Almost fifty years ago, the art historian Linda Nochlin published a provocatively titled essay: Why have there been no great women artists in history? Her main argument was that women had been systematically precluded from achieving greatness because of the way in which that achievement had been defined by geniuses such as Michelangelo and Leonardo.
Yet, despite all of the social and cultural obstacles and prejudices, women artists have always worked side by side with male counterparts, creating a rich parallel history of remarkable artistic accomplishments. In these two series - four lectures each - we consider some of the most remarkable characters within this parallel art history
RENAISSANCE THROUGH THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
1. Renaissance and Baroque - Italy: Lavinia Fontana, Sofonisba Anguissola, Artemisia Gentileschi
2. Renaissance and Baroque - Northern Europe: Caterina van Hemessen, Clara Peeters, Judith Leyster, Rachel Ruysch
3. Rococo and Romanticism: Anne Vallayer-Coster, Vigée Le Brun, Angelica Kauffman
4. Around the Impressionists - Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Eva Gonzales, Marie Bracquemond
WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE MODERN ERA
1. Artists and Muses: Camille Claudel, Georgia O Keefe, Frida Kahlo
2. Women of the Avant-Garde – Sonia Delaunay, Hanna Hoch, Natalia Goncharova, Lyubov Popova, Klint
3. New York School and Beyond - Lee Krasner, Hellen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell
4. In defiance of categories: Louise Bourgeois, Alice Neel, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Anne Truitt
SPECIAL LECTURES AND SERIES ON SELECTED WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD
SOFONISBA ANGUISSOLA: AN EXCEPTIONAL LIFE IN ART
Sofonisba Anguissola (1532–1625) was a pioneering Italian Renaissance painter and one of the first known female artists to achieve international acclaim. Renowned for her skillful portraits, Anguissola broke barriers in a male-dominated field, earning praise from Michelangelo and serving as a court painter to Philip II of Spain. Please join us for a special program that explores some of the most significant aspects of her life and artistic language.
ARTEMISIA GENTILESCHI
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654) is the most celebrated woman artist of the Italian baroque. Her career, spanning over forty years, took her from Rome to Florence, as well as Naples, where she spent the last two decades of her life. Though widely admired during her lifetime, she was overlooked over the succeeding centuries as artistic tastes shifted away from dramatic naturalism towards a more classicizing manner. Having been rediscovered some forty years ago, she is now enjoying another revival - most recently through the large retrospective exhibition in London of 2020. With this series of lectures, we look more closely at her artistic as well as personal accomplishments as a woman artist in the age of baroque.
Formative Years
Artemisia and the Art of Visual Drama
Artemisia through her own Eyes: Self-Portraits
CLARA PEETERS: A WOMAN ARTIST REDISCOVERED
Clara Peeters (b. ca. 1580 or 1590 – d. sometime after 1621) is widely regarded as one of the pioneers in the development of still life as a genre. Yet, despite the scholarly attention to her work, which culminated in an exhibition of her work at the Prado in 2016, our understanding of her life and artistic development remains rather limited.
Judging by her surviving paintings, she was active for a little longer than a decade, from around 1607 to around 1621. Whether the brevity of her career resulted from a marriage, as was the case with so many other female artists of the early modern era, or from premature death, as it is sometimes speculated, remains unknown.
In absence of archival evidence, our most reliable guide to her artistic goals is her visual language. In this special lecture, we explore that language by a close analysis of some of her best works - in the context of those created by her contemporaries.
BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL AND THE SYMBOLIC: THE RENAISSANCE PERSPECTIVE
The emphasis on perspective played a pivotal role in transforming artistic expression and representation in 15th century Italy. This technique revolutionized the way artists portrayed space, architecture, and the human form. Beyond these technical aspects, the mastery of perspective fostered a more profound engagement with the human experience and the natural world. In this lecture, we look at the ways in which different artists of this period approached perspective both as a means for creating more convincing representations of reality and in order to underscore some of the key messages within their works.
VISUAL STORY TELLING IN THE RENAISSANCE: CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE
Continuous narrative paintings often feature interconnected episodes, providing a cohesive visual account of a story within a single composition. While this concept can be traced to artists of the late Middle Ages such as Giotto, it attained even greater popularity in the early Renaissance. This approach not only showcased artistic skill but also engaged viewers by inviting them to explore and interpret the unfolding narrative, contributing to the period's emphasis on visual storytelling. In this lecture, we compare different approaches to this narrative technique in the works of some of the key figures in 15th century art.
