Smart Secrets of Great Paintings

The Moneylender and his Wife (1514) by Quentin Massys

16th century Antwerp was like 1950s New York. The city of craftsmen and fishermen at the entrance to the North Sea becam

The Artist's Studio (1855) by Gustave Courbet

Paris shone brightly in the second half of the 19th century, with its fashionable restaurants, and its cabarets and thea

Bathers at Asniers (1884) by Georges Seurat

At the end of the 19th century, Asnieres resembled a seaside resort. The cheering crowd that came to attend the regattas

Las Meninas (1665) by Diego Velazquez

In the mid-17th century, Madrid experienced its Golden Age. The Royal Alcazar of Madrid, a legacy of the Muslim sovereig

The Wedding at Cana (1563) by Paolo Veronese

In "The Wedding at Cana", Paolo Veronese transposes the biblical tale of Christ's first miracle to the scene of a sumptu

The Martyrdom of Saint Appolonia (1461) by Jean Fouquet

With a tiny and delicate paintbrush, Jean Fouquet adds the golden threads of a tentative humanism to "The Martyrdom of S

A Lady in Her Bath (1571) by Francois Clouet

"A Lady in Her Bath" (circa 1571), by Francois Clouet, bears witness to a period in which the pleasure of the senses and

Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine-Habsbourg, Queen of France and Her Children (1787) by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

As the French Revolution approached, Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun painted the queen's portrait in an attempt to win ba

Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1834) by Eugène Delacroix

As the war of colonization raged in Algeria, Eugene Delacroix was the first French artist to cross the Mediterranean. Th

Colorful Life (1907) by Wassily Kandinsky

The roots of "Colourful Life" (1907), just like those of Vassily Kandinsky himself, were firmly anchored in age-old Russ

Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897, Paul Gauguin

Temptations of St. Anthony, 1501, Hieronymus Bosch

Western Port in Frankfurt am Main, 1916, Ludwig Kirchner

Lady and the Unicorn, Circa 1500, Anonymous

The Primavera, 1482, Sandro Botticelli

The Astronomer (1668) by Johannes Vermeer

The Night Watch (1642) by Rembrandt Van Rijn

The Second of May 1808 (1814) by Francisco Goya

Women on a Café Terrace in the Evening (1877) by Edgar Degas

View of Warsaw From the Terrace of the Royal Palace (1773) by Bernardo Bellotto

Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876, Renoir

Pulcinella and Acrobats, 1797, Tiepolo

The Slave Ship, 1840, J.M. Turner

Men of the Docks, 1912, Bellows