European Art

Cornelis Saftleven, Who Sues for a Cow?, 1629, oil on wood panel, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Who Sues for a Cow by Cornelis Saftleven

Who Sues for a Cow is a masterpiece of social commentary by now-forgotten artist, Cornelis Saftleven. It is a strange painting from the Dutch Golden...

James W Singer 16 January 2023

Medieval Art

Here Be Medieval Dragons

Dragons are everywhere in popular culture. People make movies about them, collect stuffed animals of them, and dress up as them for Halloween. They...

Alexandra Kiely 16 January 2023

Women Artists

Four Female Court Painters You Did Not Know

Throughout history, art has always played an important role in royal propaganda across Europe. Royal families were in a race to employ the best...

Gokce Dyson 16 January 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Woman at Her Toilette by Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot was closely associated with French Impressionism and actively participated in seven out of eight group exhibitions. She maintained...

Zuzanna Stańska 14 January 2023

Impressionism

Julie Manet – The Eternal Beauty of Impressionism

Julie Manet – called the beauty of Impressionism – was the daughter of the wealthy, well-connected painter Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet,...

Pola Otterstein 14 January 2023

Haarlem in the Dutch Golden Age: Frans Hals, Banquet of the Officers of the St Adrian Civic Guard (the Calivermen), 1627, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands. Baroque

4 Surprising Facts About Haarlem in the Dutch Golden Age

The city of Haarlem in the Netherlands was one of the flourishing art centers in the 16th and 17th century. Today, you can walk the streets of the...

Rachel Witte 13 January 2023

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 13 January 2023

Artist Stories

The Dutch Master of Selfies: Rembrandt’s 6 Magnificent Self-Portraits

Rembrandt van Rijn, one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art, was born 416 years ago in Leiden, Netherlands. Today, people take...

Zuzanna Stańska 13 January 2023

Baroque

The Best of Dutch Still Life: 6 Famous Painters

In the art world, it is commonly agreed upon that still life painting as a genre rose in the Netherlands in the last quarter of the 16th century. The...

Irina Diana Calu 13 January 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The African King Caspar by Hendrik Heerschop

White subjects have dominated the Western art tradition for millennia, while people of color have been vastly underrepresented and misrepresented.

James W Singer 13 January 2023

Artist Stories

6 Things You Must Know About Parmigianino

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, known as Parmigianino (1503–1540) was a great Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome,...

Zuzanna Stańska 11 January 2023

Artist Stories

10 Things You Should Know About Titian

Titian, or Tiziano Vecellio, (1490–1576) was an Italian painter active in Venice in the 16th century. He is considered the greatest painter in the...

Anastasia Manioudaki 11 January 2023