Whenever French 18th-century artist Adélaïde Labille-Guiard is mentioned, it’s almost always as a counterpoint to her better-known “rival,” Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.
Art History
Posted inArt
Hettie Anderson Was Anything But a Passive Muse
Her face has gazed over midtown Manhattan traffic for over a century, but it wasn’t until 2023 that Hettie Anderson received official public recognition in words.
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Matthias Grünewald’s Gruesome Good Friday
The 16th-century “Isenheim Altarpiece” confronts us with the reality of suffering, violence, and death in a century where violence is both omnipresent and obscured.
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How Giuseppe Arcimboldo Made the Familiar Bizarre
The artist’s perplexing paintings should be viewed not as mere visual puzzles, but instantiations of an occult philosophy.
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The Modern Resurrection of the Antichrist
Since antiquity, periods of political uncertainty have generated spurious proclamations of the Antichrist, from Nero to Taylor Swift.
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Albrecht Dürer, a Humanist Messiah
He believed, and demonstrated, that individuals could ascend to divine realms of knowledge.
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A Shameful US History Told Through Ledger Drawings
In the 19th century ledger drawings became a concentrated point of resistance for Indigenous people, an expression of individual and communal pride.
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15 Art History-Inspired Valentine’s Day Cards
From polycules and break-ups to situationships and forbidden love, Hyperallergic has you covered this February 14.
Posted inBooks
Can AI Be Better at Art History Than Us?
Artificial Intelligence may efficiently sort images but loses out to a humanistic approach.
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Art History’s Most Fascinating Calendars
Artists and craftsmen have imagined and reimagined the ubiquitous time tracker, creating innovative designs to keep an eye on the passing days.
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What’s With Those Hilarious Medieval Portrayals of Animals?
We asked two scholars about the strange depictions of fauna and why they’ve become a viral phenomenon.
Posted inNews
Stunning Codex Documenting Aztec Culture Now Fully Digitized
The 16th-century “Florentine Codex” offers a Mexican Indigenous perspective that is often missing from historical accounts of the period.
