Masterpiece Story: Queen Mother Idia of Benin
Africa is a beautiful continent filled with sweeping landscapes and mighty rivers. Its history is filled with great kingdoms and large empires. Its...
James W Singer 11 May 2025
#royal portraits
Diego Velázquez in 10 Paintings
Diego Velázquez was one of the greatest painters of the Spanish Golden Age. Born in 1599 in Seville, he began with religious commissions but soon...
Jimena Aullet 8 May 2025
Habemus Papam! The Most Famous Portraits of Popes in Art History
For ages, the Catholic Church has been a hugely important patron of the arts. As the Papal States (which predated Vatican City) were enormously...
Zuzanna Stańska 8 May 2025
Fashion Icons in Art
Art and fashion are often intertwined, and isn’t fashion a form of art after all? Not only can visual arts represent the fashion icons that marked...
Vithória Konzen Dill 5 May 2025
Ravenna’s Byzantine Treasures: Mosaics in San Vitale
The early medieval church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, is most famous for its spectacular mosaics. In a city full of rich, Byzantine-style...
Alexandra Kiely 2 May 2025
Power and Propaganda—The British Royal Portraits
Royal portraiture is a centuries-old tradition, but it might be called the forerunner of the posed selfie—an artfully curated image that is meant...
Candy Bedworth 29 April 2025
Crowning Glory—The World’s 12 Most Beautiful Tiaras
We all have family treasures, those mementos that matter to us so much because of their sentimental value and memories associated with them. Now,...
Joanna Kaszubowska 3 April 2025
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard: Female Icon of 18th-Century Paris
Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was one of the most prominent women artists of the end of the 18th century in Paris. Despite misogynistic policies for...
Jimena Escoto 26 March 2025
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and Amazing Women in Her Portraits
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun and women in her portraits should be a reference for every art-lover. The French painter – also known as Madame Le Brun...
Pola Otterstein 26 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Elizabeth I
The portrait of Elizabeth I is attributed to the workshop of Nicholas Hilliard and showcases the queen in her sixties. Similar to other images of...
Anna Ingram 24 March 2025
Masterpiece Story: The Rainbow Portrait
Queen Elizabeth I is known throughout history as one of the most famous British Queens. Even without a husband, she successfully ruled England for 45...
Anna Ingram 24 March 2025
Dressed in Power: Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo by Agnolo Bronzino
The best-known image of Eleanor of Toledo features also one of the most beautiful dresses in art history. Don’t be too distracted by the beauty of...
Vithória Konzen Dill 24 March 2025
