European Art

Museum Stories

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium: Staff Picks

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are located in Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of the European Union. This complex institution has a...

Nicole Ganbold 24 October 2021

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Old Woman Dozing by Nicolaes Maes

Introduction 123 ABC. Nicolaes Maes, Old Woman Dozing, ca 1656, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels,...

James W Singer 24 October 2021

Museum Stories

The Great Art Robbery… Foiled

Recently I had the pleasure of reviewing the Rembrandt’s Light exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Sadly, on Thursday, 14th November...

Joanna Kaszubowska 23 October 2021

Renaissance

Spot a Rug: Ottoman Carpets in Renaissance Paintings

Art history has always been inseparable from international trade exchanges and the mingling of nations and cultures. Manuscripts, works of art,...

Magda Michalska 20 October 2021

Art History 101

The Italian Renaissance: A Brief Guide

To the general public, the Italian Renaissance is the pinnacle of art history. More than 500 years on, it’s still the subject of blockbuster...

Alexandra Kiely 20 October 2021

Love Story

Unhappily Ever After: Unequal Marriage by Vasili Pukirev

Vasili Pukirev’s painting Unequal Marriage has a legend about it: allegedly, after looking at it, all the elderly grooms refused to marry their...

Elizaveta Ermakova 7 October 2021

Cubism

Picasso and His 15 Versions of Les Femmes d’Alger

When the Algerian War of Independence began on 1st November 1954, Pablo Picasso felt an urge to somehow respond to the violence and suffering that...

Magda Michalska 3 October 2021

European Art

The First-Ever Femme Fatale: Lilith in a Painting by John Collier

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 29 September 2021

Artist Stories

Living in the Shadow – Marie and Peder Severin Krøyer

Marie and Peder Severin Krøyer were a 19th and early 20th century couple, and, while their marriage and lives were far from ideal, history has...

Pola Otterstein 8 September 2021

Love Story

Most Beautiful Royal Weddings in History — Commissions by Queen Victoria

Alexandrina Victoria ascended to the throne at the young age of 18 and reigned as Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, of Great Britain and Ireland,...

Maya M. Tola 25 June 2021

Long Read

Tombs of Leonardo Bruni and Carlo Marsupini: Strikingly Similar or Substantially Different?

In the 15th century, Florence underwent a cultural and artistic peak without parallel, architecture, painting, and sculpture were at their height.

Guest Profile 14 June 2021

Bizarre

The Elephant in the Church and Other Curious Stories of Venice

With its maze of narrow streets, bridges, and canals linking its splendid architecture and art, Venice is beautiful. It is worth exploring and a...

Marina Kochetkova 27 May 2021