Gainsborough and Co.’s Best Portraits
As I was flipping through some of my art history materials lately, I came upon a realization: British portraits of the late 18th century are actually some of the most entertaining things ever. Why? Well, around that time, Neoclassicism and Romanticism began to take root in Great Britain, and painters continued to create portraits of their […]
Sandcastles: A New Kind of Sculpture?
What better way to test you (and your kids’) skills at sculpting than building the perfect sandcastle? At the beach, sand is free and sandcastles are relatively easy to build. The Guardian and Redbook even have step-by-step foolproof guides to building the perfect sandcastle, if you really want to impress the other beachgoers. To a […]
The 6 Best Renaissance Babies
During a recent Internet binge, I came across this lovely article on Buzzfeed featuring ugly Renaissance babies. Which makes sense. Not every Renaissance artist was a da Vinci. And so, inspired by both Buzzfeed and the original uglyrenaissancebabies on Tumblr, I decided to make my own list of the best Renaissance babies. And by best I […]
French Art for Bastille Day!
*cue La Marseillaise* Happy Bastille Day from the Art Docent Program! Bastille Day marks the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille prison in Paris, France, and is basically France’s independence day. So, in the spirit of the day, we’ve decided to celebrate by looking at a small few of the many great art pieces done […]
Get Closer to van Eyck
You’ve probably heard of Jan van Eyck, famed artist of the Northern Renaissance in the Low Countries. Even if you haven’t heard of him, you’ve probably seen reproductions of his work, which includes such pieces as the Ghent Altarpiece and The Arnolfini Portrait (you know, the one where the guy looks like Vladimir Putin). […]
Art for the Fourth of July
In the spirit of the Fourth of July, I’ve decided to honor some of the greatest American paintings. Rather than create a dry, unfeeling catalog of works listed alphabetically (which would take forever, because there are actually a lot of really great American paintings), I’ve done something a bit different, inspired by this list on […]
Veronese Meets Monty Python
First, watch this Monty Python sketch. Because Monty Python, that’s why. Awesome, as usual. But did you know that this sketch was probably actually based on true events concerning the painter Paolo Veronese and his 1573 painting Feast in the House of Levi? Here’s what happened: Veronese was commissioned to paint a Last Supper to adorn the wall of […]
10 Caravaggio Paintings Better Than Any Reaction Image
You’ve probably heard of Caravaggio, the Italian Baroque painter whose particular style of painting spread throughout Europe like wildfire. But have you ever considered the fact that many of his paintings make excellent reaction images? In the spirit of countless Buzzfeed articles (including this Napoleon Dynamite-inspired compilation) in which classical art proves that it’s still […]
Rubens for #fancyfriday
This Friday, our #fancyfriday champ is none other than Peter Paul Rubens! His Self-Portrait with Isabella Brandt not only shows off the couple’s style, but their #flawless relationship as well. Rubens married Isabella Brandt in 1609 when he had just accepted a position in Antwerp as a court painter to the Habsburg rulers of Flanders. […]
Classic Paintings in Disney’s “Frozen”
Disney artists are some of the best in the business. As we’ve seen with my post discussing The Little Mermaid, somebody at Disney is a bigger art history geek than the rest and takes the time to carefully insert huge art history Easter eggs into their films. And much to my delight, the multi-billion-dollar blockbuster Frozen doesn’t escape […]