The Mirror and the Palette: 500 Years of Women’s Self Portraits
This is a review of the book The Mirror and the Palette. Rebellion, Revolution, and Resilience: Five Hundred Years of Women’s Self Portraits by...
Candy Bedworth 3 March 2025
Long reads
Ende: The First Documented Spanish Female Manuscript Illuminator
She is an enigma, an ancient, foggy artist from northern Spain in the Middle Ages. We learn nothing about Ende’s identity, life, or whether she...
Wen Gu 3 March 2025
Happily Ever After? 5 Fairytales in Art
Though often told for children, fairytales captivated adults as well. When artists began reinterpreting these stories, they transformed them,...
Errika Gerakiti 26 February 2025
Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris: Modern, Middle Class, and Masculine
Some of Gustave Caillebotte’s most famous paintings show the Parisian boulevards with an Impressionist aura. Yet what exactly he chose to...
Catriona Miller 21 February 2025
Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Zaga Christ by Giovanna Garzoni
The remarkable Portrait of Zaga Christ is considered the earliest known portrait of a Black sitter in Western art. It represents an unusual...
Guest Author 20 February 2025
Royal Portraits: The Art of Image
Shakespeare once wrote, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” For monarchs...
Abreeza Thomas 17 February 2025
Maria Sibylla Merian—An Artist Who Changed Science Forever
In the 17th century, it has been widely believed that insects were just spontaneously born of mud, dirt, or rotting flesh, but that notion has been...
Nicole Ganbold 11 February 2025
Johannes Vermeer in 10 Paintings
Johannes Vermeer was one of the masters of the Dutch Golden Age. He was born in Delft, Netherlands, in 1632 and died there at age 43, apparently...
Tom Anderson 6 February 2025
Dragons in East Asian Art
Imagination is the only limit to the stories and myths about dragons. From East to West, storytellers paint them as creatures of fire, of deep...
Yifan Xia 29 January 2025
Edo Period in 10 Words and 4 Schools of Painting
Edo period in Japan lasted from 1603 to 1867/1868. During this time the country was ruled by the Tokugawa shogunate. Those 250 years were a time of...
Joanna Kaszubowska 28 January 2025
Did Pieter Bruegel Play Dice? The Story of Seemingly Insignificant Detail
Pieter Bruegel The Elder was a prominent Flemish painter of the 16th century, famed for his vivid, often humorous depictions of peasant life and...
Guest Author 27 January 2025
Paris Salon: 101 on France’s First Public Exhibition
If you were an artist in the 19th century, you probably dreamed of having your painting in the Paris Salon. Simply put, this exhibition was the most...
Jimena Escoto 24 January 2025
