Kiefer’s moving work of 2001 reaches deep into myth and science to help make sense of recent history, particularly in Germany. Other 20th-century artists have tried to revive historical consciousness […]
Yale Art History
Jean-Léon Gérôme’s Ave Caesar! Morituri te salutant
During Jean- Léon Gérôme’s career, history painting continued to be popular, even as it was being undermined by new ideas for subject matter. We look at his frequently reproduced picture […]
John Martin’s Belshazzar’s Feast
A painter of fantastical and catastrophic events, Martin was a master scenographer and a Victorian celebrity. In this Old Testament episode, set in a dizzy vision of Babylon, a blaspheming […]
Ary Scheffer’s The Retreat of Napoleon’s Army from Russia in 1812
The painter of this little-known Romantic work, a new acquisition by the Gallery, shows the remnants of the Grande Armée in the greatest defeat in military history. What sense does […]
John Trumbull and Historical Fiction: The Battle of Bunker’s Hill, June 17, 1775
Most of us know this famous image of an inspiring American defeat and a noble death. Trumbull was there that day. We examine what he knew about what actually happened […]
Benjamin West’s Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus
One of West’s great masterpieces, this work depicts an act of piety and defiance by a Roman matron. We discuss the American-born West’s remarkable career (he was Historical Painter to […]
Gavin Hamilton’s The Death of Lucretia
Gavin Hamilton, a gifted Scotsman working in Rome, was an art dealer, excavator, tour guide, and pioneer neoclassical painter. His scene of a virtuous woman and her resolute avengers, taken […]
Antonio del Pollaiuolo’s Hercules and Deianira
The Gallery’s best known Renaissance painting shows Hercules about to shoot a centaur who is abducting his bride. Everybody admires the vigorous action and vast landscape. What about the subject? […]
Garofalo’s The Conversion of Saint Paul
In this painting, a recent acquisition, a gifted Renaissance artist portrays a critical moment for the early Church. We look at how Garofalo treats what happened to Saul on the […]
Peter Paul Rubens’s Hero and Leander
This painting is a showpiece of Rubens’s youthful brilliance and ambition. To picture the climax of the story, he paints a fierce storm and invents a large supporting cast of […]
Marco Pino’s The Resurrection of Lazarus
Marco Pino was the most important painter in southern Italy during the later Renaissance. We examine his career and have a thorough look at this little-known but superb work, focusing […]
Introduction to History Painting
For six centuries, history painting—pictures based on stories from myth, scripture, and ancient and modern history—was the most prestigious work a painter could do. Renaissance artists and writers laid down […]