ikonoTV

Create Account Login

Old Masters

Gentile da Fabriano: Coronation of the Virgin

Gentile da Fabriano: Coronation of the Virgin

Located at The Getty Museum in Malibu, California, this work by Gentile painted for his native town, Fabriano in the Marches, probably for a confraternity associated with the church of San Francesco. Originally the panel was double-sided and served as a processional standard held aloft in parades that honored the Virgin Mary. Sometime prior to 1827, the panel was sawn down the middle to create two paintings; the reverse, depicting the Stigmatization of Saint Francis is now in the collection of the Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Parma, Italy.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Angelo Bronzino: A Young Woman and Her Little Boy

Angelo Bronzino: A Young Woman and Her Little Boy

This beautiful painting by Italian artist Bronzino can be found at the National Art Gallery in London. Born in Florence, Bronzino was the principal portraitist to the court, and one wonders how much his own coldly idealized, polished style of painting may, itself, have contributed to the taste for the marble-hard perfection and chilly hauteur of his models.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Fra Angelico: The Annunciation

Fra Angelico: The Annunciation

A masterpiece of Renaissance art, the Annunciation that Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro) painted for the north corridor of the San Marco convent is arguably his finest version of this traditional theme. Painted in fresco, it formed part of the decorative scheme at the Dominican convent in Florence - one of the most important sets of murals from the Renaissance in Florence. Financed by the Florentine Medici family, the commission was awarded around 1440 and included the convent’s altarpiece together with more than fifty other frescoes.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Pietro Perugino: The Marriage of the Virgin

Pietro Perugino: The Marriage of the Virgin

The Marriage of the Virgin, a painting by Perugino, the Italian Renaissance master, depicts the marriage between Mary and Joseph. It is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Caen, France. Perugino finished the work initially commissioned to Pinturicchio around 1500-1504. Credits: The Marriage of the Virgin, Perugino, c.1800-1876, Lithograph, 23.4 x 18.3 cm (sheet of paper)

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Michelangelo: Doni Tondo

Michelangelo: Doni Tondo

Michelangelo di Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni, best known as Michelangelo,was an Italian painter, architect and sculptor of the High Renaissance; Michelangelo painted this Holy Family for a Florentine merchant, Agnolo Doni. The ‘tondo’ by Michelangelo, which is the only finished panel painting by the artist to survive. Tis masterpiece can be found today at Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Theodore Gericault: Le Radeau de la Méduse

Theodore Gericault: Le Radeau de la Méduse

Theodore Géricault was a French Romantic painter and lithographer. The Raft of the Medusa is an oil on painting of 1818 and has become an icon of French Romanticism. This work shows the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today’s Mauritania. Most of the people on the Méduse died and those who survived endured starvation and dehydration and practiced cannibalism. This event became an international scandal because was attributed to the incompetence of the French captain.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

Georges de la Tour: The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds

Georges de la Tour: The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds

The only diurnal painting by Georges de La Tour in the Louvre along with the Saint Thomas, the Cheat illustrates a theme that was frequently taken up in the wake of Caravaggio. The young man is subjected here to three major temptations according to 17th-century moral standards: gambling, wine, and lust.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Jan Vermeer: The Astronomer

Jan Vermeer: The Astronomer

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter. The Astronomer is an oil on canvas and is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The masterpiece shows a man touching the celestial globe. The astronomer’s profession is shown also by the book on the table, the Adriaan Metius’s Institutions Astronomicae Geographicae.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Lucas Van Valckenborch: The Tower of Babel

Lucas Van Valckenborch: The Tower of Babel

Lucas van Valckenborch the Elder was a Flemish painter, famous for his landscapes. For this painting, The Tower of Babel, the artist took inspiration from the Rotterdam Tower of Babel by his contemporary artist Pieter Bruegel. To draw the tower, van Valckenborch used the model of the Colosseum in Rome. This masterpiece is now in Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Jean-Baptiste Chardin: Still Life with Soup

Jean-Baptiste Chardin: Still Life with Soup

Jean-Baptiste Chardin was a French painter of the 18th-century. He is considered a master of still life and his work is characterized by soft diffusion of light and carefully balanced composition. He was one of the most admired painters of Henri Matisse. This painting, Still Life with Soup shows really well the particularity of his way to paint and play with the light.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: Annunciazione

Leonardo da Vinci: Annunciazione

Attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, this painting is dating from circa 1472-1475. It represents the angel Gabriel, sent by God to announce to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and give birth to a son named Jesus. This masterpiece is housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: Flying Machines

Leonardo da Vinci: Flying Machines

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian artist of the High Renaissance and he is considered one of the greatest painters of all time. One of his favorite areas of study was the area of aviation. He seemed truly excited by the possibility of people flying through the skies like birds.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo da Vinci: Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian renaissance artist, painted two different versions with the same subject. The two versions are almost identical except for several significant details. This one is generally considered the prime version, the earlier of the two and his placed in the Louvre, in Paris.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Venus of Milo

Venus of Milo

The Venus of Milo, displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, is an ancient Greek statue created between 130 and 100 BC. The artist is unknown, the statue is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Bust of Nefertiti

Bust of Nefertiti

The Egyptian Museum of Berlin (Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung) is home to one of the world’s most important collections of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including the iconic Nefertiti Bust. Since 1855, the collection is a part of the Neues Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Head of Medusa

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Head of Medusa

Created by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in the 16th Century, this painting represents the exact moment Medusa was executed by Perseus. The artist replaced Medusa’s face with his own to underline his immunity to her dreadful gaze. Located in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, this masterpiece was commissioned as a present for the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Giotto: Madonna Enthroned

Giotto: Madonna Enthroned

Madonna Enthroned is one of the most famous painting by Giotto, the italian late medieval artist. Housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, in Italy, this painting represents the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child seated on her lap. This masterpiece is dated around 1310 and is often celebrated as the first painting of the Renaissance.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Johannes Vermeer: View of Delft

Johannes Vermeer: View of Delft

Johannes Vermeer painted the View of Delft around 1660. It represents the hometown of the Dutch artist. This masterpiece is among his most popular works and is placed in the Museum Mauritshuis The Hague in Netherlands.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas

Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas

Diego Velázquez was the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. He painted Las Meninas in 1656. This masterpiece is located in the Museo del Prado, in Madrid. It is an enigmatic composition that raises questions about illusion and reality, that is the reason why this work creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Edvard Munch: The Scream

Edvard Munch: The Scream

Edward Munch was a Norwegian Expressionist artist, he painted The Scream in 1893. This painting has become one of the most iconic images of art. The agonized face is seen as a symbol of the anxiety of the human condition. This masterpiece is now in the National Gallery and Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Andrea Mantegna: Crucifixion

Andrea Mantegna: Crucifixion

Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter and created The Crucifixion around 1458. This work is a panel in the central part of the predella of a large altarpiece. It is located in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.

Duration : 9m
Maturity Level : all

Hubert Robert: The Louvre Project

Hubert Robert: The Louvre Project

Hubert Robert was one of the greatest creators of poetic images. In the 18th Century he produced some of the most spectacular decors in the decade that preceded the French Revolution.

