Fixin' to travel.

Different shells and pieces of coral lie together on a rock along the coast, as if a large wave has just left them behind. Henricus Franciscus Wiertz brought them together in this calm still life. Most of the shells are bright white or reddish brown in colour.🐚  👁️ https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/20026960

Gonzalo Eguiguren Gallery in Madrid examines María Josefa Sánchez, an artist active between 1639 and 1652 in the region of Castile, Spain, about whom virtually nothing is known. She specialized in “cruces de celda”—small devotional crosses intended for private use—about 10 of which are signed.

Gonzalo Eguiguren Gallery in Madrid examines María Josefa Sánchez, an artist active between 1639 and 1652 in the region of Castile, Spain, about whom virtually nothing is known. She specialized in “cruces de celda”—small devotional crosses intended for private use—about 10 of which are signed.

Bartolomeo Cavarozzi, Aminta's Lament, 1614-15, Oil on canvas, 83 x 107 cm (Private collection). The has been identified as "Dolor che si crucii," a madrigal by Erasmo Marotta (1600), based on Torquato Tasso's beloved pastoral drama "Aminta"

Sometimes a work of art, especially one that’s meant to be funny, reminds how utterly foreign the past is. [Filippo Napoletano, Seller of Snails, 1622, Oil on copper, 18 x 13 cm, Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence]

I understand the excitement about technology “rediscovering lost texts.” I do, & I get the media hype. But I wish people knew that there are hundreds of thousands of “lost” texts just sitting in manuscripts in libraries, which have never been published outside of those single manuscripts. 1/n

Truly the strangest allegory of the Four Seasons I've even seen: like some mad scientist broad an Arcimboldo to life to prey on ladies of the court. [Unknown Artist Italian, Four Seasons series, 18th century, oil on canvas (Museu Nacional de Soares dos Reis, Porto)]

Jehan Georges Vibert, The Marvelous Sauce, ca. 1890, oil on wood panel 25 3/16 x 31 15/16 in (Buffalo AKG Art Museum)

Ercole Ferrata, The Stoning of St. Emerentiana (lesser-known half-sister of St. Agnes), bozzetto (clay model) for the altarpiece in the church of Sant'Agnese in Piazza Navona, Rome, 1660, 71 x 52 cm (Birmingham Museums)

So. Many. Slivers. [Anonymous French painter, The Christian Soul accepts the Cross, c. 1630 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)]

They come in all sorts of shapes and colours: shells! 🐚 In the 17th century, shells were highly prized collectors’ items, and enthusiasts would sometimes pay substantial sums for them.  👁️ https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection

Jan van der Heyden, Cross-section of an Amsterdam house on fire, illustrating a kind of water pump that the artist himself had invented, which drew water from canals, c. 1690 (British Museum)

A conference on Portuguese painter Josefa d'Óbidos at the National Gallery in London July 3

Completed in the early 17th century by the Jesuits, Chiesa del Gesù di Casa Professa is a masterpiece of Sicilian Baroque architecture. The interior is entirely covered in a dazzling display of "marmi mischi" (mixed marbles), featuring intricate, multi-coloured marble reliefs, dynamic cherubs

A bakery built right into the Forum of Nerva, Rome, late 19th century, and the structure as it appears today

Writing my memoirs

Pierre Bonnard, The White Cat, 1894, oil on paper 51.9 x 33.5 cm. (Musée d'Orsay, Paris)

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes, View of Rome in the Morning, 1782-84, Oil on paper laid on board, 18 x 25 cm (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

Italian maiolica painters served with glaze colours from a suspended circular tray by their assistants, V&A, Li tre libri dell'arte del vasaio: collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O132180...

