also the wife of Alvar Aalto, which might be why you haven’t heard about her. The...

Joanna Kaszubowska 12 June 2025

Nike of Samothrace, ca 200-175 BCE, Parian and Lartian marble, Paleopoli, Samothrace, Greece, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Nike of Samothrace

Nike of Samothrace is the masterpiece of an unknown Hellenistic artist. While the artist’s story may be unknown, the statue’s story is as complex...

James W Singer 11 June 2025

Fashion

Jewelry in Ancient Greece: Treasures from the Hellenistic Era

When looking at historical jewelry one can ask themselves a series of questions centered on the object’s significance. Who was it made for and what...

Rachel Witte 11 June 2025

Masterpiece Stories

The Boxer at Rest—Defeated Hellenistic Athlete

Coming face-to-face with a piece of art you’ve loved for years is a thrilling, exciting and oftentimes overwhelming experience. Such was the case...

Nadine Waldmann 11 June 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Laocoön and His Sons

Laocoön and His Sons was one of the most influential sculptures during the Renaissance. The contorted bodies of the figures, their faces full of...

Anastasia Manioudaki 11 June 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Woman with a Parrot by Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet, the enfant terrible of French 19th-century art, did everything he could to save himself in the memory of the contemporary art...

Zuzanna Stańska 10 June 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: A Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet

Who nowadays doesn’t appreciate Gustave Courbet‘s striking realism? We all do, but as happens with many geniuses, Courbet was not appreciated by...

Magda Michalska 10 June 2025

Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne, 1520-23, National Gallery, London, UK. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian

Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne captures the vibrancy of a Greco-Roman myth through the lens of an Italian Renaissance painter. Learn about the...

James W Singer 9 June 2025