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 4 August 2025
#royal portraits
How to Look Fabulous: Rococo Women Beauty Guide
How to look fabulous? That is the question! Let’s refer to the most splendid and opulent period of history: the 18th century. The Enlightenment era...
Kateryna Martynova 7 July 2025
Gian Gastone de’ Medici: The Forgotten Queer Legacy of the Last Medici
The Medici Family. For most, these three words conjure up images of Cosimo de’ Medici, Lorenzo de’ Medici, or the many artists and artworks...
Guest Author 18 June 2025
Masterpiece Story: Portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters
To a 21st-century viewer, the portrait of Gabrielle d’Estrées might seem homo-erotic. However, pictured with her sister, the Duchess of Villars,...
Anna Ingram 9 June 2025
5 Best Works by Diego Velázquez
Diego Velázquez is the most important figure of the Spanish Baroque period and one of Europe’s most significant old masters. He was born in...
Anna Ingram 6 June 2025
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 6 June 2025
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
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
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
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
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
