Sphinx of Naxos

The Sphinx of Naxos, also Sphinx of the Naxians, now in the Archaeological Museum of Delphi, is a 2.22 meter tall marble statue of a sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a woman, the chest and wings composed of the impressive feathers of a prey bird turned upward, and the body of a lioness.

The Sphinx stood on a 10 meter column that culminated in one of the first Ionic capitals, and was erected next to the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, the religious center of Ancient Greece, in 560 BCE.

The first fragments were excavated from the sanctuary of the Temple of Apollo in 1860. The remainder was found in 1893.

6 Famous Sculptures of the Galleria Borghese, Rome

The Galleria Borghese Museum houses and displays a collection of ancient sculptures, bas-reliefs and mosaics, as well as paintings and sculptures dating from the 15th through the 19th centuries.

Among the masterpieces of the collection - the first and most important part of which goes back to the collecting of Cardinal Scipione Borghese (1579-1633), nephew of Pope Paul V - are paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Antonello da Messina and Giovanni Bellini and sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Antonio Canova.

The works are displayed in the 20 frescoed rooms that, together with the portico and the entrance hall, constitute the spaces of the Museum open to the public.

More than 260 paintings are housed in the storerooms of the Galleria Borghese, which are located above the floor of the Pinacoteca and set up like a picture gallery.

Cristoforo Stati (Italian, 1556-1619) | Adone and Venere, XVI-XVII | Installation Galleria Borghese

6 Masterpieces of the Pinacoteca di Brera

The collection of the Pinacoteca di Brera includes some of the greatest masterpieces of Italian and foreign art from the 13th to the 20th century.

The works are displayed on the first floor of the building, where the Academy of Fine Arts is also located.

The Pinacoteca museum, which opened in 1809 thanks to Napoleon Bonaparte, was born as a collection of the finest works of art and was dedicated to the education of students.

The collection included Italian art masterpieces taken from churches and monasteries that were suppressed at the time when Milan was the capital city of the Kingdom of Italy. | Source: © Pinacoteca di Brera

Antonio Canova (Italian, 1757-1822) | Napoleone come Marte pacificatore / Napoleon as Mars the peacemaker, 1811 (detail) | Pinacoteca di Brera

Edmé Bouchardon | Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules, 1750

Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules (L'Amour se taillant un arc dans la massue d'Hercule) is a marble statue created by the sculptor Edmé Bouchardon (French sculptor, 1698-1762 in 1750 and currently preserved at the Musée du Louvre.

Born at Chaumont, Edmé Bouchardon became the pupil of Guillaume Coustou and gained the Prix de Rome in 1722.

Resisting the barocchetto tendency of the day he was classic in his taste, pure and chaste, always correct, charming and distinguished, a great stickler for all the finish that sandpaper could give.

Edmé Bouchardon | Cupid cutting his bow from the club of Hercules, 1750 (detail) | Musée du Louvre

10 Masterpieces of the Musée d’Orsay

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876

This painting is doubtless Renoir's most important work of the mid 1870's and was shown at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877.

Though some of his friends appear in the picture, Renoir's main aim was to convey the vivacious and joyful atmosphere of this popular dance garden on the Butte Montmartre.

The study of the moving crowd, bathed in natural and artificial light, is handled using vibrant, brightly coloured brushstrokes.

The somewhat blurred impression of the scene prompted negative reactions from contemporary critics.

This portrayal of popular Parisian life, with its innovative style and imposing format, a sign of Renoir's artistic ambition, is one of the masterpieces of early Impressionism. | © Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841-1919) | Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876 | Musée d'Orsay, Paris

5 Masterpieces at the Uffizi Gallery

The Uffizi Gallery entirely occupies the first and second floors of the large building constructed between 1560-1580 and designed by Giorgio Vasari.

It is famous worldwide for its outstanding collections of ancient sculptures and paintings (from the Middle Ages to the Modern period).

