European Art
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A Guide to Post-Impressionist Painting
The Post-Impressionist movement started in Paris around 1880. Post-Impressionism can be seen in painting and other two-dimensional art forms like drawings and prints. Artists such as Cezanne, van Gogh, Matisse, and Gauguin were its stars.
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A Guide to Impressionist Painting
Impressionism is one of the most famous and well-loved styles in western art history. It’s well known for haystacks and waterlilies by Monet, dancers by Degas, and beautiful women by Renoir. Learn about Impressionism’s main ideas and controversial origins.
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Skating Through Time on a Snow Day
Snow day! Who doesn’t love those words? Here in the northeastern United States, we are currently having a nice snow day, which makes it seem like a perfect time to do the second part of the winter paintings series I started around Christmas time. While part one was about winter landscapes, part two is about ice skating paintings!…
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Four Magical Christmas and Winter Paintings
Eager to get into the holiday spirit? Enjoy this selection of winter and Christmas-themed paintings by American, British, and European artists.
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More Gargoyles and Grotesques of Reims Cathedral
This gargoyle on Reims Cathedral seems to have had a head transplant some time since the Middle Ages! The concept is actually not that unusual, since centuries of running water often erode functioning gargoyles over time. It’s difficult to tell from this photo if the replacement was done in metal or a differently-colored stone. Either way, the end result…
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Chartres Cathedral
This grotesque is on the west portal of Chartres Cathedral – among the grandest and most famous of all French Gothic churches. While its close cousin in Paris is famous for its gargoyles, Chartres is celebrated for its beautiful stained glass and profuse sculptural decoration. Much of this sculptural work is clustered around its nine arched doors (portals);…
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Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun at the Met
My experience at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s major 2016 exhibition of works by Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun. Vigée Le Brun French Neoclassical and Rococo portrait painter and one of the first women to succeed as a professional portrait painter on a grand scale.
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Bethlehem Chapel, Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau, France
The Bethlehem Chapel is a little medieval French church that was restored in a very unusual manner. In the 1990s, a movement began to repair the decaying chapel, which had once played host to a series of now-lost grotesques on the building’s four pinnacles. The architect and stone carver, supported by the town’s youth, decided to…
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More Gargoyle and Grotesques of Notre Dame de Paris
Today’s grotesque is a true classic. The gargoyles of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris are neither the oldest nor the most interesting of their kind, but they have certainly become the most famous. The interior and exterior of this church, which was a major milestone in the history of Gothic architecture, were both rather creatively restored by Gothic Revival proponent…
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Wells Cathedral, Somerset, UK
Two weeks ago, I talked about the mouth puller grotesque and how common he can be in Gothic architecture. The grotesque above belongs to a related type – the thorn puller, who struggles to pull a thorn or some other painful irritant out of his foot. The thorn puller appears in many different churches and may…
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, England
This rather distressed-looking grotesque lives on Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, England. He sticks out his tongue and pokes at something inside his mouth, as though he’s having some dental problems. I can’t help but feel a little sorry for this odd little dude. He belongs to a subset of gargoyles and grotesques known as “mouth pullers”…
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Gargoyles and Grotesques of Casa della Vittoria, Turin
This dragon grotesque and his twin live on the Casa della Vittoria in Turin, Italy. The building is also sometimes called Casa dei Draghi, presumably because of decorations like this one. (“Drago” is the Italian work for “dragon”.) I’m having trouble finding out more about the building, on account of the fact that my Italian is currently a bit rusty,…
