Painterly depictions of dance are some of the most beautiful and beloved works in art history. Famous examples portray this theme through different styles, including history painting, portraiture, and genre scenes. They show mythical figures, aristocrats, and commoners engaged in bodily rhythmic movement, a primordial expression of our humanity. ‘A Dance to the Music of…

Only two of Nicolas Poussin’s oil paintings on copper survive. In January, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired one of the 17th-century French artist’s works: “The Agony in the Garden.” Even though some 17th- and 18th-century texts mention the painting, it was lost until 1985. Up until recently, art collectors Jon and…

Have you ever wanted something so bad you could taste it? I’m sure many of us have experienced an intense desire for something: more wealth, more love, more fame, and so on. Quite often, however, the things we desire aren’t what they seem, and they can leave a bad taste in our mouths. In the…

The spring of 2022 was an extraordinary season for French art in the United States. At the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the exhibition “Poussin and the Dance” delved into the Baroque master Nicolas Poussin’s pictorial choreography and showcased a number of paintings executed in Rome during the 1630s. Meanwhile, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in…

Sitting on a high rock, he would sing as he gazed out to sea. … In this way Polyphemus shepherded his love with singing. —Theocritus, “Idyll XI,” trans. Neil Hopkinson Serenity rules over the meadows, peace over the sea. Clouds part as white gulls hover among rocky peaks and rich leaves. It’s in this bucolic…