Alberti's Window

I've been thinking about Hieronymous Bosch and The Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1510-1515) quite a bit this week. In fact, this after...

On Wednesday I had a student point out something in a painting that I had never noticed before (I love it when this happens!). We were dis...

This past weekend I finally finished reading art historian Noah Charney's book Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the Wo...

Yes, the title of my post is a bit facetious. Of course Mrs. Arnolfini is dead - Jan van Eyck's famous Arnolfini Portrait (shown left...

Occasionally a student will ask me about why Rogier van der Weyden's Deposition altarpiece (also called "Descent from the Cross...

I introduced Jan van Eyck to my students about a week ago, but I haven't stopped thinking about him since. It's known that van Eyc...

Dürer, Melencolia I , 1514 I'm getting ready for an activity in tomorrow's class: we're going to explore the historiograp...

Unknown German Master, The Adoration of the Magi , c. 1420 Happy holidays from Alberti's Window ! This is one of the Christmas pa...

School is wrapping up for the quarter, and my eyes are tired of looking at dozens and dozens of student papers. This evening I thought I...

I've always liked royal portraits. It's always fun to see how a monarch decides to visually assert his/her power, prestige, wisdom,...

I sometimes start my lectures by talking with students about art that has recently been in the news. Tonight, though, it was a student who s...

I remember being surprised to learn that the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) that exists today is not entirely a product of the fifteenth century. ...

Christmas art = a smorgasbord. There is so much art associated with Christmas. I would bet there there are over a million different depic...

I got distracted today by Dürer's Adam and Eve (1504). I'm preparing a lecture on how Dürer's engraving Melencolia I is influ...

It's always interesting to see how an artist depicts an animal that he/she has never seen. Vasari writes that Paolo Uccello wanted to d...

Most people are familiar with Giovanni Arnolfini because of his infamous family portrait by Jan van Eyck (1434). But did you know that Jan...

It's easy for one to make comparisons between the bizarre paintings of Hieronymous Bosch and those of his later Netherlandish counterpar...

I recently read George MacDonald's novel Lilith , which caused me to think about the Jewish legend of Lilith, Adam's first wife. Le...

I've been reading a really interesting article on the Portinari Altarpiece lately. 1 The Portinari Altarpiece has been determined by e...

Last weekend, while J was at a "Mantreat" with his brothers, I had time to go to The Frick Collection. I really loved going to t...