The Riace Warriors are two life-size Greek bronze statues of naked, bearded warriors. The statues were discovered by Stefano Mariottini in the Mediterranean Sea just off the coast of Riace Marina, Italy, on August 16, 1972. The statues are currently housed in the Museo Nazionale della Magna Grecia in the Italian city of Reggio Calabria. The statues are commonly referred to as “Statue A” and “Statue B” and were originally cast using the lost wax method.

The principal temple on the Acropolis is the Parthenon, designed by the architects Iktinus and Kallikrates. Completed in 438 BCE as a temple dedicated to Athena, the patron goddess of Athens, the Parthenon celebrates her in her aspect as a virgin goddess. Parthenos, Greek term for virgin and the root of the word parthenogenesis (virgin birth), was one of Athena's epithets. The extraordinary aesthetic impact of the Parthenon would appear to be enhanced by its so-called architectural refinements.

The statue of the goddess established a canon for the female nude, and inspired many derivatives and variants, the best of which is considered to be the Colonna Knidia, which is in the Vatican's Pio-Clementine Museum. Here she stands in a contrapposto pose, her weight on her right leg, her left knee slightly bent. A Roman copy, it is not thought to match the polished beauty of the original, which was destroyed in a disastrous fire at Constantinople in AD 475.Rather than Aphrodite being surprised

The Kushans ruled much of northwestern India and the ancient region of Gandhara (parts of present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan). Mathura was the second capital of the Kushans and a major center of art production, which developed there out of the indigenous Indian traditions, and made much use of the local mottled- red sandstone. This seated Buddha conforms to a standard early Mathura type. In his personification as Shakyamuni, the teacher, the Buddha is portrayed as a traditional yogi, seated on

The Pantheon; Latin: Pantheon,] from Greek meaning "[temple] of every god") is a building in Rome, Italy, on the site of an earlier building commissioned by Marcus Agrippa during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD). The present building was completed by the emperor Hadrian and probably dedicated about 126 AD. He retained Agrippa's original inscription, which has confused its date of construction. The building is circular with a portico of large granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first ra

The historical Buddha was a man who lived and died in northeast India in the sixth century B.C. He established a religion, Buddhism, that spread throughout Asia and profoundly affected its culture. This serene statue is among the earliest anthropomorphic images of this great religious leader. The Buddha was not depicted in an iconic, human form until about the first century a.d., when two types appeared: one reflecting a purely indigenous sculptural tradition, and a second, from the ancient regi

There are profound lessons here for those who wish to pray, and for those who wish to paint...or both. This simple painting, which is over 1200 years old and was created by an obscure monk working on a bleak island of the northeast coast of England in the North Sea, can tell us so much. It reveals truths about St Matthew, and from its style we can discern things about the whole history of Christian art. These are lessons that budding artists can apply today, even if we want to paint in completel

Guo Xi is one of the leading cultural figures from the Song Dynasty period. Born and raised in the Henan province, Xi was a highly educated man, a scholar-official, a theoretician of painting whose essay titled “The Lofty Message of Forest and Streams” influenced many generations of Chinese painters. And above all, he was an outstanding painter, author of works such as "Deep Valley", "Autumn in the River Valley" or the wonderful "Early Spring" illustrated here.

According to legend, since 876 the Cathedral's site has housed a tunic that has been said to have belonged to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Sancta Camisia. The relic had supposedly been given to the Cathedral by Charlemagne who received it as a gift during a crusade in Jerusalem. Historians believe the relic was actually a gift from Charles the Bald. The fabric is indeed very old and seems to have originated in an area consistent with the story of its having belonged to Mary, having been woven in

This beautiful Annunciation was painted around 1333 by Simone Martini and his brother-in-law Lippo Menni for the altar of Sant’Ansano in the Cathedral of Siena. The autograph of the two painters is immortalized in the Latin inscription below “SYMON MARTINI ET LIPPVS MEMMI DE SENIS ME PINXERVNT ANNO DOMINI MCCCXXXIII”.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti frescoed the side walls of the Council Room (Sala dei Nove) of the City Hall (Palazzo Pubblico) of Siena. The size of the room is 2,96 x 7,70 x 14,40 m. The subject of the frescoes are the Good and Bad Government and their effects on the life of the cities and villages.

