Skip to content
Back Home
Smarthistory Logo
  • About
      • ABOUT SMARTHISTORY
      • What is Smarthistory?
      • Who is Smarthistory?
      • Is Smarthistory reliable?
      • Museum and institutional partners
      • Major donors
      • Press coverage
      • Our blog
      • Give us feedback
      • Contact us

      • At Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background.

        With 503 contributors from 201 colleges, universities, museums, and research centers, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world.

  • For Learning
      • ART HISTORIES
      • Start here
      • Prehistoric
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
      • Medieval Europe + Byzantine
      • The Islamic World
      • Europe 1300–1800
      • Europe 1800–1900
      • Pacific Islands
      • Modernisms 1900–1980
      • Art since 1980
      • TOPICS & COURSES
      • Art Appreciation
      • AP® Art History
      • A-Level Art History
      • History of photography
      • Creating and conserving
      • Understanding museums
      • Oppression and resistance in art
      • Illness, plagues, and pandemics in art
      • See all short courses
      • SPECIAL PROJECTS
      • The U.S. Civil War in Art
      • Seeing America
      • ARCHES: At-risk Cultural Heritage
      • Expanding the Renaissance
      • Across Cultures
      • Virtual Visits
  • Books
      • SMARTHISTORY BOOKS
      • Reframing Art History, a new kind of textbook
      • Guide to Byzantine Art
      • Guide to Ancient Roman Art
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 1 (#1–47)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 2 (#48–98)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 3 (#99–152)
      • See complete collection of titles
      • NEW TITLES
        • reframing art history cover smReframing Art History
          a new kind of textbook
        • Byzantine cover jpgGuide to Byzantine art
  • For Teaching
      • TOOLS FOR TEACHING
      • All content for teaching
      • Webinars past & present
      • Teaching with images: K-12
      • Syllabi
      • Do-it-yourself tools
        • UPCOMING EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Check back for upcoming events

        • PAST EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Apr.06.2022

            The Kaaba with Dr. Nancy Demerdash

  • Support
      • SUPPORT SMARTHISTORY
      • Donate
      • Contribute an essay

      • We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free.

