#101 - Mycenaean Art and Architecture
The Mycenaeans were a warlike people who thrived on the Greek mainland from about 1600 to 1100 BC, leaving mighty fortified walls, awe-inspiring stone-igloo-like tombs, and troves of golden treasures including the legendary Mask of Agamemnon.
#102 - Athens’ Acropolis and the Greek Golden Age
Around 500 BC, Athens thrived with its stately Acropolis temples, busy market (or agora), and civilization that provided a foundation for European culture that followed. Its surviving art and architecture tell the story.
#103 - Ancient Greek Pottery
Painted pottery, the pots and pans of the ancient world, tells the story of the rise of Greek civilization. Over time, that art evolved from the simple stick figures of the Geometric Period to the refined and realistic compositions of the Golden Age.
#104 - Ancient Greek Sculpture
We trace the steady evolution of Greek art through its statues: from stiff Archaic to balanced Golden Age to jump-off-the-stage Hellenism.
#105 - Ancient Greek Temples, the Parthenon and Its Art
Temples like the Parthenon, gracing the mighty Acropolis overlooking Athens, and the Temple of Concordia on Sicily — with their fluted columns, finely carved reliefs, and impressive design — trumpet the sophistication of ancient Greek society.
#106 - Ancient Greek Columns and Capitals
Columns and their capitals were both functional and decorative. And a quick lesson on their features makes it easy to identify the three orders of ancient Greek architecture: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.
#107 - Ancient Greek Theaters and the Golden Mean
Ancient Greek civilization peaked in the 5th century BC. The theaters of that age (with their fine acoustics); the idealized statues of gods and athletes (with their sophisticated contrapposto poses); and guiding principle of balance, nothing in excess — the Golden Mean, make it easy to appreciate that Golden Age.
#108 - Greece’s Age of Hellenism
Around 330 BC Alexander the Great spread Greek culture far and wide. The art of the age traded the calm balance of the Golden Age for more exuberance and realism as seen in statues like the Nike of Samothrace.
#109 - Prehistoric Cave Paintings and Artifacts
Walking through the caves of Lascaux, under a stampede of 600 impressively painted animals covering its ceiling, we marvel at the artistry and artifacts of people 15,000 years ago.
#110 - Prehistoric Stone Circles and Megaliths
Thousands of years ago nomadic hunter-gatherers of the megalithic age built with huge stones, including ingeniously designed stone circles, like those at England’s famous Stonehenge and Avebury, that functioned as celestial calendars.
#111 - Prehistoric Tombs and Necropoli in Ireland and Orkney
Thousands of years before Christ — and long before the pyramids of Egypt — mysterious societies in Europe built necropoli and tombs. In remote corners like Ireland and the isle of Orkney, they line up with the sun and indicate a kind of religion and a concern for the afterlife.
#112 - Prehistoric Art: Fertility Figurines, Bog People, Artifacts
Societies from the Stone Age and into the metal ages created figurines that indicated a concern for the mysteries of life — fertility, birth, death, and what lies beyond. Bodies and artifacts discovered in bogs and tombs from Ireland to Denmark offer a peek into these people’s lives and deaths.
#113 - Egyptian Pyramids and Tombs of the Pharaohs
Egypt is rich in towering pyramids, lavish tombs hidden deep in hillsides, and glorious art treasures that filled those tombs. Thanks to the ancient Egyptian belief that you could take it with you, the wonders of this society survive and take us back four or five thousand years.
#114 - Akhenaten, Egypt’s Monotheistic Pharaoh
History’s first monotheist, the pharaoh Akhenaten, is the one exception in a 2,000-year line of conformist pharaohs. Art from his reign is some of the most beautiful and memorable of all Egyptian art.
#115 - Temples of Ancient Egypt
The great temples of ancient Egypt are where, 4,000 years ago, priests and pharaohs huddled privately with the gods. At the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, with its towering pillars and obelisks, fine carved reliefs, and aura of mystery, you get an appreciation of the sophistication of that ancient kingdom.
