"Art is the signature of a civilization."
Beverly Sills
all texts by G. Fernández - theartwolf.com
Whether for symbolic, aesthetic, practical or economic reasons, the truth is that Painting has always been humanity's favourite and most used artistic medium, and, along with music, the one with the greatest influence on 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
to find Hopper's “Nighthawks” adorning the rooms of millions of urban teenagers; and everyone can notice how, 60 years later, hundreds of pacifist demonstrations still exhibit Picasso's “Guernica” as a symbol of the disasters of War.
As a small tribute to Painting and all those artists who have turned it into the expression of the human genius par excellence, theartwolf.com has proudly showcased 50 masterpieces of painting, from different epochs and cultures, displaying 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 best paintings of all time, and probably the reader will find, next to unquestionable masterpieces, some "surprises" and "debatable works". Yes, the “Gioconda” is here. Yes, “The Night Watch” is also here. Of course you'll find “Les demoiselles d'Avignon”. But you'll also find Basawan's wonderful miniatures depicting the medieval India, the bloody sacrifices depicted in the "Códex Borgia" or the luminous contemporary Californian scenes by David Hockney. They are, simply, 50 masterpieces forming a unique, magnificent trip to the history of universal Painting. 15.000 years of Painting are only a click away from you.
(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. - Zhang Zeduan: “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”, 1085-1145 - 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 - Albrecht 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 - 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 - Caravaggio: “The calling of Saint Matthew", 1599-1600 - 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 - Joseph Mallord William Turner: “Rain, steam and speed” 1844 - Asher Brown Durand: “Kindred spirits”, 1849 - Ando Hiroshige: "Oshashi Bridge & Atake in a suden shower”, 1856 - 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 - Paul Cezanne: "Mount Sainte-Victoire view from Lauves”, 1904-06 - Pablo Picasso: “Les demoiselles d'Avignon”, 1907 - Henri Rousseau: “The dream”, 1910 - Wassily Kandinsky: “Composition VII", 1913 - 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: “Blue Poles”, 1952 - Willem de Kooning: “Woman I”, 1950-52 - David Hockney: "A bigger splash", 1967 - Jean-Michel Basquiat: "Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump", 1982
This list was created in September 2006. Three years later, it was reviewed and four changes were introduced. We want the list to be limited at 50 paintings, so new additions mean that some works previously displayed here should be dropped off the list. They are still masterpieces, of course, and that's why we still wanted to remember them
Pieter Brueghel the Elder: “The triumph of the death”, 1560 - Frederic Edwin Church: “Above the clouds at sunrise” 1849 - Wassily Kandinsky: “Der Blaue Reiter", 1903 - Jackson Pollock: “Number 9A - Summertime”, 1948