Everything seems so perfect... Hang on, what’s that in the foreground? And why is that lute string broken?
Location: National Gallery London
Gentile Bellini's portrait of Mehmed II has been re-interpreted and understood many times since it was produced nearly 550 years ago.
Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II
What are Persian carpets, a peacock, and a cucumber doing in a painting of The Annunciation?
Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciation with Saint Emidius
A portrait of the cultivated, but deeply flawed, politically inept, and unlucky King Charles I, who ended his days beheaded on a scaffold.
Anthony van Dyck, Equestrian Portrait of Charles ...
Van Eyck’s enigmatic and iconic double portrait often prompts the question: is the female figure pregnant?
The question of pregnancy in Jan van ...
Landscape painting was considered lowly subject, but Constable gives them the six-foot treatment.
John Constable, The Hay Wain
With its relaxed poses and outdoor setting, this portrait exemplifies the “conversation piece.” But is it finished?
Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews
The subject matter of this painting couldn’t be more traditional, but its formal characteristics make it modern.
Paul Cézanne, Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses)
Smooth talkers, vain aristocrats, disreputable doctors, unfaithful lovers—Hogarth’s moralizing takes no prisoners.
William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode
Hinged together, these two panels stage Richard II’s audience with the Virgin and Christ Child. Count the angels!
The Wilton Diptych
“As I can.” On the frame to this portrait, the painter humblebrags—and establishes his place in history.
Jan van Eyck, Portrait of a Man ...
Riddle me this. Bronzino’s allegorical painting is one of the most disturbing and curious in all of art history.
Bronzino, An Allegory with Venus and Cupid
The Italian city-states were constantly at war, but this battle is between surface decoration and deep space.
Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano
Who are all these people? As it turns out, confusion is just part of the narrative—as is observation.
Paolo Veronese, The Family of Darius before Alexander
Jupiter swoops down and brings Hercules to nurse at Juno’s breast. The milk that spurts up creates the Milky Way.
Jacopo Tintoretto, The Origin of the Milky Way
Don’t touch me! Titian’s ghostly Christ evades Mary Magdalene’s reach—and escapes her searching gaze.
Titian, Noli me Tangere
What a catch! Henry VIII reportedly kissed this likeness of Christina, but their marriage was not to be.
Hans Holbein the Younger, Christina of Denmark, Duchess ...
Is the pleasure worth the pain? At the Court of Saxony, an aristocratic woman vamps it up as Venus.
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Cupid complaining to Venus
In this solemn and precisely rendered scene, the material world reveals the spiritual. But what’s that angel up to?
Gerard David, The Virgin and Child with ...
Cool greens and warm golds meld on this seductive canvas. The great swirls of paint were a model for later artists.
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