When you get outside Paris, you will find Romanesque and Gothic churches of astounding beauty. In Paris, there's the Louvre, but make time for smaller museums, like the Musée Moreau and churches like Saint-Sulpice (where you can see newly-restored paintings by Delacroix).
Some background
videos + essays
Théodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa
Géricault’s massive canvas takes its format from history painting, but its subject is ripped from the headlines.
Amiens Cathedral
Above the entrance to Amiens, animated figures and flowing drapery attest to the increasing naturalism of Gothic sculpture in the 13th century.
Nike (Winged Victory) of Samothrace
On the island of Samothrace, the wind whipped the clothing of this stone goddess of victory.
The last work of Eva Hesse
Hesse proves that powerful, emotionally charged art doesn't have to be pretty.
A Byzantine vision of Paradise — The Harbaville Triptych
This ivory triptych was an object of prayer and a vision of paradise for Byzantine viewers following iconoclasm
Fashion and Politics in Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s Portrait of The Empress Eugénie surrounded by her Ladies-in-Waiting
Fashion's power to reveal the nuances of political power, gender, and ethnicity.
The cost of war: Delacroix, Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi
Delacroix's painting is about much more than the Greek War for Independence—it is a universal statement about the cost of war.
Peter Paul Rubens, The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de’ Médici
The painting is an overwhelming and learned piece of artistic propaganda.
Before the fire: Notre Dame, Paris
The total or partial destruction of churches by fire was a fairly common occurrence in medieval Europe.
Basilica of Saint-Sernin
Even almost 950 years after its construction was begun, St. Sernin remains a religious structure that awes and inspires the pilgrims who still visit.
The Gallery of Francis I at Fontainebleau (and French Mannerism)
Francis had great reason to emphasize his wealth and magnanimity. For years he had been at war with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, a gamble that continued to go poorly for the French king.
Eugène Delacroix, an introduction
Delacroix created dramatic images with an intensity of color and expression that no one else could match.
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