Erotica

Alexandre Cabanel, Cleopatra, 1887, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Cleopatra by Alexandre Cabanel

Queen Cleopatra is a popular subject today – as she was in the late 19th century. Alexandre Cabanel’s Cleopatra explores a single moment of her...

James W Singer 3 March 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: La Toilette by François Boucher

The soft rustle of silky cloth and the hard crackling of burning wood echo against the yellow-papered walls of the boudoir. The small room is...

James W Singer 18 February 2024

Erotica

Pillow Talk Stories: The Comfiest Beds in Paintings

When you think about it, most of the events throughout our lives take place in beds. From birth to death, beds are imbued with the ultimate...

Maia Heguiaphal 16 February 2024

Love Story

10 Most Romantic Artworks About Love

Romantic artworks about love involve stolen kisses, intimate recollections, sleepy days, eternal devotion, and passionate embraces. They say love is...

Kristin Urban 12 February 2024

Ancient Greece

There Were Really Hot Guys in Ancient Greece: The Barberini Faun

Drunk, sleeping men are rarely, if ever, beautiful and sexually appealing, but this is not the case with this really sexy faun from ancient Greece.

Marta Loza 9 February 2024

Quiz

QUIZ: The Nude in Art

Candy Bedworth 5 February 2024

Erotica

Art and the Body: How Artists Approach Body Positivity

If you ever find yourself feeling insecure about your body (as I often do), take a moment to explore these paintings. These works of art show how...

Magda Michalska 15 January 2024

Women Artists

Eva Fàbregas: Sculpting Boundaries and Sensations

Few artists engage with sculpture as intimately as Eva Fàbregas. Her creations not only challenge the conventional notions of the medium, but also...

Celia Leiva Otto 4 January 2024

Caravaggio Amor, Amor Vincit Omnia, ca. 1601 Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Amor Vincit Omnia by Caravaggio

Virgil’s famous saying amor vincit omnia means “love conquers all.” Famous Baroque painter, Caravaggio, clearly inspired by the famous sentence...

Zuzanna Stańska 12 December 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters

To a 21st-century viewer, the portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées might seem homo-erotic. However, pictured with her sister, the Duchess of Villars,...

Anna Ingram 10 December 2023

Pablo Picasso's Young Ladies of Avignon. The painting depicts five naked women on a flat surface. Painting

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. Picasso Celebration 1973-2023, a large-scale transnational...

Ela Bobek 25 November 2023

Giorgione and Titian, Sleeping Venus, 1508-10, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Sleeping Venus by Giorgione and Titian

Giorgione and Titian’s Sleeping Venus is a masterpiece of the Venetian Renaissance school of painting. It explores sensual nudity through a...

James W Singer 20 November 2023