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Masaccio, and Masolino da Panicale |
Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (c. 1424-5) |
The baby Jesus is seen with his mother surrounded by a group of angels. The painting was originally commissioned for the Sant'Ambrogio church in Florence. According to Vasari, "It was placed in the chapel door which leads to the nuns' parlour". |
Sandro Botticelli |
Primavera (1482) |
Painting that depicts a group of figures from classical mythology in a garden, but no story has been found that brings this particular group together. |
Sandro Botticelli |
The Birth of Venus (c. 1486) |
This artwork shows the birth of the goddess Venus, in all of her glory. You should note how the woman on right is about to cover her up.
| Please take in a moment in taking in all of the detail, every brush stoke, every little detail was noted by Botticelli over the two years the art was made. Look, and see at how even her hair has detail, almost as if it was a photo, every strand of her blonde hair took ages to make. This work was not made by a fool in his spare time, this was made by a master of his craft.
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Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni |
Michelangelo's David (1504) |
This does not only show the craftsmanship of Michelangelo, but it is also a masterpiece showing off the male body in all of its glory.
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Photo credit: Jörg Bittner Unna Raphael |
St. George and the Dragon (1506) |
The heroic St. George rides his white stallion while he slays the wicked Dragon. |
Hieronymus Bosch |
The Garden of Earthly Delights (1504) |
Oil on wood triptych. Flowing from left-to-right the three parts represent Eden, the garden of earthly delights, and Hell. On the bottom left we can see Adam, and Eve accompanied with God (although he looks more like Jesus). |
Albrecht Dürer |
The Little Owl (1506) |
Northern Renaissance paining of an owl by painter, and printmaker Albrecht Dürer. |
Albrecht Dürer |
Wing of a Blue Roller (1512) |
Illustration of the blue-bellied roller (Coracias cyanogaster) wing. |
Joachim Patenier |
St. Jerome In Rocky Landscape (c. 1520) |
Northern Renaissance work that is now located at the National Gallery. |
Albrecht Altdorfer |
The Battle of Alexander at Issus (1529) |
Painting showing the bloody Battle of Issus. The battle would be one of many victories by royal Ancient Greek, Alexander the Great. |
Agnolo Bronzino |
An Allegory of Venus and Cupid (c. 1545) |
Venus, and Cupid are seen together. Note that Venus is holding Cupid's arrow. Cupid's foot (bottom left) in this painting would later be used in the iconic Monty Python's Flying Circus as the farting foot. |
Pieter Bruegel the Elder |
The Triumph of Death (c. 1562) |
Painting showing the effects of the black death (the black plague). This painting for myself is a masterpiece in horror, showing mass death. If you look at the bottom left you will see that there is a man dressed in a robe, and crown, this shows me that the black death not only affects that of the working class but that of the elite too. |
Pieter Bruegel the Elder |
The Hunters in the Snow (1565) |
Scene depicting the medieval, and early Renaissance tradition of the Labours of the Months: depictions of various rural activities, and work understood by a spectator in Breugel's time as representing the different months or times of the year. |
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Caravaggio |
Doubting Thomas (1602) |
"Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." John 20:25. |
Hendrick ter Brugghen |
Меланхолія (1627) |
A woman holding a skull in her hand. I wonder what she's thinking about. |
Peter Paul Rubens |
The Judgement of Paris (1635) |
A Beautiful scene that illustrates Lucian's Judgement of the Goddesses.
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The Judgement of Paris is a story from Greek mythology, which was one of the events that led up to the Trojan War, and (in slightly later versions of the story) to the foundation of Rome. Francisco de Goya |
Saturn Devouring His Son (1636) |
Disgustedly detailed painting of Saturn eating his son, who is very much still alive. This oil on canvas painting was commissioned for the Torre de la Parada by Philip IV of Spain.
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The three stars at the top of the painting show that of the planet Saturn as described by Galileo a few years before its painting. The central star is the planet itself, whilst the two others represent what he thought were two stars aligned with the planet. In reality, these were the rings around the planet, which his telescope was not powerful enough to distinguish. Giovanni Battista Salvi |
La Vierge en prière (1650) |
The Virgin Mary is seen praying. |
Rembrandt |
The Three Crosses (1653) |
Behold, before your eyes, the final moments of life from The Son of God. |
Abraham Hondius |
Dog and crane fighting (1667) |
Weird painting of a dog biting a crane's leg. From the way the crane is looking, it would seem that it is trying to escape the dog's bite of death. |
Pierre Mignard |
Clio (1689) |
Oil on canvas painting that portrays the goddess, Clio, daughter of Zeus, and the Titaness Mnemosyne. Along with her sisters, she was considered to dwell at either Mount Helicon or Mount Parnassos. |
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Joseph Highmore |
Pamela in the Bedroom with Mrs Jewkes and Mr B. (1744) |
Scene showing Mr B's attempt at seducing Pamela. |
Giovanni Battista Piranesi |
The Colosseum (1757) |
The famous Roman Colosseum, as depicted by Piranesi. |
David Martin |
Self-portrait (c. 1760) |
A youthful portrait of Martin that was painted around the early 1760s. This was possibly made while he was still an assistant at the London studio of his fellow Scotsman, Allan Ramsay.
