European Art

Dine & Wine

Meet Asparagus, The King of Vegetables! Not Just for Vegetarians

The season for asparagus is very short as it starts around the 23rd of April (St George’s Day) and lasts only until June. Its special qualities and...

Magda Michalska 15 September 2023

Artist Stories

Women That Inspired Vuillard

Jean-Édouard Vuillard was a French painter and decorator who was active in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. He distinguished himself for his...

Maya M. Tola 14 September 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Self-Portrait at 28 by Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer loved self-portraits. In the first half of his life, he made a series of them. The earliest is from 1484, when the artist was a...

Zuzanna Stańska 14 September 2023

Dürer Magic Square Bizarre

The Mystery of Dürer’s Magic Square

Many strange symbols appear in Albrecht Dürer’s famous engraving Melencolia I. Among them is a magic constant 34, a well-known and enigmatic...

Zuzanna Stańska 14 September 2023

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 14 September 2023

Contemporary Art

How Roman Opałka Envisioned Infinity

In 1965 a French-born Polish painter Roman Opałka came to an important decision. While sitting at the Café Bristol in Warsaw waiting for his wife...

Caroline Galambosova 13 September 2023

Art History 101

How to Read Piet Mondrian

We can all recognize Mondrian’s work in a second. Our eyes navigate through the lines jumping from color to color. His artistic career...

Celia Leiva Otto 13 September 2023

Prehistoric Art

All You Need to Know About the Lascaux Cave

Located in southern France, the Lascaux Cave houses some of the most famous prehistoric cave paintings, dating to approximately 15,000 BCE. The cave...

Vithória Konzen Dill 12 September 2023

Woman with Stylus, 55-79 CE Ancient Rome

Woman with Stylus: What a Portrait Can Tell Us About Women in Ancient Rome

Woman with Stylus is an ancient Roman fresco unearthed in Pompeii nearly two millennia after the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. Various details...

Natalia Iacobelli 11 September 2023

Hubert Robert, Roman Ruins, ca. 1776. Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville de Paris, Paris, France. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Academic Art

Robert of the Ruins: Idealized Ruins by Hubert Robert

Hubert Robert was an immensely popular French painter from the 18th century best known for his skillful landscapes, particularly his landscapes that...

Maya M. Tola 11 September 2023

OLGA WISINGER-FLORIAN, Summer‘s Evening (Roses in Full Splendor), 1896 © Leopold Private Collection Photo: Leopold Museum, Vienna/Manfred Thumberger Painting

Olga Wisinger-Florian: A Woman Floral Painter in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna

For a long time the memory of Viennese flower painter Olga Wisinger-Florian slumbered underneath a duvet of withered petals. Who knew that it was she...

Guest Profile 11 September 2023

Rembrandt, Abduction of Ganymede, 1635, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Abduction of Ganymede by Rembrandt

Rembrandt is less known for his mythological paintings, but their visual impact matches any of his religious images and secular portraits. The...

James W Singer 11 September 2023