From the elements of art to the great goddess Durga — Smarthistory is adding new content every week.
Prehistoric to contemporary
videos + essays
Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life
Cole’s extraordinary series chronicles each stage of human life: childhood, youth, manhood, and old age.
George Inness, The Lackawanna Valley
Inness captures a tension between industrial progress and its effect on the American landscape.
J.M.W. Turner, Snowstorm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps
Turner’s sublime landscape relates to the ancient past to his 19th-century present.
John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark
A former orphan, Watson became a wealthy and influential man—after surviving a near-fatal shark attack.
Rembrandt Peale, Rubens Peale with a Geranium
An unusual double portrait: a botanist and his geranium.
Situ Panchen
Scholar Situ Panchen is portrayed in a long lineage of transmitters of the Karma Kagyu Buddhist tradition.
Model of the Mahabodhi Temple
More than a replica of Mahabodhi Temple, this model symbolizes the most important event in the Buddha’s life: achieving enlightenment.
Handheld Prayer Wheel
Filled with scrolls of Buddhist mantras, this prayer wheel boosts the merit of its user.
Lobsang Drubjam Tsering, Medicine Buddha Palace
Filled with detailed illustrations of figures, buildings, and medicinal plants, this painting is meant to instruct medical students in Tibet.
The Fifth Dalai Lama Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (1617–1682) with Previous Incarnations
Delicate red lines stand out against the shimmering golden surface of this painting of the Fifth Dalai Lama.
The Bakócz Chapel, Esztergom Basilica
Shiny red marble covers the walls of this Italian Renaissance-style chapel in Hungary.
Ushnishavijaya and Celebration of Old Age (Jyatha Janko)
One of the ways that Newar culture celebrates elders is through this specially commissioned painting.
