Bernini created art for 8 different popes. In the process, he helped reinforce and redefine Christianity’s visual culture.

Paintings played an important role in these ancient civilizations. Unfortunately, pigment is not nearly as durable as marble.

The so-called "court painter of Silicon Valley" was shaped by her youth in communist Poland but looks forward to a future ruled by celebrity robots. 

Independent of cultural background, people seem to share a sense of what makes certain color combinations aesthetically pleasing.

Frank Slater’s book "Practical Portrait Painting" reveals the secrets of masters old and new, from Leonardo da Vinci to Augustus John. 

From Brahms to Tchaikovsky, here's a curated list of composers whose music has shaped the classical canon.

Da Vinci dreamed up a helicopter 400 years before they actually existed. Now, engineers have brought his design to life, but with a twist.

For a long time, important events could only be visualized retroactively through paintings. Photography allowed us to capture history as — or sometimes even before — it happened. 

Flow occurs when a task’s challenge is balanced with one’s skill.

Most things in the world can be seen in surprisingly different ways.

People who visit Florence seem strangely susceptible to Stendhal syndrome, which is blamed on an overwhelming sense of awe.

With a new telescope on the horizon, we reflect on the best pictures of space that came before.

Just as storylines make sense only when you have the context of the beginning and the end, listeners need to understand the impetus for why the album was even made.

The most technically impressive feats of animation often strike us as eerie instead of impressive, and it’s all thanks to the uncanny valley.

The singer-songwriter distilled the essence of the holidays into a hit song, and for her efforts she was crowned the Queen of Christmas.

“They just don’t make good music like they used to.”

Released in 1972, "Ways of Seeing" has proven to be as worthy of study as the artistic traditions it investigates.

Using DNA from samples of extinct flowers, synthetic biologists managed to approximate long-lost floral scents.

The German thinker wrote both treatises and songs. He approached each form of expression with the same level of interest.

Haunting photographs depict the dead as "still with us."

Music is often labelled a “universal language,” and according to the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, there is a good reason for that.

In hell, we assume a position of moral superiority, looking down over the sinners and the poor decisions that led them to this wretched place. In heaven, Dante is looking down upon us.

Portraiture is one of the most intimate genres in all of painting, and it has reinvented itself many times across European history.

Studio Ghibli movies celebrate the natural world using a very Japanese mixture of Shinto, Buddhist, and Daoist themes.

Bolsheviks planned to erect a towering monument to the socialist cause, but their quixotic ideas never got off the ground.

Although the statue’s political connotations faded over time, its eyes remain fixed on a key moment in Florentine history.

The German artist painted death as it appeared in life – omnipresent and hidden in plain sight.

Ever wondered what oxytocin receptor proteins sound like?

Due to deteriorating health, all Beethoven left behind for his final symphony were some musical sketches.

In the perilous mountains of Tibet, archaeologists unearthed ancient hand and footprints that seem to be the creative work of children.