What detail! Dürer studied the human body obsessively and spent four years working on this print. It shows.
A-Level: Plants in 2D or 3D works
Combining metallic curls with mottled color, Kôrin’s screens capture the pulsing vitality of early spring.
Ogata Kōrin, Red and White Plum Blossoms
Open this astonishing book and see how three brothers invented compositional devices to unite text and image.
Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg, The ...
This hippopotamus, found in a tomb, carries symbols of life and death, regeneration and chaos—why was it broken?
Standing Hippopotamus
These mass-produced structures brought a new kind of art from the homes of the Parisian elite into the streets.
Hector Guimard, Cité entrance, Métropolitain, Paris
Refusing to idealize, Constable fills his landscapes with the specificity of a fleeting summer day.
John Constable, View on the Stour near ...
An unassuming brick exterior belies the luminous mosaics within. In one, a young, beardless Christ tends his flock.
The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia
Step into a stunning painted garden that gives insight into the flora and fauna of ancient Rome.
Painted Garden, Villa of Livia
Made for a Christian ruler by Islamic artisans, this cloak is full of Islamic motifs and cosmological references.
Coronation Mantle
Adam and Eve have just been evicted from Paradise, and the grass was definitely greener on the other side.
Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden
An ancient, gnarled tree, not the shepherd at its base, is the protagonist of Friedrich’s landscape.
Caspar David Friedrich, Solitary Tree (or Lone ...
Get out your Pantone colors—and count the shades of green. With stunning precision, Dürer elevates humble ground.
Albrecht Dürer, The Large Piece of Turf
In this cycle, Fragonard indulges the viewer’s taste for theatre and pleasure. Subtly is in short supply!
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Progress of Love: The ...
Can we call a landscape painting “emo”? This brooding, melancholy canvas definitely tempts us to.
Washington Allston, Elijah in the Desert
Obsessed with this view, Monet paid the owner of the trees not to cut them down until he finished his paintings.
Claude Monet, Poplars
This is a creature so pure it can’t be caught—maybe that’s why the meaning of the tapestry eludes us.
The Unicorn Tapestries
A medieval abbey in ruins, within an ancient forest that predates—and will outlast—man’s creations.
Caspar David Friedrich, Abbey in the Oak Forest
This sentimental scene of a quiet moment of prayer in the fields reflects a nostalgia for religion in modern France.
Jean-François Millet, L’Angélus
Confused by this painting? Imagine lying on the grass under a tree and looking up.
Georgia O’Keeffe, The Lawrence Tree
Is that fear in his eyes? Saint Francis betrays human emotions as Giotto unites the earthly and heavenly realms.
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