Simon Bening’s March
Simon Bening’s Golf Book (March, f.20v) presents a refined medieval garden scene where aristocratic authority, labour, and daily life intersect, offering insight into monastic horticulture and medicinal plant traditions.
Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Edgar Degas
Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen combines wax, fabric, and real hair over a complex armature, creating a strikingly lifelike sculpture that blurred the boundaries between art, realism, and theatrical illusion.
Saint George and the Dragon by Rogier van der Weyden
Rogier van der Weyden’s Saint George and the Dragon combines chivalric drama, delicate detail, and luminous realism, transforming a legendary battle into an intimate vision of faith, courage, and triumph.
Byzantine Girdle
The Dumbarton Oaks Byzantine Marriage Belt unites sacred and pagan imagery, where Christ blesses a union framed by Dionysian figures, symbolising harmony between love, ritual, and cultural continuity in Byzantium.
The astonishing Tapestry of Dionysus at Abegg-Stiftung
The Abegg-Stiftung’s Dionysus tapestry reveals the god of wine and ecstasy surrounded by lush ornament and mythic figures, reflecting Late Antique beliefs in joy, abundance, and life beyond death.
Hellenistic Golden Hairnets
The Hellenistic gold hairnet from the Benaki Museum showcases exquisite craftsmanship, centred on Athena’s medallion and intricate filigree, reflecting aristocratic luxury and the refined artistry of ancient Greek jewellery.
The Etruscan Bronze Chandelier of Cortona
The Cortona Bronze Chandelier, a masterpiece of Etruscan metalwork, combines mythic creatures, sea imagery, and ritual symbolism in a complex circular design, reflecting the artistic and religious imagination of ancient Etruria.
Simon Bening’s February
Simon Bening’s February miniature depicts a lavish manor feast, where aristocrats, musicians, and servants gather around firelight and rich furnishings, revealing the social ritual, luxury, and domestic life of late medieval nobility.
La Belle Nani by Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese’s La Belle Nani presents an elegant Venetian woman whose identity remains uncertain, embodying Renaissance ideals of beauty, virtue, fashion, and aristocratic status in a richly symbolic portrait.
The Princess from the Land of Porcelain by James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Whistler’s Princess from the Land of Porcelain reimagines Western portraiture through Japanese and Chinese aesthetics, portraying Christina Spartali in exotic costume amid porcelain-inspired decor, blending beauty, fantasy, and cross-cultural artistic influence.