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.

Ulpiano Checa y Sanz | Orientalist painter

Ulpiano Checa y Sanz (1860-1916) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, poster designer and illustrator, known in the art world as Ulpiano Fernández-Checa y Saiz.

He used both impressionistic and academic techniques, and painted mainly historical subjects.

Checa participated in numerous Salons of Paris and in many of them was awarded.

He studied at the Academy of fine arts of San Fernando in Madrid, where he was student of Federico de Madrazo, Alejandro Ferrant, Manuel Domínguez and Pablo Gonzalvo.

Ingeborg Plockross Irminger (1872-1962)

Ingeborg Plockross Irminger (1872-1962) was a Danish artist who is remembered both for her sculptures and for the miniature porcelain statues of animals and human figures she designed while working for Bing and Grøndahl.

A bronze cast of her 1903 bust of the writer Herman Bang was installed on Sankt Annæ Plads in Copenhagen in 2012.

Vasari racconta Properzia de' Rossi, la prima Scultrice in Europa

Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) - il pittore e l'architetto che inventò la Storia dell'Arte - nel suo Trattato delle "Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, et architettori", racconta, analizza e commenta anche la vita e l'opera della "femmina scultora" (come la chiama lui), la Madonna Properzia de' Rossi (1490-1530), considerata la prima donna scultrice nella storia dell’arte, nonché una delle quattro artiste donne ad avere una biografia all’interno delle Vite di Vasari.

Ritratto Muliebre - Properzia De' Rossi | Scuola bolognese | Galleria Borghese

Fruit Carving

Fruit carving is the art of carving fruit, a very common technique in Europe and Asian countries, and particularly popular in Thailand, China and Japan.

There are many fruits that can be used in this process; the most popular one that artists use are watermelons, apples, strawberries, pineapples, and cantaloupes.

Frans van Straaten, 1963 | Figurative sculptor

Born in Hague, Frans van Straaten is a Dutch artist and known for his bronze sculptures.

He is a figurative artist and sculptor, who creates bronze sculptures in which he unites force and movement.

In 1985 Van Straaten obtained his second-level teaching certificate in Drawing and Handicrafts.

He continued his education in Rotterdam at the Willem de Kooning Academy.