#116 - Minoan Art and Architecture
The Minoans thrived on the Greek isle of Crete from 2000 to 1100 BC. The remains of their palace and the joyful frescoes that once decorated it are a testament to the sophistication of that early culture.
#117 - Ancient Rome’s Pantheon
The Pantheon is the best-preserved building from ancient Rome, giving us a feel for the magnificence and the splendor of Rome at its zenith. It’s a great example of Roman engineering and aesthetics.
#118 - Ancient Roman Mosaics and Frescoes
While Roman buildings were solid, no-nonsense designs, they were also beautifully decorated. Mosaics were a Roman forte and a favorite art form, and frescoes give a delightful and often intimate peek at Roman lives.
#119 - Ancient Roman Sculpture, Portrait Busts, and Realism
While Roman sculptors famously copied idealized Greek originals and dramatic scenes of myths, they specialized in ultra-realistic, warts-and-all portrait busts.
#120 - The Ruins of Pompeii and Its Art
The rich port of Pompeii was buried with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The excavated site gives a revealing look at a great Roman city and the National Archaeological Museum in Naples holds its countless art treasures.
#121 - Roman Aqueducts, the Pont du Gard
Water infrastructure was a Roman engineering forte. With the help of round arches, they built massive aqueducts throughout their empire. The 30-mile-long Pont du Gard in southern France is the most impressive.
#122 - Ancient Ephesus
The ancient city of Ephesus (on the west coast of today’s Turkey) offers a fascinating walk through a great city with splendid temples, a towering library, and one of the most impressive theaters of the ancient world.
#123 - The Fall of Rome
Rome declined for centuries after its peak and art tells the story. Emperors — some good and many bad — left monuments to both their greatness (like Marcus Aurelius on a horse) and their corruption (like Commodus dressed as Hercules and ready to go “clubbing”).
#124 - Ancient Roman Mosaics Pave the Villa Romana del Casale
This villa in Sicily is paved extravagantly with fine mosaics that give an intimate peek into the lives of Rome’s rich and powerful as well as a look at what might be on the menu tonight.
#125 - Christianity and Its Art in Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was Christian for over a century. Tombs, catacombs, and early Christian art tell the story. When Rome finally fell, the Roman basilica became the design of medieval churches and saints literally replaced emperors atop great Roman monuments.
#126 - Ancient Roman Mosaics at Ravenna
As Rome fell in the West, it lived on in the East (ruled from Constantinople). In the middle was Ravenna, famous today for its late Roman and early medieval churches decorated with exquisite mosaics.
#127 - Ancient Rome’s Etruscan Roots
Centuries before Rome, a mysterious Etruscan civilization ruled northern Italy. What we know about it we learned from art found in its tombs. In 509 BC the Romans threw out their Etruscan king and the rest is history.
#128 - The Ancient Roman Forum
The birthplace of Roman greatness was in the original Roman market or Forum. Local guide Francesca Caruso brings this common ground between the iconic “seven hills of ancient Rome” to life with her vivid description.
#129 - Ancient Roman Roads, Theaters, Arenas, and Aqueducts
Much of the “art and architecture” of ancient Rome could be found in its infrastructure and engineering. It was a society of builders, and its vast empire was held together with no-nonsense infrastructure (always solid, useful, and beautiful) and its propaganda.
#130 - Ancient Rome’s Respect for Greek Art and Architecture
While Rome may have conquered Greece militarily, in many ways it was conquered in return by Greek culture. That’s clear in the impact Greece had on Roman art and architecture and how a Roman forte was copying Greek originals.
#131 - Carving Marble: Visiting a Sculptor’s Studio
Whether in ancient times or in modern times, sculpting with marble is essentially the same process, as demonstrated in this visit with sculptor Raffaello Romanelli in his Florentine Galleria Romanelli.
#132 - Caesar and the Pax Romana
Rome’s empire was fueled by plunder from its conquests and held together in part by art that functioned as propaganda. The Altar of Peace in Rome and the Trophy of the Alps in France are two fine examples.
#133 - Super-sized Art and Architecture of Ancient Rome
In ancient Rome, more than the Colosseum was colossal. Grand statues decorated imposing buildings that stoked massive imperial egos. With bricks, concrete, round arches, cheap or free labor, and emperors who loved to build, Rome built very big.
