The Laudario of Sant'Agnese is one of the most important examples of early Renaissance illumination and it was decorated by two of the most sought-after workshops at the time.
Location City: Los Angeles
In picturing Sarah Siddons as the Muse of Tragedy, Sir Joshua Reynolds helped make an argument for women’s equal standing with that of men within the acting profession.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, Mrs. Siddons as the ...
How do you create perfectly straight edges in paint? See how Brazilian and Argentinian Concrete Artists did in this video from the Getty Museum
The Challenge of a Straight Line – ...
From the Getty Museum, discover how Brazilian Concrete Artists engaged with a rapidly industrializing culture by using the entire range of industrial paints developed in the 20th century
Painting in an Industrial Age – the ...
Discover how Argentine and Brazilian artists in the 1940s broke from linear perspective to create art in unique shapes, starting the Concrete Art movement.
Breaking the Frame – the Concrete Art ...
Beginning in 1973, Self Help Graphics and Art helped to redeploy the Mexican Día de Muertos for their neighborhoods in East Los Angeles to help the a Chicana/o and broader Latinx communities in the city.
Self Help Graphics and Art
A pair of lidded bowls in the J. Paul Getty Museum have had quite an exciting existence.
Different Places: Japanese porcelain with English gilt-bronze ...
The painting mocks humanity, as well as human beliefs and institutions, both civic and religious.
James Ensor, Christ’s Entry into Brussels in ...
Was this the first modern photograph? Alfred Stieglitz's The Steerage
The first modern photograph?
Finding heroism amidst one of the earth's most destructive environmental disasters
Sebastião Salgado’s Kuwait
Meet the two women behind this iconic 1936 photograph.
Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother
The majesty of Yosemite National Park — with Roger Minick and the woman with the scarf.
Roger Minick, Woman with Scarf at Inspiration ...
Building the American dream in the California desert.
Stéphane Couturier, Fenetre, Eastlake Greens, San Diego
Business or pleasure? Carlton Watkins could photograph both beautifully.
Carleton Watkins, Eagle Creek, Columbia River
The original image of the Virgin of Guadalupe was miraculously produced—this mother-of-pearl version was man-made.
Miguel González, The Virgin of Guadalupe
Straight from the horse’s mouth: the process of making a photograph, in the artist’s own words.
Ansel Adams: Visualizing a Photograph
These records tell us a great deal about the ancient world, with topics ranging from receipts to school assignments.
Cuneiform Tablets
Basquiat appropriated wildly—and creatively—from Old Masters, Picasso, anatomical textbooks, and even jazz.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Horn Players
Cropped figures, vivid hues, and unnatural light turn a humdrum pastoral scene into an act of aesthetic rebellion.
Paul Gauguin, The Red Cow
This painting claims it is not a pipe… so what is it?
Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!
