Just published

From the elements of art to the great goddess Durga — Smarthistory is adding new content every week.

Prehistoric to contemporary

videos + essays

Attributed to Muqi, <em>Six Persimmons</em>
Attributed to Muqi, Six Persimmons

Rendered simply in tones of ink, Six Persimmons is a treasure of Zen Buddhist painting.

Warrior Krater
Warrior Krater

Painted soldiers decorate this ceramic vessel, marking a period of increased warfare in ancient Mycenae.

Cai Guo-Qiang, <em>Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard</em>
Cai Guo-Qiang, Venice’s Rent Collection Courtyard

Cai Guo-Qiang recreates and recontextualizes the socialist realist sculpture Rent Collection Courtyard.

Women in Roman art
Women in Roman art

Funerary reliefs and wall paintings help us to understand the daily lives of women across the Roman world.

Alice Aycock, <em>Low Building with Dirt Roof (For Mary)</em>
Alice Aycock, Low Building with Dirt Roof (For Mary)

A work of non-functional architecture, Aycock’s structure evokes personal memories and associations to the ancient past.

William F. Cogswell, <em>Queen Lili’uokalani</em>, and Maria Kealaulaokalani Lane Ena, ʻAhu ʻula (The Kalākaua Cape)
William F. Cogswell, Queen Lili’uokalani, and Maria Kealaulaokalani Lane Ena, ʻAhu ʻula (The Kalākaua Cape)

This royal portrait and cape convey the power of the Hawaiian monarchy and the tensions around the momentous historical events of 1898.

Mother, nation, icon: picturing territory and belonging in South Asia
Mother, nation, icon: picturing territory and belonging in South Asia

Bharat Mata or “Mother India” is a powerful political symbol that has come to embody the idea of the Indian nation and its territory.

Jonas Lie, <em>The Conquerors (Culebra Cut, Panama Canal)</em>
Jonas Lie, The Conquerors (Culebra Cut, Panama Canal)

Lie portrays man’s dominance over nature in his painting of the construction of the Panama Canal.

The New York Obelisk, Cleopatra’s Needle
The New York Obelisk, Cleopatra’s Needle

Why is this ancient Egyptian obelisk in New York City?

Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini, <em>Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria</em>
Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini, Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria

Bellini imagines Saint Mark preaching in a collage of different times and places: ancient Alexandria, 16th-century Venice, and the Ottoman Empire.

The Holy Thorn Reliquary of Jean, duc de Berry
The Holy Thorn Reliquary of Jean, duc de Berry

Jean, duc de Berry spared no expense for this dazzling reliquary containing a thorn from the Crown of Thorns.

Martin Puryear, <em>Lookout</em>
Martin Puryear, Lookout

Pierced with holes, this architectural sculpture offers both shelter from and exposure to the surrounding elements.