Vasari called Ghirlandaio one of the greatest masters of his age — his tender Portrait of an Old Man and his Grandson still moves hearts across five centuries.
House of Venus in the Shell
Hidden along Pompeii’s main thoroughfare, the House of Venus in the Shell dazzles with vivid frescoes — Mars, dolphins, cherubs, and a goddess born from the sea.
Christmas-Time
Eastman Johnson — Longfellow’s portraitist, Dutch Masters admirer, and chronicler of American life — captured slavery, family, and freedom on canvas with quiet humanity and extraordinary skill.
Church of the Holy Martyr Polyeuktos
Built to rival Solomon’s Temple, Anicia Juliana’s magnificent 6th-century Constantinople church defied even Emperor Justinian — its looted treasures now scattered across Venice, Barcelona, and Vienna.
Teaching with Domenico Veneziano
Vasari’s gripping tale of artistic jealousy, a lute smashed and a murder committed — totally fictional, yet Domenico Veneziano’s ethereal Florentine masterpieces remain breathtakingly, undeniably real.
The Month of December
Maestro Venceslao’s December fresco captures a frozen Trentino world — bare-footed peasants chopping timber, knights escorting noble ladies, icicles hanging from castle eaves — vivid, harsh, and unforgettable.
Watercolours by Howard Carter
Before discovering Tutankhamun’s golden tomb, Howard Carter was a teenage tracer painting Egyptian hieroglyphs in watercolour — his artist’s eye forever shaping one of archaeology’s greatest discoveries.
Dioscurides and Krithamo
The Vienna Dioscurides — a breathtaking 515 AD Byzantine manuscript gifted to Anicia Juliana — preserves Greek botanical wisdom and over a thousand medicinal plants in luminous illuminated splendour.
Saint Mary of the Mongols
From a Mongol Khan’s harem to a Constantinople convent — Byzantine princess Maria Paleologina’s extraordinary journey gave Istanbul its only continuously Greek Orthodox church, Saint Mary of the Mongols.
Teaching with Donatello
Donatello commanded his sculptures to speak — and they did. From Florence’s peasant Christ to Padua’s magnificent Gattamelata, his genius reshaped Renaissance sculpture for centuries to come.