From the elements of art to the great goddess Durga — Smarthistory is adding new content every week.
Prehistoric to contemporary
From the elements of art to the great goddess Durga — Smarthistory is adding new content every week.
Prehistoric to contemporary
Depicting his subject in motion was a departure from the norm, making this painting the talk of the town.
Now a bustling metropolis, Cairo was once the imperial city for the Fatimid caliphs and their entourage.
Cole’s extraordinary series chronicles each stage of human life: childhood, youth, manhood, and old age.
Inness captures a tension between industrial progress and its effect on the American landscape.
Turner’s sublime landscape relates to the ancient past to his 19th-century present.
A former orphan, Watson became a wealthy and influential man—after surviving a near-fatal shark attack.
An unusual double portrait: a botanist and his geranium.
Scholar Situ Panchen is portrayed in a long lineage of transmitters of the Karma Kagyu Buddhist tradition.
More than a replica of Mahabodhi Temple, this model symbolizes the most important event in the Buddha’s life: achieving enlightenment.
Filled with scrolls of Buddhist mantras, this prayer wheel boosts the merit of its user.
Filled with detailed illustrations of figures, buildings, and medicinal plants, this painting is meant to instruct medical students in Tibet.
Delicate red lines stand out against the shimmering golden surface of this painting of the Fifth Dalai Lama.