Duration : 9m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mona Lisa

Also Known as La Gioconda, The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, this artwork was painted around 1504 and is located in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: Ginevra de’ Benci

Leonardo da Vinci: Ginevra de’ Benci

Leonardo da Vinci painted this portrait of the Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de’ Benci in the 15th Century. This masterpiece is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and it’s the only one by Leonardo on public view in the Americas.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

The Last Supper

The Last Supper

Also known as L’ultima Cena or Cenacolo is one of the most famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance artist. It represents the consternation that occurred between the Twelve Apostles when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Raphael: Portrait of a Young Girl

Raphael: Portrait of a Young Girl

Raphael painted this Portrait of a Young Woman around 1518 in collaboration with Giulio Romano. This work is now located in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Strasbourg.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Ingres: The Valpincon Bather

Ingres: The Valpincon Bather

The French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres painted in 1808 The Valpincon Bather. This masterpiece is now in the Louvre Museum, in Paris but was created when the artist was studying at the French Academy in Rome.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Jacques-Louis David: The Intervention of the Sabine Women

Jacques-Louis David: The Intervention of the Sabine Women

The French artist Jacques-Louis David painted The Intervention of the Sabine Women in 1799. It shows a legendary episode following the abduction of the Sabine women by the founding generation of Rome. This work is in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Gustave Courbet: The Artist’s Studio

Gustave Courbet: The Artist’s Studio

Gustave Courbet, the French artist who led the Realism movement in 19th-century created The Painter’s Studio around 1855. This painting is also known as The Painter’s Studio: A real allegory summing up seven years of his artistic and moral life. All the figures in this work are allegorical representations of various influences on him.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Paolo Uccello: The Battle of San Romano

Paolo Uccello: The Battle of San Romano

The Florentine artist, Paolo Uccello, painted The Battle of San Romano to describe the events that took place in that battle between Florentine and Sienese forces in 1432. This work is a set of three paintings, they reveal the development of linear perspective in early Italian Renaissance painting. They are now divided between three museums: The National Gallery in London, Galleria degli Uffizi end the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

The Lady with the Unicorn

The Lady with the Unicorn

The Lady with the Unicorn is a series of six tapestries created around 1500. The artist is unknown, the tapestries were rediscovered in 1841 in Boussac castle. The meaning of the tapestries is obscure, but has been interpreted as a representation on love. This masterpiece is now in the Musée de Cluny.

Duration : 10m
Maturity Level : all

Rogier Van der Weyden: Portrait of a Lady

Rogier Van der Weyden: Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady is a paint executed around 1460 by Rogier van der Weyden, a Netherlandish painter. It is characterized by a strong contrast between the darkness and the light that underlines the almost unnatural beauty and Gothic elegance of the model. This artwork is now in the National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Francisco De Goya: The Black Paintings

Francisco De Goya: The Black Paintings

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish painter. The Black Paintings is the name given to a group of fourteen paintings. They show intense themes that reflect his fear of insanity and his black outlook on humanity.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Caspar-David Friedrich: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

Caspar-David Friedrich: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

Caspar David Friedrich was a German landscape painter. His work shows allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against morning or night skies or Gothic ruins. Wanderer above the Sea of Fog is an oil painting and has been considered one of the masterpieces of Romanticism and one of his most representative works.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Caspar-David Friedrich: Monk by the Sea

Caspar-David Friedrich: Monk by the Sea

Caspar David Friedrich was a German landscape painter. His work shows allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against morning or night skies or Gothic ruins. The Monk by the Sea is an oil painting and it is his most radical composition.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Henry Fuseli: The Nightmare

Henry Fuseli: The Nightmare

Henry Fuseli, an Anglo-Swiss artist painted The Nightmare in 1791. This masterpiece represents a woman sleeping with her arms thrown below her and a demonic incubus crouched on her chest. This painting is now in the Detroit Institute of Art, in Detroit, Michigan.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: The Turkish Bath

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: The Turkish Bath

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Around 1862, Ingres completed The Turkish Bath, an oil painting located at the Louvre Museum, in Paris. The painting shows a group of nude women at a pool in a harem.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: Portrait of Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: Portrait of Mademoiselle Caroline Riviere

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, a French Neoclassical artist, painted The Portrait of Mademoiselle Caroline Riviére in 1806. Their artwork is the third of three portraits of the Riviére family.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres: The Grande Odalisque

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres: The Grande Odalisque

The Grande Odalisque was painted in 1814 by the French Neoclassical artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. This artwork shows an odalisque or concubine and represents the artist’s break from Neoclassicism, indicating a shift toward exotic Romanticism. This masterpiece is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Claude Joseph Vernet: A Port in the Moonlight

Claude Joseph Vernet: A Port in the Moonlight

The French painter Claude Joseph Vernet finished A Port in the Moonlight around 1771. Vernet painted also another painting with the same subject, A Mediterranean Port. The two paintings form part of a series of fifteen works by Vernet showing port scenes. Port in the Moonlight is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Paolo Veronese: The Marriage Feast of Cana

Paolo Veronese: The Marriage Feast of Cana

Paolo Veronese was an Italian Renaissance painter. The Wedding Feast at Cana depicts the biblical story of the Marriage at Cana, at which Jesus converts water to wine. This masterpiece, a representation of the art of High Renaissance, emphasized human figures of ideal proportions, beauty and compositional harmony, as practiced by the artists Raphael, Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

The Goddess Hathor welcomes Seti I

The Goddess Hathor welcomes Seti I

This bas-relief comes from the tomb of Sethos I - the largest in the Valley of the Kings. The goddess Hathor is shown welcoming the king: she clasps his hand, and holds out her necklace as a symbol of her protection. Thebes was the capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the goddess played an important role in the necropolis area, welcoming the dead and accompanying them into the afterlife. The traditional hieratic quality of Egyptian drawing is tempered by a certain softness here.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Giovanni Paolo Panini: Gallery with Views of Modern Rome

Giovanni Paolo Panini: Gallery with Views of Modern Rome

Giovanni Paolo Panini was an Italian painter and architect. Around 1750 he painted three almost identical works named Ancient Rome. The paintings depict many of the most important architectural sites and sculptures from ancient Rome, such as the Pantheon, the Apollo Belvedere and the Colosseum. This version of Ancient Rome is located in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Jacques Louis David: The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I

Jacques Louis David: The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I

Jacques Louis David was commissioned by Napoleon I to paint this huge canvas which depicts the splendor of the emperor’s Coronation while conveying its political and symbolic message. The painter himself was present at the ceremony, and once back in his studio portrayed the colorful congregation with realism, combining accuracy with artistry while also complying with the Emperor’s instructions. He thus met the challenge of producing a monumental work that would glorify the event and occupy a unique place in the history of painting.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Historic Center of Agadez - Niger

Historic Center of Agadez - Niger

Known as the gateway to the desert, Agadez, on the southern edge of the Sahara desert, developed in the 15th and 16th centuries when the Sultanate of Aïr was established and Touareg tribes were sedentarized in the city, respecting the boundaries of old encampments, which gave rise to a street pattern still in place today. The historic centre of the city, an important crossroads of the caravan trade, is divided into 11 quarters with irregular shapes. They contain numerous earthen dwellings and a well-preserved group of palatial and religious buildings including a 27m high minaret made entirely of mud brick, the highest such structure in the world. The site is marked by ancestral cultural, commercial and handicraft traditions still practiced today and presents exceptional and sophisticated examples of earthen architecture.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Al Zubarah Archaeological Site - Qatar

