#history painting

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat by John Weguelin

Here is a Masterpiece Story to honor our beloved cats. The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat by John Weguelin presents an imaginative interpretation of an...

Alexandra Kiely 7 July 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1656) was the most accomplished female painter of the Italian Baroque. She specialized in Biblical scenes of strong...

James W Singer 5 July 2024

Art History 101

Orientalism – Quick Explanation

19th-century Europeans were fascinated by the Near East and North Africa. Everything began roughly around the time of the Napoleonic invasion of...

Magda Michalska 3 July 2024

Romanticism

Eugène Delacroix in 10 Paintings: Poetry, Passion, and Power

Early 19th-century French art was a battle between cool, crisp, precisely observed Neoclassicism and Romanticism’s passion for emotion, drama,...

Catriona Miller 3 July 2024

Renaissance

The Lost Portrait of Henry VIII: Art in Service of Power

Posing proudly in front of the fascinated spectator, a monarch fixes us with his majestic gaze. Perhaps you recognized the best-known portrait of...

Montaine Dumont 18 June 2024

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Death of Barbara Radziwiłł by Józef Simmler

The National Museum in Warsaw is one of the largest museums in Poland and boasts an extensive art collection. Among its body of works is The Death of...

James W Singer 17 June 2024

JMW Turner, Fighting Temeraire, 1839, National Gallery, London, UK. Detail. Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Fighting Temeraire by J. M. W. Turner

Fighting Temeraire by British Romantic painter J. M. W. Turner is a seascape that expresses poetic and patriotic...

James W Singer 2 June 2024

Academic Art

Constructing Racism in Western Art – Hans Makart and the Case of Cleopatra

When Netflix cast Black actress Adele James as Cleopatra in a docu-series on the life of the famous Egyptian queen, the world went viral in a heated...

Kero Fichter 29 April 2024

Women Artists

Elisabetta Sirani: Pioneer, Teacher and Artist

Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665) was born in Bologna, a progressive city with a liberal attitude towards educating women. She was a pioneering female...

Gokce Dyson 22 March 2024

Baroque

The Art of Story Telling: The Abduction of the Sabine Women

According to popular belief, there are only seven plot types in storytelling. Hence it is not surprising to find artists inspired by the same...

Wendy Gray 15 March 2024

Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire, Destruction, 1836, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Ancient Rome

Painting the Fall of the Roman Empire

After many centuries, we are still wondering why the Roman Empire disappeared. Many theories try to explain it: wars, ideological problems, a chaotic...

Celia Leiva Otto 15 March 2024

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