Objets, images, descriptions et audioguide.
Sanjo Kantaro II was a Kabuki actor who specialized in playing youths ( wakashu ) and female roles ( onnagata ). He is shown here in the role of Urashima Taro. He rescue…
King Chhatar Singh (reigned 1664–90), his thinning facial hair shot through with gray, points to his heart, a gesture common in images of the deceased. With his right ha…
The story continues with a ruse to allow the Brahman and the princess to escape the king’s son and live happily ever after. The magician transformed the lovers into men,…
The king of Babylon, seated on a throne, receives the Brahman in the form of a woman and the magician in the form of a Brahman. The king agrees to keep the woman (the tr…
This painting belongs to a series of portraits representing the five senses and each depicting a daughter of a wealthy family from Amsterdam. This portrait of 11-year-ol…
Wu Li, a native of Jiangsu province, was a talented painter, poet, and calligrapher. He studied painting with Wang Jian (1598–1677) and Wang Shimin (1592–1680), two of t…
The ram in this painting is a particularly well-groomed animal that was probably kept in the royal menagerie and attended to by special keepers. The puffs of hair on the…
Here, a herdboy tending a cow with a calf is sitting beneath a tree with his pet myna bird. The painting can be read as a pastoral scene. As the water buffalo helped plo…
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.…
Camille Corot painted this charming woodland scene during the summer of 1842 while visiting Lormes, a small village in the Morvan region of Burgundy. The area was known …
In A Winter Sky , George Inness concentrated on depicting the effects of light and atmosphere. In this composition, the artist combined a vibrant, glowing sunset with a …
Jan van Goyen’s deceptively simple paintings record remarkably realistic impressions of weather, space, and the shifting interactions of land, water, light, and air. He …
The nativity was one of the most frequently depicted subjects in western art. The event marks the entrance of Christ into the world and the fulfillment of Old Testament …
This series of paintings predominantly tells the Old Testament story of Abraham and Isaac, and each of the canvases treats the interaction of humans and angels. In three…
Matsumura Goshun inscribed passages from Buddhist monk Yoshida Kenkō’s (1283–1350) well-known collection of anecdotes, Essays in Idleness , across the top of each of the…
Jerome (c. 347–420 CE) studied Greek and Latin literature in Rome, but eventually pursued theology, perceiving his conduct as corrupt and sinful. Around 374 CE, Jerome h…
Three of the four pictures in the series depict episodes from the life of the Old Testament figure of Abraham, beginning with the angels appearing to Abraham. According …
Johnson’s devotion to carefully observing nature is evident in his detailed rendering of a riverbed. Located in a village that provided a popular jumping-off point for t…
The landscape depicted in this pair of screens follows a seasonal progression from right to left, starting with the blossoming plum of early spring and ending with late …
The landscape depicted in this pair of screens follows a seasonal progression from right to left, starting with the blossoming plum of early spring and ending with late …
Venus, the goddess of love, is unsuccessful in dissuading her mortal lover Adonis from hunting the boar that would eventually kill him. The artist nestles this story in …
This painting depicts the garden of the artist’s close friends Ernest and Mariette Rousseau, with whom he often stayed at their home in Brussels, Belgium. He rendered th…
Gustave Caillebotte painted this dramatic view of the blue-green sea, illuminated by a cloud-dappled sky, from one of the cliffs of Trouville, a popular resort town on t…
This wintry vista is a vivid example of idealistic monumental painting: the strong contrasts of ink washes and contouring brush lines; the bold outlining of rock shapes …