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Art guide
The Trojan Horse and the Fall of Troy
The Trojan Horse paintings and the burning of Troy: Bramer's quarrel over the armour, Tiepolo's procession, Corinth's horse, Elsheimer and de…
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.
Latest articles
Art guide
Achilles in Paintings
The famous Achilles paintings in story order: Chiron, the girls of Skyros, the wrath of Achilles, the forge of Vulcan, the death of Hector and…
Art guide
Helen of Troy and the Judgement of Paris
The Trojan War before the war, painting by painting: the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the golden apple, the Judgement of Paris in Rubens, Cranach…
Art guide
Penelope, Argus and the Bow
The Penelope paintings and the homecoming of Odysseus: the dog Argus, the nurse and the scar, the loom, the bow no suitor could string and the bed…
Art guide
Circe, the Sirens and Calypso
The Circe paintings, the Sirens paintings and Calypso's island, painting by painting: Waterhouse, Rivière, Draper, Fuseli, Böcklin, Rubens and…
Art guide
The Odyssey in Paintings
Every famous painting of Homer's Odyssey, in story order. Part 1: the sacrifice of Iphigenia, Achilles, the Trojan Horse, the bag of winds and the…
Painting story
The Lady's Death by Hogarth
The last scene of Marriage A-la-Mode: in her father's house by old London Bridge the Countess has taken laudanum after reading of Silvertongue's…
Painting story
The Bagnio by Hogarth
The fifth scene of Marriage A-la-Mode: in a room at the Turk's Head bagnio after the masquerade, the Earl has drawn his sword on the lawyer and…
Painting story
The Toilette by Hogarth
The fourth scene of Marriage A-la-Mode: the old Earl is dead, the new Countess holds a morning levée while her hair is dressed, an Italian singer…
Painting story
The Inspection by Hogarth
The third scene of Marriage A-la-Mode: the Viscount brings a very young girl to a quack doctor's consulting room and complains that the pills have…
Painting story
The Tête à Tête by Hogarth
The second scene of Marriage A-la-Mode: it is twenty past noon, the Viscount has come home with a broken sword and a woman's cap in his pocket,…
Painting story
The Marriage Settlement by Hogarth
The first of Hogarth's six scenes of Marriage A-la-Mode: the Earl of Squander sells his son, a City Alderman buys a title, the money is already on…
Art guide
Marriage A-la-Mode Explained
Hogarth's Marriage A-la-Mode explained as one story in six rooms: the settlement, the morning after, the doctor, the levée, the bagnio and the…
Painting story
The Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau
The Sleeping Gypsy shows a wandering musician asleep on the desert sand under a full moon with her mandolin and water jar beside her, while a lion…
Painting story
Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin
Isle of the Dead shows a rowing boat carrying a coffin and a figure in white toward an island of pale rock and black cypresses, with tombs cut…
Painting story
Composition VIII by Wassily Kandinsky
Composition VIII arranges circles, triangles, ruled lines and a tilted chequerboard on a pale ground, with a great black and violet circle in a…
Painting story
The Triumph of Death by Bruegel
The Triumph of Death shows an army of skeletons overrunning a burning landscape and driving the living, king, cardinal, soldier, peasant and…
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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.
