This video brought to you by Tate.org.uk. Curator David Brown explores the work of JMW Turner. Check out Turner Online for an in-depth look at the artist's life and work.
This video brought to you by Tate.org.uk. Curator Martin Myrone explores the work of William Blake. To learn more about Blake's life and work, check out our resource here.
“A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – 1884” by Georges Seurat is considered to be one of the most important 19th century paintings. It made its debut in 1886 at the 8th annual and final Impressionist exhibition in Paris and has been on display at the Art Institute of Chicago since the 1920s. Seurat’s unusual technique and the painting’s monumental scale opened the door for a more expansive European modernism. Find out more about what makes this painting a masterpiece with James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago. Video by Bank of America. Created by Smarthistory.
Ancestral Pueblo, Socorro black-on-white storage jar, c. 1050–100, clay and pigment, made in New Mexico, United States, 38.1 × 43.2 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art); speaker: Brian Vallo, Director, Indian Arts Research Center School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Created by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Met curator Carmen Bambach on the presence of genius in Michelangelo Buonarroti’s Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso), c. 1510–11. This is the most magnificent drawing by Michelangelo in the United States. A male studio assistant posed for the anatomical study, which was preparatory for the Libyan Sibyl, one of the female seers frescoed on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (Vatican Palace) in 1508-12. In the fresco, the figure is clothed except for her powerful shoulders and arms, and has an elaborately braided coiffure. Michelangelo used the present sheet to explore the elements that were crucial in the elegant resolution of the figure's pose, especially the counterpoint twist of shoulders and hips and the manner of weight-bearing on her toe. Recent research shows that this sheet of studies was owned by the Buonarroti family soon after Michelangelo's death. The "no. 21" inscribed on the verso of the sheet (at lower center) fits precisely into a numerical sequence found on many other drawings by the artist that have this early Buonarroti family provenance.
Met curator Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen on transience in Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Hair Ornament, c. 1904. Created by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Go behind the scenes with contemporary artist Wangechi Mutu, who discusses the inspiration and making of The NewOnes, will free Us, an exhibition of four sculpture that inaugurate The Met's annual facade commission, on view September 9, 2019, through January 12, 2020. © 2019 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Created by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hopi, White Ogre Tihu (Katsina Figure), c. 1900, cottonwood, pigment, cotton cloth, tanned leather, and metal, made in Arizona, United States, 47 × 15.2 × 17.8 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art); speaker: Brian Vallo, Director, Indian Arts Research Center School for Advanced Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico . Created by The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Artist Henri Rousseau painted The Dream in 1910, and it's imagery of a woman lounging on a sofa in the middle of a jungle was as surreal then as it is today. What is it about this artwork that captivated audiences then and now? By The Art Assignment.
All Saints Church, 7 Margaret Street, London. Architect: William Butterfield. Primary patrons: Alexander Beresford Hope and Henry Tritton. Designed 1849.
Hear Byzantine art historians Evan Freeman and Anne McClanan unlock the meanings of a marble sculpture from the past, showing an early Byzantine/Late Roman woman holding a scroll. Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection, 66.25.
Evan Freeman and Anne McClanan, PhDs in Byzantine Art History, here discuss a Byzantine chalice, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Acc. 1986.3.2). Video Editor: Anna Weltner This video is available CC BY 4.0 Here's info on the object from the Met's website: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/466136 Date: 500–650 Geography: Made in Attarouthi, Syria Culture: Byzantine Medium: Silver and gilded silver Dimensions: Overall: 9 11/16 × 6 9/16 in., 16.7oz. (24.6 × 16.7 cm, 474g) Diam. of foot: 3 15/16 in. (10 cm) Diam. of knop: 1 5/8 in. (4.1 cm) Capacity of cup: 2000 ml With a youthful Christ with a cruciform halo, a deacon saint with censer (probably Saint Stephen), a youthful saint with staff, the Virgin Mary in orant pose, a military saint in armor killing a dragon (Saint George ?), and a long-haired Saint John the Forerunner, under arcades Inscribed in Greek: Of Saint Stephen of the village of Attaroutha An unusual aspect of these chalices is their repeated representation of military saints. The figures in armor killing a dragon may be the earliest surviving depictions of Saint George, who according to tradition was martyred in the eastern Mediterranean in the fourth century or earlier. Created by Smarthistory.
The wet collodion photographic process produced a glass negative and a beautifully detailed print that was preferred over earlier techniques. This method thrived from the 1850s until about 1880. Created by Getty Museum.