It is often said that all great art is inspired by other art. In that sense, one could also say that every great artist carries within herself or himself countless conversations with others artists.
Artists look at others in order to learn from them, reach comparable accomplishments, and ultimately, surpass them. This approach to creation as a continuous dialogue with predecessors became especially strong in the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. In this series of five lectures, we look at seminal works by several undisputed masters from that era and the ways in which they competed with others – both with tremendous respect for their models and a desire to be different - and thus claim their own place within the canon.
1. Michelangelo and the Ancients
2. Titian and the Venetian Response to the Florentine Ideal
3. Caravaggio's Confrontations
4. Peter Paul Rubens - A Voyage through Times and Cultures
5. Anthony van Dyck and the Art of Graceful Challenge
VISIONS OF THE DIVINE COMEDY
“In the middle of our life’s journey, I found myself in a dark wood.”
So begins one of the most famous and complex poems in the western tradition, Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” an epic on the soul’s journey through the afterlife. Begun in 1308 and completed in 1320, a year before Dante's death in 1321, this narrative poem has continued to provide inspiration for countless artists - from manuscript illuminators to painters and sculptors from a variety of cultures and time periods.
In this series of lectures, we will explore some of the greatest of those works by artists like Botticelli, Blake, Redon and Rodin. In doing so, we will gain a finer understanding of the ways in which this poem has been received and interpreted over the last seven hundred years.
THE FIRST CENTURIES - DANTE IN THE GOTHIC AND THE RENAISSANCE ERAS
DANTE AND THE ROMANTIC IMAGINATION
NINETEENTH-CENTURY TRANSFORMATIONS
DANTE AND THE MODERNS
Alternatively, you can request a one hour lecture on the reception of Dante by visual artists across different time periods, which was prepared in conjunction with the 2023 exhibition at the National gallery of Art, "Going through Hell."
One of the hallmarks of the Renaissance is a veritable cultural obsession with the idea of love. This was probably due to a variety of causes – including, most importantly, the stronger emphasis on individual lives, emotions, and choices. Another important factor was the revival of classical literature, from the myths retold by Ovid to the poetry of Propertius and Catullus. As men of letters debated on the nature of ‘sacred’ versus ‘profane’ love, or the relationship between the ‘body’ and the ‘soul,’ artists tried to render these ideas visible through their work. With this series of lectures, we explore some of the most fascinating aspects of this theme in Renaissance paintings, sculptures, and prints.
1. In the Realm of Venus and Cupid
2. The Ideal Beloved
3. Marriage and its Rituals
4. The Mistress
5. Envisioning Sacred Love
Self-portraits have always made tremendous truth-claims: they are, after all, on a subject that the artist knows better than anything else. Yet, historically, self-portraiture has always been more about desires and projections than about the creation of images faithful to reality; about claims to virtue and fame, but also, acknowledgements of one’s mortality.
In the middle of the sixteenth century, Michelangelo famously declared that every painter paints himself. Few decades later, Michel de Montaigne added that if one paints oneself diversely, this is because one sees oneself diversely. This series of lectures addresses the diversity within this most intimate of pictorial genres, from its Renaissance origins to the modern era.
Origins of the Genre and its Rediscovery in the Renaissance
Self-Portraits in the Age of Baroque
Enlightenment to Romanticism
Nineteenth-Century Transformations
Versions of the Self in 20th century Art - Before WWII
Self-Portraits after WWII
FEMALE PORTRATURE OF THE RENAISSANCE
The portrayal of women underwent a significant transformation in the Italian Renaissance, reflecting evolving cultural and social perspectives. Whereas earlier artworks often depicted women as idealized figures of beauty and grace, as the period progressed, artists like Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci began to imbue their female subjects with more individualized features, capturing a sense of personality and emotion. In this two-part program, we look at the ways in which these shifts were expressed in a range of portraits from the 15th and the 16th centuries.
