Questions tagged [art]
Questions related to history of art or artists.
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What is the earliest reference to playing chess with Death?
Playing chess with death is a relatively common trope. The earliest mention of this trope that I was able to easily find is the Death playing chess painting from 1480. Beyond that search results get ...
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Is there a dog in Rembrandt's "The Night Watch"? [closed]
This, of course, is Rembrandt's The Night Watch
In the bottom right, I swear there's a figure of a dog or something, but I can't see anything about there being a dog in the painting.
Does anybody ...
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Is there any painting in art history that depicts furniture floating in the air?
Does anyone know if there is any painting in art history that depicts furniture floating in the air?
I searched some catalogues and online encyclopedias that covered the period of 1920-1960, but didn'...
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Are there examples of artwork which anachronistically showed ancients equipped with firearms?
I do not mean modern art which does something like that humorously but rather for example a medieval painter showing Pharoah's army equipped with muzzleloaders due to the artist being unaware of the ...
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Why are there no pandas in historical Chinese art?
Something seemingly anomalous within China’s historical record is the lack of giant pandas within almost any art until the 20th century. I found a paper in Polish, but with an English abstract which ...
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What kind of math and science resources/background did Norbert Kricke use for his sculpture?
It is well known that Norbert Kricke used the book "Plastik des XX. Jahrhundert" by Carola Giedion-Welcker as a reference and saw his artistic ideas reflected by the text (cf. PhD thesis by ...
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Does "The Deluge" by Mauritius Lowe still exist? Where?
I have been reading "The Life of Samuel Johnson" by Boswell. In the book it describes a painting "The Deluge" by Mauritius Lowe that was rejected by the Exhibition of the Royal ...
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Who was the model for Trutat's famous painting Nude Girl on a Panther Skin?
I have actually got as far as a surname with this one: Tussa. But, if possible, I would like to get a forename and a date of birth to go with it.
Félix Trutat painted his famous Nude Girl on a ...
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Is there a word for this aesthetic from the late 80s and early 90s?
Art history question feel free to move this to a more appropriate venue.
There is an artistic style which really seemed to pop up around the 80s nad continued to the 90s which involved shooting photos/...
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Is there Susa art with two mountains and two suns? Or two mountains surrounded by the primordial ocean?
I've read that
The bowl dates from the Amratian period, mid-fourth millennium B.C.
Giedion sees this as portraying in abstract form the
course of the sun from east to west, the enclosing primeval ...
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Why is there so much prehistoric art found in Spain and France?
I was reading a book about prehistoric art, and a map with dots indicating locations of caves and deposits shown a lot of concentration around the norther area of Spain and also southern region of ...
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In what respect could Italian Renaissance be considered a phase of romanticism?
In what respect could Italian Renaissance be considered a phase of romanticism?
It is stated in this quotation that Italian Renaissance is a phase of romanticism:
It is arguable that the Romantics ...
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How did Raphael paint halos?
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of seeing Raphael's cartoon "Christ's Charge to Peter":
In it, Christ and the apostles are depicted with halos that appear to be perfect ellipses.
I only know ...
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What is the context for these Napoleonic(?) sketches?
I'd be interested to know if anyone can put the pictures in this frame into a context. They were found in the eaves of my late father-in-law's house on Cornwall when the house was being cleared two ...
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What paintings might these be (2 sketches made in the Tate Britain Gallery)?
My daughter drew these two sketches in the Tate Britain Gallery. She needs to complete the sketches but cannot remember which paintings they are based upon.
She has looked through the Tate Britain ...
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What type of headgear is shown in this Renaissance portrayal of Hell?
The painting in question is The Last Judgment by Fra Angelico. One can see a full version on Wikimedia Commons but here's a zoomed-in segment which was the first thing I saw before finding the source:
...
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What do the markings in 75mm WW1 trench art mean?
Great Uncle brought home Trench art from Verdun with a Lorraine cross. Markings are 75 DE and A RS /333. 15. There are 5 punch marks and what looks like a small K near the primer. Can anyone explain ...
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What mysterious Flemish peasant activity is depicted in this painting?
There is lots to see in Bruegel's famous painting representing life in June/July ('Haymaking'). (cf, https://insidebruegel.net for a great online collection of his work).
There is this activity he ...
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In allegorical depictions of geometry, why show the earth as encircled by a snake?
Various early modern allegorical paintings or engravings show a personification of geometry with a globe of the earth with a snake, and sometimes with a frog. Here are some examples:
(Only a detail of ...
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Are there any old paintings (medieval period onwards) that actually depict the female genitalia rather than just leaving the pubic region empty?
Of course, a lot has been said about the lack of female genitalia in e.g. Bouguereau's The Birth of Venus and so many other examples, but are there any examples from art between the end of the Middle ...
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How do we know the gender distribution of cave art painters?
I recently visited an exhibition about climate, nature and culture during the last glacial period.
One interactive exhibit about cave paintings sported a plaque saying:
"...Jetzt wissen wir, dass ...
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What are these objects around François Ravaillac's portrait?
What are the objects around the portrait of François Ravaillac, the assassin of king Henry IV of France?
Especially the top corners, and the strange animal in the middle.
Why would these be put around ...
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Who painted snow melting in Kitzbühel in the Albertina gallery?
I'm not sure this is the right place to ask, but we are trying to figure out the name of the artist and maybe even painting name that we saw in the Albertina in Wien.
It was most probably part of ...
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When did this shipment of Babylonian painted tiles for the Louvre sink?
In her 1887 textbook "History of Art for Beginners and Students" Clara Erskine Clement wrote:
A whole cargo of fragments of Babylonish tile-paintings was once
collected for the gallery of ...
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Has André Breton's "The Language of Stones" been published in English translation?