#134 - Gothic Stained Glass: Sainte-Chapelle, Chartres, and York’s Minster
Visiting three great Gothic churches (Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, Chartres’ Cathedral, and the York Minster), we see how 800-year-old stained-glass windows were, perhaps, the artistic highlight of the Middle Ages.
#135 - Sculpture, Pulpits, Altarpieces, and Relics
The greatest art of the Middle Ages was Gothic church art: jewel-filled treasuries, statues of saints with the symbols of their martyrdom, Virgin Marys radiant on their heavenly thrones, and frightening images of hell.
#136 - Relics and Reliquaries
Holy relics — often bits of bones or possessions of saints — were the “ruby slippers” of medieval Europe and they were contained in dazzling jeweled vessels. Called reliquaries, these were often masterpieces of art.
#137 - Secular Medieval Art: Castles and Tapestries
With rising prosperity, Europeans created more secular art and architecture: grand city halls and luxurious-for-the-day castles and palaces, with their stony walls warmed by finely woven tapestries (like the 500-year-old “Lady and the Unicorn”).
#138 - "The Lady and the Unicorn" Tapestry
One of the finest works of late medieval art is the “Lady and the Unicorn” tapestry. It’s a celebration of the senses —taste, hearing, sight, and touch — as a woman savors Europe’s blossoming appreciation of sheer, sensual beauty.
#139 - Saint Francis of Assisi and a New Spirit in Italy
Toward the end of the Middle Ages a new spirit and confidence was blossoming. At the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Gothic frescoes capture realism and powerful emotions as never before.
#140 - Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel
Giotto, arguably the greatest medieval painter, covered this glorious chapel with frescoes telling Bible stories with a new realism. Each scene is a slice of the real world as we can see why Giotto is considered the first modern painter.
#141 - Feudalism, Christianity, and the Art of Monks
From the chaos and power vacuum that followed the fall of Rome rose feudalism and Europe’s monastic movement. For centuries monasteries were the center of culture and monks were the great artists beautifully illustrating the books they transcribed.
#142 - Romanesque Architecture: Three Great Churches
European culture finally kicked into gear in about the year 1000 and mighty Romanesque churches with the finest art of the day were built across the continent. Great examples are in Florence, Pisa, and Durham (where the style was called Norman).
#143 - Romanesque Art
In the 11th and 12th centuries Romanesque churches were filled with beautiful art. And that art served the church. Statues and paintings didn’t need to be realistic so long as they illustrated Bible lessons: teaching, inspiring, and scaring the faithful.
#144 - Byzantine Art in Medieval Europe and Venice
While Rome fell in the West, it lived on through the Middle Ages in the East as the Byzantine Empire. Its capital, Constantinople, and Venice were filled with art treasures — much-coveted bronze horses, rich mosaics, and magnificent churches.
#145 - The Moors of Spain: Islamic Art in Medieval Europe
Muslim Moors ruled Spain and Portugal for centuries and that civilization was a bright spot as much of Europe was in a medieval slump. The highly cultured Moors built dazzling mosques and palaces decorated with intricate designs and calligraphy.
#146 - Art and Architecture of the Vikings
While the Vikings are best known as fierce marauders, a thousand years ago they built sleek ships and stately stave churches. Surviving artifacts show a society with an impressive artistic flair.
#147 - Gothic Church Architecture, the Pointed Arch and More Light
The Gothic Age was famed for its towering churches filled with colorful light shining through glorious stained glass and devout pilgrims. The revolutionary skeletal Gothic church design is best illustrated by building one with 13 travelers.
#148 - Building a Gothic Cathedral Out of 13 Tourists
Gothic churches were taller and brighter than the earlier Romanesque. They had a skeleton of support — columns, buttresses, and pointed arches — as can be unforgettably illustrated by building a Gothic church with 13 travelers.
#149 - Raphael
Raphael combined the grace of Leonardo, the power of Michelangelo, and the humanist spirit of the age. The master of High Renaissance painting, his sweet Madonnas set a new standard and his “School of Athens” brought pre-Christian thinking into the Vatican.