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Note how Martin painted himself with clear skin, rosy cheeks, and wavy ginger hair. It would seem that he was quite pleased with how this oil on canvas painting turned out, as he made a copy of this work, and presented it to his master Allan Ramsay. This painting is currently located at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Jean-Honoré Fragonard |
The Swing (1767) |
Lushus oil on canvas painting showing a woman on a swing while two men watch in awe. |
Francisco de Goya |
Street Comedians (1793) |
Painting that depicts the Spanish class difference. |
Francisco de Goya |
Witches' Sabbath (1798) |
The devil is seen here is the form of a garlanded goat, while a gathering of witches circle him. As can be seen on this oil on canvas painting, an older witch is holding infant in her hands.
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In this painting, the devil might be acting as an unholy priest at an initiation ceremony for the child, though popular superstition at the time believed the devil often fed on children, and human fetuses. The skeletons of two infants can be seen; one discarded to the left, the other held by a crone in the centre foreground. William Blake |
Pity (1795) |
Along with other works of this period by artist, and poet William Blake, it was influenced by the Bible, John Milton, and Shakespeare. |
Hubert Robert |
Girls Dancing Around an Obelisk (1798) |
A large group of women are seen dancing around a broken obelisk in a strange place. |
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Bertel Thorvaldsen |
Jason with the Golden Fleece (1803) |
The heroic, ancient Greek mythological leader of the Argonauts, Jason, is seen with Golden Fleece. Jason was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. |
William Blake |
The number of the beast is 666 (1805) |
The Devil as seen in The Great Red Dragon Paintings by the English poet, and painter William Blake. |
John Martin |
Belshazzar's Feast (1821) |
Oil painting by British artist John Martin. It was first exhibited at the British Institution in February 1821, and won a prize of £200 for the best picture. |
Rudolf von Alt |
Der Stephansdom vom Stock im Eisenplatz (1832) |
Watercolour of the modern day city of Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, that is located in Vienna, Austria. |
Utagawa Kuniyoshi |
The Sea Monk (1845) |
Haunting illustration of monster of the sea, Umibōzu, a spirit in Japanese folklore, who made the most violent storms on the last day of the year. Because of this, Japanese sailors believed it to be bad to sail on the last day of the year. |
Ary Scheffer |
The Temptation of Christ (1854) |
Painting showing The Devil trying to tempt Jesus Christ on some rocks. The painting is currently situated at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. |
Ary Scheffer |
The Death of King Arthur (1862) |
Oil on canvas depicting a boat arriving to take Arthur (a legendary British leader who, according to medieval histories, and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the late 5th, and early 6th centuries) to Avalon after the Battle of Camlann. |
Gustave Courbet |
Killing a Deer (1867) |
Grizzly scene of the last fleeting moments of the life of a deer, as it is, quite literally, being torn apart by a pack of hunter dogs - very harrowing imagery indeed. |
Alonzo Chappel |
The Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln (1868) |
Designed by John B. Bachelder and painted by Alonzo Chappel, this art shows the number of people who visited the dying president throughout the night, and of the early morning of the 14th, and 15th of April 1865. These people did not visit Lincoln at the same time: they could not have all fit in the small first-floor room of the Petersen House. Lincoln’s wife, Mary, is pictured in the centre, lying across the president’s body. His son Robert stands in the foreground to the right of the bed. Vice President Andrew Johnson is seated at the far left. |
Vasily Vereshchagin |
The Apotheosis of War (1871) |
Gruesome painting of skulls carelessly put out in the open for anyone to take advantage of. Truly horrifying. |
Gustave Caillebotte |
Young Man at His Window (1875) |
Painting of Gustave Caillebotte's brother, René Caillebotte, who is seen wearing informal clothes, and standing at a balcony. He is standing at a window from the family home in the Rue de Miromesnil in Paris, looking outwards into Boulevard de Malesherbes. |
Ilya Yefimovich Repin (Илья́ Ефи́мович Ре́пин) |
Sadko (1876) |
Bloody lovely painting of Sadko, who is the principal character in a Russian medieval epic Bylina. He was an adventurer, merchant, and gusli musician from Novgorod. |
Luis Ricardo Falero |
Witches going to their Sabbath (1878) |
Satanic oil painting depicting a Witches' Sabbath. |
John Atkinson Grimshaw |
Shipping on the Clyde (1881) |
Urban scene showing Prince's Dock in Hull, UK. |
Vincent van Gogh |
Sorrow (1882) |
An old woman is seen on her own, crying, and naked. |
John Russell |
Vincent van Gogh (1886) |
Australian painter's tribute to one of the greats. |
Eugen Bracht |
The Shore of Oblivion (1889) |
While not apparent at first glance is the fact that the white stones in the foreground are skulls. |
James Ensor |
Skeletons Fighting for the Body of a Hanged Man (1891) |
