Ancient Greece in the heart of the Pope’s palace
If you’ve ever visited the Vatican City in Rome and walked through the decorated rooms of the Apostolic Palace, you’ll know how the profusion of art on display is overwhelming.
Visitors are led through room after room whose walls and ceilings are covered in immense fresco paintings. Four rooms in particular stand out, known as the Stanze di Raffaello (the ‘Raphael Rooms’). These are a suite of reception rooms decorated by the Italian painter Raphael and include his workshop of the early 16th century. …
Enter a small but perfectly formed world
This is a small painting, just over 30cm wide. Yet if you let your eyes move beyond the bare wood of the outer margins and enter the scene, it gradually takes on a much grander dimension.
In The Annunciation, Mary is visited by an angel in her private quarters. In the Christian tradition, the Annunciation describes the moment when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her that she would become the mother of Jesus Christ.
In the painting, a linen curtain has been drawn to one side, allowing us to see into Mary’s chamber whilst also telling us…
A melancholy contemplation of the presence of death in utopia
This painting, by the French artist Nicolas Poussin, shows four figures gathered around a tomb. They are pointing to an inscription carved in the stone. The inscription reads “Et in Arcadia Ego”, which can be translated as “Even in Arcadia, I am here”.
The setting is a landscape with trees in leaf and the sun is shining over groves and mountains. Notably there are no buildings in the image. The only construction is the stone tomb around which the four figures are gathered.
The manner in which the artist has rendered the scene can tell us much about the setting…
An intimate portrait by an American female Impressionist
The Child’s Bath shows a small child propped up on a woman’s lap — with the child’s feet being bathed in a bowl of water. One senses that the water is not cold but perhaps lukewarm so as not to sting the child’s toes.
The scene takes place within what could be a bedroom, with an olive-green chest of drawers and floral papered walls behind them. The carpet is made up of various shades of brown and red — perhaps it is a Persian rug. …
How this wistful depiction of the ancient temple tells a deeper story
The evening sun casts a golden light over the famous ruins of the Parthenon. Located at the Acropolis — an ancient citadel above the city of Athens — the Parthenon was built in the middle of the 5th century BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power.
The image was painted by Frederic Edwin Church, an American artist and member of the Hudson River School of landscape painters. This artistic fraternity recorded the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding mountain ranges, chronicling the disappearing wilderness and the expanding presence of modern civilization. …
A step on the path to abstract art and a brighter epoch
There is a story about Wassily Kandinsky, that one night in his studio in Munich, he happened to notice something strange about one of his works.
The painting was both recognisable and yet oddly changed, having been turned on its side. Kandinsky said that in this moment he saw a painting “of extraordinary beauty, glowing with an inner radiance.” The unexpected arrangement of colours impressed him and went on to provide a new inspiration for his own trajectory as a painter. Kandinsky — later referred to as the “Lord of Abstraction” — made good use of this happy accident.
What…
Open your mind to peripheral thinking
The idea of ‘peripheral’ thinking is this: instead of taking a torchlight to explore a darkened room, try taking a lamp.
When there’s so much advice encouraging us to be endlessly more productive and more focused, it’s difficult to hang onto the idea that creativity often works best when the mind is relaxed.
The peripheral mind allows light to spread outwards, not in a fine beam but in a broad illumination. …
An image of grandeur and eminence that describes Christ’s victory over death
This painting shows Christ rising again on the third day after his death. The event of the Resurrection is one of the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith.
The artist, Piero della Francesca, has pictured Christ stepping out of his Roman-style sarcophagus. Piero followed the artistic tradition of showing Jesus with one foot on the upper ledge, as if he is literally climbing out of his tomb. He would remain on earth for forty days until the Ascension — the Christian belief of Jesus’s bodily ascent into heaven.
In the painting, Christ stands upright watching us with a compelling gaze…
Sculptural revolution expressed by a twist in the human body
How does a person look when they are stood upright? In Egyptian sculpture, the answer to this question emphasised the natural symmetry of the human body. The “correct” way to view an Egyptian sculpture was front-on, in order to see the natural balance of the idealised human figure, with even shoulders, symmetrical arm and level hips.
These traits passed onto Greek sculpture. Yet one of the most interesting aspects of the development of Greek sculpture was the inception of a new type of posture. …
Tips on how to begin your studies into the history of art
A question that I get asked a lot is: “How do I get started in learning about art history?”
In my experience, most people who develop an interest in the history of art have usually had their curiosity kindled by a meaningful interaction with a single work of art or perhaps the work of a specific artist.
As this initial interest develops, they begin to read articles and browse through books. The kinship with the world of art deepens, but along with it comes a sense that the history of art is complicated, perhaps even confusing. …
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