Al Zubarah Archaeological Site - Qatar

The walled coastal town of Al Zubarah in the Persian Gulf flourished as a pearling and trading centre in the late 18th century and early 19th centuries, before it was destroyed in 1811 and abandoned in the early 1900s. Founded by merchants from Kuwait, Al Zubarah had trading links across the Indian Ocean, Arabia and Western Asia. A layer of sand blown from the desert has protected the remains of the site’s palaces, mosques, streets, courtyard houses, and fishermen’s huts; its harbour and double defensive walls, a canal, walls, and cemeteries. Excavation has only taken place over a small part of the site, which offers an outstanding testimony to an urban trading and pearl-diving tradition which sustained the region’s major coastal towns and led to the development of small independent states that flourished outside the control of the Ottoman, European, and Persian empires and eventually led to the emergence of modern day Gulf States.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

The Ruins of Ani - Turkey

The Ruins of Ani - Turkey

This site is located on a secluded plateau of northeast Turkey overlooking a ravine that forms a natural border with Armenia. This medieval city combines residential, religious and military structures, characteristic of a medieval urbanism built up over the centuries by Christian and then Muslim dynasties. The city flourished in the 10th and 11th centuries CE when it became the capital of the medieval Armenian kingdom of the Bagratides and profited from control of one branch of the Silk Road. Later, under Byzantine, Seljuk and Georgian sovereignty, it maintained its status as an important crossroads for merchant caravans. The Mongol invasion and a devastating earthquake in 1319 marked the beginning of the city’s decline. The site presents a comprehensive overview of the evolution of medieval architecture through examples of almost all the different architectural innovations of the region between the 7th and 13th centuries CE.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

The Ruins of Aphrodisias - Turkey

The Ruins of Aphrodisias - Turkey

Located in southwestern Turkey, in the upper valley of the Morsynus River, the site consists of two components: the archaeological site of Aphrodisias and the marble quarries northeast of the city. The temple of Aphrodite dates from the 3rd century BC and the city was built one century later. The wealth of Aphrodisias came from the marble quarries and the art produced by its sculptors. The city streets are arranged around several large civic structures, which include temples, a theatre, an agora and two bath complexes.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and Pilgrimage Route - Palestine

Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and Pilgrimage Route - Palestine

The Birthplace of Jesus: the Church of the Nativity and Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem, Palestine, situated 10 km south of Jerusalem on the site identified by Christian tradition as the birthplace of Jesus since the 2nd century. A church was first completed there in 339 CE and the edifice that replaced it after a fire in the 6th century retains elaborate floor mosaics from the original building. The site also includes Latin, Greek Orthodox, Franciscan and Armenian convents and churches, as well as bell towers, terraced gardens and a pilgrimage route. Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2012, the site was added simultaneously to the List of World Heritage in Danger due to the poor state of the Nativity Church.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Cumalikizik - Turkey

Cumalikizik - Turkey

This property is a serial nomination of eight component sites in the City of Bursa and the nearby village of Cumalıkızık, in the southern Marmara region. The site illustrates the creation of an urban and rural system establishing the Ottoman Empire in the early 14th century. The property embodies the key functions of the social and economic organization of the new capital which evolved around a civic centre. These include commercial districts of khans, kulliyes (religious institutions) integrating mosques, religious schools, public baths and a kitchen for the poor, as well as the tomb of Orhan Ghazi, founder of the Ottoman dynasty. One component outside the historic centre of Bursa is the village of Cumalıkızık, the only rural village of this system to show the provision of hinterland support for the capital.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

City of Erbil - Iraq

City of Erbil - Iraq

Erbil Citadel is a fortified settlement on top of an imposing ovoid-shaped tell (a hill created by many generations of people living and rebuilding on the same spot) in the Kurdistan region, Erbil Governorate. A continuous wall of tall 19th-century façades still conveys the visual impression of an impregnable fortress, dominating the city of Erbil. The citadel features a peculiar fan-like pattern dating back to Erbil’s late Ottoman phase. Written and iconographic historical records document the antiquity of settlement on the site – Erbil corresponds to ancient Arbela, an important Assyrian political and religious centre – while archaeological finds and investigations suggest that the mound conceals the levels and remains of previous settlements.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town - Palestine

Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town - Palestine

The use of a local limestone shaped the construction of the old town of Hebron/Al-Khalil during the Mamluk period between 1250 and 1517. The centre of interest of the town was the site of Al-Ibrahimi Mosque/The tomb of the Patriarchs whose buildings are in a compound built in the 1st century AD to protect the tombs of the patriarch Abraham/Ibrahim and his family. This place became a site of pilgrimage for the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The town was sited at the crossroads of trade routes for caravans travelling between southern Palestine, Sinai, Eastern Jordan and the north of the Arabian Peninsula. Although the subsequent Ottoman Period (1517-1917) heralded an extension of the town to the surrounding areas and brought numerous architectural additions, particularly the raising of the roof level of houses to provide more upper stories, the overall Mamluk morphology of the town is seen to have persisted with its hierarchy of areas, quarters based on ethnic, religious or professional groupings, and houses with groups of rooms organized according to a tree-shaped system.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Masjed-e Jamé of Isfahan - Republic Islamic of Iran

Masjed-e Jamé of Isfahan - Republic Islamic of Iran

Located in the historic centre of Isfahan, the Masjed-e Jāmé (‘Friday mosque’) can be seen as a stunning illustration of the evolution of mosque architecture over twelve centuries, starting in ad 841. It is the oldest preserved edifice of its type in Iran and a prototype for later mosque designs throughout Central Asia. The complex, covering more than 20,000 m2, is also the first Islamic building that adapted the four-courtyard layout of Sassanid palaces to Islamic religious architecture. Its double-shelled ribbed domes represent an architectural innovation that inspired builders throughout the region. The site also features remarkable decorative details representative of stylistic developments over more than a thousand years of Islamic art.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe - Sudan

Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe - Sudan

The Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe, a semi-desert landscape between the Nile and Atbara rivers, was the heartland of the Kingdom of Kush, a major power from the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. The property consists of the royal city of the Kushite kings at Meroe, near the River Nile, the nearby religious site of Naqa and Musawwarat es Sufra. It was the seat of the rulers who occupied Egypt for close to a century and features, among other vestiges, pyramids, temples and domestic buildings as well as major installations connected to water management. Their vast empire extended from the Mediterranean to the heart of Africa, and the property testifies to the exchange between the art, architectures, religions and languages of both regions.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

A one-take journey through Russia’s iconic Hermitage museum

A one-take journey through Russia’s iconic Hermitage museum

Experience a 5 hr 19 min 28 sec cinematic journey through one of the world’s biggest museums in St. Petersburg, Russia. Take in 45 galleries, 588 masterpieces, and live performances, shot in 4K on iPhone 11 Pro in one continuous take. Director: Axinya Gog

