Living Memories: The Funerary Stelae of Ancient Cyprus
The majority of sculpture that survives from ancient Cyprus are funerary stelae, elaborate grave markers to commemorate the dead. Possessing an...
Marga Patterson 28 July 2023
#Death
A Woman with A Knife: The Story of Lucretia
If you see a woman with a knife in a painting – think of Lucretia. She was an ancient Roman heroine whose fate played a vital role in the...
Zuzanna Stańska 11 June 2023
Damien Hirst’s Butterflies: From Tea-trays to Mandalas
Damien Hirst – a prominent Young British Artist (YBA) and now a billionaire – creates sculptures, paintings, and drawings. In all of...
Isla Phillips-Ewen 30 April 2023
Art Only Exists Because Death Exists. Skulls in Art
Dia De Los Muertos is celebrated every year across Mexico. A far cry from the Western commercial horror-fest of Halloween, it is a glorious...
Candy Bedworth 2 November 2022
11 Famous Funeral Paintings of Western Art
Funeral practices are deeply ingrained in all cultures. Varied traditions around the globe reflect widespread beliefs and values. On this day when we...
Zuzanna Stańska 1 November 2022
Masterpiece Story: Death and Life by Gustav Klimt
Death has been a fascinating theme for artists since the beginning of time. It was imagined as a personified force, also known as the Grim Reaper, a...
Zuzanna Stańska 11 July 2022
The Truth is in the Soil: The Elegiac Odyssey of Ioanna Sakellaraki
No phenomenon pertaining to human existence is as infallible and foundational as death. Expectedly, an occurrence that has this kind of defining...
Erol Degirmenci 13 January 2022
Atala: The Tragedy that Transcended Pages
In the 19th century, Europeans went crazy for one story: Atala, or the Story of Two Lovers in the Desert. It is a novel by René de Chateaubriand...
Jimena Escoto 3 January 2022
Symbolism Special: Jacek Malczewski’s Dates with Death
Jacek Malczewski is one of the most important Polish symbolist painters. Malczewski is associated with the Young Poland movement (Młoda Polska), a...
Magda Michalska 15 July 2021
The Lifelike Death Fayum Portraits of Roman Egypt
Though they are often referred to as “Fayum portraits” – taking their title from the location of a region in Egypt where Pharaoh...
Anthony de Feo 21 November 2020
Danse Macabre: Dancing with Skeletons
Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) – a weird dance between people and skeletons. You might think that it is a scene from a horror movie. But...
Zuzanna Stańska 7 July 2020
Art Timeline: Paintings Inspired by Themes of the Film Orlando
Orlando (1992) is a British period drama based on the Virginia Woolf novel of the same name and is directed by Sally Potter. Orlando, played by...
Kateryna Martynova 2 June 2020