  • Search
Search

All Results

Generic filters
Search in excerpt
Search

over here

Europe
1300 – 1800

Browse this content
Beginner's guide to the Early Modern period
Classic, classical, and classicism explained
Printmaking in Europe, c. 1400−1800
A beginner's guide to the Renaissance
Browse this topic
Expanding the Renaissance: a Smarthistory initiative
Tiny timeline: global Europe
The Medieval and Renaissance Altarpiece
Patrons and patronage
Why commission artwork during the renaissance?
Types of renaissance patronage
Artists and workshops
The Italian renaissance court artist
Female artists in the renaissance
The role of the workshop in Italian renaissance art 
Images of African Kingship, Real and Imagined
A primer for Italian renaissance art
Humanism in renaissance Italy
Humanism in Italian renaissance art
Introduction to gender in renaissance Italy
An introduction to the renaissance nude
Sex, Power, and Violence in the Renaissance Nude
Confronting power and violence in the renaissance nude
Materials and Techniques
Gold-ground panel painting
Quarrying and carving marble
Carving marble with traditional tools
Renaissance Watercolours: materials and techniques
Italy and Spain in the 14th century:
Late Gothic
Browse this content
A beginner's guide
Browse this content
Introduction to Late Gothic art
Distorting the Madonna in Medieval art
The Black Death
The conservator’s eye: Taddeo Gaddi, Saint Julian
Remaking a fourteenth-century triptych
Florence
Browse this content
A beginner's guide
Florence in the Late Gothic period, an introduction
Dante’s Divine Comedy in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance art
Cimabue
Virgin and Child Enthroned, and Prophets (Santa Trinità Maestà)
Santa Trinita Madonna and Child Enthroned
Cimabue and Giotto compared
Giotto
The Ognissanti Madonna and Child Enthroned
St. Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata
Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel
The Arena Chapel (and Giotto’s frescos) in virtual reality
Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 1 of 4)
Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 2 of 4)
Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 3 of 4)
Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 4 of 4)
The Entombment of Mary
A rare embroidery made for an altar at Santa Maria Novella
Laudario of Sant’Agnese
Andrea Pisano, Reliefs for the Florence Campanile
The Ponte Vecchio (“Old Bridge”) in Florence
Siena
Browse this content
Siena in the Late Gothic, an introduction
Duccio
Maestà
Heaven on earth— The Rucellai Madonna
The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea
Ambrogio Lorenzetti
Palazzo Pubblico frescos: Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government
Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
Pietro Lorenzetti, Birth of the Virgin
Simone Martini
Annunciation
Maestà
Saint Louis of Toulouse
Pisa, Pistoia and Rome
Browse this content
Nicola Pisano, Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery, and Giovanni Pisano, Slaughter of the Innocents, Pulpit, Sant'Andrea church, Pistoia (Italy)
Giovanni Pisano, Pisa Pulpit
Pietro Cavallini, The Last Judgment
Spain
Ferrer Bassa and the murals of Pedralbes
The Prato Haggadah
Hebrew Bible
Elisha ben Abraham Cresques and the Farhi Bible
Catalan Atlas
Italy in the 15th century:
Early Renaissance
Browse this content
A beginner's guide
Browse this content
How to recognize Italian Renaissance art
Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Italian Altarpiece
The study of anatomy
Contrapposto explained
Alberti’s revolution in painting
Linear perspective
Linear Perspective: Brunelleschi’s Experiment
How one-point linear perspective works
Early applications of linear perspective
Central Italy
Browse this content
Florence in the Early Renaissance
Painting
Gentile da Fabriano
Adoration of the Magi
Adoration of the Magi (reframed)
Masaccio
Virgin and Child Enthroned
The Holy Trinity
Tribute Money and Expulsion, Brancacci Chapel
Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden in the Brancacci Chapel
Fra Angelico
The Annunciation and Life of the Virgin (c. 1426)
The Annunciation (c. 1438-47)
Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano
Fra Filippo Lippi
Madonna and Child with Two Angels
Portrait of a Man and Woman at a Casement
Fra Filippo Lippi, The Adoration
Benozzo Gozzoli, The Medici Palace Chapel frescoes
Filippino Lippi’s Madonna and Child, an early image of enslaved people in renaissance Florence
Domenico Veneziano, Saint Lucy Altarpiece
Antonio Pollaiuolo, Battle of Ten Nudes or (Battle of Nude Men)
Ghirlandaio, Life of the Virgin
Cassone with the Conquest of Trebizond
Sandro Botticelli
La Primavera (Spring)
Primavera (Spring) with Eike Schmidt
The Birth of Venus
Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici
Fashion and a Portrait of a Young Woman
Dissecting Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi
Mariko Mori on Botticelli’s The Annunciation
Perugino
Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter
Perugino, Decemviri Altarpiece
Perugino & Napoleon’s appropriation of Italian cultural treasures
