Search results
The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century.
- British Galleries
The British Galleries reopened with almost 700 works of art...
- Meet The Staff
Denny Stone works with the department's curators and...
- Blog Articles
Immaterial: Stone. June 4, 2024. A New Look at Old...
- Curatorial Friends Group
The Friends of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts is a...
- British Galleries
The art of Europe, also known as Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleolithic and the Iron Age.
- The Best Art Masterpieces in Europe
- Art Masterpieces of Ancient Greece
- Art Masterpieces of Ancient Rome
- Medieval Art Masterpieces
- Art Masterpieces of The Renaissance
- Art Masterpieces of The Baroque Era
- Art Masterpieces of The 19th Century
- Art Masterpieces of The 20th Century
Here are my picks for 75 must see artworks that should be on your bucket list for Europe. I tell you about the art works and where to find them in Europe. You’ll travel to the art cities of Paris, London, Rome, Madrid, Florence, and more. You’ll tour many of Europe’s must visit museums. Believe it or not, it’s not so easy to narrow it down to 75 ma...
1. Laocoon | Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Laocoön is one of the world’s most ancient and valuable sculptures. It’s a marble masterpiece from Greece’s Hellenistic period. It likely dates back as far as 323 B.C. The sculpture was famously unearthed in the Esquiline Vineyard in 1506. Happily, Michelangelorecognized its significance and pressed for its restoration. Laocoön is based on an ancient Greek myth. In it, the priest Laocoön and his sons are attacked by a serpent sent by either Poseidon or Athena. It’s a tormented, action packed...
2. Elgin Marbles | British Museum, London & Acropolis Museum, Athens
The “Elgin Marbles” are the beautiful friezes and sculptures that once adorned the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, built between 447 and 438 B.C. The Parthenon was decorated with the finest art of its day, conceived and carved by master sculptor Phidias. The east and west pediments had magnificent friezes (decorative horizontal bands), which depicted an Athenian religious process. They were meant to be a continuous narrative of the Athenian gods. The marbles can now be seen in the Briti...
3. Pergamon Altar | Pergamon Museum, Berlin Germany
Perhaps the star attraction of Berlin’s Museum Island is the beautiful Pergamon Museum. The museum takes its name from its marquee attraction — the stunning Pergamon Altar. The altar’s architectural framework is impressive. It consists of a monumental structure surrounded by columns and accessed by a grand staircase. The most eye-catching feature is undoubtedly the wraparound marble frieze. It depicts the mythological battle between the Gods of Mount Olympus and Giants.
5. Capitoline She-Wolf | Capitoline Museums, Rome
The Capitoline She-Wolf is a bronze masterpiece in Europe dating from the 5th century BC. Now, that’s ancient. Pope Sixtus IV donated it to the museum. The She Wolfthen became the symbol of ancient empire of Rome. It’s a powerful image. Legend holds that Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remus. The boys were abandoned by their mother. But they were suckled by a kind she-wolf and then rescued by either shepard or river god. The figures of Romulus and Remus as infants were added to the...
6. Apollo Belvedere | Vatican Museums, Vatican City
Apollo Belvedere is a famous sculpture from antiquity, certainly the most famous sculpture in the Vatican Museums.It’s a Roman copy of Leochares’ bronze original from the 2nd century. Critics recognized it as Roman because Apollo is wearing distinctively Roman sandals. The identity of the sculptor is unknown. The larger than life marble sculpture shows the god Apollo in a martial pose, having just shot an arrow. He may originally have been carrying one. The work is anatomically realistic and...
7. Justinian and Theodora Mosaics | Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna Italy
Ravenna’s pièce de résistance are two famous mosaic panels dedicated to the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora.They show the pair making offerings to Jesus against a field of gold. They are both resplendent in fine capes and jewels, proving to the world that the Byzantine Empire is back in charge. Though the pair were both from lowly origins, Justinian and Theodora wear halos, testifying to their role in the divine. Justinian conflates himself with Christ and Theodora gives off mother Ma...