OVID AND THE REVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN THE RENAISSANCE: PART 1
One of the most fascinating aspects of the revival of antiquity in the early modern era was the re-introduction of classical mythology in the visual arts. The most important conduit for this rediscovery was the fifteen-book poem Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC – 17 or 18 AD). His compilation of stories about changes of bodies into new forms became so popular during this period that it was sometimes described as a pagan Bible. This series looks more closely at the ways in which Ovid’s “continuous song” provided a point of departure for countless European artists, from Italy and Spain, to France and Holland.
1. Ovid’s Cosmogony and the First Conflicts: The Four Ages, Saturn, Prometheus
2. Hubris and Punishment: The Giants, Lycaeon, Deucalion and Pyrrha
3. Love’s Triumphs and Humiliations: Apollo and Daphne, Jupiter and Io, Pan and Syrinx
4. The Fall of Phaeton
OVID AND THE REVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN THE RENAISSANCE: PART 2
1. Apollo and Coronis, Erichthonius, Europa
2. Callisto, Actaeon
3. Semele, Bacchus
4. Narcissus, Pyramus and Thisbe
OVID AND THE REVIVAL OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN THE RENAISSANCE: PART 4
1. Philemon and Baucis / Hercules - his exploits, triumphs and defeats
2. Orpheus and his Lament: death of Eurydice, Ganymede, Hyacinthus
2. Pygmalion / Venus and Adonis
3. Midas, Vertumnus and Pomona, the Sermon of Pythagoras
THE REVERSE
One of the most intriguing aspects of Renaissance art is the practice of painting both the front and the back of a panel. Sometimes, these images on the reverse are symbolic inscriptions. In many other instances, however, they are just as elaborate and carefully executed, and as significant as the images on the front. In later periods, artists often used the back of the painting to allude to the very process of the creation of the work of art. One other way in which they address the question of the “reverse” is by showing the back of the painting at their easel – the most famous example being Velazquez’s Las Meninas. In this special program, we delve into the many meanings of this artistic device and its survival into the twentieth century.
BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL AND THE SYMBOLIC: THE RENAISSANCE PERSPECTIVE
The emphasis on perspective played a pivotal role in transforming artistic expression and representation in 15th century Italy. This technique revolutionized the way artists portrayed space, architecture, and the human form. Beyond these technical aspects, the mastery of perspective fostered a more profound engagement with the human experience and the natural world. In this lecture, we look at the ways in which different artists of this period approached perspective both as a means for creating more convincing representations of reality and in order to underscore some of the key messages within their works.
DREAMS AND VISIONS IN EARLY MODERN ART
When we speak of notions such as dream-space and dream-work, we are often referring back to Sigmund Freud’s theories about the origins and meanings of dreams. Yet, as this founding figure of psychoanalysis would note, only half-jokingly, one should not forget that people dreamed for much longer before they were ever aware of the idea of the “subconscious.”
In the history of visual arts, dreams and visions become much present as a subject during the Renaissance. One of the reasons was surely the growing interest in the individual human experience. Another one was the longstanding literary and visual tradition related to visionary experiences, which gained a new sense of relevance in the context of the Counter-Reformation. In this series of lectures, we explore different ways in which early modern artists sought to give these complex psychological processes a “local habitation” through their images of dreams and visions.
1. Sleep and Dreams – a historical framework
2. Dreams and the Imagination
3. Dreams, Visions, and Spirituality
THE REDISCOVERY OF LANDSCAPE IN THE RENAISSANCE
According to ancient writers on art such as Pliny the Elder, landscape painting was widely admired both among Greeks and Romans. This is attested by surviving works of art from antiquity - especially Roman fresco paintings. With the advent of Christianity, this pictorial tradition was almost lost. Even when included in larger narratives, landscapes were mere backdrops or scenography for sacred events. This attitude changed slowly during the late middle ages, though it took much longer before landscape was established as an independent genre. In this series of lectures we consider the presence and role of landscape motifs in Renaissance art, and what they tell us about broader attitudes about nature , time, and place during that period.
