Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503-1519, oil on poplar wood, 30” x 21, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
This is arguably the most famous portrait in Western art; nevertheless, it remains shrouded in mystery, which may be the reason the image is so alluring. Of course, it also is appealing because it is a magnificent and beautiful object. … Continue reading
Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas, 9 ½” x 13", Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image from Koiart71 (Flickr) available under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
The Paranoid-Critical Method Many people are surprised to learn that this powerful work of art is somewhat small; it’s only a little larger than a sheet of notebook paper. It’s an intimate painting of an intimate subject. Dalí was a … Continue reading
© 2011 Sally Whitman Coleman, PhD. All rights reserved.
Everyone recognizes this lady who lost her arms. The heavy marble limbs probably fell off hundreds of years ago. She a big lady too, standing over six and a half feet tall. Because she was created in ancient Greece, probably … Continue reading
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and the Dying – Typhoon Coming On (The Slave Ship), 1840, oil on canvas, 35 ¼” x 48”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
The Romantic art movement in European art endured approximately sixty years, from the late eighteenth century until the middle of the nineteenth century. This horrific image by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner betrays this artist’s engagement with the … Continue reading
Chi Rho Iota page, The Book of Kells, c. 800, ink and pigments on vellum, 13” x 91/2”, Trinity College Library, Dublin. Attribution: By Meister des Book of Kells. Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.
The ninth century in early medieval western Europe was an age of monasticism, and this is arguably the most beautiful product from the era. It is the crowning achievement of Hiberno-Saxon art, which really means Irish-English art. Another word for … Continue reading