Camille Corot: "I write with my heart"
The large, half a century long, creative life of the French artist Camille Corot (1796–1875) was, as it were, subject to the change of seasons. In the winter months he…

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Two portraits of the actress Strepetova
There are destinies that strike the imagination with unusualness and inner completeness — such is the life of Pelageya Antipevna Strepetova (1850–1903), difficult and bright, full of dramatic turns. At…

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Hubert Robert - "Painter of Ruins"
Antique ruins, then reflected in the calm waters, then almost hidden by thickets of climbing plants, shrubs. Peaceful rural nature, almost always clear sky. Through the gaps of trees make…

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Mexican painting of the first half of the 20th century
In the 20th century, the art of Latin America, primarily Mexico, unexpectedly became one of the most significant phenomena of world culture. The dramatic history of this country is replete…

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Chinese classical painting
Painting of China, flourishing in the era of the Middle Ages - IV – XIX centuries of our era, it was not by chance that it took an honorable place…

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landscape painters

How did the masters of the Italian Renaissance study

Verrocchio, Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo. The greatest geniuses. What bright individuals and how much they differ from each other! What unites the unsurpassed masters of the time, which is called the Renaissance? Not only new compared to the Middle Ages – interest in antiquity, a different subject and spiritual richness of the works. At the heart of everyone’s creativity is a new professional method of teaching visual arts in workshops. Continue reading

Egyptian ostracon drawings

In the art of ancient Egypt there are monuments that make up a special group. These are works of graphics – drawings on the boards. The Greek word “ostracon” literally means a shard, a fragment of ceramics. However, in relation to the art of ancient Egypt, it has a more capacious meaning. This word is commonly understood as drawings made not only on fragments of ceramics, but mostly on chipped stone (usually limestone), less commonly wood, that is, on material that was always at hand with masters engaged in decorating the tombs of the Theban necropolis — painting walls , manufacturing of statues and items of funeral inventory. Continue reading

Venetian landscape painters of the 18th century

By the beginning of the 18th century, the once mighty Venice had lost its significance as the political center of the Mediterranean, becoming a peculiar center of pilgrimage. Rich travelers from all over Europe came here to admire the beauty of the city. And everyone dreamed of taking a picture, drawing or engraving depicting a corner of a beautiful city as a souvenir. No wonder the most popular among other genres enjoyed the landscape.

“The population of Venice,” wrote the historian Monnier, “is a festive and idle crowd: poets and hangers-on, hairdressers and usurers, singers, dancers … – everything that lives in pleasures or creates them. Continue reading

Panorama Petersburg "Alexei Zubov
There are works of art that vividly and fully express the social content of the historical period in the life of the country. They are rare, but precisely because they…

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Wooden sculpture of Prikamye
The discovery of this “completely unprecedented and absolutely amazing phenomenon” - the original folk art of the Kama region - belongs to N. N. Serebrennikov, an Ural art historian, collector…

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Giacomo Manzu - Coast of Truth
Creativity Mantsu is a surprisingly natural synthesis of truth, clarity of artistic ideas and originality of the visual image. His method is truly realistic, but this is realism, say, not…

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