1. Landscape in antiquity and the survival of the genre during the middle ages
2. Landscape painting in the Italian Renaissance
3. Northern visions of Nature, Time, and Place
DUTCH LANDSCAPE OF THE GOLDEN AGE: SEEING NATURE WITH NEW EYES
The Dutch landscape of the 17th century stands out for its unique blend of realism and allegory, as well as technical mastery. Unlike other artistic centers, where landscape painting was often idealized, Dutch painters focused on the seemingly unremarkable aspects of their natural environment—marshes, canals, skies, farmlands, and windmills. Yet despite this "ordinariness," artists like Jan van Goyen and Jacob van Ruisdael captured the various effects of light, atmosphere, and the human relationship with nature more subtly than almost any other landscape painters in Europe. In this three-part series, we explore the ways in which these and other artists of the Dutch Golden Age, including Rembrandt, teach us how to look at nature with new eyes.
The Birth of independent landscape painting in Holland
Between Reality and the World of the Imagination
Landscape on Paper - prints and drawings
ROMANTIC LANDSCAPES: FRIEDRICH, CONSTABLE, TURNER
One of the most important facets of the Romantic movement in the visual arts was the prominence of landscape painting, a genre that had up until that point occupied a lower place in the academic hierarchy. The reasons for this turn to landscape as an autonomous subject are manifold. For some artists, the turn to nature provided a counterpoint to the ideals of order associated with Enlightenment thought and Neoclassicism. For others, landscape painting was a form of escape from a rapidly changing world due to the Industrial Revolution. Others still chose landscape as their preferred subject because it allowed them to express their subjective responses to the world – without the need for elaborate story telling. In this series we look at the versions of of landscape painting in the works of three of the greatest artists associated with the Romantic movement in the visual arts.
1. Caspar David Friedrich and the Sublime
2. The English Arcadia of Constable
3. Turner and the Colors of the Soul
CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH AND THE SOUL OF NATURE
On February 8, The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened the first comprehensive exhibition in the United States dedicated to Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840); it will be on view through May 11, 2025. The works of this German artist are synonymous with the ideals of Romanticism as expressed in the intellectual discourse, literature, music and the visual arts in the late 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries. One of the most salient features of this movement was the primacy on individual perception and feeling, rather than a rational approach to understanding reality. No less important was the desire to reconnect with nature as a means for attaining a spiritual form of cognition of the world and one’s place within it.
In this series of three lectures, we look more closely at Friedrich’s oeuvre within the broader context of this movement and its ideas about the relationship of the self to the world, which remain relevant to this day.
1. Friedrich and the Romantic Movement
2. Friedrich and the idea of the Sublime
3. Nature as a Site of Spiritual Renewal and Self-Discovery
PART 1: RUBENS
In one of his notes on art, Henri Matisse would famously define drawing as an "expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence." In this lecture, we will explore some of the most important ways in which they were used by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). A prolific painter of seemingly inexhaustible power of invention, Rubens assimilated the best of the Northern and the Italian Renaissance traditions, as well as the world of antiquity. His extraordinary drawings are among the finest ones created by any of the old masters.
PART 2: REMBRANDT
Rembrandt was one of the greatest masters of drawing in the history of art. He drew constantly, creating a body of work comparable to a journal of private observations and feelings about the world and the people around him. Though many of his drawings are deceptively simple, their spontaneity and economy make them endlessly fascinating. In this special session, we explore some of the hallmarks of his style.
MASTERS, FOLLOWERS, FORGERS: THE ONGOING CHALLENGES OF CONNOISSEURSHIP
One of the first steps in any art historical research is the establishment of the authorship of the work in question. While our greater access to information and new technology may have made it easier to determine if something is "real" or a "fake," this issue continues to lead to numerous debates - as well as legal actions. In this series, we look more closely at some of more intriguing cases of contested authorship, both of works of art associated with "old masters" and those attributed to 20th century artists.
Leonardo da Vinci and his Followers
Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi
Rembrandt/ Not-Rembrandt
Johannes Vermeer and his Unknown Assistants
The Real and the Fake in Modern Art: from Modigliani to Malevich
The Real and the Fake in Modern Art: from the New York School to Basquiat
Adoration of the Magi: Evolution and Transformation of a Theme in Early Modern Europe
"On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another path".
Join us as we take a closer look at the evolution and the transformation of the pictorial representations of the “Adoration of the Magi,” one of the most popular subjects from the life of Christ related to his birth and infancy. This three-part series focuses on early modern images from Italy and Northern Europe.
