“You will be forgotten. Your image, however, will be immortal. Through it, you will travel far—not by horse and cart, or merchant ship, but through the sky…” More»
Johannes Vermeer is a beloved artist. Is he also a great one? More»
Vermeer’s newly arrived Woman in Blue Reading a Letter seems calmly at home in our galleries—but introduces a distinctive new presence. More»
“A feeling of surprise, even disbelief, that someone so unique could have remained unknown to us for so long.” More»
What do you imagine the first line of this letter might say? Share your ideas, and we’ll continue the story. More»
Why the manuscript illuminations in Florence at the Dawn of the Renaissance really rock. More»
Heraldry is a fascinating and complex system by which coats of arms are devised and decoded. My familial arms—yes, my family has a coat of arms, and yours may have too—are composed of an intricate grouping of objects, including a… More»
The Panel Paintings Initiative is training the next generation of conservators of paintings on wood panels, and including professionals from Eastern Europe is a high priority. In this post, Polish conservator Aleksandra Hola describes her experience with the program. For… More»
In 2008 a team of Latin American scholars led by Natalia Majluf, director of the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI) in Peru, was awarded a Collaborative Research Grant from the Getty Foundation for a study of painter José Gil… More»
There’s been a lot of talk about shopping over the past few days, from Black Friday to Cyber Monday (now expanded to Cyber Week). In late medieval Florence, shopping—for art—was also all the rage. In the years leading up to the… More»
Medieval methods of entertainment included sad dances and alienation parties.
Tights are not pants, circa 1400something.