#National Gallery

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger

The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger is one of those paintings that we know so well we tend to forget to look closer. It’s like the Mona...

Joanna Kaszubowska 6 January 2023

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: An Allegory with Venus and Cupid by Agnolo Bronzino

An Allegory with Venus and Cupid by Agnolo Bronzino from the National Gallery in London is one of the most mysterious masterpieces of Mannerism. It...

Joanna Kaszubowska 17 November 2022

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: The Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599–1660) was the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV and one of the most important painters of...

Joanna Kaszubowska 6 June 2022

Masterpiece Stories

Masterpiece Story: Self Portrait in a Straw Hat by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun

Why is art history predominantly focused on male artists? Are there not enough female artists to fill textbooks? Of course, there are enough, but...

James W Singer 16 April 2022

Renaissance

Titian Revisited: Grand Old Man of the Renaissance or Dirty Old Man?

Titian’s sensuous interpretation of Classical myths of love, temptation, and punishment came together for the first time in nearly 500 years, at...

Guest Profile 13 October 2021

Museum Stories

500 years of Raphael. Exhibitions in 2020

He was sometimes known as Il divino – the divine one – for his expert mastery of space and proportion. And this year, in the 500th anniversary of...

Candy Bedworth 11 February 2020

Art History 101

10 Things You Need To Know About Jan Van Eyck

Jan van Eyck was a Flemish painter active in Bruges who was born in 1390 and died in 1441. He was one of the innovators of what became known as Early...

Zuzanna Stańska 18 January 2020