The Parthenon is a temple inside the Acropolis in Athens, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena. It is considered the most important surviving building of Classical Greece. I've recently finished reading about it in an art book and was fascinated by these facts: 1) Pericles built the temple with the funds provided by Athen's allies to build a new fleet to fight the Persians. The...
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A young hare by Albert Düurer, 1502 Albrecht Dürer was a German painter and printmaker from the 16th century. He is considered to be the most important artist of the Northern Renaissance He produced several altarpieces, religious works, portraits and cooper engraving. He also wrote theoretical works on Art in German, rather than in Latin which was the norm. Here's some interesting information about...
Art Deco is the name of an artistic style that began in the 1920's. Even though it originated in France, Art Deco found wide acceptance around the world. It represented luxury and prosperity as a reaction to the austerity imposed by World War I. One of the most famous examples of Art Deco architecture is probably the Chrysler building in New York. The other day...
Giovanni Bellini was an important painter from the Renaissance period. His work was extremely influential especially in the use of color and atmosphere. Here's some interesting information about him: detail from the San Giobbe AltarPiece by Giovanni Bellini (1480) He received his first lessons from Andrea Mantegna, his brother-in-law, which were decisive for the formation of his talent. A self-made man, he...
Annunciation by Fra Angelico, 1443 Fra Angelico is an incredible Italian painter from the early Renaissance period whose work focused greatly on Christian themes. Here's some interesting information about him: His real name was Guido di Pietro. When he entered the Dominican convent he changed his name for Giovanni. "Fra" means brother in italian. "Angelico", meaning angelic, was more or less a nickname...
Anne Dashwood (detail) by Joshua Reynolds - 1764 Joshua Reynolds is one of the most influential portrait painters in English history. During the 18th century he dedicated his art and talents to portraying the rich aristocracy and royalty. Here's some interesting information about him: 1. He painted over thousands of portraits during his life. During one point, he was painting 150 portraits in one year....
As promised, here's my follow-up post on Keaton. To check the previous one, click here. Source Buster Keaton was not only a great actor and film-maker from the silent movie era, but also a very interesting person. Here’s some interesting information about him: 1) It was Houdini who gave him the nickname “Buster”. When Keaton was a child he fell from a flight...
J. M. W. Turner was an English painter from the Romantic period. Here's some interesting information about him: 1) According to his will, he wished to be buried in his painting Dido building Carthage, considered by him his masterpiece. Dido building Carthage - Turner Source 2) His body of work is huge: almost 1.000 oil paintings and about 10.000 drawings and watercolors. 3) To...