Piero della Francesca
The Baptism of Christ
Flagellation of Christ
Resurrection
The Resurrection
Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino
Luca Signorelli, The Damned Cast into Hell
Sculpture and architecture
Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac
Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, East Doors of the Florence Baptistry
Filippo Brunelleschi
Old Sacristy, San Lorenzo
Dome of the Cathedral of Florence
Pazzi Chapel
Santo Spirito
Orsanmichele and Donatello's Saint Mark, Florence
Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints
Donatello
St. Mark
Saint George
Feast of Herod
Madonna of the Clouds
David
Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata
Mary Magdalene
Andrea della Robbia’s bambini at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence
Leon Battista Alberti
Palazzo Rucellai
Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Sant'Andrea, Mantua
Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici
Northern Italy: Venice, Ferrara, and the Marches
Browse this content
A beginner's guide
Browse this content
Venetian art, an introduction
Oil paint in Venice
Devotional confraternities (scuole) in Renaissance Venice
Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius): inventor of the modern book
Venetian glass, an introduction
Saving Venice
Venetian architecture
Ca’ d’Oro
Palazzo Ducale
Carlo Crivelli
Do you speak Renaissance? Carlo Crivelli, Madonna and Child
The Annunciation with Saint Emidius
Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II
Giovanni Bellini
St. Francis in the Desert (or St. Francis in Ecstasy)
Brera Pietà
San Giobbe Altarpiece
San Zaccaria Altarpiece
Giovanni Bellini and Titian,The Feast of the Gods
Vittore Carpaccio, Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Rialto Bridge, and Black gondoliers
Andrea Mantegna
St. James Led to his Execution
San Zeno Altarpiece
Saint Sebastian
Dormition (or Death) of the Virgin
Camera Picta (Camera degli Sposi)
Dead Christ
Pisanello, Leonello d’Este
Sala dei Mesi (Hall of the Months) at Palazzo Schifanoia
Cosmè Tura, Roverella Altarpiece
Guido Mazzoni
Mazzoni and Renaissance Emotions
Lamentation in Ferrara
Head of a Man
Italy in the 16th century:
High Renaissance and Mannerism
Browse this content
A beginner's guide
Toward the High Renaissance, an introduction
The Sack of Rome in 1527
Mannerism, an introduction
Renaissance woman: Isabella d’Este
The Medici collect the Americas
Medici porcelain, a failed experiment
Preparatory drawing during the Italian renaissance, an introduction
Galileo Galilei
Galileo and the science of nature
Central and Northern Italy
Browse this content
Nicola da Urbino, a dinner service for a duchess
Verrocchio, David with the Head of Goliath
Leonardo da Vinci
About Leonardo
Leonardo's Letter to the Duke of Milan
Leonardo: Anatomist
Leonardo and his drawings
Adoration of the Magi
The Virgin of the Rocks
The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist (Burlington House Cartoon)
Last Supper
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa (from HENI Talks)
Michelangelo
Tiny timelines: Michelangelo in context
About Michelangelo
Who was Michelangelo?
Pietà
David
The many meanings of Michelangelo’s David
The Tomb of Pope Julius II
Unfinished business—Michelangelo and the Pope
Slaves
Moses
Taddei Tondo
The Sistine Chapel & Michelangelo
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel
Medici Chapel (New Sacristy)
Laurentian Library
Replicating Michelangelo
Raphael
Raphael, an introduction
Marriage of the Virgin
Madonna of the Goldfinch
La belle jardinière (Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist)
School of Athens
The Alba Madonna
Portrait of Pope Julius II
Galatea
Pope Leo X
Donato Bramante
Tempietto, Rome
Saint Peter’s Basilica
Jacopo Pontormo, Entombment (or Deposition from the Cross)
Parmigianino
Madonna of the Long Neck
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
Rosso Fiorentino, The Dead Christ with Angels
Benvenuto Cellini
Salt Cellar
Perseus with the Head of Medusa
Sofonisba Anguissola
Self-Portraits
Infanta Catalina Micaela with a Marmoset
Bronzino
An Allegory with Venus and Cupid
Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo with her son Giovanni
A chapel for Eleonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence 
Giambologna, Abduction of a Sabine Woman
Venice
Browse this content
Beginner's guide
Greek painters in renaissance Venice
Synagogues in the Venetian Ghetto
Giorgione
The Tempest
Three Philosophers
The Adoration of the Shepherds
Titian
Pastoral Concert
Noli me Tangere
Assumption of the Virgin
Madonna of the Pesaro Family
Bacchus and Ariadne
Titian, Isabella d’Este (Isabella in Black)
Two portraits of Pietro Aretino
Venus of Urbino
Christ Crowned with Thorns
Diana and Actaeon
Titian and Jacopo Palma il Giovane, Pietà
Correggio
Jupiter and Io
Assumption of the Virgin
Paolo Veronese
The Family of Darius before Alexander
 The Dream of Saint Helena
Feast in the House of Levi
Transcript of the trial of Veronese
Jacopo Tintoretto
The Miracle of the Slave