1. Origins and codification
2. Italian perspectives
3. The Adoration of the Magi in Northern Europe
MASTERS OF ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS AND THE TWILIGHT OF A TRADITION
For centuries, books were painstakingly written and copied by hand. They were also illustrated – often with decorations around the margins, or with full-page images. This tradition came to an end with Gutenberg’s invention of the movable type and the printing press. However, wealthy book collectors continued to commission handwritten books for their libraries. In this three-part series, we look at three exceptional masters from the last phase of the illuminated manuscripts, who invested their talents in this art form even after the mass production of books became possible.
Jean Fouquet
Simon Bening
Giulio Clovio
MUSIC AND THE VISUAL ARTS IN THE EARLY MODERN ERA
One of the long-standing traditions in the visual culture of the west is that of the paragone, or the competition between different kinds of arts - whether painting or sculpture, or painting and poetry. Within this context, painting was often perceived as a "sister art" of music, through typically occupying a somewhat lower place in the hierarchy of the arts.
Nonetheless, throughout the early modern era, artists used musical motifs in their works in order to give their paintings a "voice" and convey a sense of beauty and harmony comparable to those qualities in musical compositions. In this three-part series, we explore this relationship as it evolved between the 15th and the 17th centuries, both in Italy and in Northern Europe.
Painting and music in the Italian Renaissance
Painting and music in Northern Europe
Painting and music in the age of Baroque
Throughout history, landscape painters have celebrated nature, typically focusing on its opulence and self-renewing power. Some of them, however, have also found beauty in the most dormant of its seasons - the winter. Though few in number, include key figures of their respective periods, from Bruegel to Monet. Join us as we look at their enchantment with the colors of nature under the cover of snow, and the ways in which seemingly barren landscapes can become sites rich with human activity and potential for storytelling.
ART AND WAR: ANTIQUITY THROUGH THE EARLY MODERN ERA
War has been a persistent theme within our visual culture since the earliest surviving records. Indeed, the oldest known description of a work of art in Western literature, in Book XVIII of Homer’s Iliad, is of the shield of Achilles: a piece of armor crafted with exquisite artistry by the lame blacksmith of the Olympians, Hephaestus. In this series of three lectures, we look at various ways in which artists have reflected on warfare all the way from Greco-Roman antiquity to the early modern era.
1. War and Conflict in the Greco-Roman World
2. Images of War in the Renaissance
3. The Unending Wars of the Seventeenth Century
DANGEROUS BEAUTIES: FROM HELEN OF TROY TO ROXELANA
Some of the most enduring narratives in the Western literary canon revolve around women whose beauty was said to alter the course of history. This tradition begins with Helen of Troy, whose abduction by Paris ignited the most famous and destructive war of antiquity, and continues with figures both real and imagined whose allure inspired poetry, political intrigue, and acts of violence. Among them are the legendary consort of Alexander the Great, the immortalized muse of Petrarch’s sonnets, and the notorious Lucrezia Borgia, whose reputation blends fact and fiction. In this three-part series, we explore how the legends surrounding such women were shaped, embellished, and reinterpreted in the visual culture of the early modern period—whether in paintings, prints, or decorative arts.
Leda and her Daughter Helen – The myth of divine seduction and its role in the birth of the most celebrated beauty of the ancient world.
Laura and Lucrezia Borgia – Between poetic idealization and infamous intrigue.
From Alexander’s Roxana to Suleiman’s Roxelana – Eastern queens and consorts as symbols of desire, power, and cultural exchange.
SAINTS AND THEIR IMAGES
Saintes and Penitents: Jerome and Magdalene
Saint Jerome: This lecture explores how artists from the renaissance and the Baroque eras reimagined the scholar-saint—alternately as a learned translator in his study and as an ascetic confronting mortality in the wilderness.
The Many Faces of Mary Magdalene: No saint inspired more diverse interpretations than Mary Magdalene—at once sinner, penitent, contemplative, and apostle. This lecture follows her image across centuries, from early Christian icons and medieval devotion to the sensual Renaissance Magdalene and the introspective Baroque penitent.
Legendary Saints: Catherine of Alexandria, Veronica, and Christopher
This series explores the artistic representations of three saints whose stories have inspired centuries of devotion and creativity. Drawing on works by diverse artists, we will examine how their images evolved to convey theological, moral, and symbolic meanings.