Duration : 0s
Maturity Level : all

Brueghel the Elder: The Entry of the Animals into Noah’s Ark

Brueghel the Elder: The Entry of the Animals into Noah’s Ark

A profusion of animals fills the earth and sky. Fighting, playing, climbing, flying, and swimming, they are shepherded by Noah toward the ark in the far distance. All species of animals are portrayed, from large lumbering elephants to tiny turtles and hamsters in the foreground. Bats and birds soar across the sky, receding into the background where brighter skies hold promise of a future.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Roman Art - Orpheus Charming the Animals

Roman Art - Orpheus Charming the Animals

Orpheus Charming the Animals is one of a number of works in which Cades treats a subject from mythology. During the latter part of the eighteenth century, Europe was swept by a wave of interest in the revival of classical history and mythology. However, the distinctively personal approach to antiquity developed by Cades sets him apart from his contemporaries.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Peter Paul Rubens: The Tiger Hunt

Peter Paul Rubens: The Tiger Hunt

Sir Peter Paul Rubens was a Flemish artist and he’s considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. The Tiger Hunt was finished around 1615 and it’s a large painting by Rubens, featuring a hunt for a tiger. It is located in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, Rennes.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Ilya Repin: Ivan the Terrible and his Son

Ilya Repin: Ivan the Terrible and his Son

The subject of the painting is an episode in the life of Ivan the Terrible when, in a fit of anger, he beat to death his son and heir Ivan. The psychological contrast of the main characters in the painting achieves unusual tension. We see the nearly icon-like, calm face of the Tsarevich and the face of Tsar Ivan, with its bulging eyes and covered in drops of blood. The red color dominates in the painting. It is everywhere – from the rose color of the Tsarevich’s shirt to the dull Bordeaux of the background. The painterly expression of the picture was extraordinary for its time. This painting is now in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Chinese Calligraphy

Chinese Calligraphy

Rediscover Heritage is the only way to keep traditions, objects, culture and monuments alive. Preserving, restoring and displaying a collection of ancient things. Through this videos, IkonoTv explores the architecture, the art and the people who keep them alive.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Anonymous Artist of the Court: Audience of Foreign Ambassadors

Anonymous Artist of the Court: Audience of Foreign Ambassadors

These scrolls present detailed painting from life. The perspective composition shows identifiable real buildings, and the ceremonial details are consistent with records in the Qin ding da qing hui dian. The result is a painting that seems almost like a documentary recording, made on the spot as the emperor sat in state in the Hall of Supreme Harmony on his birthday or some other national event. Of course it cannot be a real recording: nowhere in the records can we find mention of so many foreign ambassadors visiting the palace at the same time. There are other indications of artificiality. Some of the tributes carried by the ambassadors are in fact mythical animals taken from the tradition of tribute paintings. This artwork is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Yuan Jiang: The Palace of Nine Perfections

Yuan Jiang: The Palace of Nine Perfections

Yuan specialized in intricate visions of palatial complexes set within sumptuous blue-and-green landscapes intended to evoke Tang and Song prototypes. Destroyed by the end of the Tang dynasty, the Palace of Nine Perfections is remembered as one of the most splendid residences ever built, with grounds so vast that it was necessary to travel between halls by horseback. This artwork is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Chinese School, Quing Dynasty: Procession by a Lake

Chinese School, Quing Dynasty: Procession by a Lake

Procession by a Lake is a painting by Chinese Quing Dynasty. It was painted by an anonymous artist and it is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Chinese School: The Depiction of Birds during the Qing Dynasty

Chinese School: The Depiction of Birds during the Qing Dynasty

This movie shows the meticulous rendering of flowers and birds and the sophisticated composition of several works from the Chinese School of 18th century: Green Magpie, A Golden Pheasant, Lesser Lemon Crested Cockatoo, Blue-crowned parakeet, White-Eye bird, Electus Parrot on a Bamboo Shoot, Red-billed Blue Magpies and Yellow Wagtail with Blue Head. All these artworks are from a private collection.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Ceramics from the Islamic Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts

Ceramics from the Islamic Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts

Rediscover Heritage is the only way to keep traditions, objects, culture and monuments alive. Preserving, restoring and displaying a collection of ancient things. Through this videos, IkonoTv explores the architecture, the art and the people who keep them alive.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Seurat/Vermeer: Lace Making and Embroidery

Seurat/Vermeer: Lace Making and Embroidery

Lace Making and Embroidery is a comparison movie between The Lacemaker by Johannes Vermeer located in the Louvre in Paris and Embroidery: The Artist’s Mother by Georges Seurat located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Canaletto: The Grand Canal in Venice

Canaletto: The Grand Canal in Venice

Canaletto is undoubtedly the most outstanding of the 18th-century Venetian view painters. View paintings or vedute depicting panoramic views of the city and its surrounding areas depicted with topographical accuracy were highly prized by the travellers and art lovers who made the Grand Tour. This lengthy trip to France as well as Italy was an essential part of the education of many English aristocrats in the 18th century. Like other visitors to Italy, they considered these view paintings to provide the ideal record of their youthful adventure. This masterpiece is located in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Johannes Vermeer: Women

Johannes Vermeer: Women

During the course of his brief 20 year career, Vermeer probably painted no more than 60 paintings. In Vermeer’s compositions, women appear about 40 times, while men make only 14 appearances, mostly in subordinate roles, three times with their backs to us. Critics have often noted that the women in Vermeer’s paintings cannot be considered beauties in the conventional sense of the word. Their beauty, instead, derives from the way they are painted and from the harmonic context in which they inhabit.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Johannes Vermeer: The Milkmaid

Johannes Vermeer: The Milkmaid

A maidservant pours milk, entirely absorbed in her work. Except for the stream of milk, everything else is still. Vermeer took this simple everyday activity and made it the subject of an impressive painting the woman stands like a statue in the brightly lit room. Vermeer also had an eye for how light by means of hundreds of colorful dots plays over the surface of objects. The Milkmaid is located in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

H. F. Wiertz: Shells and Marine Plants

H. F. Wiertz: Shells and Marine Plants

Henries Franciscus Wirtz was a 19th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands. This work, Shells and Marine Plants was made in 1809. It depicts a still life with exotic shells and a few pieces of coral, lying together on a rock on the coast. This masterpiece is now located in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Melchior d’Hondecoeter: Painter of Birds

Melchior d’Hondecoeter: Painter of Birds

Melchior d’Hondecoeter’s (1636-1695) specialty of poultry painting was something of a family business. Melchior’s father and grandfather had both been interested in animal painting, and an aunt was married to the painter Jan Baptist Weenix, an Italianist. After studying with his father, d’Hondecoeter was apprenticed to his uncle Weenix, and this gave him an opportunity to develop his technique and use of colour. Besides strikingly realistic scenes of birds, d’Hondecoeter also painted wall hangings with views of buildings and parks. Here, too, birds were usually involved. He was born in Utrecht and died in Amsterdam. Most of his artworks are now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Paulus Potter: Orpheus Charming the Animals

Paulus Potter: Orpheus Charming the Animals

The Classical poet Ovid described how Orpheus en-chanted nature with his wonderful lyre music. This theme was popular among 17th-century animal painters because it gave them a chance to depict many different sorts of animals. Here Potter demonstrates that his repertoire encompassed more than the usual farm animals. He painted dozens of native and exotic beasts. In the middle Orpheus is strumming his harp. This masterpiece is located in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Degas after Mantegna: Calvary