The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark
The Origin of the Milky Way
Last Supper
Andrea Palladio
La Rotonda
Teatro Olimpico
Northern Europe in the 15th century:
Northern Renaissance
Browse this content
A beginner's guide
Browse this content
The Medieval and Renaissance Altarpiece
An introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the fifteenth century
Introduction to Fifteenth-century Flanders
Introduction to Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century
Northern Renaissance art under Burgundian rule
The role of the workshop in late medieval and early modern northern Europe
Biblical Storytelling: Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Altarpiece
The Norfolk Triptych and how it was made
Burgundian and adjacent territories
Browse this content
Fit for a duke: Broederlam’s Crucifixion Altarpiece
Claus Sluter and Claus de Werve
The Well of Moses
Mourners
Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg
Limbourg brothers, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry
Campin and his workshop
Robert Campin, Christ and the Virgin
Workshop of Robert Campin, Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)
Jan van Eyck
The Ghent Altarpiece
Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (Self-Portrait?)
The Madonna in the Church
The Arnolfini Portrait
The question of pregnancy in Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait
Petrus Christus
A Goldsmith in his Shop
Portrait of a Young Woman
Rogier van der Weyden
Deposition
Crucifixion Triptych
The Last Judgment
The Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist Mourning
Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin
Hugo van der Goes
Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece
Hugo van der Goes, The Adoration of the Kings (Monforte Altar)
Hans Memling, Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove
The Holy Thorn Reliquary of Jean, duc de Berry
England, France, and Tyrol
Browse this content
England
The Harrowing of Hell
France
Portraits of Christine de Pizan in The Queen’s Manuscript
Christine de Pizan and a City of Ladies
Enguerrand Quarton(?), Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
The Unicorn Tapestries
Tyrol
Michael Pacher, St. Wolfgang Altarpiece
Baltic region
Hermen Rode, Saints Nicholas and Victor Altarpiece
St. George and the Dragon, Storkyrkan Stockholm
Northern Europe in the 16th century:
Renaissance and Mannerism
Browse this content
An introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the sixteenth century
Inventing “America” for Europe: Theodore de Bry
Theodor de Bry, “Their sitting at meate”
Johannes Stradanus and Theodoor Galle, “The Discovery of America”
Netherlands
Browse this content
Hieronymus Bosch
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Last Judgment Triptych
Gerard David, The Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor
Jan Gossaert, Saint Luke Painting the Madonna
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Dutch Proverbs
The Tower of Babel
Hunters in the Snow (Winter)
Peasant Wedding
Pieter Aertsen, Meat Stall
Bernard van Orley and Pieter de Pannemaker, The Last Supper
Boxwood pendant miniature in wood and feathers
Germany and England
Browse this content
Albrecht Dürer
Who was Albrecht Dürer?
The Triumphal Arch
Self-portrait, Study of a Hand and a Pillow (recto); Six Studies of Pillows (verso)
Self-Portrait (1498)
Self-portrait (1500)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Large Piece of Turf
Adam and Eve
This isn’t just an engraving of Adam and Eve from 1504. It’s a global ad campaign
Melencolia I
Decoding art: Dürer’s Melencolia I
What is Melencolia?
The Four Apostles
Dürer's woodcuts and engravings
Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, Saint Maurice
Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
Adam and Eve
Cupid complaining to Venus
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Hans Holbein the Younger
About Hans Holbein the Younger
 The Ambassadors
The Merchant Georg Gisze
Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan
Albrecht Altdorfer, The Battle of Issus
Gerhard Emmoser, Celestial globe with clockwork
Portraits of Elizabeth I: Fashioning the Virgin Queen
Hunters in a Landscape tapestry
The conservator’s eye: a stained glass Adoration of the Magi
Conservation: portrait miniatures
Conserving the Wolsey Angels
France
The Gallery of Francis I at Fontainebleau (and French Mannerism)
Follower of Bernard Palissy, rustic platter
Reformation & Counter-Reformation
Browse this content
The Protestant Reformation
Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 1 of 4): Setting the stage
Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 2 of 4): Martin Luther
Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 3 of 4): Varieties of Protestantism
Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 4 of 4): The Counter-Reformation
The Council of Trent and the call to reform art
Henry VIII and the Reformation
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
Iconoclasm in the Netherlands in the Sixteenth Century
Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries:
Renaissance
Browse this content
Beginner's guide
Renaissance in Spain, an introduction
The Rise and Fall of the Avis Dynasty in Portugal, an introduction
15th century
Fifteenth-century Spanish painting, an introduction
The Master of Belmonte, St. Michael Defeats the Devil
The Morata Master, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin
The Sopetrán Lamentation in wood
Bartolomé Bermejo, Piedad with Canon Lluís Desplà
Gil de Siloé
Saint James the Greater
Tomb of Juan II of Castile and Isabel of Portugal
Façade of San Gregorio, Valladolid
Treasure from Spain, lusterware as luxury
Royal monastery of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
16th century
Juan de Flandes
A miraculous appearance for a queen: Christ Appearing to His Mother
Marriage at Cana
The Cantino Planisphere
Alonso Berruguete
Apostle or Saint, bringing the figure to life
Abraham and Isaac
Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina, Head of Christ
The Tower of Belém
Belém Monstrance
Gold S. Vincente of João III
Alejo Fernández, The Virgin of the Navigators
University of Alcalá de Henares
Sacred geometry in a mudéjar-style ceiling
El Escorial
El Greco
Burial of the Count Orgaz
View of Toledo
Adoration of the Shepherds
17th century:
Baroque
Browse this content
A beginner's guide
Browse this content
Baroque art, an introduction
How to recognize Baroque art
Introduction to the Global Baroque
What is genre painting?
Francis Bacon and the Scientific Revolution
Browse this content
Italy
Restoring ancient sculpture in Baroque Rome
Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Pluto and Proserpina (or The Rape of Proserpina)
Pope Paul V
David
Apollo and Daphne
Baldacchino, Saint Peter's
Bust of Medusa
Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
Cathedra Petri (Chair of St. Peter)
St. Peter's Square
Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, Rome
Francesco Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome
Annibale Carracci, Christ Appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way
Caravaggio
Narcissus at the Source
Calling of St. Matthew
The Conversion of St. Paul (or The Conversion of Saul)
Crucifixion of St. Peter
The Supper at Emmaus
Deposition (or Entombment)
Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness by Caravaggio
Death of the Virgin
Caravaggio and Caravaggisti in 17th-century Europe
Guido Reni, Aurora
Artemisia Gentileschi
Judith Slaying Holofernes
Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
Conversion of the Magdalene
Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding her Thigh
Guercino, St. Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin
Il Gesù, Rome
Andrea Pozzo
Glorification of Saint Ignatius
St. Ignatius Chapel, Il Gesù, Rome
The altar tabernacle, Pauline Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome
Pierre Le Gros the Younger, Stanislas Kostka on His Deathbed
Spain and Portugal
Browse this content
A Still Life of Global Dimensions: Antonio de Pereda’s Still Life with Ebony Chest
Juan Sanchez de Cotán, Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber
Diego Velázquez
The Waterseller of Seville
Los Borrachos (The Drunks), also known as The Triumph of Bacchus
Vulcan's Forge
The Surrender of Breda
Juan de Pareja
Las Meninas
Francisco de Zurbarán, The Martyrdom of Saint Serapion
Jusepe de Ribera, The Martyrdom of Saint Philip
Juan Martínez Montañés and Francisco Pacheco, Christ of Clemency
Pedro de Mena, Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa
Juan Martínez Montañés, St. John the Baptist
The Abduction of Helen Tapestry
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables
Josefa de Óbidos, Christ Child as Salvator Mundi
Jerónimo de Balbás, Altar of the Kings (Altar de los Reyes)
Flanders
Browse this content
Peter Paul Rubens
Mulay Ahmad
Elevation of the Cross
The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus
The Presentation of the Portrait of Marie de' Medici
Arrival (or Disembarkation) of Marie de Medici at Marseilles
The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de’ Médici
Venus, Mars and Cupid
The Consequences of War
Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower
Anthony van Dyck
Charles I at the Hunt
Samson and Delilah
Dutch Republic
Browse this content
Why make a self-portrait?
Van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck
Fashioning luxury from a coconut cup
Osias Beert, Still Life with Various Vessels on a Table
Anthony van Dyck, Self-Portrait as Icarus with Daedalus
Frans Hals
Singing Boy with Flute
Malle Babbe
The Women Regents
Willem Claesz. Heda, Still Life with Glasses and Tobacco
Rembrandt
The Artist in His Studio
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
The Night Watch
Self-Portrait with Saskia
Girl at a Window
Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses
Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
Bathsheba at Her Bath
Abraham Francen
Self-Portrait (1659)
Self-Portrait with Two Circles
The Jewish Bride
Christ Preaching (Hundred Guilder Print)
Judith Leyster
The Proposition
Self-Portrait
Early Dutch Torah Finials