In 1366, Ni Zan abandoned his home to escape marauding soldiers. Even after the establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368, Ni continued the life of a wanderer, visiting old haunts that he had not seen for twenty or thirty years. According to his epitaph writer, Zhou Nanlao (1308–1383), "in his late years, he became quieter and more withdrawn than ever. Having lost or given away everything he ever owned, he did his best to forget his worries. Wearing a yellow [Daoist] cap and country clothes, he

The Tribute Money is one of many frescoes painted by Masaccio (and another artist named Masolino) in the Brancacci chapel in Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence—when you walk into the chapel, the fresco is on your upper left. All of the frescos in the chapel tell the story of the life of St. Peter. The story of the Tribute Money is told in three separate scenes within the same fresco. This way of telling an entire story in one painting is called a continuous narrative.In the Tribute Money, a Rom

Probably the most famous example of fifteenth-century sculpture is the bronze David by Donatello. Dates for the work vary from the 1430s to the 1460s. It is recorded as the centerpiece of the first courtyard in the Palazzo Medici during the wedding festivities of Lorenzo de' Medici and Clarice Orsini in 1469. Some have argued that it was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici in the 1430s to be the centerpiece of the courtyard of the older Medici house on the Via Larga. The nakedness of Donatello's b

Museum: Prado, Madrid. from the Cross (Deposition of Christ) by Roger van der Weyden depicts the crucified Christ being lowered from the cross. It is the earliest painting that can be safely attributed to Van der Weyden - dendrochronological (tree) analysis dates it to around 1435 - and it is also the artist's greatest work. A masterpiece of Flemish Christian art, it may have been designed as the central panel for an altarpiece, whose wings are now lost, installed in the chapel of the Great Cros

It has no title, and it occupies no grand place of honor at Munich's Alte Pinakothek, where it's just one painting hung among many, and many larger, works in an undistinguished second-floor gallery. But Albrecht Dürer's self-portrait from 1500 would likely stop you dead in your tracks even if it did not play an important role in art history: It is a captivating, lush painting with a mysterious air that practically dares you to stop looking at it. No compendium of self-portraiture would be comple

The Alba Madonna stands out as the most important painting in the United States from Raphael's time in Rome. There he continued to respond creatively to new artistic stimuli, combining old and new influences with his own inventive imagination. The round format of this painting, for example, was popular in Florence, yet this picture looks very different from his more intimate Florentine madonnas. Its grandeur suggests greater seriousness. The Virgin's pose resembles a work of classical sculpture.

The Atlas (marble, height 277 cm, circa 1530-34) Down the corridor on the left is the “Atlas Slave.” The male nude seems to be carrying a huge weight on his head. Hence he is named after Atlas, the primordial Titan who held up the entire world on his shoulders. His head has not emerged from the stone, leading the slave to support and push such a heavy weight, which threatens to compress him. The force of weight pushing down, and that pushing back up, create a vigorous tension. There is no feelin

Sofonisba's most inventive early work is Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola (c 1550 Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena). The double portrait depicts her art teacher in the act of painting a portrait of Sofonisba. In this painting she makes herself larger and more central to the picture and shows her teacher using a mahlstick (to steady the hand), which some scholars think portrays his lesser ability or his lack of confidence. However, others point out that she later painted herself using a

The Conversion of Saint Paul (or Conversion of Saul), by the Italian painter Caravaggio, is housed in the Odescalchi Balbi Collection of Rome. It is one of at least two paintings by Caravaggio of the same subject, the Conversion of Paul. Another is The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus, in the Cerasi Chapel of Santa Maria del Popolo. The painting, together with a Crucifixion of Saint Peter, was commissioned by Monsignor (later Cardinal) Tiberio Cerasi, Treasurer-General to Pope Cl

Her first dated and signed work is so remarkably mature for a seventeen-year-old that many attributed it to her father. However, it is the painting that is accepted, without dispute, as being the first autograph painting by Artemisia. Her signaure can be found in the shadow caste by Susanna's legs. The work shows anatomical accuracy and advanced colour and construction. Her father may have guided her with the design and execution of the painting. Her palette owes much to Michelangelo, a major in

Apollo and Daphne is a life-sized Baroque marble sculpture by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini, executed between 1622 and 1625. Housed in the Galleria Borghese in Rome, the work depicts the climax of the story of Daphne and Phoebus in Ovid's Metamorphoses The sculpture was the last of a number of artworks commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese, early on in Bernini's career. Apollo and Daphne was commissioned after Borghese had given an earlier work of his patronage, Bernini's Pluto and Pe

Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza (lit. 'Saint Yves at the Sapienza (University of Rome)') is a Roman Catholic church in Rome. Built in 1642-1660 by the architect Francesco Borromini, the church is a masterpiece of Roman Baroque architecture. The church is at the rear of a courtyard at 40, Corso del Rinascimento; the complex is now used by the Archives of the City of Rome. In the 14th century, there was a chapel here for the palace of the University of Rome. The University is called La Sapienza, and the ch