Saint Catherine of Alexandria – Scholar, Princess, and Martyr
Traditionally portrayed as a learned and eloquent princess, Saint Catherine confronted Emperor Maxentius in defense of her Christian faith, winning converts before her execution on the spiked “Catherine wheel.”
Veronica and Her Veil – The Face of Compassion
Saint Veronica, the compassionate witness to Christ’s Passion, is said to have wiped his face with her veil, which miraculously retained his image. This lecture traces the development of her iconography in painting, sculpture, and devotional objects.
Saint Christopher – Protector and Pilgrim
From monumental church frescoes to intimate devotional images, Saint Christopher has long been depicted carrying the Christ Child across the river. This session examines his iconography, exploring themes of protection, faith, and pilgrimage.
PHILOSOPHICAL PAINTING
A series of lectures in which we explore a single, conceptually rich work of art and place it within its broader artistic and intellectual context
BOTTICELLI'S PRIMAVERA
Botticelli’s Primavera is one of the most celebrated works of art of the Italian Renaissance. Painted in the late 15th century, it weaves together classical deities—Venus, Mercury, the Three Graces, Zephyrus, Chloris, and Flora—into a complex allegory of love, spring, and fertility. The work reflects the Neoplatonic ideals of the Medici court, blending sensuality with philosophical meaning. Its intricate composition, flowing lines, and detailed flora invite viewers into a poetic realm where mythology is intertwined with human emotions. Join us for a special lecture and discussion that delves into some of the most fascinating aspects of this enigmatic masterpieces.
GIORGIONE: THE THREE PHILOSOPHERS
Painted around 1508–1509, The Three Philosophers by Giorgione is one of the most fascinating and mysterious of his works. The three figures—often interpreted as representing different ages, cultures, or stages of human knowledge—are set in a natural setting that emphasizes reflection over action. Everything about this composition feels both familiar and enigmatic. Join us for a special lecture that explores its possible philosophical dimensions and places it in its broader cultural context.
BOSCH AND THE HAYWAIN TRIPTYCH
Though not the most famous of paintings associated with Hieronymus Bosch, The Haywain triptych is no less complex than The Garden of Earthly delights. The importance of this triptych is attested by its existence in two versions, one in the Escorial, the other in the Prado, Madrid. Essentially based on the same iconographic scheme, these two works speak of human frailty and inability to see through the surfaces of phenomena. The left inner wing presents the Creation and Fall of Man, and the expulsion of the rebel angels, while the right wing is occupied by a view of Hell. The central panel present a rather novel and original vision of the human predicament: a multitude of people gathered around a great haywain being pulled by devils towards Hell and damnation. Join us for an in-depth discussion of this work and its broader context.
ALBRECHT DURER AND THE IMMORTAL SELF
The Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight by Albrecht Dürer, completed early in 1500, just before his 29th birthday, is considered as the most personal, iconic and complex of his three self-portraits, as well as within the history of self-portraiture.
One of its most remarkable aspects is the resemblance to earlier representations of Christ - especially with regard to its symmetry and the way in which the artist confronts the beholder with a raised hand to the middle of his chest as if in the act of blessing. In this special program, we examine this exceptional painting within the broader context of the artist's oeuvre.
PARMIGIANINO'S SELF-PORTRAIT IN A CONVEX MIRROR
Created when the artist was merely twenty-one years old, this unique self-portrait celebrates his inventiveness and creativity in a similar way to the self-portraits by Dürer. The image of the young man he presents before us is filled with symbolism despite its seemingly unmediated representation of the visible world. In painting the reflection of himself in a mirror, rather than an ideal self-image, Parmigianino makes us think about what art is, what it can do, and what is the nature of the world.
BRUEGEL'S TOWER OF BABEL
Pieter Bruegel the Elder painted several compositions inspired by the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel. The most famous among them is the version in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. A tour de force of encyclopedic painting, it presents us with a marvelously detailed rendering of the structure that is forever built and ruined in the midst of a setting that recalls a Flemish port. By blending elements from antique and Romanesque architecture in this stone structure, the artist makes us aware of the continuum between the hubris of the King of the Old Testament who commissioned that impossible tower and the irrational aspirations of his own era. Yet the answer to the key question of this composition remains notoriously elusive: is Bruegel admonishing us against human ambition in general, or the misguided attempts of humankind to attain things beyond their grasp?
