 |
Man Jaguar
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to change into your favorite animal? In ancient Mexico, between 1200 and 400 B.C., a civilization called the Olmec believed their rulers could transform into jaguars and other powerful creatures.
|
 |
Aquamanile
What is the creature on the lion's back? Around the time this aquamanile was made, artists in Europe sometimes invented imaginary beasts for their works of art. The beasts were supposed to scare evil away.
|
 |
Artworks in Everyday Life
In some cultures, art is part of daily life. Look closely at the stool pictured here. How does it compare to the chairs or stools you use at home or at school?
|
 |
Flower Day
In nearly all of his work, Diego Rivera found ways to celebrate Mexican culture and its connection to nature. This painting shows a flower seller carrying a bundle of calla lilies in an open-air market.
|
 |
Red-Blue Chair
De Stijl artists made designs that focus on straight lines, right angles, and the primary colors red, blue, and yellow. They were also interested in designs that clearly show how the actual object was put together.
|
 |
Cliff Dwellers
George Bellows was part of a group of artists known as the Ashcan School. They painted realistic scenes of the everyday lives of the working class and the poor in the early 1900s.
|
 |
A Place to Store Treasured Objects
This reliquary was carved from wood and decorated with gold and many colors of paint. The artist who made it around the year 1510 took great care to create a realistic image of a woman.
|
 |
Drawn to the Desert
Horse's Skull with Pink Rose is one of many paintings Georgia O'Keeffe created to define her feelings about the New Mexico desert, which she called "the faraway."
|
 |
Star-Shaped Tile
An artist made this colorful tile in Iran a little over five hundred years ago.
|
 |
Flags Over Fifth Avenue
See if you can match the flag with the country in this 1918 painting, which the artist Childe Hassam was inspired to make after watching a parade on Fifth Avenue.
|
 |
Rustic Ware
Can lizards and slimy fish be the subjects of fine art? French artist Bernard Palissy thought so, and made some very unusual ceramics to prove the point.
|
 |
Lord of Obstacles
The Hindu god Ganesha has the head of an elephant, a round belly, and many arms. Ganesha is sometimes called the lord of obstacles because he can make it easier for you to do something. |
 |
Maiolica Dish
This dish—probably part of a set made for the Salviati family of Florence, Italy, between 1560 and 1570—gives us an idea of what the Italian countryside might have looked like in the late 1500s.
|
 |
Piazza San Marco
Canaletto combined two views of the piazza, one from the west and one from the south, and the result is a painting that is slightly better than the real thing. |
 |
Thoth: Scribe of Life
The writing of hieroglyphics was considered a sacred act, and Egyptians believed that Thoth presided over the scribes.
|
 |
The Enlightened One
A Buddha is someone who has reached a state of complete peacefulness called enlightenment. This sculpture tells the story of Siddhartha Gautama, who was to become the Buddha Shakyamuni. |
 |
The Young Artist
Have you ever thought about becoming an artist? The painting pictured here was painted in the mid-1800s. What does it tell us about an artist's education at that time? |
 |
Artist and Apprentice
Around the time this painting was made (1643), hopeful artists learned their art-making skills by working in the studio of a master artist. |
 |
Angel's Flight
What does this image tell you about life in Los Angeles during the 1930s? Can you guess which part of the city is illustrated? |
 |
A Letter from Rembrandt
Who wrote the letter and what does it say? Why did Rembrandt include it in the portrait? |
 |
Image of a King
The figure in the wall panel wears a distinctly shaped crown, with a cobra on the front, that only Egyptian kings and queens and some of the gods wore. |
 |
A Cowboy's View of Life
Frederic Remington was intrigued by the life and culture of the unsettled territories of the American West and made it the subject of his art.
|
 |
Bad Dreams Be Gone
This is an eighteenth-century carving of a baku, an imaginary creature, part lion and part elephant, who was thought to perform a specific job: protecting people from bad dreams. |