9. Judgement Day | Florence Baptistery, Florence Italy
Florence’s Baptisterydates from 1059, it’s over a thousand years old. To locals, the Baptistery is Florence’s most significant monument. It’s adorned with the famous golden “Gates of Paradise” designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti and nicknamed by Michelangelo. The highlight of the Baptistery is a stunning golden Byzantine style ceiling fresco. The mosaic tells the story of the Last Judgement, the apocalyptic tale where Jesus determines who will go to heaven and hell. Jesus is 19 feet tall. There’s a...
10. Bayeux Tapestry | Bayeux Tapestry Museum, Bayeux France
Most people go to Bayeux to see the thousand year old, and exceedingly long (230 feet), Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry is housed in the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. The tapestry chronicles the events leading up to William the Conqueror’s invasion of France. In 50 scenes, it depicts the battle of Hastings and the showdown between William and King Harold II. It’s unclear when the the Bayeux Tapestry (actually an embroidery) was created. But historians speculate that it was not long after the events i...
11. Duccio’s Maesta, Siena Cathedral, Siena Italy
Duccio’s Maesta is the most famous Italian painting from the International Gothic period. It’s the most precious art work ever created in Siena. The Maestais a famous painting in the course of art history, the last great medieval altarpiece. The Maestawas 17 x 16 feet, a massive double sided altarpiece covered in gold and glitter. In the front portion of the Maesta, you see a majestic Mary seated on a throne. Swaddled in translucent drapery, Jesus looks nothing like a baby. More like a wise o...
18. Masaccio’s Holy Trinity | Santa Maria Novella, Florence
The Basilica of Santa Maria Novella in Florenceholds one of the most famous paintings in Italy, the Holy Trinity by Masaccio. Masacciowas an early Renaissance superhero. He tragically died young of malaria at only 27. This painting is hugely important. Art historians consider it the first true Renaissance painting. In it, Masaccio pioneered the use of single point perspective. He departed from the International Gothic style. He created believable people in believable spaces. He forever change...
19. Van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait | National Gallery, London
Contrary to popular belief, the Renaissance didn’t just happen in Florence. It was happening simultaneously in Northern Europe. This portrait may be the world’s first oil, rather than tempera, painting. The Arnolfini Portraitis a stunning full length double portrait with astonishing realism. Presumably, it’s a portrait of a wealthy merchant and his wife in their upscale apartment in Bruges. Some think it’s a wedding scene. Others think it was a portrait intended to show off the family’s wealt...
20. Donatello’s Bronze David | Bargello Museum, Florence
Donatello was the greatest sculptor of the 14th century. Commissioned by Cosimo de Medici, the beautiful Bronze Davidis Donatello’s best work. Bronze Davidis the first freestanding nude sculpture since Greco-Roman times. It was a radical depiction of the biblical story of David and Goliath. A life-like Bronze Davidelegantly reinterprets the classical canon. It wasn’t the usual heroic rendering, with a powerful giant slayer. There’s nothing modest about Bronze David. It’s simultaneously erotic...
35. Bernini, Apollo & Daphne | Borghese Gallery, Rome
Apollo and Daphne is one of Bernini’s most magnificent sculptures, a star of the Borghese Gallery in Rome. It was inspired by a passage in Ovid’s Metamorphoseswhere a mischievous Cupid holds sway. Apollo is struck by Cupid’s golden arrow. Overwhelmed by lust, he chases after Daphne. But Daphne’s simultaneously been stuck by a lead arrow of disgust. She cries out to her father, a river god, for help. He transforms her into a laurel tree. Bernini captures the intense action of the dramatic mome...
36. Bernini’s Rape of Persephone | Borghese Gallery, Rome
This stunning sculpture was created when Bernini was only 24. He takes the classic story of the abduction of Persephone from Roman mythology as his theme. The title is clickbait. In ancient terminology, “rape” means kidnapping. Pluto, king of the underworld, falls passionately in love with Persephone. He abducts her. Bernini captures the climatic moment in visceral life-like detail. Pluto seizes a crying Persephone. Terrified, she fights to free herself from her molester. You can see indentat...
37. Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and Holofernes | Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Gentileschi was one of the most talented painters of the Baroque period, rivaling Caravaggio himself. Judith Beheading Holofernesis her masterpiece. It tells a classic bible story of a widow slaying a general to save her village. Artemisia’s version is bloody, a shockingly violent beheading. The focus of the painting is Judith, not Holofernes. He looks to be almost dead, his limbs visually cut off and body radically foreshortened. Judith is depicted as a muscle-y determined woman on a mission...