REMBRANDT'S ARISTOTLE WITH A BUST OF HOMER
Among the most celebrated works of art at The Met, this painting is one of the most profoundly meditative of Rembrandt's compositions. Its focal point is the silent communication between Aristotle (384–322 BCE) and Homer, the epic poet who had attained literary immortality with his Iliad and Odyssey centuries before. Aristotle wears a gold medallion with a portrait of his powerful pupil, Alexander the Great— whom he had taught about history and human nature through the works of Homer. But what is Rembrandt hoping to convey to his viewers through this elusive scene. Is Aristotle thinking about his own legacy against Homer’s timeless achievement? Is he thinking of the futility of his teaching - the lessons about the fleeting nature of fame that Alexander never truly comprehended? Or is he (and thus Rembrandt as well) contemplating the ways through which we learn about the world - and the nature of memory itself.
VERMEER AND THE WOMAN WITH A BALANCE
Woman Holding a Balance by Johannes Vermeer, painted around 1664, is a masterpiece of Dutch Baroque art. The painting depicts an ordinary - yet perhaps also extraordinary woman - standing quietly before a table, holding a delicate balance in her hand. Light streams in from a nearby window, illuminating the calm, introspective scene. A painting of the Last Judgment hanging on the wall behind her adds spiritual weight to the composition. The balance is a common element in earlier Netherlandish paintings - often symbolic of material pursuits. Here it appears to be completely empty. Why did Vermeer decide to depart from that earlier tradition and interpretations? Was it only in order to confuse the beholders and make them think twice about what they are seeing? Did he wish to create a parallel between the action of this woman and the weighing of the souls depicted in the painting behind her? In a broader sense - did he want to remind the beholders of the importance of good judgment and balance in all matters?
DIEGO VELAZQUEZ AND LAS MENINAS
Las Meninas is arguably the most famous "puzzle picture" in the history of art. Created towards the very end of the distinguished career of Velázquez as a court painter for Philip IV, this highly unusual group portrait shows several members of that court - including the King and the Queen - though only as a pale reflection in a mirror on the back wall. The focal point, instead, is the Infanta Margarita, their young daughter who was at this point of time the only hope for continuing the Habsburg dynasty. The entire composition is a puzzle for the mind in much the same way as the artist’s play with perspective. Though his clever manipulation of the beholder's point of view, Velázquez ultimately leads us to recognize himself as the main protagonist of this scene.
EDOUARD MANET AND THE OLD MUSICIAN
Édouard Manet’s The Old Musician (1862) is a striking group portrait that blends realism with subtle social commentary. Centered around a weathered street musician, the painting assembles a motley group of figures—vagabonds, children, and a mysterious man in a top hat—reflecting the margins of Parisian society. Inspired by Spanish masters and 17th-century Dutch painting, Manet combines a classical composition with a novel, painterly approach. In this lecture, we examine the ways in which this early work by the famous French artist expresses his interest in modern life, art history, and pictorial ambiguity.
EDOUARD MANET AND THE BAR AT THE FOLIE BERGERE
Set in a Parisian music hall, Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882) centers on a barmaid who stands behind a marble counter, her expression distant and inscrutable. Reflected in the mirror behind her is the lively crowd, a man apparently engaging her in conversation, and a dazzling array of bottles and lights. Yet the perspective is subtly distorted, raising questions about illusion, reality, and the viewer’s position. Completed just before his death, the painting synthesizes his lifelong engagement with the spectacle of contemporary life and the formal challenges of representation.
PICASSO AND GUERNICA
In 1937, Picasso expressed his outrage against war with Guernica, an enormous mural-sized painting displayed to millions of visitors at the Paris World’s Fair. Yet, despite its notoriety, this image remains very difficult to interpret. When questioned about its possible symbolism, Picasso said it was simply an appeal to people about massacred people and animals: ”In the panel on which I am working, which I call Guernica, I clearly express my abhorrence of the military caste which has sunk Spain into an ocean of pain and death.” He also added: “It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words. The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them.”