Punitive Portraits of the Renaissance
The Italian legal tradition called for the public display of a humiliating—but recognizable—portrait of the disgraced person.
Why We Connect with Vincent van Gogh’s Paintings
Van Gogh was a troubled soul and master painter who relied on his emotions and color to create art that continues to attract millions of viewers.
How René Magritte Became the Grudging Father of Pop Art
Though he dismissed Pop as “window dressing, advertising art,” many critics and artists of the 1960s claimed Magritte as the movement's greatest forebearer.
Dummy Boards: the Fun Figures of the 1600s
These life-sized painted figures, popular in Europe and colonial America in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, were designed to amuse and confuse.
Taking Liberties With Biblical Stories
In the Christian New Testament, Saint John the Baptist and Salome never meet. Why, then, does she appear at the bars of his cell in Guercino’s moody painting?
Elizabeth Siddal, the Real-Life “Ophelia”
A working-class woman with artistic aspirations of her own, Siddal nearly died of pneumonia after posing for John Everett Millais’s iconic painting.
Who Belonged to the Beaver Hall Group?
An association of Montreal-based artists, the Beaver Hall Group embraced the free-spirited Jazz Age in their work, their habits, and their lifestyles.
Framing Degas
The French painter Edgar Degas was Impressionism’s most energetic and inventive frame designer.
Restoration Recipes
Need to clean your sixteenth-century distemper painting? Try a piece of bread (at your own risk).
Did Photography Really Kill Portrait Painting?
While some viewed photography as a competitor for their customers, Dutch portrait painters reaped the benefits of the emerging medium.