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The Scots gave us "Hogmanay" (their name for the celebration of New Year's Eve) and Robert Burns, whose version of a Scottish folk song, "Auld Lang Syne," is popular from…
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, museums were built to impress: when you walked into the grand entrance, there would be a moment when you stopped in your…
One of the genres of that reappeared during the Renaissance was portraiture: hundreds of meticulously executed paintings have survived. Sculptured portraits are far fewer, and sculptured portraits with added color are even…
Years ago when I first started to work on Innovators in Painting (it was called the Crash Cruise Course then), I found it difficult to appreciate Raphael. He didn't have Leonardo's…
After I've spent time looking at medieval art, this Italian Adoration of the Magi of the mid-15th century always makes me smile. Peacocks! Arches! Parades! Linear perspective! Lavish costumes and almost-naked men! There's…
Since it's the week of Christmas, here's two more of my favorite works from the National Gallery that happen to be on religious subjects. This one was done about 120…
I'm a fan of all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo), but this work at the National Gallery also made it to my favorites list. This is…
This is the fourth in a series of favorite paintings from the National Gallery in Washington: my favorite Frans Hals, ever. The sitter is confident, charming, debonair: he could give…
This is the third in a series of posts on favorite paintings from the National Gallery in Washington. It's certainly not the colors that are the appeal here: it's the confidence…
This is the second in a series of posts on my favorite paintings in the National Gallery in Washington. I don't feel strongly about many works by Gericault, which is odd…
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