#150 - Michelangelo
Michelangelo, another multi-talented “Renaissance man” was a world-class sculptor, painter, and architect. He sculpted “David” and the “Pietŕ,” painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and designed St. Peter’s Basilica. I rest my case.
#151 - The Age of Discovery: Portugal and Spain
Discoveries stoked the Renaissance with confidence, bold new ideas, and plundered New World gold. Portugal had its own lacy Manueline architecture and Spain’s rich and art-loving emperor had far-flung tastes, including Titian the Venetian.
#152 - El Greco and Mannerism
El Greco, fusing influences from Greece, Venice, and Holy Toledo, painted supernatural visions, faces that flicker like candles, and otherworldly altarpieces with a disregard for realism that feels modern even today. While hard to put El Greco in a box, he’s part of the Mannerist style that followed the Renaissance.
#153 - Albrecht Dürer, Realism, Humanism, and the Master Engraver
This German Renaissance master brought home Italy’s embrace of realism, humanism, and respect for artists. His self-portraits celebrated his genius, and his meticulous attention to detail was ideal for his work as an engraver — which made Albrecht Dürer the first best-selling artist ever.
#154 - The Northern Renaissance, Flemish Painting, and Jan van Eyck
The North featured the art of merchants and businessmen. The paintings were happy slice-of-life scenes, not preachy but feel-good and affordable. Masters like Jan van Eyck painted with rich symbolism and astonishing detail.
#155 - Oil Painting, an Improvement over Tempera
Around 1500, painters in Flanders mastered the use of oil-based paints rather than the standard of the day tempera or egg-based paints. Oil paints freed artists like Jan van Eyck, Raphael, and Leonardo to raise the bar.
#156 - Pieter Brueghel the Elder for a Slice of Flemish Life
The master of the slice-of-life scene captured the simplicity of country folk at play, celebrating humanity’s quirks and foibles. With Brueghel’s “Peasant Wedding” and “Peasant Dance” there’s not a saint in sight…just life with gusto and perhaps a small moral.
#157 - Van der Weyden
Northern artists gave the traditional medieval altarpiece a new level of sophistication. Van der Weyden’s exquisitely detailed Last Judgment is filled with symbolism, while others brought Heaven home to the 1400s here-and-now world of Bruges.
#158 - Hieronymus Bosch and "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
Bosch’s three-paneled masterpiece takes you on a wild ride from a tranquil Garden of Eden creation scene to a hedonistic central panel to a nightmarish Hell where those earthly delights are swapped for an eternity of appropriate punishments.
#159 - The Renaissance Defined
The Renaissance, a reawakening to the enlightened ways of ancient Greece and Rome, was, for two centuries, an explosion of secular learning, art, and culture. Artists, inspired by the ancients, celebrated a new confidence or humanism.
#160 - Renaissance Artists: Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello
Florence, home of the Renaissance, was also home to three early artistic heroes: Brunelleschi (with his beloved cathedral dome), Donatello (with his proud statues), and Ghiberti (with his math-based 3-D baptistry panels).
#161 - Donatello and Early Renaissance Statues
The sculptor Donatello gave his subjects unprecedented realism and emotion from Mary Magdalene carved in wood to his bronze “David,” a free-standing male nude decorating not a church but a rich patron’s courtyard.
#162 - Early Renaissance Painting: Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Angelico
The painters Giotto (a century before the others), Masaccio (who mastered the illusion of depth), and Fra Angelico (for whom painting was a form of prayer) brought art from medieval two-dimensional to more life-like 3-D.
#163 - Fra Angelico
A humble monk as well as a great painter, Fra Angelico frescoed exquisite sacred scenes for his monastery. It’s said for him painting was a form of prayer and he couldn’t paint a crucifix without crying.
#164 - The Medici Family, Patrons of the Florentine Renaissance
Florence’s leading banking family was the great patron of the Renaissance. They nurtured and employed the great artists of their time while funding lavish chapels, churches, and the grand city hall in a way that bolstered their political power.