Creepy painting depicting two skeletons fighting over a corpse, while an onslaught of human like monsters watch with glee. |
Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge |
Crucifixion (1892) |
Unsettling painting of Jesus Christ on the crucifix. |
Ilya Repin |
Follow Me, Satan (1895) |
Evil never dies. |
John Collier |
Lady Godiva (1897) |
Lady Godiva, as the legend goes, is seen riding her horse naked through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband imposed on his tenants. |
Ivan Bilibin |
Vasilisa the Beautiful at the Hut of Baba Yaga (1899) |
Vasilisa at the Hut of Baba Yaga, as depicted by Russian illustrator, and stage designer, Ivan Bilibin. |
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Paul Cézanne |
Pyramid of Skulls (1901) |
Oil painting of the remains of lost life. |
Sir Edward Poynter |
The Cave of the Storm Nymphs (1903) |
Three gorgeous women are seen nude together, but do not fall for their tricks of deceit, because after all, they are nymphs, and dead men tell no tales. |
John William Godward |
Dolce Far Niente (1904) |
A woman is seen laying down on fur. This painting is now located in a private gallery. |
Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky |
Headquarters of the Ural Railway Administration (1910) |
Early colour photo taken of the headquarters of the Ural Railway Administration. If you follow the left track you can make out a ghost-like figure of a person walking on the tracks. Although the photo probably wasn't taken for the sake of art, it is still none the less beautiful to look at. |
Adolf Hitler |
Wiener Staatsoper (1912) |
Art by one of the most infamous man of the 20th Century. Despite Hitler, being a fairly talented artist, his career in art went no wear at all, and was really only known as an artist after he became the leader of Germany. |
Mervyn O'Gorman |
Christina (1913) |
Dreamlike photos of 16-year-old Christina Bevanhey by family friend Mervyn O'Gorman. |
Robert Winthrop Chanler |
Leopard and Deer (c. 1914) |
The last moments of a deer's life before being killed. |
German Government |
L'Entente Cordiale (1915) |
World War I German propaganda poster, depicting Britain as a spider eating Uncle Sam. |
Isaac Israëls |
Woman before "Sunflowers" by Vincent van Gogh (c. 1917) |
Almost as a way of mocking Vincent van Gogh, a lady is seen showing her womanhood in front of perhaps one of van Gogh's most famous of paintings. |
Andrei Nikolaevich Schilder |
Before the Storm (1918) |
On their own. |
Aleister Crowley |
May Morn (c. 1919) |
One of Crowley's paintings from his time in the United States. He explained it thus: "The painting represents the dawning of the day following a witches' celebration as described in Faust. The witch is hanged, as she deserves, and the satyr looks out from behind a tree". |
Hans Breinlinger |
Der Judaskuss (1920) |
Judas, one of the Twelve Disciples, betrays the Lord Jesus Christ with a kiss, informing the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane by kissing him, and addressing him as "Rabbi" to reveal his identity to the crowd who had come to arrest Christ. |
Leslie Gilbert Illingworth |
Freedom (1940) |
British World War II propaganda poster by Welsh political cartoonist, Leslie Illingworth, who worked for The Daily Mail, and the British satirical periodical Punch |
Laura Knight |
Ruby Loftus Screwing a Breech Ring (1943) |
20th-century portrait of Ruby Loftus (1921-2004), who is seen working at an industrial lathe as part of the British war effort in World War II. The painting was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee (WAAC), and is now part of the Imperial War Museum's art collection. |
Philipp Halsmann |
Dali Atomicus (1948) |
Fun, and a quite weird photo of the very iconic Salvador Dalí. This photo explores the idea of suspension, it shows three cats, that art not falling, but flying, water thrown from a bucket, an easel, a footstool, and Salvador Dalí all seemingly suspended in mid-air. The title of this photo is a reference to that of a painting called Leda Atomica that was made by Dalí - this painting can be seen in the right of the photograph behind the two cats. |
Aaron Shikler |
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1970) |
The official Whitehouse portrait of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, as requested by Kennedy's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy.
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Compared to other portraits of former president, this one in particular is very radical, the most noticeable thing is that Kennedy is not looking at the viewer as most do, but at the floor, in a thinking pose. The painting is also different as it was made after the fact of Kennedy's death, so artist Aaron Shikler only reference would have been archive photos, and videos of Kennedy. Ida Libby Dengrove |
Mother (1979) |
The Sex Pistol's very own singer, Sid Vicious, is on trial for the murder of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, who was killed with a single stab wound to the abdomen; she likely bled to death. The knife that killed her belonged to Vicious, though he would periodically claim that he stabbed her without intent to kill, that he didn't remember the incident at all, or that Nancy fell on the knife.
