The sculptor Martínez Montañés was the “God of Wood,” but it’s the painter Pacheco who brought this work to life.
Location Country: Spain
The severe exterior of this palace complex belies its highly decorative interior, once filled with art.
El Escorial, Spain
These statues of the Virgin and Child often held relics. Designed to be mobile, they starred in parades and plays.
“Throne of Wisdom” sculptures
Delicate and brightly colored, this statue from Spain combines elegance with solidity, the human with the divine.
Virgin from Ger
Wild! Everything seems transient in this otherworldly scene, but El Greco’s bold colors stay with us.
El Greco, Adoration of the Shepherds
Ribera depicts the moment before St. Philip’s death, yet the martyr’s body distorts and collapses before our eyes.
Jusepe de Ribera, The Martyrdom of Saint ...
With its sumptuous foliage and gold detail, this painting celebrates the decorative and captures the spiritual.
Fra Angelico, The Annunciation and Life of ...
Mantegna’s draped figures resurrect classical sculpture, but the landscape was from life—that’s Renaissance Mantua.
Andrea Mantegna, Dormition (or Death) of the ...
These frescoes covered the thick walls of a Romanesque church. Once isolated in the Pyrenees, they adorn a museum.
Circle of the Master of Pedret, The ...
Romanesque sculptors adorned the tops of columns with bible stories. These scenes are bold, emotional, and direct.
Historiated capitals, Church of Sant Miquel, Camarasa
This puzzling painting about painting is half genre scene, half family portrait. But what’s on the large canvas?
Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas
Goya depicts the king’s family in scintillating detail… but the sparkle of the monarchy is beginning to fade.
Francisco Goya, The Family of Charles IV
Don’t strike the messenger! Interrupted at his forge, a horrified Vulcan looks ready to hammer Apollo.
Diego Velázquez, Vulcan’s Forge
Velázquez lends immediacy and gritty realism to a mythological subject. We are right there, ready to partake.
Diego Velázquez, Los Borrachos (The Drunks), or ...
Goya’s taste in home décor is called into question by this cannibalistic meditation on the nature of power.
Francisco Goya, Saturn Devouring One Of His ...
No paint touched those gloves! This portrait advertises Dürer’s skill—both the work of his mind and of his hand.
Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait (1498)
You can taste the tears... Rogier captures grieving bodies with meticulousness and compositional rhythm.
Rogier van der Weyden, Deposition
Paintings of this size had historically exalted war, but this one suggests that war is anything but heroic.
Pablo Picasso, Guernica
One of art history’s most famous paintings, this scene remains mysterious. Are we outside at night, or in a chapel?
El Greco, Burial of the Count Orgaz
Care for some magic berries? This hallucinogenic landscape offers up a bizarre mix of creation and damnation.
