These reliquary figures helped a nomadic society to honor their loved ones after death.
Location City: Boston
How to impress your courtiers: a lesson from the Kingdom of Benin
Benin Plaques
Discover what was found inside this 13th century sculpture
Prince Shōtoku at Age Two
In this example of ukiyo-e, the artist represents a modern woman in the guise of Komachi, a legendary poetess.
Utagawa Kunisada I, Visiting Komachi, from the ...
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), ...
Female painters were rare in sixteenth-century Italy. In self-portraits, Sofonisba made sure to appear virtuous.
Sofonisba Anguissola
Complete mayhem! The violent scenes of this remarkable handscroll meld grisly horror with morbid humor.
Night Attack on the Sanjô Palace
Well known in his own day as a silversmith, Revere is shown in casual attire, with a teapot brimming with meaning.
John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere
“Luminism” sounds like a subject at Hogwarts, but it actually describes landscape paintings like this one.
Fitz Henry Lane, Owl’s Head, Penobscot Bay, Maine
Rosso plays fast and loose with tradition, manipulating Christ’s body and transcending High Renaissance strictures.
Rosso Fiorentino, The Dead Christ with Angels
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
Can we call a landscape painting “emo”? This brooding, melancholy canvas definitely tempts us to.
Washington Allston, Elijah in the Desert
This marble relief is as flat as Tuscan bread, yet its atmospheric space recedes into depth. Extraordinary.
Donatello, Madonna of the Clouds
Homer’s fisherman just wants to bring his halibut safely to his ship—but as usual, nature is ruining everything.
Winslow Homer, The Fog Warning (or Halibut ...
This bat-human hybrid preceded the comic version by over a thousand years—move over, Bruce Wayne.
Mirror Pendant in the Form of a ...
Sargent studied the work of Velázquez, and those lessons paid off in this painting of a Bostonian’s daughters.
John Singer Sargent, The Daughters of Edward ...
This dramatic dance scene captures a moment in time on an enormous scale.
John Singer Sargent, El Jaleo
Copley was a highly-regarded portrait painter in Boston, but the city was inhospitable to his grander ambitions.
John Singleton Copley, A Boy with a ...
This serene statue of the pharaoh and the queen is from a temple of the Pyramid of Menkaure, undisturbed for millennia.