#165 - Sandro Botticelli
Botticelli painted big colorful celebrations of Renaissance themes like a fertile springtime or “Primavera.” His “Birth of Venus,” the first large-scale depiction of a naked women in a thousand years, symbolized the optimism of the age.
#166 - Rembrandt, The Great Dutch Master
Rembrandt earned a living painting portraits and group portraits, like his “Night Watch.” He told Bible stories with a subtle brilliance and mastery of drama. And with candid self-portraits, he captured the hard lessons of his own life on canvas.
#167 - Royal Portraits and Velázquez
Royal portraits were like the Tinder of 1st-century court life in Europe. Painters were paid to make royals look more capable and more divine than they were. Velázquez painted the royals capably in his “Las Meninas,” but he clearly had an affinity for the common man, too.
#168 - Royal Palaces of the Baroque Age and Versailles
Across Europe, royals used fabulous palaces and Baroque art to demonstrate how their power was divinely ordained. And Louis XIV’s Versailles — with its hall of mirrors, heavenly painted ceilings, and forever gardens — was the ultimate.
#169 - Rococo Art and Architecture, Baroque Gone Wild
Across Europe, eye-popping Rococo art featured aristocrats playing in their palaces and picnicking in their bucolic backyards: pleasure gardens that stretched to the horizon…as if their divine-right world would go on forever.
#170 - Neoclassical Art and Architecture, the Age of Enlightenment
Baroque excesses were countered by the Revolution, the Enlightenment, and a stern, no-frills art that celebrated a new age of science and reason. Neoclassical art and architecture (called Georgian in Britain) spread from France to Denmark, Finland, and beyond.
#171 - Neoclassical Art, the Age of Revolution, and Napoleon
The French Revolution was the bloody birth of modern democracy, and it came with art that celebrated liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Jacques-Louis David painted the Revolution and the reign of Napoleon with the necessary political correctness.
#172 - The Reformation and the Baroque Age
The roots of Baroque go back to the 1500s and the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation. Art was the media and the advertising of the day. It told the story of the religious wars — the way each side wanted it told.
#173 - Baroque Art, the Catholic Church, and the Virgin Mary
After a century of religious wars, pro-Vatican Baroque art featured big canvases, dramatic statues, exuberant architecture, and immaculately conceived Virgin Marys. It reminded all of the glorious Heaven that awaited the properly faithful.
#174 - Baroque Art as Propaganda
Baroque art was propaganda — for the state or for the Church. It inspired the masses to believe that the authority of the prince and the bishop was legit. In Würzburg the prince-bishop was the same man, and his palace was a fine example. The art decorating St. Charles church in Vienna is another good example.
#175 - Bernini and Baroque Sculpture
Bernini was nicknamed the “Michelangelo of Baroque.” (But comparing “David” by both sculptors, you’ll see there’s a big difference.) Rome was Bernini’s gallery where you can see his squares, fountains, and finest statues (like “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa,” “Apollo and Daphne,” and “The Rape of Persephone”).
#176 - Caravaggio
Caravaggio lived fast, died young, and had a big influence on those who followed. His gritty realism, stark lighting, and dramatic canvases featuring dirty Davids and plain-Jane Madonnas gave his art an emotional punch.
#177 - Rubens, a Master Painter of the Northern Renaissance
Peter Paul Rubens, a prolific Belgian painter, painted small sketches that his studio would then paint big, enabling him to crank out countless grand canvases: mythic battles, Catholic miracles, bloody hunts, and fleshy “Rubenesque” women.
#178 - Baroque Music, Bernini for Your Ears
This mini piano concert demonstrates how Baroque composers like Bach and Scarlatti — with their dueling melodies and frilly trills — can be like Bernini for your ears. Music holds hands with the visual arts as we parade through the ages.
#179 - Northern Baroque Painting: Hals, Steen, Vermeer
Baroque art in the Protestant North — without the patronage of popes and kings — reflected the practical values of the merchants who paid for it. Steen, Vermeer, and Hals painted slices of regular life and group portraits of city bigwigs.
