Géricault’s massive canvas takes its format from history painting, but its subject is ripped from the headlines.
A-Level: The relationship between wo/man and nature in 2D or 3D works
The life-sized figures of Mary and Gabriel occupy an open porch—a space not unlike the cloisters of San Marco.
Fra Angelico, The Annunciation
What’s that dog yapping about? This mischievous woman throws caution—and her slipper—to the wind.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing
In the distance, lightning strikes. What does it mean? Poetic and evocative, this painting invites interpretation.
Giorgione, The Tempest
Cole feared for the American landscape as his country expanded westward.
Thomas Cole, The Hunter’s Return
In this hunting scene from the Persian Book of Kings, the ruler Bahram lives up to his nickname “Gur,” or swift.
Bahram Gur Fights the Karg (Horned Wolf)
Scenes show Nebamun’s family at work and play, giving vibrant insight into the lives of ancient Egyptian elites.
Paintings from the Tomb-chapel of Nebamun
In an ancient North African “rock city,” modern explorers wetted a wall with water—revealing this graceful image.
Running Horned Woman, Tassili n’Ajjer, Algeria
What detail! Dürer studied the human body obsessively and spent four years working on this print. It shows.
Albrecht Dürer, Adam and Eve
Was this the beginning of the end for David—or a new dawn? As far as portraits of Napoleon go, there’s none better.
Jacques-Louis David, Napoleon Crossing the Alps
Best known for their allegorical ceiling frescoes, this father-son team also produced cinematic prints.
The Tiepolo Family
This stone marker depicts an abstracted human. How should we interpret one of the Arabia’s earliest artifacts?
Anthropomorphic stele
With its fantastical setting and lovers’ dance, this painting introduced a new genre: the “fête galante.”
Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera
These three learned men differ in age, outlook, and dress. But do they represent religions, eras, or philosophies?
Giorgione, Three Philosophers
Seurat sought to bring science to the methods of Impressionism with new, methodical approaches to color.
Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte ...
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 ...
Degas is off to the races, where class issues are in the foreground.
Edgar Degas, At the Races in the Countryside
Suspended above the sea, the drama of this rescue scene comes from nature, not man.
Winslow Homer, The Life Line
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
Dalí’s forms are mirrored and doubled in this disconcerting painting, made in a state of “paranoiac critical activity.”
Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!