Degas after Mantegna: Calvary

Edgar Degas, the French Impressionist artist painted The Calvary after a painting by Andrea Mantegna. This art piece is located in Musee des Beaux-Arts, Tours, France. It is made as oil on canvas.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Rembrandt: The Sacrifice of Abraham

Rembrandt: The Sacrifice of Abraham

According to the Old Testament, God put Abraham’s faith to the test by commanding him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Just in the nick of time, an angel of the Lord appeared, forestalling the terrible deed and delivering Abraham from his despair. Rembrandt shows the moment of redemption, Abraham recognizing the mercy of God. He will offer a ram in the place of his child. This masterpiece is located in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Rembrandt: Philosophers and Thinkers

Rembrandt: Philosophers and Thinkers

Rembrandt was a Dutch artist. During his life, he painted a lot of artworks with a common subject: philosophers and thinkers. Most of them show the conspicuous attributes of scholarship or philosophy: books, globe, scientific instruments, etc. The particularity of these paintings is also the presence of one other figure involved in domestic tasks that does not fit in with the solitude associated with study and meditation.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Rembrandt: Student reading by the Light of a Candle (Four Versions)

Rembrandt: Student reading by the Light of a Candle (Four Versions)

The man in the dark room is barely visible. He is studying by the light of an oil lamp. Resting his forehead on his hand, he seems to be reflecting on what he has just read. Rembrandt achieved this powerful contrast of light and dark by scratching crosshatched lines in the copperplate. He never again made such a dark print. All the four versions showed in this movie are now in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Afghan Woodwork - Various Artists

Afghan Woodwork - Various Artists

Rediscover Heritage is the only way to keep traditions, objects, culture and monuments alive. Preserving, restoring and displaying a collection of ancient things. Through this videos, IkonoTv explores the architecture, the art and the people who keep them alive.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Mahwish Chishty: Untitled I-III

Mahwish Chishty: Untitled I-III

Mahwish Chishty combines new media and conceptual work with materials and techniques of South Asian art and craft traditions. Her artistic research combines her interest in Pakistani traditional folk art/culture and contemporary politics as it relates to US/Pakistan relationship. Starting from a silhouette of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, she paints colorful folk ‘truck art’ imagery on war machines to give them a second skin that opens a dialogue about Pakistani culture.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Afghan Istalif Pottery - Various Artists

Afghan Istalif Pottery - Various Artists

Rediscover Heritage is the only way to keep traditions, objects, culture and monuments alive. Preserving, restoring and displaying a collection of ancient things. Through this videos, IkonoTv explores the architecture, the art and the people who keep them alive.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Selection by Marigusta Lazzari, director of the Museo Querini Stampalia, Venice

Selection by Marigusta Lazzari, director of the Museo Querini Stampalia, Venice

The Querini Stampalia Foundation Museum is one of the most significant and well-preserved examples of an historic house museum in all Europe. The magnificent residence of the Querini Stampalia family is recreated on the piano nobile, the traditional reception rooms and living quarters of a Venetian palace, lined in frescoes and stucco decorations. Rare collections of precious furniture, paintings, porcelain, globes, fabrics and sculptures are arrayed throughout the home.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Painter of the sea - Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Painter of the sea - Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was a Russian painter descent of late Romanticism. He is considered one of the greatest masters of marine art. This movie shows 4 of his paintings: Painter of the sea, Golf of Neapel, Battle of Sinope (day) and The Bilow all located in the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Mughal Painting - Various Artist

Mughal Painting - Various Artist

Mughal painting is a particular style of South Asian confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums. In this movie, a set of several paintings: Chamsa and Dancing Dervish, located in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, Germany; Akbar tames the Savage Elephant, Hawai, outside the Red Fort at Agra and Akbar’s forces besieging Rai Surjan Hada in Ranthambore Fort, both located in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, UK; Emperor Jahangir holding a portrait of Emperor Akbar that is now Musee Guimet in Paris, France.

Duration : 8m
Maturity Level : all

Raphael: The School of Athens

Raphael: The School of Athens

The most famous philosophers of ancient times move within an imposing Renaissance architecture. In the center, Plato points upwards with a finger and holds his book Timeus in his hand, flanked by Aristotle with Ethics. Pythagoras is shown in the foreground intent on explaining the diatessaron. Diogenes is lying on the stairs with a dish, Euclid is teaching geometry to his populist. The personage on the extreme right with the black beret is a self-portrait of Raphael. This masterpiece is in the Musei Vaticani in Rome, Italy.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Museo Cappella San Severo - Naples

Museo Cappella San Severo - Naples

The Sansevero Chapel Museum in the historic heart of Naples is a jewel of the world’s artistic heritage. Here, baroque creativity, dynastic pride, beauty and mystery blend to create a unique and almost timeless atmosphere. With its masterpieces such as the famous Veiled Christ, renowned world over for the remarkable tissue-like quality of the marble, feats of virtuosity such as Disillusion, and enigmatic creations such as the Anatomical Machines, the Sansevero Chapel is one of the most impressive monuments that the human mind has ever conceived.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

Turkish School - Portrait of Sultan Mahmet II

Turkish School - Portrait of Sultan Mahmet II

Mehmed was sultan of the Ottoman empire, and ruled from Constantinople (now Istanbul), the city that had been the capital of the Byzantine empire until Mehmed conquered it in 1453. This painting is now in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkey.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Piero della Francesca: Flagellation

Piero della Francesca: Flagellation

Despite the panel’s size (only 58.4 cm × 81.5 cm), the painting has been a mainstay in the last century in discussions of 15th century painting. An early example of the use of oil paint - though Piero used both tempera and oil in its execution - the work depicts the moment in Christ’s Passion when he was whipped before Pontius Pilate. This artwork is located in the Palazzo Ducale of Urbino, Italy.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Johannes Vermeer: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Girl with a Pearl Earring is Vermeer’s most famous painting, it is located in the Museum Mauritshuis The Hague, Netherlands. It is not a portrait, but a ‘tronie’ – a painting of an imaginary figure. Tronies depict a certain type or character; in this case a girl in exotic dress, wearing an oriental turban and an improbably large pearl in her ear. Johannes Vermeer was the master of light. This is shown here in the softness of the girl’s face and the glimmers of light on her moist lips. And of course, the shining pearl.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Mansur: A Barbet on a Tree Branch

Mansur: A Barbet on a Tree Branch

A Barbet is an Himalayan blue-throated bird. This work, A Barbet on a Tree Branch was painted in 1615 by Ustad Mansur, a 17th century artist, in Mughal style. This artwork is located in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, UK.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Mughal Art - Babur Reading

Mughal Art - Babur Reading

Mughal painting is a particular style of South Asian confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums. In this movie, Babur Reading painted around 1613. This illustration in now located in the British Library in London, UK.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Camillo Capelli: The Foliage Room, Palazzo Grimani - Venice

Camillo Capelli: The Foliage Room, Palazzo Grimani - Venice

Camillo Capelli, known also as Camillo Mantovano was an Italian painter on the Renaissance. Around 1539 he moved to Venice where he helped to decorate the Palazzo Grimani with the beautiful floral wall decoration showed in this movie.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Giovanni Bellini: The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

Giovanni Bellini: The Presentation of Christ in the Temple

The Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, Italy, holds this work by Bellini. The Presentation of Christ in the Temple is a painting by the Italian master Giovanni Bellini. The dating of this artwork is uncertain, it is usually considered to be subsequent to the Presentation at The Temple by Andrea Mantegna (c. 1455).