Michaelina Wautier, The Five Senses
Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Silver Ewer
Gerrit Dou, A Woman Playing a Clavichord
Johannes Vermeer
The Glass of Wine
Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
Woman Holding a Balance
Girl with a Pearl Earring
The Art of Painting
Saenredam, Interior of Saint Bavo, Haarlem
Jan Steen, Feast of St. Nicholas
Jacob van Ruisdael
View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
The Jewish Cemetery
Andries Beeckman, The Castle of Batavia and Dutch colonialism
Porcelain, gold, and the Dutch East India Company
Rachel Ruysch
Fruit and Insects
Flower Still-Life
Jan van Huysum, Vase with Flowers
Conserving Jacob van Walscapelle’s Flowers in a Glass Vase
Huis ten Bosch (House in the Woods)
The Great Atlas, Dutch edition
The Town Hall of Amsterdam
Delftware
A Dutch doll house
France and England
Browse this content
France
Nicolas Poussin
Et in Arcadia Ego
Landscape with Saint John on Patmos
Antoine or Louis Le Nain, Peasant Family in an Interior
Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV
Louis le Vau, André le Nôtre, and Charles le Brun, Château de Versailles
Claude Perrault, East façade of the Louvre
England
Anthony van Dyck
Charles I with M. de St. Antoine
Equestrian Portrait of Charles I
Charles I as art collector
John Michael Wright, The Coronation Portrait of Charles II
The Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace
Different Places: Japanese porcelain with English gilt-bronze mounts
Wooldridge, Indians of Virginia
c. 1700 - 1775:
Rococo
Browse this content
Rococo art, an introduction
The Formation of a French School: the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture
Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera
François Boucher, Madame de Pompadour
The Tiepolo Family
Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait with her Daughter
Madame Perregaux
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Swing
The Progress of Love: The Meeting
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Village Bride
Bernard II van Risenburgh, Writing table
Architecture in 18th-century Germany
Joachim Michael Salecker, Cup with cover with Hebrew inscriptions
Maria Sibylla Merian, an introduction
Central and Eastern Europe in the 17th–18th century
The Gwoździec Synagogue
Britain in the 18th century
Browse this content
Wren, Saint Paul’s Cathedral
William Hogarth
A Rake's Progress
Marriage a-la-Mode
Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews
Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery
Sir Joshua Reynolds
Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons
Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse
Portrait of Syacust Ukah
William Hoare, A Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo
Josiah Wedgwood: Tycoon of Taste
Wedgwood factory, The Pegasus Vase
Mary Delany and cut flowers
A map of Kolkata in 1785
Late 18th century:
Neoclassicism
Browse this content
Neoclassicism, an introduction
The Age of Enlightenment, an introduction
Jacques-Louis David
Oath of the Horatii
The Death of Socrates
The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons
Study for The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons
The Death of Marat
The Intervention of the Sabine Women
Napoleon Crossing the Alps
The Emperor Napoleon in His Study in the Tuileries
Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures
Anne-Louis Girodet, The Sleep of Endymion
Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine
Antonio Canova
Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorious
Penitent Magdalene
Pierre-Alexandre Barthélémy Vignon, Church of La Madeleine
Jacques-Germain Soufflot, The Panthéon (Church of Ste-Geneviève), Paris
J. Schul, Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom 
Spain and Portugal in the 18th century
Browse this content
Portraits of Francisca Ramírez de Laredo and Antonio de Ulloa
Carlos Julião, watercolor manuscript

The many meanings of Michelangelo’s David

by TED-Ed

Video from TED-Ed. Speaker: James Earle.

Cite this page as: TED-Ed, "The many meanings of Michelangelo’s David," in Smarthistory, February 1, 2016, accessed December 9, 2022, https://smarthistory.org/the-many-meanings-of-michelangelos-david/.

Flickr IconBrowse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning! 

Sign up for our newsletter!

Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content.

Free world art history textbook!

minimize arrow icon close icon

Reframing Art History

more than 50 chapters

all written by more than 45 experts

Check out the entire textbook
New chapter! The arts of Africa, c. 18th–20th century Close

Smarthistory is a nonprofit organization

At Smarthistory we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.

  • Donate
  • Contact Us
facebook icon
twitter icon
instagram icon
youtube icon
flickr icon
  • About Smarthistory
  • Smarthistory’s blog
  • Contribute an essay
  • Content editors and contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

· © 2022 Smarthistory · Powered by · Designed with the Customizr theme ·