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He would be released on bail on the 1st of February 1979, and attended a party to celebrate his freedom. Sid's mother (Anne Beverley, can be seen behind Sid in the sketch), who had been acquiring her son's drugs for years, obtained the lethal dose of heroin that left Vicious dead the following morning. He was 22. Since his death, fans as well as law enforcement officials, have theorized Spungen's murder might have been a burglary or drug deal gone wrong. See The Courtroom Sketches of Ida Libby Dengrove for more information on this photo.
John Wayne Gacy Jr. |
Christ (1986) |
Drawing of Jesus by American serial killer, and rapist, John Wayne Gacy, who sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered at least 33 teenage boys, and young men between 1972 and 1978.
| A reacquiring theme in his work would be of Pogo the Clown, a character he made up, and would dress up as at fundraising events, parades, and children's parties. He would later be known as the "Killer Clown" because of this. Gacy was sentenced to death on the 13th of March 1980 for 12 killings. He would spend 14 years on death row before he was executed by lethal injection at Stateville Correctional Center on the 10th of May 1994. When looking at other art he made, this one in particular is the best, or maybe the least worst. Eric W. Tilenius |
The Complete Guide to Cows -- Novem (1989) |
Early ASCII art of cows as seen on BBS's at the time. |
Sérgio Valle Duarte |
A small Sismo (c. 1996) |
There will always be a new day... |
Unknown, Allen Mullen[?] |
botticelli's venus frontal (c. 2000) |
ASCII art of the now famous The Birth of Venus. Allen Mullen would later add colour to the art. |
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Robert "Banksy" Gunningham |
Grin Reaper (2004) |
Parody of Death himself by famous, and somewhat infamous street artist, Banksy. As seen in Shoreditch, London. |
Craig Finn |
Untitled (2005) |
The Self-portrait of Craig Finn, a gentleman suffering from schizophrenia, draws a representation of his own distorted reality, showing us a small glimpse of his world. |
Dalemundi |
Untitled (c. 2006) |
While under the influence of LSD, also known as acid, an artiest created a confusing recreation of a human face. The words "She'll be fucked by plastic Queens." is seen written just below the right eye; what this could mean is unknown, and will probably never be found out.
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Dalemundi is assumed to be the artiest of this work, as based on copyright claims. Christina-Antoinette Neofotistou |
Look at me - the Rape (2007) |
Disturbing painting showing the loss of innocence. |
Maija Haavisto |
Brain Stem (2012) |
ASCII showing the inside of the brain. |
Totaly History |
Michelangelo's Censored David (2013) |
Despite the fact that half of the people on earth have a penis, the people at Totaly History have decided to censor one of the greatest works of art, just in case a kid sees it. Children should not be roaming the Internet unsupervised any more than they should be roaming the streets of New York City unsupervised. |
Alexander Mordvintsev of Google's DeepDream (AI), Calhoun Press, and 3268zauber |
Deep Dream of Electric Sheep (2015) |
DeepDream is the name of a computer vision program that was created by Google's Alexander Mordvintsev, an engineer at the American company. The program uses a convolutional neural network to find, and enhance patterns in images via algorithmic pareidolia, thus creating a dream-like hallucinogenic appearance in the deliberately over-processed images out of an old image.
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There is a new type of question that is on the minds of so many people working on AI computers; and that is is AI able to think, feel, and act on its own, as if it were a human? If so, then a second question should come up in relation to AI such as DeepDream; if an AI is indeed able to act as if it were a human being, does that mean that images such as Deep Dream of Electric Sheep are works of art? Or does the act of thinking about this idea not only trivialise artwork made by the greats, but also devalue us a humans? It is almost certain that in the very near future, this issue will likely effect not only the art world, but the world of what is right and wrong. Ashley "Illma" Gore |
Make America Great Again (2016) |
Early artwork mocking the then presidential candidate Donald Trump in early 2016. This painting would result in the (alleged) assault of Gore by a Trump supporter. |
Reddit, various artists |
/r/place (2017) |
It's hard to describe /r/place to someone who wasn't there at the time. The best way to explain it is to see in your minds eye a blank 1000x1000 canvas that you can place a block of colour on, however, someone can soon easily replace your colour with their own. You can place as many blocks of colour on the canvas as you like, but every time you place a block, you must wait five minute until you can place a new block.
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Now imagine 213,595+ Reddit users over the period of three days, starting on the first of April, and ending on the third, using the canvas as their play ground - it was quite something to behold. | ||||||||||||||||
See removed art for more.
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