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Luciano Laurana: View of an Ideal City, or The City of God

Luciano Laurana: View of an Ideal City, or The City of God

Architect and engineer Luciano Laurana’s View of an Ideal City was conceived to embody and enable the highest moral, spiritual, and juridical qualities of citizenship through the architecture of its buildings, the layout of its streets, and the usage of geometric patterns and grids.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Eugéne Delacroix: Women of Algiers in their Apartment

Eugéne Delacroix: Women of Algiers in their Apartment

This monumental historical genre scene was inspired by Delacroix’s conviction that a lifestyle resembling that of the ancients was on the point of disappearing—an impression that stayed with him until he died. Preferring the romanticism of travels in North Africa to the artistic tradition of a sojourn in Italy, he believed that Civilization’s missing link was to be found in the Orient which, having exercised a certain appeal at the start of his career, overwhelmed him when he experienced it for himself. Here was material for twenty generations of painters, he said. This artwork is located now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Edouard Manet: Olympia

Edouard Manet: Olympia

With Olympia, Manet reworked the traditional theme of the female nude, using a strong, uncompromising technique. Both the subject matter and its depiction explain the scandal caused by this painting at the 1865 Salon. Venus has become a prostitute, challenging the viewer with her calculating look. This profanation of the idealized nude, the very foundation of academic tradition, provoked a violent reaction. This artwork is located in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

John Singer Sargent: The Spanish Dancer

John Singer Sargent: The Spanish Dancer

In 1879 John Singer Sargent, an American artist living in France, spent five months touring Spain and North Africa. Sargent returned to Paris with sketches of Spanish flamenco dancers and the germ of an idea for his first full-scale salon painting, El Jaleo. Sargent’s composition for the monumental painting developed over three years through a series of drawings and watercolors. His principal effort went into the figure of The Spanish Dancer. This is a full-size oil painting of this dancer, Sargent’s first attempt to paint this subject. This masterpiece is owned by a private collector.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Francisco Goya: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Francisco Goya: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters was created around 1798. In the artwork, a man rests his head on a desk, surrounded by owls that may be the symbols of folly and bats symbolizing ignorance.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Man’s Best Friend - Various Artists

Man’s Best Friend - Various Artists

In this movie, a set of several paintings about Man’s Best Friend from various artists: Titian, Thomas Gainsborough, Pieter de Hooch, Gerard de Borch, Gustave Courbet, Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Claude Monet, Henri Rousseau. All those paintings having a dog as the main subject, are located in different galleries and museums: Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Napoli, Italy; Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain; Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, USA; National Gallery of Art, Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, France; Buhrle Collection in Zurich, Switzerland.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Moscow in Russian Paintings - Various Artists

Moscow in Russian Paintings - Various Artists

This movie shows The city of Moscow sawn trough the eyes of various artists: Vasili Semenovich Sadovnikov, Felix Benoist, Johann Philipp Eduard Gartner, Nikolay Nikanorovich Dubovskoy, Louis Jules Arnout, Karl-Friedrikh Petrovich Bodri, Aleksei Petrovich Bogolyubov, Constantin Fedorovitch Youon, Nikolai Nikolaevich Gritsenko, A. Lebedev-Sciuskj and Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin. All the artworks shown in this movie are now located in different galleries and museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

St. Petersburg in Russian Paintings - Various Artists

St. Petersburg in Russian Paintings - Various Artists

A set from various artists of the city of St. Petersburg in Russian paintings. From Vasil Semenovich Sadovnikov, Paul Marie Roussel, Fedor Aleksandrovich Vasiliev to Ferdinand Victor Perrot; all the paintings shown in this movie are located in various galleries and museums in Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

IkonoTV

IkonoTV

DISCOVER THE NEW ikonoTV PLATFORM: ENJOY!

Duration : 30s
Maturity Level : all

STREAM SLOW ART

STREAM SLOW ART

Make your TV screen become a moving artwork thanks to video Artists and films produced by ikonoTV

Duration : 26m
Maturity Level : all

Vincent van Gogh and Hiroshige

Vincent van Gogh and Hiroshige

A traditional approach of Van Gogh’s work allows us to note above all that his references were turned toward an art that was the opposite of what he produced: that of Hiroshige. An art whose whole philosophy rests upon solidity, composition, serenity, travel and inner peace.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait

Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait

This close look at van Eyck’s jewel-like masterpiece of 1434 considers the intrigue and wonder it sparked when it first went on show at the National Gallery in 1843.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Kiss in Art

Kiss in Art

In this movie there is a set of different painting with the subject of The Kiss: The Kiss by Francesco Hayez located in the Pinacoteca di Brera; Gianciotto discovers Paolo and Francesca and also Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta by Dominique Ingres; The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel by William Dyce; The Kiss of the Muse by Paul Cézanne and Randevous in the Forest by Henri Rousseau.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Paul Gauguin and Egyptian Art

Paul Gauguin and Egyptian Art

When Gauguin went to Tahiti in 1891 to escape from urban modernity he took with him an eclectic collection of source material including Japanese erotica as well as photographs of ancient Egyptian paintings from the tomb of the scribe Nebamun that he had seen in the British Museum on a visit to London in 1885. In this movie, the Banquet Scene from Thebes is now in the British Museum in London and Ta Matete (We Shall Not Go To Market Today) located now in the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Portraits from the Sabanci Collection, Istanbul

Portraits from the Sabanci Collection, Istanbul

In this movie, a catalog by various artists from the Sabanci Collection in Istanbul, Turkey: Naile Hanim Portrait by Osman Hamdi Bey, Hanzade Sultan Portrait by Halife Abdülmecid Efendi and Madame X by Halil Pasa.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Friedrich: A Walk at Dusk

Friedrich: A Walk at Dusk

Caspar David Friedrich was a German landscape painter. His work shows allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against morning or night skies or Gothic ruins. A Walk at Dusk is an oli on canvas painting. In the painting a man walks alone in the silvery, cold moonlit night while contemplating a megalithic tomb and its implicit message of death. It is winter, and all around him nature is dying. Leafless trees loom behind like specters, but a grove of verdant oaks rises through the mist in the background with the promise of life. The waxing moon, high in the sky, also acts as a counterbalance to death, symbolizing Christ and the promise of rebirth for the artist itself.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Friedrich: Polar Landscapes

Friedrich: Polar Landscapes

Caspar David Friedrich was a German landscape painter. His work shows allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against morning or night skies or Gothic ruins.

