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Painting story
The Resurrection of Lazarus by Caravaggio
Christ points from the shadows as Lazarus’s stiff body is lifted from the grave: Caravaggio’s great altarpiece painted in exile in Messina.
Famous Paintings, Explained
The stories behind famous paintings, the painters who made them, and the movements that shaped them. Every work here can be recreated by hand in oil on canvas.
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Painting story
The Conversion of Saint Paul by Caravaggio
Saul falls from his horse as Christ reaches down from the sky: Caravaggio’s crowded first version, painted on wood and replaced in the chapel.
Painting story
Saint Jerome Writing by Caravaggio
An old scholar reaches across the table towards a skull: Caravaggio’s Saint Jerome Writing in the Galleria Borghese.
Painting story
David with the Head of Goliath by Caravaggio
A sorrowful David holds out the head of Goliath, whose face is widely read as Caravaggio’s own: a late work from his years in exile.
Painting story
Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio
Caravaggio shows the killing itself: Judith frowning at arm’s length, Holofernes screaming, an old maid waiting with the sack.
Painting story
The Calling of Saint Matthew
Christ points from the shadows and a beam of light crosses the wall: Caravaggio’s first public commission, still in its Roman chapel.
Painting story
Two Sisters (On the Terrace) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
A red hat, a flowered hat and a basket of wool on a terrace above the Seine at Chatou. The two models were not actually sisters.
Artist guide
Johannes Vermeer Paintings
Dutch Golden Age · Dutch · 1632 to 1675
Guide
10 Famous Artists and the Masterpieces That Defined Them
Meet 10 famous artists through the masterpieces that defined their work, with artist guides and hand-painted oil reproductions from ByMuseum.
Painting story
Farmhouse in Upper Austria by Gustav Klimt
A grey farmhouse half hidden behind a screen of leaves and a meadow of flowers: one of Klimt’s square summer landscapes from the Attersee.
Painting story
Water Serpents I by Gustav Klimt
Two women drift through a golden underwater world in Klimt’s Water Serpents I, painted with gold on parchment, now in the Belvedere in Vienna.
Painting story
Judith II (Salome) by Gustav Klimt
Klimt’s Judith of 1909, squeezed into a tall, narrow canvas: clawed hands, a cold profile and a severed head almost hidden at the edge.
Painting story
The Virgin by Gustav Klimt
A young woman sleeps under a blanket of flowers and spirals, surrounded by others between sleep and waking: Klimt’s late, colourful Virgin.
Painting story
The Friends by Gustav Klimt
Klimt’s late painting of two women close together in a world of red, destroyed by fire at Schloss Immendorf in 1945 and known today only from…
Painting story
Death and Life by Gustav Klimt
Explore Klimt’s Death and Life: the open-eyed woman, Death’s red club, the embracing figures and the changes revealed by an earlier version.
Painting story
Judith I by Gustav Klimt
Judith tilts her head back with half-closed eyes, a gold collar at her throat and Holofernes’s head at the edge: Klimt, 1901.
Painting story
Hope II by Gustav Klimt
A pregnant woman prays in a robe of red and gold while a skull peeks out at her waist: Klimt’s Vision, now known as Hope II.
Painting story
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt
Klimt’s Woman in Gold: a real face and nervous hands inside a field of gold and Egyptian eyes, and a long fight to win it back.
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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.
