Amor Sciendi
Madonna with the Long Neck
This strange and clever painting by Parmigianino asks a lot of questions. It deals with art inside a greater context and how how the story of art can often be self-referential.
Curated Video
Edward Hopper and Cinema: A Great Art Explained Extra
This Great Art Explained ‘Extras’ series are films designed to complement my main series. Stories that interested me during my research that I wanted to expand on. Movies have been inspired by fine art from the very beginning of the...
Curated Video
Nighthawks by Edward Hopper: Great Art Explained
Edward Hopper’s world was New York, and he understood that city more than most people. He understood that, even though you may live in one of the most crowded and busy cities on earth, it is still possible to feel entirely alone. This...
Curated Video
Great Art Cities Explained: London
In the first of a new series, James Payne and Joanne Shurvell combine their love of Art and Travel, as they look at less well known museums in cities around the world. In "Great Art Cities Explained: London", we look at three museums...
Curated Video
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (Part Two): Great Art Explained
In this video I look at Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. Nobody painted Hell quite like Bosch. What we think of as Hell, and certainly what Bosch thought of as Hell is not based on the bible. There is no mention of Hell...
Curated Video
The Birth of Venus by Botticelli: Great Art Explained:
Sandro Botticelli’s poetic sense of beauty captivated the Florentine court. But it was his subject matter which distinguished him from other artists. He was one of the first western artist since classical times to depict non-religious...
Curated Video
The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault: Great Art Explained
This is the story about the painting of the raft that shook the world and scandalised high society. Not only for its anti-royalist statements but also for its choice of a black man as the hero. In an age of slavery. In its brutality,...
Curated Video
Judith Slaying Holofernes, Artemisia Gentileschi: Great Art Explained
Women were excluded from almost all cultural and social resources in the centuries from 1400 to 1900 when so much of the world's great art was created. And visual art was almost entirely a male industry before modern times. Having an...
Curated Video
Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (Part Three): Great Art Explained
The painting was just too complex and detailed to deal with in fifteen minutes, so I made it in three parts. There are no records to tell us what Bosch or his contemporaries were thinking. There are so many theories out there, some more...
Curated Video
La Leocadia, Francisco Goya's Mistress
La Leocadia, also known as The Seductress, is likely one of Goya's last paintings. It is painted on a light background, unlike the dark background of the rest of the Black Paintings. The woman in the painting bears a striking resemblance...
Curated Video
Comparing Francisco Goya's Women Laughing and Men Reading
Women Laughing depticts a risqué scene, unusual for the reserved and somewhat prudish Goya. The style and composition of this painting closely resembles Men Reading, which was painted next to Women Laughing on Goya's wall. Could the...
Curated Video
Venice Special (Biennale): Great Art Cities Explained:
In the third of a new series, James Payne and Joanne Shurvell combine their love of Art and Travel, as they travel to Venice for the world’s oldest and greatest art exhibition, the Venice Biennale. The 59th International Venice Biennale...
Curated Video
The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck: Great Art Explained
The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck has baffled art historians ever since it was painted in 1434. It has been dissected and analysed, maybe more than any other painting in history, and in the process, become even more mysterious....
Curated Video
Power and Dispair in Goya's paintings: Asmodea, Saturn, and The Drowning Dog
The Black Paintings series by Francisco Goya is dark and haunting overall, but a few of the paintings are particularly grim. We will explore themes of war and fear, the horror of power, and helplessness as we analyze the last three...
Curated Video
Theories Behind Francisco Goya's Black Paintings
The Black Paintings (Las pinturas negras) are often considered to deptic insanity and Goya's own struggles after losing his hearing. But is that an accurate understanding of these paintings? What is the context of the The Black...
Food Farmer Earth
An Artist's Life on a Small Family Farm
Eggs aren't just for breakfast at Big Table Farm. Eggs, and the chickens that lay them, are a critical part of an integrated system that sustains the land and the couple who farm it, Clare Carver and her husband, winemaker Brian Marcy....
The Art Assignment
Draw a shape that represents you. | Tschabalala Self | The Art Assignment
This week we meet with Tschabalala Self, whose work explores ideas surrounding the black female body; and her assignment asks you to consider your own body as a symbol too.
Curated Video
History and Style of Francisco Goya's Black Paintings
Francisco Goya created The Black Paintings on the walls of his secluded farmhouse, far from the eyes and politics of Madrid. The fact that he created these 14 paintings as frescos rather than the usual canvas and oil paint indicates that...
One Minute History
Frida Khalo - Iconic Artists - One Minute History
Mexican artist and activist, Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon was born July 6 1907. Stricken with polio at a young age, she wants to become a doctor, but her dream is shattered when a bus accident nearly takes her life. While...
Curated Video
Pyramid Shape Composition of the Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa's stature and expression seem normal today, but were rather groundbreaking at the time. Portraits of Italian women usually depicted them in profile or looking down. Never looking at the audience as da Vinci does with Mona Lisa....
Amor Sciendi
Procession to Calvary: Bruegel Telling Two Tales at Once
Bruegel's massive painting, Procession to Calvary, tells the biblical story and the story of the Dutch Revolt, or 80 years war. Why is that so impressive? the 80 years war hadn't even started yet.
Amor Sciendi
Your Five Year Old Couldn't Paint This
Jackson Pollock's paintings have a fractal quality to them. This video explores the reasons this may be so captivating.
The Art Assignment
The Case for Realism
What's the point of making realistic paintings when photography can do the trick? We look at the history of artists recreating the world as we see it and ponder why it's still happening.
Infognostica
Religious History (Part 2) - Indus Valley Idols
Were the idols of India and other parts of the world originally intended as objective, enlightened art? Please watch and share if you found this interesting. Angevin B Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By...