A 4th-century marble table support shows Orpheus surrounded by animals, blending myth and early Christian symbolism in a striking Late Antique work from the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens, Greece
Raphael’s La Fornarina
Who is the beautiful woman who modestly tries to cover herself? Raphael left clues but no answers. Five centuries on, La Fornarina remains art history’s most captivating unsolved mystery.
The Day Dream
Rossetti’s The Day Dream captures Jane Morris in a moment of stillness—where symbolism, desire, and interiority intertwine within one of the most atmospheric Pre-Raphaelite paintings.
Carolus-Duran’s The Letter and The Reveler
A letter lies torn open on the floor. Beside it, a bouquet, discarded, not placed. On the sofa above them, a young man has collapsed into the cushions, eyes closed, one arm surrendered to gravity. Something has happened in this room. Carolus-Duran’s The Letter (1889) offers two stories and refuses to choose between them.
Temple A at Prinias
Temple A at Prinias (7th century BC) is an early Greek temple combining megaron-style architecture with pioneering Daedalic sculptural decoration, reflecting experimentation in Archaic Greek art and design.
The Portrait of the Wyndham Sisters by John Singer Sargent
Sargent’s Portrait of the Wyndham Sisters transforms portraiture into a dynamic composition, uniting elegance, movement, and individuality while capturing psychological nuance and the interplay between heritage, identity, and modern femininity.
A Mountain Climber Resting
Winslow Homer’s A Mountain Climber Resting captures a quiet summit pause, reflecting rising leisure travel, shifting views of nature, and the enduring ideal of solitary exploration in nineteenth-century America.
Master Glassmaker Ennion
Mold-blown glass cup from the workshop of Ennion, showcasing early Roman innovation, elegant decoration, and a Greek inscription, now preserved at the Getty Villa.
Fujiwara Yasumasa Plays the Flute by Moonlight
Moonlit Kyoto tale of Fujiwara Yasumasa: flute music disarms a bandit in this Konjaku Monogatari story, later immortalized in Yoshitoshi’s Meiji woodblock print of quiet power and transformation.
Sunset at Constantinople by Constantinos Maleas
Maleas captures Constantinople at sunset as a luminous, dreamlike city where color, light, and atmosphere dissolve form, transforming architecture and landscape into a poetic meditation on beauty, memory, and cultural convergence.