#180 - Impressionism, Monet, Renoir, and Degas
With the cry, “out of the studio and into nature,” the Impressionists revolutionized art. Monet focused not on the physical object but on light, shadow, and color. Renoir painted everyday scenes with a soft focus. And Degas caught ballet dancers at candid moments.
#181 - Rodin, Impressionism in Sculpting
With statues like his iconic “Thinker,” Rodin made ordinary people seem noble, his rough surfaces brought Impressionism to stone, and the poses he captured expressed the deepest emotions.
#182 - Claude Monet and His Waterlilies
For Monet, the true subject is not really the lilies, but the changing reflections on the pond…where lilies mingle with the clouds and trees. Monet cropped his scenes ever closer, until there was no sense of what’s up or down…until you’re completely immersed.
#183 - The Post-Impressionists: Seurat, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh
The Impressionists were like a tribe. The Post-Impressionists went in different directions: Seurat with his dots, Cézanne with his slabs, Gauguin with his primitive Tahitian scenes, and Van Gogh with wild brush strokes, vivid colors, and an ability to make everything seethe with life.
#184 - Vincent van Gogh
Van Gogh, with wild brush strokes and vivid colors, made everything seethe with life. He portrayed the vibrant world he felt so intensely, capturing the sun-drenched colors of the south of France into an explosion of creativity.
#185 - Art Nouveau, Mucha, and Gaudí
As a response to the Industrial Age, artists went organic with willowy maidens, melting ice cream eaves, and an embrace of nature. It was Art Nouveau: Mucha in Czech Republic, Jugendstil in Germany, and Modernisme in Barcelona.
#186 - Modern Art and the Isms of the 20th Century
Art in the 20th century was a parade of isms: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and more. And with the advent of abstract and non-representational art, it seemed the only rule was there are no rules.
#187 - Toulouse-Lautrec
Toulouse-Lautrec lived the turn-of-the-century bohemian scene on Paris’ Montmartre Hill, he captured it, and he shared it with paintings that seemed full of empathy and insight.
#188 - Gustav Klimt
In a swirling world of Art Nouveau and Expressionism, Gustav Klimt — with paintings like his iconic “The Kiss” — captured a simmering hedonism in Vienna in sumptuous portraits of bewitching women.
#189 - Pablo Picasso: Cubism, "Guernica," and Much More
In his long career, Pablo Picasso lived the isms of the 20th century. His art shows how he was classically trained, experimented with bohemians in Paris (inventing Cubism), captured the horror of modern warfare with “Guernica,” and found freedom in playful abstraction.
#190 - Romanticism and Romantic Era Painting
Romantic art embraced more than traditional romance. It expressed the full range of human emotions with melodramatic, epic-scale canvases, images that stir the emotions, and an almost religious embrace of nature.
#191 - Edvard Munch and Expressionism
Munch’s iconic “Scream” seemed to tee up a world ready to go off the rails, filled with angst, and demoralized by WWI. Expressionism captured the emotions, trauma, and cynicism of that generation with distorted, haunted, and garish works.
#192 - Surrealism and Salvador Dalí
Surrealists like Rene Magritte and Salvador Dalí explored the subconscious. Shining their artistic light on deep urges, dark fantasies, and weird dreams, they painted everyday images in jarring juxtapositions.
#193 - Marc Chagall
The Russian-born painter Marc Chagall used the abstract to create windows into the unseen spiritual world. With deceptively childlike simplicity — heavy outlines with brilliant colors — Chagall celebrated nature and its creator.
#194 - Picasso’s "Guernica"
In the wake of history’s first saturation aerial bombardment, Picasso wove the shattered shards of that tragedy into a large Cubist-inspired painting that told the sad story and put a human face on “collateral damage.”
#195 - Social Realism, the Art of Communism
The art of Communism was only acceptable if it promoted the symbols of its values: the heroic soldier, the obedient worker, the tireless mother, anonymous cogs in the machine, diligently serving the state…art as propaganda.
#196 - Street Art
With street art, random public spaces have become canvases. What began as tagging and street graffiti has evolved into a new art form — a way for those on the fringe to make a statement.