Lesson 19

ART

Part One

Watch the video and do the exercises

Part Two

Most Famous Works of Art in the World

Maybe they may not be the greatest, but you probably know each of these.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503–19

Painted between 1503 and 1517, Da Vinci’s portrait has been raised two questions since the day it was made: Who’s the subject and why is she smiling? But Leonardo’s use of atmospheric perspective in the background is just as clever.

Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665

Johannes Vermeer’s 1665 painting of a young woman is startlingly real and startlingly modern, almost as if it were a photograph. Again, the sitter is unknown, though it’s been speculated that she might have been Vermeer's maid. She locks eyes with the viewer as if attempting to establish an intimate connection across the centuries.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1484–1486

Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus was the first full-length, non-religious nude since ancient times. Venus is seen being blown ashore on a giant clamshell by the wind gods as the spring awaits on land with a cloak. Unsurprisingly, Venus attracted the anger of religious monks who led a campaign including the infamous “Bonfire of the Vanities” of 1497, in which “profane” objects—cosmetics, artworks, books—were burned on a large fire. The Birth of Venus was itself scheduled for a firey end, but somehow escaped destruction. Botticelli, though, was so freaked out by the incident that he gave up painting for a while.

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889

Vincent Van Gogh’s most popular painting, The Starry Night was painted by Van Gogh at the mental asylum in Saint-Rémy, where he’d taken himself in 1889. Indeed, The Starry Night seems to reflect his muddled state of mind at the time, as the night sky comes alive with swirls of wildly applied brush marks springing from Van Gogh's personal demons and his awe of nature.

Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1907–1908

Richly covered in gold and extravagantly patterned, The Kiss, Gustav Klimt’s portrayal of intimacy, is a mix of Symbolism and Art Nouveau. Klimt paints his subjects as mythical figures made modern by luxuriant surfaces of up-to-the moment patterns. The work is a highpoint of the artist’s Golden Phase between 1899 and 1910 when he often used gold leaf—a technique inspired by a 1903 trip to trip to Italy where he saw gold art from Byzantium.