Issue 3 of the French-language journal Le Surréalisme Même, published in 1957, contains the article "Langue des Pierres" ("Language of Stones"), by André Breton. Has this article ...
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Who was the sitter for John Everett Millais's painting "The Somnambulist"?
John Everett Millais (born in Southampton, England) painted "The Somnambulist" in 1871. Who was his sitter?
user46904
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What is the name of this photographer?
He was known for (I believe) large format, black and white photographs of men and women, often in suits or business attire in sort of distorted, strange poses -- very angular, abnormal body positions.
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What size are these mosaics of Justinian and Theodora?
How large are the mosaics of Justinian and Theodora in the Basilica of San Vitale?
I've looked in plenty of academic papers, and can't seem to find one where their size is quoted - I also do not speak ...
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Why are there multiple versions of the color plate "Excavation of Olive Mount"?
There seem to be several versions of Thomas Talbot Bury's color plate (edit: likely an aquatint per the comments below) "Excavation of Olive Mount" (part of a collection entitled "...
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Have there been "mechanical paintings" in real life?
I'm currently playing a delightful little game called "Creaks". In it the there are "mechanical paintings". The idea is that it's like a regular painting, but you can wind it up ...
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How do I learn more about untitled artworks on the internet? (like this specific Basquiat painting)
Since many of Basquiat's works are untitled, I'm having a hard time finding more historical details on the internet about specific paintings he made. For example, how can I learn more about this ...
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Where can I find biographical details on Bernardino (Dino) Barozzi?
I am studying some specific aristocratic merchants figures in Italian history and nobilty and I came across the figure of Bernardino (Dino) Barozzi. Dates of birth and death are 1863 and 1942. Any ...
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Where were there fractal structures in ancient Rome?
I am looking for some examples of fractal or fractal-like structures and patterns in ancient Rome. I did some research but did not find much. On this topic I only found this article Scipedia.com where ...
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Is there evidence that the culture of graffiti and tags and their motifs is not accepted in some ancient culture?
I have found some cases in google but I am interested in knowing what was the intention of it in the past times, since there were no mass media or materials to represent these expressions, currently ...
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What is the painting within this 17th c. painting?
At the center of The Sciences and the Arts, a 17th-century painting attributed to the Flemish painter Adriaen van Stalbemt, two men in the center appear to be discussing a smaller canvas on which a ...
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What is the source of a half remembered art history quote possibly about Bruneleschi's Florence Cathedral?
I'm trying to track down an exact quote which I remember very vaguely, having read it over ten years ago in some art or art history book whose title I no longer recall. I think the quote is attributed ...
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How did the paintings of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance survive to present day?
I mean, before the appearance of museums and galleries,how they kept them in proper conditions, coped with humidity and the right temperature?
If drying oils can last 2-4 hundreds of years with the ...
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What is the earliest known occurrence of woven rope mats / art?
I am curious as to the earliest recorded occurrence of woven rope mats such as the one below:
Similar patterns can be seen in Celtic knotwork and the Insular art style in the 600's+. But I was ...
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How do art historians study the transactions of art merchants?
My question is the following: I would like to ask how to frame a research paper about transactions of art merchants and their transcription from the accounting book to a research paper. I would like ...
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Can anyone help identify this statuette?
The statuette has been in my family for 3 generations now. It is presumed to be from Morocco and was brought to us before the second world war. It is damaged and it had an ivory rosary that was stolen ...
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When did the terms, 1-point, 2,-point, 3-point, etc... perspective come into use?
It is generally agreed upon that the architect Brunelleschi was the one that discovered the rules for perspective in the early 15th century. I have perused books like "On Painting" by Leon ...
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What is going on in this depiction of a mosque scene?
This is a painting of mostly bearded men in a mosque. (Source: https://www.amazon.fr/Gulistan-Contes-persans-Reza-Dalvand/dp/2352901766) If the shape of their mouths is to be relied on, they appear to ...
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How do we know this bust is Aristotle?
The Wikipedia page of Aristotle has the following image of him:
How do we know that the bust represents Aristotle? For example, some ancient writers describe him as having small eyes, which is ...
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Is the famous painting of Kösem Sultan breastfeeding authentic?
Kösem Sultan was a woman of the Ottoman harem who served as Haseki Sultan (chief consort) and then Valide Sultan (queen mother) to several rulers. Given the youth and/or weakness of the sultans she ...
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Why is artist Heinrich Kley's death date unknown?
Wikipedia and other information about artist Heinrich Kley tell about his art but not tell why his death date is unknown.
From English Wikipedia:
'The date of Kley's death is uncertain. Rumors ...
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Why was Jesus depicted so differently in medieval Madonnas?
We can expect a portrait of Jesus, from either the Roman or the medieval eras, to look something approximating this:
(6th century Byzantine depiction sourced from Wikimedia Commons)
However, in ...
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Can anyone tell me about this old portrait of George Washington?
I’ve searched online, and can’t seem to find this exact portrait of him. There are always differences in the ruffles, lips, nose, etc. Also, what type of print is this and roughly how old is it?
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What are all fantastic creatures on The Nile mosaic of Palestrina?
The Nile mosaic of Palestrina is a mosaic originally constructed in the ancient Roman age, in Palestrina in Italia. It depicts an imaginary scene from Egypt, showing various fantastical animals, such ...
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Is this a pastiche of a particular painting or photograph?
The children's book Zen Ghosts by Jon J. Muth depicts a Halloween in suburban America, with several unexplained figures trick-or-treating in the background. Among them are these two children:
This ...
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Why did Robert Walpole get painted with a crown on his right side?
In this painting of Robert Walpole by John Theodore Heins Robert is painted with a crown on his right. Robert Walpole is according to Wikipedia "a British politician who is generally regarded as ...
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