Items23The creator’s order
  1. 1Chartres CathedralChartres CathedralMovement: Gothic Gothic is easiest to grasp as a building problem, and Chartres shows the solution. After a fire in 1194 left little more than the west towers, facade and crypt, the main body was rebuilt by about 1220, fast for a medieval cathedral. Flying buttresses carry the weight of the high…0
  2. 2Arnolfini PortraitArnolfini PortraitMovement: Northern Renaissance While Italy was reviving ancient Rome, painters in Flanders chased the look of real things, down to the last bead. Jan van Eyck's small 1434 panel shows a richly dressed couple, probably an Italian merchant working in Bruges and his wife, in a private room. Oranges…0
  3. 3The School of AthensThe School of AthensMovement: Renaissance If you want one picture that sums up the Renaissance, this fresco in the Vatican is it. Raphael painted it around 1509 to 1511 for Pope Julius II, and it gathers the philosophers of ancient Greece under grand classical arches, with Plato and Aristotle at the center.…0
  4. 4Madonna with the Long NeckMadonna with the Long NeckMovement: Mannerism The title tells you what to look for. Parmigianino stretched the Virgin's neck, fingers and body because elegance mattered more to him than natural proportion, and the result looks almost too refined to be human. That deliberate strangeness is Mannerism in a nutshell:…0
  5. 5The Calling of Saint MatthewThe Calling of Saint MatthewMovement: Baroque Baroque art wants you inside the moment, and Caravaggio stages one like a scene in a dark tavern. Christ points from the shadows, and a hard beam of light cuts across the room to the tax collector Matthew at the table, catching him just as he is called. The deep contrast of black…0
  6. 6The Swing (Fragonard)The Swing (Fragonard)Movement: Rococo Rococo is art as a private joke among the rich, and The Swing is the one everybody knows. A young woman in a frothy pink dress swings high in a leafy garden while a smiling young man hidden in the bushes below looks up at her billowing skirts. Soft pastels, feathery brushwork,…0
  7. 7Oath of the HoratiiOath of the HoratiiMovement: Neoclassicism Put this next to The Swing and the change is instant. Three Roman brothers raise their arms to swear an oath to their father before going to fight for their city, while the women behind them collapse in grief. Crisp outlines, a shallow stage-like space, muted colors and a…0
  8. 8Wanderer Above the Sea of FogWanderer Above the Sea of FogMovement: Romanticism A lone man stands on a rocky peak with his back to us, staring out over a sea of fog and mountains. Because we never see his face, we step into his place and share his awe, a device painters call a figure from behind. Nature as something vast and overwhelming, and one…0
  9. 9A Burial at OrnansA Burial at OrnansMovement: Realism The shock here is the size. Courbet painted a plain village funeral in his hometown of Ornans, with real local people as the mourners, on a canvas more than 20 feet wide, a scale traditionally reserved for heroic history paintings. Shown at the Paris Salon of 1850 to 1851, it…0
  10. 10Impression, SunriseImpression, SunriseMovement: Impressionism This is the painting that named the movement. Monet painted the harbor of Le Havre at dawn in 1872 with quick, loose strokes: an orange sun, a few dark boats and a haze of blue fog, more a passing moment than a finished scene. When it was shown in Paris in 1874, the critic…0