Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Renaissance

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1615-17

All Hail the Renaissance of Artemisia Gentileschi

The London National Gallery unveiled a restored portrait of the Baroque painter and announced a 2020 retrospective dedicated to the artist

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, "The Battle Between Carnival and Lent," 1559

Online Portal Reveals Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s Creative Process

The project’s launch coincides with a blockbuster Vienna retrospective celebrating the 450th anniversary of the Flemish old master’s death

The Rothschild bronzes depict two muscular men riding astride panthers

Washboard Abs and Unusual Toes Convince Experts These Sculptures Were Crafted by Michelangelo

Analysis makes the newly attributed early 16th-century Florentine sculptures the Renaissance giant’s only surviving bronzes

Jane Fortune photographed in 2009.

Legacy of Jane Fortune, Champion of Forgotten Women Artists, Lives on in New Initiative

‘A Space of Their Own’ aims to build comprehensive digital database of 15th- to 19th-century women artists

Still the enigma

New Research

Was Mona Lisa’s Enigmatic Smile Caused by a Thyroid Condition?

Doctor theorizes that the sitter’s lank hair, weak smile and yellowing skin point to post-pregnancy hypothyroidism

A few pages from the recently digitized codex.

Cool Finds

See Leonardo da Vinci’s Genius Yourself in These Newly Digitized Sketches

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has made ultra high-resolution scans of two codices available online

Last November, "Salvator Mundi" sold for $450 million, becoming the most expensive work of art ever sold privately or at auction

Historian Asserts That Leonardo’s Assistant Painted Majority of ‘Salvator Mundi’

The Oxford research fellow names Bernardino Luini as main artist, believes da Vinci only painted between five to 20 percent of the painting

Gentile de Fabriano’s gold-encrusted 1423 “Adoration of the Magi” altarpiece features Arabic script on the Virgin Mary’s and Saint Joseph’s haloes

Two Florence Museums Are Tracing the City’s 500-Year Connection to Islamic Art

The Uffizi explores East-West interactions between the 15th and 17th centuries; the Bargello features donations from 19th- and 20th-century collectors

Archangel Gabriel

Is This Painted Tile Da Vinci’s Earliest Known Work?

Two Italian scholars believe the tile was painted by the Renaissance master in 1471, but other experts are not convinced

Theories on the painting's fate include destruction by fire, earthquake, and gnawing rats in an abandoned barn

New Clues Emerge in Search for Stolen Caravaggio

The nativity scene taken from Sicilian chapel in 1969 may have ended up in Switzerland

"The Night," Michele di Rodolfo del Ghirlandaio, oil on panel, Galleria Colonna, Rome, Italy

New Research

Earliest Images of Breast Cancer Found in Renaissance Paintings

The signs of illness in the paintings illustrate that breast cancer is not just a modern malady

A tessera or a Roman six-sided die from the Vidy Roman Museum

How Centuries-Old Dice Reveal Changing Attitudes About Fate

Dice made in Roman times were lopsided and irregular, but they became more consistent during the Renaissance

Frederick II was the first "modern" ornithologist, studying birds in detail in the 13th century to fuel his passion for falconry.

The Modern History of Ornithology Starts With This Inquisitive Medieval Emperor

Frederick II got up to a lot in his lifetime

Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714-1774), Italian anatomist and sculptor, from a drawing by Cesare Bettini.

The Lady Anatomist Who Brought Dead Bodies to Light

Anna Morandi was the brains and the skilled hand of an unusual husband-wife partnership

John Dee was an accomplished mathematician, but he also said he owned a stone (in his right hand) that was given to him by angels. In Elizabethan England, that wasn't all that odd.

John Dee’s Life Shows Science’s Magical Roots

His life shows a time when science and magic intersected–even for scientists

Experts say that Raphael painted an allegorical figure of Justice on the far right of this elaborate fresco, which depicts the battle between Constantine and his rival, Maxentius.

Unknown Raphael Paintings Discovered in the Vatican

Restoration work in the Hall of Constantine uncovered two allegorical figures that Raphael appears to have painted before his untimely death in 1520

The doge's barge, called the Bucentaur, returning to Venice after the "wedding" ceremony. This painting is by eighteenth-century Venetian artist Giovanni Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto.

Venice Has Been Married to the Sea for Over a Thousand Years

Happy anniversary, you crazy kids

Cool Finds

Five-Year Photo Project Captures the Sistine Chapel in High-Res Detail

Released in a new set of books, the 1:1 photos will be used by restorers to restore and assess damage to Michaelangelo’s masterpieces

A Silk Road Wine Trail Karas Monument at the entrance of Rind Village in Vayots Dzor, Armenia.

Armenia

Can Ancient Techniques Make Modern Wine Better?

A new generation of wineries are going to painstaking lengths to acquire hundreds of historic clay karases

Although it's possible that Sandro Botticelli threw other works of his on the bonfire, the Birth of Venus thankfully survived.

A Fanatical Monk Inspired 15th-Century Italians to Burn Their Clothes, Makeup and Art

He told Florentines the apocalypse was coming, and to save themselves through self-censorship

Page 9 of 10