44. Jacques Louis-David’s Coronation of Napoleon | Louvre, Paris
This painting is just massive, 32 x 20 feet. It’s set in 1804. Having conquered most of Europe, Napoleon returns to Paris to be crowned in Notre Dame. Departing from tradition, Napoleon takes the crown from the pope and places it on his own head. Napoleon commissioned David to capture the momentous occasion in paint. David delivers with grand Neo-Classical style painting.
45. Antoni Canova, Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss | Louvre, Paris
Canova was greatest sculptor form Venice. He was inspired by classical antiquities in Rome. Eventually, Napoleon summoned him to Paris to become his court sculptor. Canova sculpted in the Neo-Classical style, creating stunningly beautiful images of Greek gods and goddesses. His style became the toast of Europe. In Psyche, he uses a complex composition that’s interesting from every angle. Cupid cradles Psyche tenderly in a moment of perfect romance.
46. Ingre’s La Grande Odalisque | Louvre, Paris
In this groundbreaking Louvre portrait, Ingres portrays a languid nude in a sumptuous interior. As the title suggests, she’s an odalisque, a female slave or concubine in an Ottoman sultan’s household. The nude seems to follow Titian’s Venus of Urbinoof 1538. But this is no classical setting and its elongated figure departs from realistic anatomy. This painting marks the first spark of the Romantic era of art history. Instead, Ingres provides a whiff of cool and aloof eroticism, which is accen...
65. Gustave Klimt, The Kiss | Belvedere Palace, Vienna Austria
The most famous painting in Vienna’s Belvedere Palace (and all of Austria) is undoubtedly Klimt’s glittering The Kiss.Plastered on fridge magnets and mouse pads, we’ve grown used to the image. But, still, nothing prepares you for a glimpse in real life. It’s just so beautiful. Gustav Klimtwas an Austrian Symbolist painter. He was a prominent member of the Vienna Art Nouveau, aka the Vienna Secession. The Kiss is from Klimt’s “Golden Period.” That period was inspired by Byzantine mosaics in Ra...
66. Matisse’sThe Dance | Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg Russia
The Danceby Henri Matisse is housed in St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace, one of the most breathtaking buildings in the world. Matisse created this painting in 1910, at the request of Russian businessman and art collector Sergei Shchukin. Shchukin then bequeathed the large decorative panel to the Hermitage Museum. The composition of dancing figures is commonly recognized as a key point of Matisse’s career and in the development of modern painting. The dancers are largely formless and have a chil...
67. Umberto Boccioni, Elasticity: Galleria d’Art Moderna, Milan
Boccioni was the leading artist of Italian Futurism. He was based in Milan. During his short life, he produced some of the movement’s most iconic paintings and sculptures. He captured the color and dynamism of modern life in a pre-Cubist style. A style that he theorized and defended in manifestos, books, and articles. Boccioni termed his style “physical transcendentalism.” Boccioni’s Elasticity is a literal demonstration of horsepower. It has a mechanistic, cubist appearance. But it’s not qui...
Jan 10, 2020 · Stone is still used widely today by contemporary artists. In this video made for Art UK by Culture Street, sculptor Dawn Rowland demonstrates how she carves from blocks of stone to produce her figurative sculptures.
Feb 10, 2015 · Dario Lorenzetti (CC BY-NC-SA) Rock art has been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. The earliest examples of European rock art are dated to about 36,000 years ago, but it was not until around 18,000 years ago that European rock art actually flourished.
- Cristian Violatti
Oct 1, 2022 · As the Ice Age glaciers melted, European civilization was born—and with it, so was art. From the Stone Age came prehistoric art: mysterious tombs, mighty megaliths, and vivid cave paintings.
- 55 min
People also ask
What is the art of Europe?
Where did rock art come from?
When did European rock art start?
What is European prehistoric art?
There are various different forms of rock art. This includes pictographs, which were painted or drawn onto the panel (rock surface), petroglyphs, which were carved or engraved onto the panel, and earth figures such as earthforms, intaglios and geoglyphs.