The collections of paintings from the 14th-century and Renaissance period include some absolute masterpieces: Giotto, Simone Martini, Piero della Francesca, Beato Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Mantegna, Correggio, Leonardo, Raffaello, Michelangelo and Caravaggio, in addition to many precious works by European painters (mainly German, Dutch and Flemish).

Moreover, the Gallery boasts an invaluable collection of ancient statues and busts from the Medici family, which adorns the corridors and consists of ancient Roman copies of lost Greek sculptures.

Johan Zoffany (1733-1810) | Tribuna of the Uffizi, 1772-1777 | Royal Collection (UK)

5 Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy.

The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City - The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters.

Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

Since its founding in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects.

Every day, art comes alive in the Museum's galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures.

Guido Reni | The Immaculate Conception, 1627

Guido Reni (Bologna, 1575-1642), during his lifetime the most celebrated living painter in Italy, was famous for the elegance of his compositions and the beauty and grace of his heads, earning him the epithet "Divine".

This altarpiece, with its otherworldly space shaped by clouds and putti in a high-keyed palette, was commissioned in about 1627 by the Spanish ambassador in Rome for the infanta of Spain.

It later hung in the cathedral of Seville, where it deeply influenced Spanish painters, especially Bartolomé Estebán Murillo, whose workshop produced many iterations of this subject.

The Immaculate Conception became a symbol of the universality of the Catholic Church and was used for the conversion of populations across Spain’s global empire. | Source: © Metropolitan Museum of Art

Guido Reni (Italian, 1575-1642) | The Immaculate Conception, 1627 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Camille Claudel (1864-1943)

Camille Claudel was a French sculptor and graphic artist.

In 1882 the sculptor Auguste Rodin agreed to supervise a small group of young women students, one of whom was the seventeen-year-old Camille Claudel.

Auguste and Camille fell in love almost at first sight.

Aristotele: "Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies"

Aristotele / Ἀριστοτέλης, (Stagira, 384 a.C. o 383 a.C. - Calcide, 322 a.C.) è stato un filosofo Greco antico, ritenuto una delle menti più universali, innovative, prolifiche ed influenti di tutti i tempi, sia per la vastità che per la profondità dei suoi campi di conoscenza.

Insieme a Platone, suo maestro, e a Socrate è considerato uno dei padri del pensiero filosofico occidentale, che però soprattutto da Aristotele ha ereditato problemi, termini, concetti e metodi.

• "La cultura è un ornamento nella buona sorte ma un rifugio nell'avversa".

• "Education is an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity".

Hermann Hesse | Vieni con me!

Vieni con me!

Devi affrettarti però -

sette lunghe miglia

io faccio ad ogni passo.

Dietro il bosco ed il colle

aspetta il mio cavallo rosso.

Gis de Maeyer

Derek Boshier | Pop art painter

Biography from the Tate Gallery

British painter, sculptor, photographer and printmaker Derek Boshier ((1937-2024)) studied painting and lithography at Yeovil School of Art in Somerset (1953-7), Guildford College of Art (1957-9) and the Royal College of Art, London (1959-62), where he was one of the students associated with Pop art.

Boshier juxtaposed contrasting styles within his paintings, but he favoured topical subject-matter such as the space race, political events and the Americanisation of Europe.

Alfred Boucher | The Mentor to Camille Claudel

A French sculptor and painter, Alfred Boucher (1850-1934), was Camille Claudel's teacher and the founder of the artists' city La Ruche in Paris.

Born in Bouy-sur-Ovin (Nogent-sur-Seine), he was the son of a farmhand who became the gardener of the sculptor Joseph-Marius Ramus, who, after recognizing Boucher's talent, opened his studio to him.

He won the Grand Prix du Salon in 1881 with La Piété Filiale.

William Wetmore Story | Neoclassical sculptor

William Wetmore Story (1819-1895) was an American sculptor, art critic, poet and editor.

