"Art is the signature of a civilization."
Beverly Sills
Be by symbolic, aesthetic, practical or economic reasons, the truth is that Painting has always been humanity's favourite and most usesd artistic medium, and the one that more has affected to the conscience of the universal society. Nobody doubts, for example, that the visual image of the French Revolution will always be Delacroix's “The Liberty leading the People”. It's not a surprise that millions of urban teenagers have Hopper's “Nighthawks” hanging on their dormitories, and everyone can notice how, 60 years later, hundreds of pacifist demonstrations still exhibit Picasso's “Guernica” like a symbol of the disasters of the War.
As a small tribute to the Painting, and to all those figures who have elevated it to the category of expression of the human genius par excellence, theArtWolf.com has proudly showcased 50 masterpieces of the painting, from different epochs and cultures, and has displayed them in form of a virtual tour in the column that you see at the right of the page.
For sure, the 50 works showcased here are not the 50 all-time best paintings, and is probable that the reader finds, next to essential works, surprises and debatable ones. Yes, the “Gioconda” is here. Yes, also “The Night Watch”. Of course you'll find “Les demoiselles d'Avignon” . But you'll also find Basawan's wonderful miniatures depicting medieval India , the bloody sacrifices depicted in the Códex Borgia or the luminous contemporary California by David Hockney. They are, simply, 50 masterpieces that form a unique, magnificent trip by the history of the universal Painting. A 15.000 years trip that is only a click away from you.
THE 50 MASTERWORKS
(in chronological order )
Unknown artist/s: Paintings in the Altamira Caves, Spain, 13,000-11,000 b.c Unknown artist/s: the Gooses of Meidum,c.2700-2600 b.c. Unknown artist/s: Fresco of the dolphins, c.1800-1400 b.c. Philoxenos of Eretria (copy after) : The battle of Issos”, c.170 b.c. Unknown artist/s: “Portrait of a poetess (the poetess of Pompeii )”, 1st century a.c. - Li Cheng: “A solitary Temple amid clearing Peaks”, 960-1127 Ma Yuan “Walking on a mountain path in spring”, 1127 - 1279 Unknown artist/s: Illustration of folio 51 from the Códex Borgia I, c.1300-1400 - Giotto di Bondone: ·"The massacre of the innocents"·, 1302-05 Jan van Eyck: “The marriage Arnolfini”, 1434 Paolo Uccello: "The battle of San Romano", 1451 Piero della Francesca: “The dream of Constantine ”, c.1455 Shen Zhou: “Lofty mountain”, c.1480 Albert Dürer: “View of Arco”, 1495 Hieronymus Bosch: “Triptych of The Garden of Delights”, c.1500 Leonardo da Vinci: “Picture of a lady (Gioconda, Monna Lisa)” - 1503-05 Pieter Brueghel the Elder: “The triumph of the death”, 1560 Giorgione: “The Tempest”, 1508 Raphael: “Portrait of a cardinal”, 1510 Michelangelo: “The last judgment”, 1537-41 Basawan: “ Battle of the ascetics in Akbar, c.1570 Rembrandt van Rijn: “The night watch” - 1641-42 Diego de Velazquez: “Las Meninas” - 1656 Vermeer: “View of the Delft ”, 1661 Caspar David Friedrich: “Chalk cliff on Ruegen” - 1818-19 John Constable: "The white horse”, 1819 Francisco de Goya: "A dog", 1820-22 Eugene Delacroix: "Liberty leading the People”, 1830 Katsushika Hokusai: "The wave", 1830 Ando Hiroshige: "Oshashi Bridge & Atake in a suden shower”, 1856 Joseph Mallord William Turner: “Rain, steam and speed” 1844 Asher Brown Durand: “Kindred spirits”, 1849 Frederick Edwin Church: “Above the clouds at sunrise” 1849 Pierre Auguste Renoir: “Le Moulin de la Galette”, 1876 Vincent van Gogh: "Starry Night", 1889 Winslow Homer: "Summer night", 1890 Claude Monet: “Poplars au bord de l'Epte”- 1891 Edvard Munch: "The scream", 1895 Paul Gauguin: "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going", 1897 Wassily Kandinsky: “Der Blaue Reiter", 1903 Paul Cezanne: " Mount Sainte-Victoire view from Lauves”, 1904-06 Pablo Picasso: “ Les demoiselles d'Avignon ”, 1907 Henri Rousseau: “ The dream ”, 1910 Marc Chagall: “Paris through the window ”, 1913 Marcel Duchamp: “Nu descendant un escalier nº2”, 1912-14 Piet Mondrian: “Broadway boogie-woogie ”, 1942-43 Edward Hopper: "Nighthawks", 1942 Jackson Pollock: “ Number 9A - Summertime ”, 1948 Willem de Kooning: “Woman I”, 1950-52 David Hockney: "A bigger splash", 1967