European Art

Love Story

The Flying Lovers: Bella and Marc Chagall

A love story is always a good read, especially if it’s such a magical and touching history as that of Bella and Marc Chagall. Unfortunately there...

Magda Michalska 14 February 2025

Love Story

5 Ideas For Valentine’s Day Inspired By Art History

Valentine’s Day is here and the internet is full of advice on how to make it special. We’re joining with a few ideas inspired by art history,...

Europeana 14 February 2025

European Art

The First-Ever Femme Fatale: Lilith in Paintings

The apparent sweetness of this work by John Collier (1850–1934), a Pre-Raphaelite painter, is a wonderful testimony of the two sides of Lilith’s...

Guest Profile 13 February 2025

Women Artists

Paula Rego and Other Strong Women

Paula Rego (1935-2022) was a Portuguese-British visual artist considered one of the pre-eminent woman artists of the late 20th and early 21st...

Magda Michalska 13 February 2025

Photography

Gerda Taro—The Girl with the Leica

Have you ever heard of the photographer Gerda Taro? You may know her as Robert Capa‘s girlfriend and muse, and I’m sure you have heard of Capa at...

Arianna Richetti 13 February 2025

discarding image: Rothschild Canticles, Flanders, c. 1300 Medieval Art

The Best of Discarding Images

During the Middle Ages, illuminated manuscripts were first used in the Roman Catholic Church for liturgical services and prayers. The popularity of...

Anna Ingram 12 February 2025

Animals

Holy Cow! Why Did the Dutch Painters Love Cows?

Every time I look at 17th-century Dutch paintings, I ask myself the same question: why do they always show cows? You will probably think this is a...

Magda Michalska 12 February 2025

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Monkey Painter by Jean-Baptiste Chardin

It’s tacky! It’s funny! It’s weird! Yes, Jean-Baptiste Chardin’s The Monkey Painter is definitely not what you would consider in good taste.

James W Singer 12 February 2025

Animals

7 Images of Dürer’s Animals That Are Better Than Trip to a Zoo

Albrecht Dürer’s keen interest in nature was a typical manifestation of Renaissance curiosity. Animals were not generally considered to be...

Zuzanna Stańska 12 February 2025

Women Artists

Maria Sibylla Merian—An Artist Who Changed Science Forever

In the 17th century, it has been widely believed that insects were just spontaneously born of mud, dirt, or rotting flesh, but that notion has been...

Nicole Ganbold 11 February 2025

Jacques Louis David, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and Marie Anne Lavoisier, Herstory

Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier: The Unsung Mother of Modern Chemistry

A trailblazing French chemist and scholar, Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier was at the cutting edge of scientific research during the Age of...

Natalia Iacobelli 11 February 2025

Academic Art

Constructing Racism in Western Art – Hans Makart and the Case of Cleopatra

When Netflix cast Black actress Adele James as Cleopatra in a docu-series on the life of the famous Egyptian queen, the world went viral in a heated...

Kero Fichter 10 February 2025