Painters

Experts say that Raphael painted an allegorical figure of Justice on the far right of this elaborate fresco, which depicts the battle between Constantine and his rival, Maxentius.

Unknown Raphael Paintings Discovered in the Vatican

Restoration work in the Hall of Constantine uncovered two allegorical figures that Raphael appears to have painted before his untimely death in 1520

Among the sketches found was a study by Gainsborough for his 1748 painting "Cornard Wood," which depicts a forest scene near his hometown of Sudbury.

Early Sketches From Famed English Painter Found Hidden in Royal Library

Discovered mislabeled in a Windsor Castle book, the drawings are the work of a young Thomas Gainsborough

This 1540 painting by Titian has had 11 owners.

New Website Tracks Paintings Provenance from Brush to Gallery Wall

<i>Mapping Paintings</i> makes it easier to figure out an artwork’s chain of ownership

Triple-Face Portrait by Sylvia Plath, c. 1950-1951

The Whimsical, Chameleon-Like Figure Behind the Myth of Sylvia Plath

Today, visions of a life marked by mental illness endure, but the author had a light side—and a knack for savvy image control

Artists like Van Gogh took full advantage of the new blue pigments invented in the 18th and 19th centuries, which some art scholars say revolutionized painting.

Creating a Full Palette of Blues

How the discovery of a new metal helped to change painting forever

Barbara Prey's watercolor is a depiction of MASS MoCA's newest wing, which once served as a textile mill.

The Story Behind the World’s Largest Watercolor Painting

The massive artwork marks the opening of the MASS MoCA's new 130,000-square-foot wing, which makes it the largest contemporary art museum in the U.S.

Firemen March 6 1985 by Donald Sultan, 1985

This Artist's Worldview Drips With Unending Pessimism

"Man is inherently self-destructive, and whatever is built will be destroyed," says painter Donald Sultan of his "Disaster Paintings"

The Mona Lisa's sparse setting may help visitors better appreciate its beauty, according to a new psychology study.

Distraction May Make Us Less Able to Appreciate Beauty

Truly experiencing the beauty of an object could require conscious thought, vindicating the ideas of Immanuel Kant

Field. Oil on panel by PIX18 / Creative Machines Lab at Columbia University

Check Out This Year's Entries to the RobotArt Competition

Thirty-eight teams have submitted almost 200 artworks painted by robots, many guided by artsy artificial intelligence

Amounts of arsenic that were deadly to children and the elderly were easily metabolized by healthy adults, which is one of the reasons it took many people so long to accept that arsenic wallpaper was bad news.

Arsenic and Old Tastes Made Victorian Wallpaper Deadly

Victorians were obsessed with vividly-colored wallpaper, which is on-trend for this year–though arsenic poisoning is never in style

So Is 'Mona Lisa' Smiling? A New Study Says Yes

Compared to other similar images, the masterpiece's mouth registered as happy to almost 100 percent of the participants

Left: Matisse's Notre Dame, a Late Afternoon, 1902. Right: Diebenkorn's Ingleside, 1963.

The Lasting Influence Matisse Had on Richard Diebenkorn's Artwork

The great American painter owed a luminous debt to the French Modernist

The Admiral, 16th century | Giuseppe Arcimboldo

A Brief History of Food as Art

From subject to statement, food has played a role in art for millennia

Whiskey? Check. Man bun? Check. Presidential presence? Check.

In This New Portrait, George Washington Trades His Curls for a Man Bun

The first president turns hipster at a new D.C. restaurant

Oil portrait of Barack Obama by Kadir Nelson

A Portrait of Obama in the Final Days of His Presidency

Commissioned for <em>Smithsonian</em> magazine, this painting shows a leader at a crossroads

A jar of the world's pinkest pink paint pigment.

This Artist Is the Only Person Banned From Using the World’s Pinkest Pink

It's a brightly colored revenge for restricting the world’s blackest black

Sonny Assu Uses Graffiti to Reassert Native Culture

The 41-year-old artist mashes decades-old depictions of indigenous peoples with modern-day style

"Wedding Dance in the Open Air" Pieter Brueghel the Younger 1607-1614, oil on oak panel.

A Brueghel Painting Long Thought to Be Made by a Copyist Is Going on Display

Vindication for Pieter Brueghel the Younger

The newly restored "St. John the Baptist," by Leonardo da Vinci.

The Louvre Has Restored "St. John the Baptist"

To clean, or not to clean?

You, Too, Can Cook Like Surrealist Godfather Salvador Dalí

The painter’s erotically charged cookbook is getting a rare reprinting

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