European Art

Medieval Art

Saint Joseph As Baby Daddy: An Illustrated Medieval Guide

Let’s forget the traditional Nativity scene that we all know for a moment: Virgin Mary kneeling before baby Christ, Joseph standing right behind...

Ela Bobek 28 March 2023

Ende, Prologue, On the Church, Gerona Beatus, Miniature, ca. 975 CE Women Artists

Ende: The First Documented Spanish Female Manuscript Illuminator

She is an enigma, an ancient, foggy artist from northern Spain in the Middle Ages. We learn nothing about Ende’s identity, life, or whether she...

Wen Gu 28 March 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Saint George and the Dragon

There is a skirmish between the hero and the villain. Fabrics whip about, horse hoofs trample, and a dying scream erupts as Saint George slaughters...

James W Singer 28 March 2023

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 27 March 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Theatre Box by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Entertainments such as cabarets, theatres, and the circus were popular themes among the Impressionist painters whose mission was portraying modern...

Zuzanna Stańska 27 March 2023

Post-Impressionism

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Portraying Misia Natanson at the Theater

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec is famous for his portrayals of Parisian nightlife: cabarets, theaters, and brothels. He showed us a world of decadence and...

Alicja Gluszek 27 March 2023

Music

How to Show Music in Paintings? Best Depictions of Music in Art

There is an undeniable symbiosis between painting and music. The influence of one medium on the other is profoundly apparent in the works of many...

Maya M. Tola 27 March 2023

Women Artists

5 Self-Portraits by Women Artists That You Probably Haven’t Seen (And You Should)

When thinking of a self-portrait, the famous names and artworks of Dürer, Rembrandt, or Van Gogh probably come to mind. Here is your chance to...

Europeana 25 March 2023

Art History 101

10 Things You Should Know About the Pre-Raphaelites

Just about all of us have a tiny inkling about Impressionism, the Renaissance, maybe even Expressionism, and what makes each movement different from...

Abreeza Thomas 24 March 2023

John Everett Millais, Mariana, 1851, Tate Britain, London, UK. Literature

Literature in the Pre-Raphaelite Paintings

From its very inception, subjects taken from the literature were a staple for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Shakespeare, Keats, and Tennyson were...

Anastasia Manioudaki 24 March 2023

Aleksandra Waliszewska, Untitled, 1997-2022, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland. Contemporary Art

The Dark Arts of Aleksandra Waliszewska

Rather unsettling, quite macabre, and more than slightly erotic, the paintings and illustrations by Polish artist Aleksandra Waliszewska are...

Marta Wiktoria Bryll 23 March 2023

Animals

See a Man About a Dog: Dogs in Paintings

The title sentence is a charming English euphemism, usually used to apologize for one’s imminent departure or absence—generally to conceal...

Joanna Kaszubowska 23 March 2023