Objets, images, descriptions et audioguide.
The seated Buddha dominating the composition is identified as Vairochana because of his hand gesture, the mudra communicating supreme enlightenment in which the index fi…
The attribution of this painting to Suzanne Valadon has been rejected by several authorities. Others support the attribution, arguing that the painting is merely atypica…
These screens recall a painting style so closely identified with Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) that it is called Rinpa, or “Rin School,” after the ideograph “rin” in his name.…
These screens recall a painting style so closely identified with Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716) that it is called Rinpa, or “Rin School,” after the ideograph “rin” in his name.…
Lined along the eaves, the top of the marble lattice railing, and the rims of the boats on the river are candles and butter lamps lit in celebration of a New Year festiv…
Little is known about the life and career of Sint Jans. He seems to have been born in Haarlem in Holland in the northern Low Countries where he may have been attached to…
Among the first northern European artists to study in Rome, Gossaert returned north to serve in various German and Flemish courts, incorporating Italian Renaissance idea…
This painting depicts Perseus, a celebrated warrior from Greek mythology whose name derives from the Greek word "to waste, ravage, sack, destroy." Perseus’s most famous …
Yi Sumun is believed to have been a Korean painter who migrated to Japan in 1424 at the age of 20. This pair of screens is the artist’s most important composition in thi…
This painting begins on the right with 15 people following a dignified figure wearing headgear with twin pheasant feathers. He extends an incense burner toward the Buddh…
With the change of the century, Vallotton shifted his focus from printmaking to oil painting. Before 1900, the artist concentrated on precisely reproducing the world aro…
In this screen, Sakai Hōitsu expertly deployed a painting technique called “dripping-in” ( tarashikomi ). Ink and color dripped on the surface, and allowed to pool there…
In the last chapter of the Lotus Sutra, one of the principal Buddhist texts, the great Bodhisattva Samantabhadra is described advancing to earth, riding on a six-tusked …
Aman-Jean, a French Symbolist painter, was likely more concerned with evoking a wistful, meditative mood in this painting of an unidentified woman than with defining a s…
Saint Nicolas of Bari, patron saint of children, sailors, and travelers, and the prototype of Father Christmas, was bishop of Myra (Lycia) in Asia Minor during the AD 30…
Prominent art historians still debate the identity of the artist and the original function of this painting. First attributed to the Neapolitan artist Colantonio (active…
Polyhymnia is one of the nine muses in Greek mythology and a patron of dancing or geometry. She is portrayed here standing in front of a bust of the Athenian orator Demo…
A mandala is a diagram of a realm of enlightened beings. This mandala depicts the palace of Nairatma, who dances in the center. The outermost ring contains depictions of…
According to a poem describing this ragini (melody), a lovesick girl plays with a cat to pass the time. Her companion tries to console her. Musical performances of Patam…
Guanyin, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion (Avalokiteshvara, in Sanskrit), reveals himself in many forms. According to Buddhist belief, one such manifestation is th…
The mutilated ray fish in this painting is strung across the top of the canvas, as if tortured or crucified, as its internal organs spill forth. The fish seems to expres…
From the 700s, people in Japan began praying to the Medicine Master Buddha (Yakushi Nyorai) for longevity. Yakushi is at the center of this image, flanked by the bodhisa…
Venus, the goddess of love, urged her mortal lover Adonis to hunt only the easiest game. Yet he insisted on pursuing boar, which eventually gored him to death. In this s…
Kawanabe Kyōsai repeated this large-scale composition with variations a number of times. In this version, a famous 15th-century courtesan known for wearing a robe with i…