The Dutch history painter Joachim Wtewael is widely admired for his astonishing small paintings on copper. The Getty Museum’s Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan is one of his finest works in this unusually demanding medium. Though only eight...
In his Life of Utamaro, Edmond de Goncourt, in exquisite language and with analytical skill, interpreted the meaning of the form of Japanese art which found its chief expression in the use of the wooden block for colour printing. To glance...
The Renaissance began at the end of the 14th century in Italy and by the second half of the 16th century has extended across the whole of Europe. The rediscovery of the splendour of ancient Greece and Rome marked the beginning of the rebirth of...
African Art invites you to explore the dynamic origins of the vast artistic expressions arising from the exotic and mystifying African continent. Since the discovery of African art at the end of the nineteenth century during the colonial...
Les Five young women that changed modern art forever. Faces seen simultaneously from the front and in profile, angular bodies whose once voluptuous feminine forms disappear behind asymmetric lines-with this painting, Picasso...
A major figure of the Romantic Movement, the British artist William Blake (1757-1827) was at once a painter, designer, engraver and poet. He devoted himself to the illustration of his literary works, and his texts developed following the lines of...
Deriving from the French word rocaille, in reference to the curved forms of shellfish, and the Italian barocco, the French created the term Rococo. Appearing at the beginning of the 18th century, it rapidly spread to the whole of Europe....
This work analyzes the evolution of iconic art from its beginning in the Byzantine period, until the time of the Russian Empire. This work is for specialists and students as it is written by one of the world s leading authorities on early...
Vacillating between the majesty of the Greco-Byzantine heritage and the modernity forecasted by Giotto, Early Italian painting summarises the first steps that lead to the Renaissance. Trying out new mediums, those first artists left frescoes for...
The English school of painting was officially recognised at the beginning of the 18th century through the work of William Hogarth. It includes works by the most famous English artists, such as Thomas Gainsborough, Joseph Mallord...