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Painting story
The Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck
The Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, completed in 1432: the Mystic Lamb, singing angels, Adam and Eve, and a history of thefts.
Painting Stories
The meaning and history of famous paintings: what they show, where the originals hang, and how each one is recreated by hand in oil on canvas.
Painting Analysis articles
Painting story
Saint Jerome in His Study by Jan van Eyck
Saint Jerome reads in a study crowded with books, an astrolabe and an hourglass, his lion asleep under the table: a tiny Van Eyck panel in Detroit.
Painting story
The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan van Eyck
A merchant and his wife in their room in Bruges, a convex mirror, a dog and a signature that reads like a witness’s note: Van Eyck, 1434.
Painting story
The Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Michelangelo Buonarroti
Michelangelo’s late fresco in the Pauline Chapel: Saint Peter, crucified upside down, turns to stare at the viewer as soldiers raise the cross.
Painting story
The Conversion of Saint Paul by Michelangelo Buonarroti
Christ plunges from heaven as an old Saul falls blinded and his soldiers scatter: Michelangelo’s late fresco in the Pauline Chapel.
Painting story
The Fall and Expulsion from Eden by Michelangelo
Michelangelo combines temptation and expulsion in one Sistine Chapel fresco, showing Adam and Eve before and after the choice that transforms…
Painting story
The Doni Tondo by Michelangelo Buonarroti
Mary twists to take the Christ child from Joseph, with nude youths behind: Michelangelo’s only undisputed panel painting.
Painting story
The Separation of Light from Darkness by Michelangelo Buonarroti
God twists through space dividing light from darkness, framed by four nude youths: the first scene of Genesis on the Sistine ceiling.
Painting story
The Prophet Isaiah by Michelangelo Buonarroti
Isaiah turns as if suddenly called, a finger in his closed book: one of Michelangelo’s prophets on the Sistine ceiling.
Painting story
The Deluge
Explore Michelangelo’s Deluge on the Sistine Chapel ceiling: families fleeing, fragile shelter, a carried body and Noah’s distant ark.
Painting story
The Last Judgment
Explore Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel: Christ, the flayed skin, rising souls, Dante’s Hell and the controversy over its nudes.
Painting story
The Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo Buonarroti
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted for Pope Julius II from 1508 to 1512, seen through its scene of the Creation of the Sun, Moon and…
Painting story
The Creation of Adam
Look beyond Michelangelo’s famous hands to the reclining Adam, approaching Creator and suspended moment on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Painting story
Monet’s Haystacks, End of Summer
Explore Monet’s 1891 Haystacks, End of Summer at the Musée d’Orsay: grainstacks, coloured shadows and the changing light of his series.
Painting story
Rouen Cathedral, Full Sunlight by Claude Monet
The west front of Rouen Cathedral dissolved into thick layers of sunlit paint: one of Monet’s more than thirty views of the same façade.
Painting story
Monet’s Japanese Footbridge
Explore Princeton’s 1899 Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge with detail crops, Giverny context and a guide to the pond’s shifting reflections.
Painting story
Women in the Garden by Claude Monet
Monet’s life-size attempt to paint figures outdoors in real sunlight, at Ville-d’Avray in 1866, refused by the Salon of 1867.
Painting story
La Grenouillere by Claude Monet
A bathing place on the Seine, its little island and floating café, painted by Monet beside Renoir in 1869 as Impressionism took shape.
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Curated collectionsOdyssey, Magic and Witchcraft, Famous Women, Landscapes and more.Artists A to ZEvery painter in the catalogue, with an archive of their works.Art movementsRenaissance to Expressionism: what defines each and who led it.Top 100 most famous paintingsThe ranked list, with the story behind every entry.
