Look at statues of the Virgin Mary, and they often show her with a foot on a snake. What has that to do with the Immaculate Conception? Rubens, Tiepolo and Caravaggio have the answer.
Caravaggio
Formerly a beautiful young woman, she was turned into a monster by Minerva, and painted by Caravaggio, Rubens, Klimt, and others.
A whirlwind trip through the history of compositional chiaroscuro, from the Renaissance, through Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi, to Rembrandt.
Tracing the social history of gambling in paintings by Bosch, Caravaggio, de La Tour, Salvator Rosa, Murillo, Hogarth, and others.
Not just superb paintings, but one of the great visual tropes of Western art, and one of the best wedding speeches ever.
A challenge to painters: a story of a gender-changing seer, a nymph who becomes no more than an acoustic effect, and a young man who dies of self-love.
Who or what exactly is Cupid? How did a mischievous and rather obese infant come to represent love?
Salome has become a femme fatale, the author of John the Baptist’s death, and a potent erotic symbol. But that was not the original story.
Why did it take over 300 years to solve a compositional problem, and tell such a simple story?
Wonderful paintings of a gruesome story: that of Judith and Holofernes, by Veronese, Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi.