Duration : 1m
Maturity Level : all

Highlights from the National Gallery of Art

Highlights from the National Gallery of Art

Located on the National Mall, at Constitution Avenue, the National Gallery of Art of Washington D.C. is one of the biggest galleries in the world. This movie shows the highlights of the Renaissance, Renoir, da Vinci, Cézanne etc.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

James Whistler and Chinese Porcelain

James Whistler and Chinese Porcelain

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American artist. He was averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting. Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks is an oil on canvas painting and it is showed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This work was designed to suggest the curious conflation of a life-sized oil portrait with the decorative design on a Chinese porcelain vase. The painting represents the figure of Christina Spartali dressed in a kimono, her pale face and black hair set against the oddly vaporous gray paint in the upper section of the image, where the artist signed his canvas in large letters. In contrast to the mistiness of the gray paint in this upper band, the rest of the painting below presents to the viewer a variety of decorative surfaces rendered as flatly brushed patches, spots, dashes, and streaks of pigment.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Chardin: The Silver Goblet

Chardin: The Silver Goblet

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin was a French painter and he is considered the master of still life. The Silver Goblet, finished around 1728 is a still life composed of ordinary objects. The silver goblet and the glass carafe, instead of vessels made of clay, reflect an elevate social status. Probably, the objects belonged to the artist himself. This artwork is located in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Hiroshige - The Animal Kingdom: Air and Water

Hiroshige - The Animal Kingdom: Air and Water

Utagawa Hiroshige was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. For scholars and collectors, Hiroshige’s death marked the beginning of a rapid decline in the ukiyo-e genre. Hiroshige’s work came to have a marked influence on western European painting towards the close of the 19th century.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Rembrandt: The Night Watch

Rembrandt: The Night Watch

Rembrandt’s largest, most famous canvas was made for the Arquebusiers guild hall. Rembrandt was the first to paint figures in a group portrait actually doing something. The captain, dressed in black, is telling his lieutenant to start the company marching. The guardsmen are getting into formation. Rembrandt used the light to focus on particular details, like the captain’s gesturing hand and the young girl in the foreground. She was the company mascot. This masterpiece is now located in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Rembrandt/Vincent van Gogh: The Raising of Lazarus

Rembrandt/Vincent van Gogh: The Raising of Lazarus

Van Gogh based this painting on a print by Rembrandt – but only part of the print. He left out the main figure: Christ with his arm raised. Van Gogh focused on the theme of human suffering. He probably identified with Lazarus in the tomb. That would explain why he gave the figure a red beard. The two women by the grave are two acquaintances from Arles: Mrs Roulin, in the green dress, and Mrs Ginoux, in a dark dress with colorful stripes. A few of the pigments have faded considerably. This has largely done away with the original contrast between the warm colors in the background and the cold colors of Lazarus in the foreground.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Titian: Venus of Urbino

Titian: Venus of Urbino

This is one of Titian’s most famous works and it depicts the emblematic figure of a young bride about to be dressed to take part in the celebration of the ritual known in Venice as Il Toccamano. It was a ceremony held in the home and not in church, during which a young woman whose hand was requested in marriage would touch the hand of the groom to express her consent. Titian takes this as his inspiration for a seductive Venus, using an iconography that began in the early Renaissance, inspired by the ancient depiction of the Venus pudica. This masterpiece is located in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Chinese School: An Empress and an Emperor

Chinese School: An Empress and an Emperor

The painting of the Tongzhi Emperor, the tenth Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was painted by an anonymous Qing Dynasty court painter and it is now in the Palace Museum, in Beijing. The second painting shows the Empress Jing Xian and the giclée technique allows to show a vivid image with maximum color accuracy and exceptional resolution.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Hans Holbein the Younger: Portraits of Henry VIII

Hans Holbein the Younger: Portraits of Henry VIII

Portraiture was the most popular genre in sixteenth-century England, and indeed one of the few available to artists following the schism between the Church of Rome and the Church of England, of which Henry VIII became head. This likeness of the famous Tudor king is a magnificent example of Holbein’s remarkable style, characterised by a monumental rendering of figures which are nonetheless endowed with considerable psychological depth. In this markedly linear portrait, Holbein uses the frontal pose of the regal model and the position of his hands to convey the sitter’s powerful personality and majestic bearing.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Hans Holbein the Younger: The Ambassadors

Hans Holbein the Younger: The Ambassadors

Jean de Dinteville, the man on the left, is shown on his second diplomatic mission to England on behalf of Francis I, King of France. To the right is his close friend, Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur. This portrait was painted at a time of religious upheaval in Europe. The portrait is a supreme display of Holbein’s skill in composing images and in manipulating oil paint to recreate a variety of textures. If viewed from a particular angle the elongated shape between the men’s feet becomes a skull. Equally hidden at the top left of the picture is a crucifix that hints at the hope of redemption in the resurrected Christ. This masterpiece is located in The National Gallery in London.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Jan Vermeer: A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal

Jan Vermeer: A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal

It appears to be dark outside this elegant room: a blue curtain covers the top part of the window, but the glass below it is black. The light which glints in the heavily dilated pupils of the woman seated at the keyboard comes from in front of the painting, an unusual effect for Vermeer. Significantly, the picture hanging on the wall shows a prostitute flirting with a client. Vermeer tended to hedge them with uncertainties, but here the background picture gives an unusually strong hint, which encourages us to wonder if the keyboard player has more than music on her mind. This painting is now located in The National Gallery in London.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

A Dialogue between Still Lifes: Manet/Chardin

A Dialogue between Still Lifes: Manet/Chardin

Édouard Manet attached great importance to still life, which he considered to be the touchstone of the painter. Tired of history painting, he confessed - A painter can say all he wants to with fruits or flowers, or even clouds -. As Manet, Jean Baptiste Siméon Chardin was one of greatest masters of Still Life in the history of art. The painting style of the establishment in his day was Rococo: a pretentious style, crammed with allegorical images from classical mythology and swirling with ornate decoration. To Chardin this theatrical approach reduced art to some kind of intellectual conversation piece. It was totally alien to the world that he constructed - a simple world of truth, humility and calm played out in a few square inches on the canvas.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

RestART Beirut

RestART Beirut

CONTRIBUTE TO SAVE BEIRUT’S HERITAGE

Duration : 35s
Maturity Level : all

Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People

Delacroix: Liberty Leading the People

The leader of the French Romantic school, Eugéne Delacroix, painted Liberty Leading the People in order to commemorate the July Revolution of 1830. The woman in this masterpiece personifies the concept of Liberty. She is leading a group of people forward over a barricade, holding the tricolor flag of the French Revolution which became Frence’s national flag after these events. Liberty Leading the People is now in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Orientalism in Europe: from Delacroix to Matisse

Orientalism in Europe: from Delacroix to Matisse

The fascination for the Orient which runs throughout the history of Western art peaked in the nineteenth century. Orientalism enjoyed a golden age between Bonaparte’s Egyptian campaign (1798‐1801) and Matisse’s stay in North Africa in 1906. The views of Egypt brought back by the artists on Bonaparte’s expedition, along with the illustration of the first events in the Napoleonic legend, were the first milestones in the European public’s rediscovery of the East.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Michael Najjar after Caspar David Friedrich

Michael Najjar after Caspar David Friedrich

Najjar takes photos of a crash site in California’s Mojave desert and, drawing on Caspar David Friedrich’s 1823/1824 painting Das Eismeer (The Sea of Ice), rearranges them as a jagged, towering heap of wreckage against a chain of hills banked in fog.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Van Gogh/Hiroshige - Dreaming of Japan

