The Catalan Atlas reveals how one 14th-century Jewish mapmaker understood the political and ethnic realities of his world.
Location City: Paris
Napoleon masterfully manipulated his image, and this painting meant for Parisian audiences is pure propaganda.
Baron Antoine-Jean Gros, Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the ...
Delacroix's orientalist fantasy exhibited to great acclaim in the Paris Salon.
Delacroix, Women of Algiers in Their Apartment
The title of the photograph suggests that this image of lines and dots in wavy bands represents a walking soldier. But how?
Marey, Joinville Soldier Walking
On the island of Samothrace, the wind whipped the clothing of this stone goddess of victory.
Nike (Winged Victory) of Samothrace
Géricault’s massive canvas takes its format from history painting, but its subject is ripped from the headlines.
Théodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa
Hesse proves that powerful, emotionally charged art doesn't have to be pretty.
The last work of Eva Hesse
This ivory triptych was an object of prayer and a vision of paradise for Byzantine viewers following iconoclasm
A Byzantine vision of Paradise — The ...
The painting is an overwhelming and learned piece of artistic propaganda.
Peter Paul Rubens, The Apotheosis of Henry ...
The total or partial destruction of churches by fire was a fairly common occurrence in medieval Europe.
Before the fire: Notre Dame, Paris
This mask is a rare document of the Dada movement and an embodiment of the so-called “approximate man.”
Dada’s “Approximate Man”: A Portrait of Tristan ...
The fire that engulfed the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris was a terrible tragedy—though not an unusual one.
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris
This portrait of an unnamed woman speaks volumes about slavery, politics, and gender in revolutionary France.
Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine
Delacroix's unusual choice of scenes in these murals bewildered critics for over a century.
Eugène Delacroix, Murals in the Chapel of ...
A century before democracy was tested by social media gone rogue, Hausmann understood the dark side of technology.
Raoul Hausmann, Spirit of the Age: Mechanical ...
Such a tease! This ambiguous portrait plays psychological and optical games with the viewer.
Leonardo, The Mona Lisa
The subject takes control over the outdoor setting, expressing her independence in spite of limitations.
A summer day in Paris: Berthe Morisot’s ...
Picasso was a technically skilled draftsman—so why did he choose to take his forms apart?
Pablo Picasso and the new language of ...
In the suburbs, Parisians escaped the pressures of modern life. Monet painted their sun-drenched pleasures.
How to recognize Monet: The Basin at ...
Renoir wanted to forget everything he knew about how to paint so that he could render light as it really is.
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