Painting
52 postsEt in Arcadia ego
Painting · Nicolas Poussin
Poussin's Et in Arcadia ego (c. 1638) is the great meditation of Baroque classicism: shepherds in an idyllic Arcadia reading a tomb's inscription, death present even in paradise.Crosses Baroque × Pain
Madonna with the Long Neck
Painting · Parmigianino
Parmigianino's Madonna with the Long Neck (1535) is a defining work of Mannerism, its elongated proportions and cool elegance a deliberate departure from High Renaissance balance.Crosses Mannerism × P
View of Toledo
Painting · El Greco
El Greco's View of Toledo (c. 1600) is one of the only pure landscapes of the Spanish Renaissance and a peak of Mannerism, the city seen under a storm-charged, almost visionary sky.Crosses Mannerism ×
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Painting · Johannes Vermeer
Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665) is the most famous of the Dutch Golden Age tronies, a study in light, gaze, and the single luminous pearl.Crosses Baroque × Painting × 1600s. Reference.
Tres Riches Heures: January
Painting · Limbourg Brothers
The Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (c. 1412-1416), the January calendar page shown here, is the supreme surviving Gothic illuminated manuscript.Crosses International Gothic × Painting × Christiani
The Riders of the Sidhe
Painting · John Duncan
John Duncan's The Riders of the Sidhe (1911) is a central work of the Celtic Revival, the fairy host of Irish and Scottish myth riding in procession.Crosses Symbolism × Painting × Celtic Mythology, a
The Gleaners
Painting · Jean-Francois Millet
Millet's The Gleaners (1857) is a landmark of Realism, three peasant women stooping over a harvested field given the gravity of a history painting.Crosses Realism × Painting × 1850s, opening the Reali
The Starry Night
Painting · Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh's The Starry Night (1889) is the defining work of Post-Impressionism, the night sky over Saint-Rémy turned into turbulence and light.Crosses Post-Impressionism × Painting × 1880s, opening the
The Death of Socrates
Painting · Jacques-Louis David
David's The Death of Socrates (1787) is a manifesto of Neoclassicism: the philosopher reaches for the hemlock mid-argument, still teaching as he dies.Crosses Neoclassicism × Painting × Socrates, an ar
Primavera
Painting · Sandro Botticelli
Botticelli's Primavera (c. 1480) is one of the most studied paintings of the Italian Renaissance, an allegory of spring peopled by Venus, Mercury, the Three Graces, Flora and Zephyrus.Crosses Renaissa
Bacchus and Ariadne
Painting · Titian
Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne (1523) is a high point of the Venetian Renaissance, the god leaping from his chariot toward Ariadne in a blaze of ultramarine.Crosses Renaissance × Painting × Greek Mythol
Medea about to Kill her Children
Painting · Eugene Delacroix
Delacroix's Medea about to Kill her Children (1838) brings the Greek tragedy into full Romantic register, the sorceress half in shadow at the moment before the act.Crosses Romanticism × Painting × Gre
Asgardsreien (The Wild Hunt of Odin)
Painting · Peter Nicolai Arbo
Arbo's Asgardsreien (1872) is the great Romantic painting of the Norse Wild Hunt, Odin and the host of the dead riding across the night sky.Crosses Romanticism × Painting × Norse Mythology, and connec
The Questioner of the Sphinx
Painting · Elihu Vedder
Vedder's The Questioner of the Sphinx (1863) is a key American Symbolist work, a lone figure pressing his ear to the lips of the half-buried Egyptian sphinx for an answer that will not come.Crosses Sy
Goddess Saraswati
Painting · Raja Ravi Varma
Raja Ravi Varma's Goddess Saraswati (1896) is a cornerstone of modern Indian painting, fusing European academic technique with Hindu sacred iconography and putting the gods into mass-reproducible imag
Bogatyrs
Painting · Viktor Vasnetsov
Vasnetsov's Bogatyrs (1898) is the defining image of Russian and Slavic folk-epic, the three heroes of the byliny rendered at monumental scale.Crosses Romanticism × Painting × Slavic Mythology, a cros
The Dance Class
Painting · Edgar Degas
Degas' The Dance Class (c. 1874) is one of the central works of Impressionism, the off-centre composition and candid poses learned partly from photography and Japanese prints.Crosses Impressionism × P
Impression, Sunrise
Painting · Claude Monet
Monet's Impression, Sunrise (1872) gave Impressionism its name. The loose, light-first handling of the harbour at Le Havre was the break that reorganised European painting.Crosses Impressionism × Pain
Judith Slaying Holofernes
Painting · Artemisia Gentileschi
Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes (c. 1620) is the most unflinching Baroque treatment of the biblical scene, and a landmark work by one of the era's few professional women painters.Crosses Baroq
Saturn Devouring His Son (Rubens)
Painting · Peter Paul Rubens
Rubens' Saturn Devouring His Son (1636) gives the Roman myth its Baroque treatment: muscular, lit, and immediate. It sits in direct lineage with Goya's later, darker version already catalogued here.Cr