William Wetmore Story was the son of jurist Joseph Story and Sarah Waldo (Wetmore) Story.

He graduated at Harvard College in 1838 and at the Harvard Law School in 1840, continued his law studies under his father, was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, and prepared two legal treatises of value - Treatise on the Law of Contracts not under Seal (2 vols., 1844) and Treatise on the Law of Sales of Personal Property, 1847.

William Wetmore Story - Angel of Grief / L'Angelo del Dolore, 1894

Amedeo Modigliani | Portrait of Paulette Jourdain, 1919

One of the last paintings created by Modigliani, the Portrait of Paulette Jourdain is an outstanding example of the artist’s work. Pauline "Paulette" Jourdain was the housemaid and later the lover of Modigliani’s dealer Léopold Zborowski.

She is painted on one of the largest canvases used by the artist in a completely frontal, stately manner that directly engages the viewer.

She is presented with great dignity and presence, commanding our attention and respect.

The rich colors, transcendent light and dynamic surface further transform this painting into a masterwork.

The painting demonstrates well how the artist assimilated a broad range of influences from African art to Old Master paintings to create his own unique, sophisticated vision.

Camille Claudel | Study of Left Hand, 1889

Did you know many of Auguste Rodin's statues' hands and feet were modeled by Camille Claudel (1864-1943) while she worked in his studio?

A common friend wrote in 1898 that many of her hands and feet are "preserved with great care by her teacher as pieces of the rarest perfection".

A stunning artist in her own right, Claudel impressed Rodin and many others for her incredibly expressive and life-like sculptures.

This bronze study of a left hand by Claudel, while tiny, holds immense detail and vitality.

Camille Claudel | Study of Left Hand, 1889 | Collection Xavier Eeckhout, Courtesy Galerie Malaquais

Jihad Shadeed | AI Art

Jihad Shadeed is an artist with digital sculpture expertise.

Shadeed incorporates Artificial Intelligence in her creative process.

Artificial intelligence has amazed people with its ability to create detailed images of what you ask for in seconds.

Alexander Pushkin | Eugene Onegin and Tatyana's Love story

"Eugene Onegin" / "Евгеній Онѣгинъ" is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), Russian poet, playwright and novelist of the Romantic era, considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.

Onegin is considered a classic of Russian literature, and its eponymous protagonist has served as the model for a number of Russian literary heroes (so-called superfluous men).

It was published in serial form between 1825-1832.

Rafał Olbinski | Eugene Onegin

Amedeo Modigliani | Jeune fille rousse (Jeanne Hébuterne), 1918

Jeanne Hébuterne (6 April 1898 - 26 January 1920) was a French artist, best known as the frequent subject and common-law wife of the artist Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. She took her own life two days after Modigliani died, and is now buried beside him.

Described by the writer Charles-Albert Cingria (1883-1954) as gentle, shy, quiet, and delicate, Jeanne Hébuterne became a principal subject for Modigliani's art.

Amedeo Modigliani | Jeune fille rousse (Jeanne Hébuterne), 1918 | Collezione Jonas Netter

Paige Bradley, 1974 | Figurative sculptor

Born in Carmel, California Paige Bradley knew she would be an artist by the age of nine.

Immersed in nature and art, Bradley’s fascination with the human figure began early.

She believed that through the figure an artist could speak a universal language that is timeless and essential.

Paige began drawing from the model by the age of ten and by fifteen was studying intensely at university campuses during the summer months.

Léon Pilet | Un Coup de vent, 1888

Léon Pilet (1836-1916) was a French sculptor and medalist, known for his classical subjects in bronze.

Pilet also produced male and female figurines from clay, marble and ivory. Many of his works depict religious as well as historical figures.

Pilet presented "Le Coup de vent" during the Paris Universal Exposition of 1888, now at the Musée Granet - Aix-en-Provence.

The artist continued to exhibit at the Salon from 1861 to 1914.