Objects, images, descriptions and audio guide.
A miniature inspired by the “Peach Blossom Spring,” this painting illustrates the well-known tale written by the poet-recluse Tao Yuanming (365–427 CE), in which a fishe…
A Chinese artist's interpretation of an Indo-Nepalese throne surrounds the white figure of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom. Chinese textiles and jewels drape fluidl…
The Secret Five were used in a Buddhist ritual to convert negative aspects of consciousness into positive ones. At the center is Kongōsatta, who represents the enlighten…
The palette Renoir used to depict the seven roses in this still life ranges from various shades of red to warm whites, light yellows, and pinks. The artist declared, "'P…
The Mughals used trained cheetahs, such as this one wearing a red collar, to capture prey during hunting expeditions in the wilderness. The metaphor of the hunt was also…
These panels depicting Saints Anthony the Abbot and Michael originally flanked a central scene of the Madonna and Child with Angels, now lost, to form a triptych. Giovan…
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception maintains that the Virgin Mary was conceived free from sin, therefore ready to be the pure vessel for Christ’s birth. The Immac…
Duncanson was the first African American painter to achieve recognition at home and abroad. Although most of his career was spent in Cincinnati, he painted this calm, pa…
Phoenixes are fantastical birds said to inhabit paulownia trees and eat bamboo, and to celebrate virtuous rulers. Peafowl are birds that amuse themselves in the lake of …
This is a portrait study of the monk Seigen (1162–1231). The inscription identifies him and notes that the study is after a portrait in the subtemple Jizō’in at Daigoji.…
The Philadelphia-born Haseltine favored images of coastal rocks, painting them on both sides of the Atlantic throughout his career. Best known for his scenes of Maine an…
In the foreground, the distraught young man stands at the edge of the rushing river. Desperate for money, he has sold his lover, a slave girl, but finds himself destitut…
Mughal princes hunted on horseback with falcons. The hunting party would ride out into the wild and flush the prey from the brush. Then, its hood removed, the falcon wou…
This is one of a pair of screens showing a group of elite Chinese gentlemen and their servants in the countryside. One man is considering his painting-in-progress. Histo…
This is one of a pair of screens that shows a group of elite Chinese gentlemen and their servants in the countryside. One man looks on as two of his companions play a bo…
This pair of screens shows a group of elite Chinese gentlemen and their servants in the countryside. One man is considering his painting in progress, while another looks…
By the 1600s, the historic gathering at Lanting, Zhejiang province, in 353 CE was a common theme in Chinese painting. Originally based on a composition attributed to Li …
Yun Shouping came from Piling (modern Changzhou), Jiangsu province, a center of floral, plant, and insect painting. He had joined the anti-Manchu resistance, was briefly…
Vernet stands before the Villa Medici, seat of the French Academy in Rome, where he was director from 1829 to 1835. The palette, brushes, and maulstick on the stepladder…
The bird is represented in pale ink, probably sketched in before the darker ink was used to finish the rock. Like the butterfly and moth above, his tail feathers echo th…
Did Michelangelo paint some of this work? This panel formed part of a series depicting the life of John the Baptist, with other panels located in New York City and Liver…
Huang Shen’s swift painting style is paralleled in his calligraphy. The vertical line in running script echoes the fluid form of the eagle on a tree trunk covered with a…
Here, Zhongli Quan is crossing the ocean. He is one of the Eight Immortals ( baxian ), a group of popular Daoist figures who understood the way of life and could transfo…
This picture is an example of the so-called world landscape, a term coined by art historians to characterize a type of Northern landscape painting with a vast panorama a…