I'm begging medical researchers who want to write about Renaissance art to please, for the love of god, talk to one (1) art historian first

Waiter race, Via Taranto, Rome, 1951, with the cathedral S. Giovanni in Laterano in the background (author unknown)

Plate with man eating pasta (Mangiamaccheroni), Laterza, last quarter of the 17th century, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza

Sad to learn of passing of eminent historian Carlo Ginzburg; his "The Cheese and the Worms" is one of the books that had the most impact on me as a grad student, as the writing is lively & builds insight from small, carefully observed details of the historical record en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Che...

Francisco de Zurbarán, The Veil of Veronica, 1658, (Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid), or when your relic finally gets that cool faded look

Allegory of Spring Quarter. Let us never speak of it again.

Wayne Thiebaud, The New Yorker, August 19 & 26, 2002

What remained of the Dormition Cathedral, Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, in 1941. It was destroyed a couple of months after the German troops occupied Kyiv, reportedly by Soviet explosives with delayed fuzes. Restoration began in 1995; the new church was consecrated in 2000. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormiti...

"In dress he somewhat aped the attire associated with the name of Charles II, having heard it said in some earlier period of his career that he bore a strange resemblance to the ill-fated Stuarts." -J.M. Barrie, describing Capt. Hook

"¡Tacos de lengua!"

Sea creatures by Italian artist Giorgio Liberale, for an illustrated edition of Dioscurides' "Materia medica," 1558 (Cod. ser. n. 2669, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna)

How I plan to enter the nonsense of the first #WorldCup weekend in 2026: sitting inside with my tiny dogs and my tamed raptor, trying to smile at the state of the world but looking a bit hesitant, and holding a big glass of beer to make it all worth while. #weekendsky

Louise Moillon, “Still Life with a Bowl of Strawberries, Basket of Cherries, and Branch of Gooseberries," 1631, Oil on panel, 14 1_4 x 19 3_4 in. (36.2 x 50 cm). Signed and dated "Louyse Moillon 1631" (Kimbell Art Museum)

Did you know you can now post up to 10 pictures on Bluesky? Trying it out with this series of astronomical bodies by Donato Creti, painted in 1711 for the Bolognese count Luigi Marsili, who commissioned them to convince Pope Clement XI to build an astronomical observatory. Now in the Vatican Museums

I can't believe I've been doing it for free

Domenico Guidi's "Vision of St. Joseph" (c. 1694) is just opposite Bernini's famous "Ecstasy of St. Teresa" in the church of S. Maria della Vittoria, Rome. Poor guy has done everything he can to be just like Bernini, but doesn't stand much of a chance.

Barthel Beham, Portrait of a man, portrayed making tally marks in chalk with a glass of wine and a sword. 1529 marked on countertop on the left. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

Someone should do a study of sleepy dictators in history

Just look at that paint! Johann Liss, Judith in the Tent of Holofernes, circa 1624-25, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Gerrit Dou, Dog at Rest, 1650, Oil on panel 16.5 x 21.6 cm (6 1/2 x 8 1/2 in.), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

I just saw "El Vampiro Negro," a 1953 Argentinian remake of Fritz Lang's "M." So brilliantly shot...and Olga Zubarry 😍

Anonymous Caravaggesque painter, Basket of Squashes (Private collection)

Diego Velázquez, c. 1640, Oil on canvas, 95 x 70 cm (Wallace Collection, London)

"Gentlemen, we are closer than ever to closing the donut hole gap."

“Was ist Aura?” (What is Aura?), Walter Benjamin’s notes for The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction on San Pellegrino stationary, San Remo, c. 1935. (Walter Benjamin Archive, Akademie der Künste, Berlin)

It's National Doughnut Day! Still Life with Sweets and Pottery, oil on canvas by Spanish painter Juan van der Hamen y León, 1627, and detail:

Ahh shit! My freakin' eggs!

The Art Institute of Chicago just acquired Lavinia Fontana's signed and dated Christ Driving Out the Traders From the Temple (1580)

Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts, A Cabinet in the Artist's Studio, 1670-71, Oil on canvas, 132 x 199 cm (Statens Museum 3for Kunst, Copenhagen)