Masterpiece Story: The Major’s Marriage Proposal by Pavel Fedotov
When you think of 19th-century Russia, images of Anna Karenina with black furs and white diamonds may come to mind. The lives of the wealthy...
James W Singer 19 March 2024
Masterpiece Stories
Masterpiece Story: Três Orixás by Djanira da Motta e Silva
Djanira da Motta e Silva pictured a very unusual Holy Trinity made of three deities from the Afro-Brazilian Pantheon. They are accompanied by...
Alicja Gluszek 17 March 2024
Donatello’s Mary Magdalene: Penitence and Salvation
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi, better known as Donatello, was a sculptor born around 1386 in Florence, which is also the city in which he died in...
Soledad Castillo Jara 17 March 2024
Masterpiece Story: Virgin of Guadalupe by Sebastián Zalcedo
The Virgin of Guadalupe depicts the narrative of the Christian Virgin Mary who allegedly appeared multiple times in December 1531 before a Mexican...
James W Singer 17 March 2024
Masterpiece Story: Saint Anne
To the south of Egypt is the mysterious land of Nubia. It has a complex history due to the different states and religions that have occupied the...
James W Singer 17 March 2024
Masterpiece Story: Abbey in the Oakwood by Caspar David Friedrich
Sadness and desolation fill this scene like an oppressive melancholy. The sun is dying behind the horizon as fog enshrouds the ground. Skeletal trees...
James W Singer 16 March 2024
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 15 March 2024
Masterpiece Story: The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David
In a Neoclassicist masterpiece painted on the eve of the French Revolution, Jacques-Louis David depicts the beginning of an epic Roman story in The...
Coleman Richards 15 March 2024
The Boxer at Rest – Defeated Hellenistic Athlete
Coming face-to-face with a piece of art you’ve loved for years is a thrilling, exciting and oftentimes overwhelming experience. Such was the case...
Nadine Waldmann 11 March 2024
Masterpiece Story: Aeneas Taken by the Sibyl to the Underworld by Jacob van Swanenburgh
Aeneas Taken by the Sibyl to the Underworld is one of only 11 known surviving works by Jacob van Swanenburgh. It is a rare gem of late Renaissance...
James W Singer 9 March 2024
Modernizing the Sacrum? The Church of the Three Crosses by Alvar Aalto
When we hear the word “church” the image it evokes is typically either a striking, tall gothic structure or an opulent baroque façade and...
Joanna Kaszubowska 7 March 2024
Masterpiece Story: Boating by Édouard Manet
Known as the father of modernism in art, Édouard Manet was a key figure in the shift from Realism to Impressionism. Finding the guidelines of the...
Natalia Iacobelli 7 March 2024
