If artists as brilliant as Michelangelo and artworks as definitive as his “David” are rare, the year marking the 120th anniversary of that sculpture’s unveiling saw an event almost unparalleled in artistic history. For the first and maybe the last time, there was an artist who could rival Michelangelo both as a sculptor and a…

While a photograph of Giovanni Bellini’s “Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan” may give the illusion of a photographed actor in costume rather than a painted portrait; the artwork displays exquisite but restrained beauty. The doge’s robe and face appear to have the realistic textures of silk and skin: The folds in the silk and creases…

The interview with Vincent Delieuvin below has been edited for brevity and clarity. This subject, this composition, “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne,” is really very symbolic. Leonardo da Vinci spent nearly 20 years conceiving it. From 1500 to his death in 1519, he never stopped perfecting every detail, and transforming his ideas. For…

The double portrait of Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza by Piero della Francesca in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, is an intriguing masterpiece by one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance. Most familiar to art lovers are its superb profile portraits of two notable early Renaissance personages. But it also comprises, on the…

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. —Luke 12:27 Lilies are a powerful symbol throughout the Christian Bible, and this becomes most apparent during Easter. In traditional European art, lilies are…