Van Gogh/Hiroshige - Dreaming of Japan

Dreaming of Japan is the name the Pinacothéque of Paris gave to an exhibition in 2013. In this movie there is a comparison between two paintings: Suspension Bridge in Nieuw-Amsterdam by Vincent van Gogh and Group of Blind Men and Yugyo Temple in the Distance by Utagawa Hiroshige. Both the paintings are located in the Pinacothéque of Paris.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli, the Birth of Venus

Sandro Botticelli, the Birth of Venus

Known as the Birth of Venus, the composition actually shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the island of Cyprus, born of the sea spray and blown there by the winds, Zephyr and, perhaps, Aura. The goddess is standing on a giant scallop shell, as pure and as perfect as a pearl. She is met by a young woman, who is sometimes identified as one of the Graces or as the Hora of spring, and who holds out a cloak covered in flowers. This masterpiece by Sandro Botticelli is located in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Duration : 9m
Maturity Level : all

PAINTING WOMEN

PAINTING WOMEN

DISCOVER THE DEDICATED CHANNEL

Duration : 16s
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli - Two Portraits of a Young Woman

Sandro Botticelli - Two Portraits of a Young Woman

Two beautiful portraits by Sandro Botticelli we love to compare as they are in two different museums in Germany

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli - Venus and Mars

Sandro Botticelli - Venus and Mars

Venus and Mars is a panel painting of about 1485 by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli. It shows the Roman gods Venus, goddess of love, and Mars, god of war, in an allegory of beauty and valour.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli - Madonna of the Magnificat

Sandro Botticelli - Madonna of the Magnificat

The work portrays the Virgin Mary crowned by two angels, a sheer veil covering her flowing blonde hair and a Byzantine style scarf around her shoulders.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli - Tondo Raczynski

Sandro Botticelli - Tondo Raczynski

Born Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, Sandro Botticelli (“botticello” meaning “little barrel”) created some of the most celebrated paintings of the early Italian Renaissance.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli - Bardi Madonna

Sandro Botticelli - Bardi Madonna

Its primary name derives from the rich Florentine banker Agnolo Bardi who commissioned it for his family chapel at the Santo Spirito Basilica in Florence. It was completed around the end of 1485.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli - Nastagio degli Onesti

Sandro Botticelli - Nastagio degli Onesti

Nastagio degli Onesti is the protagonist in one of the one hundred short stories contained in The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. The eighth story of the fifth day, it tells of the unrequited love of the nobleman Nastagio for a girl who will eventually be induced to accept Nastagio’s affection by the appearance of a rejected lover and her beloved.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Jan & Hubert Van Eyck

Jan & Hubert Van Eyck

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, 1432, or the Ghent Altarpiece, is recognised worldwide as a great work of art, and one of the most influential paintings ever made. It was the world’s first major oil painting, and it is laced with religious mysticism.

Duration : 9m
Maturity Level : all

19th c. Japanese miniatures by various artists

19th c. Japanese miniatures by various artists

by various artists

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Between Simonetta

Between Simonetta

In 2011, Michael Joaquin Grey, created this fascinating hyper slow generative portrait after Simonetta, a portrait by Botticelli from the Gemaeldegalerie in Berlin. Observe how her face expresses all moods. And discover more Slow Art videos.

Duration : 15m
Maturity Level : all

Botticelli - Madonna del Magnificat

Botticelli - Madonna del Magnificat

The Virgin Mary, crowned by two angels, is depicted on a throne. Under the guidance of her son, she is writing the canticle “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” (My soul doth magnify the Lord), which gives the painting its title.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Rosso Fiorentino - Moses and the Daughters

Rosso Fiorentino - Moses and the Daughters

From Rosso Fiorentino early Florentine works, he displayed a particularly original style, characterised by a strong anti-classical energy, which tended to break out of the balanced Renaissance framework and favour innovative formal solutions with a powerful, dramatic charge.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Filippo Lippi - Madonna with Child

Filippo Lippi - Madonna with Child

Madonna with Child (Italian: Madonna col Bambino e angeli or Lippina) is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Filippo Lippi. The date in which it was painted is unknown, but most art historians agree that it was painted during the last part of Lippi’s career, between 1450 and 1465.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Raphael - Portrait of LeoX

Raphael - Portrait of LeoX

The Portrait of Pope Leo X with two Cardinals is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael, executed c. 1518-1520.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli - Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Botticelli - Adoration of the Magi

Sandro Botticelli was commissioned to paint at least seven versions of The Adoration of the Magi by the Medici family in around 1475.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Moghul Miniatures

Moghul Miniatures

Mughal painting is a particular style of South Asian confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums. In this movie, a set of several paintings: Chamsa and Dancing Dervish, located in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, Germany; Akbar tames the Savage Elephant, Hawai, outside the Red Fort at Agra and Akbar’s forces besieging Rai Surjan Hada in Ranthambore Fort, both located in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, UK; Emperor Jahangir holding a portrait of Emperor Akbar that is now Musee Guimet in Paris, France.

Duration : 8m
Maturity Level : all

A wonder: the Gilt-Silver Altarpiece at the Church of San Salvador, Venice

A wonder: the Gilt-Silver Altarpiece at the Church of San Salvador, Venice

The San Salvador altarpiece is a wonder. It is located since the 16th century on the main altar of the church of San Salvador, but ‘screened’ – like theatre scenery – by Titian’s painting of the Transfiguration of Christ, and is revealed only during the three festivals of Christmas, Easter, and the Transfiguration. Very few, including Venetians, know of the existence of this very precious masterpiece.

Duration : 12m
Maturity Level : all

Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Altes Museum Berlin

Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Altes Museum Berlin

Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Altes Museum, completed in 1830, is one of the most important buildings of the Neoclassical era. The monumental arrangement of eighteen Ionic fluted columns, the expansive atrium and sweeping staircase that invites visitors to ascend to the top, the rotunda adorned with Antique sculptures on all sides as a place to collect one’s thoughts and an explicit reference to Rome’s Pantheon: such signs of architectural refinement had previously only ever been seen in buildings designed for royalty and the nobility.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli, Primavera

Sandro Botticelli, Primavera

The Primavera by Sandro Botticelli is located at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. This work symbolizes prosperity, love and peace. The painting shows nine figures from classic mythology advancing over a flowery lawn in a grove of orange trees.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Mona Lisa meets La Gioconda

Mona Lisa meets La Gioconda

"Leonardo and the copy of the Mona Lisa" is an exhibition running at The Prado Museum in Madrid until the end of January 2022. It is the result of an ambitious research project which the Prado undertook in parallel and in collaboration with other international institutions, such as the Musée du Louvre, the Molecular Archaeology Laboratory at the Sorbonne and the National Gallery, London. We are presenting here a video produced by ikonoTV a few years which is comparing the 2 Mona Lisa from the Prado and the Louvre.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Sandro Botticelli, the birth of Venus

Sandro Botticelli, the birth of Venus

Known as the Birth of Venus, the composition actually shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the island of Cyprus, born of the sea spray and blown there by the winds, Zephyr and, perhaps, Aura. The goddess is standing on a giant scallop shell, as pure and as perfect as a pearl. She is met by a young woman, who is sometimes identified as one of the Graces or as the Hora of spring, and who holds out a cloak covered in flowers. This masterpiece by Sandro Botticelli is located in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.

Duration : 9m
Maturity Level : all