The Stories

Behind of the
Greatest Works
of Art
Girl with a Pearl
Earring
￮ A masterpiece of the Dutch
Golden Age, Vermeer’s “Girl
with a Pearl Earring” has
transfixed viewers with her
wistful gaze ever since the
painting resurfaced in the
late 19th century. Little,
however, is known about the
young woman who modeled
for the portrait.
It has been suggested that
the girl was Vermeer’s
daughter or mistress.
While this may be the
case, the image wasn’t
intended to represent an
actual person. The turban
worn by the sitter
indicates that the piece 
was intended as a “tronie,
”
 an idealized image
cloaked in exotic
clothing.
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 In the sculpture, he is depicted holding out
the head of Medusa in front of him. Some
say this was a symbol of victory to Perseus. Perseus With The Head
of Medusa
But, in this writer's humble opinion, looking
at the way he keeps his head down, it can
also be assumed that this is how he would
Thehave useddella
Piazza the head of Medusa
Signoria, to immobilize
in Florence, Italy,
his foes, knowing the horrors that it could
houses many statues depicting amazing tales
inflict. But I am by no means an expert (or
fromeven
Greek Mythology.
an amateur for thatOne suchinsculpture,
matter)
and understanding
perhaps the most sopopular, is the statue
Because the gaze art, take a turned
of Medusa look at the
all who looked at
made from bronze,
sculpture entitled
and decide “Perseus with the
for yourself!
her to stone, Perseus guided himself by her reflection
Head of Medusa”, by artist Benvenuto Cellini. 
in a shield given him by Athena and beheaded Medusa
as she slept. He then returned to Seriphus and rescued
his mother by turning Polydectes and his supporters to
stone at the sight of Medusa's head.

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 The composition comprises three main
elements: the sea whipped up by a
storm, three boats, and a mountain. The
mountain with a snow-capped peak is
Mount Fuji, which in Japan is
considered sacred and a symbol of
national identity, as well as a symbol of
beauty. Using the boats, with their thirty
passengers, as a reference, we can see
the wave must be close to 12 meters tall.
The wave, which curls around like a
claw to frame Mount Fuji, shows the
artist’s awe and fear of the unpredictable
sea.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa,

Katsushika Hokusai, 1829 – 1833 4
 This painting is based on a surgery witnessed by Eakins, in which Dr.
Samuel Gross treated a young man for an infection of the femur with
conservative surgery rather than amputation (standard for the time). A
crowd of doctors surrounds the patient as Dr. Gross lectures, with a
clinic clerk over his shoulder taking notes. Sitting to Dr. Gross’s left is a
lone woman, the patient’s mother, recoiling in horror. The painting has

The Gross
an important place in the history of medicine, because of its role in the
emergence of surgery as a healing profession (as opposed to a means for
amputation), and because it shows what the surgical theater looked like
in the nineteenth century.

Clinic,
Thomas
Eakins,
1875
A complex idea can be conveyed with just a
single still image, namely making it possible
to absorb large amounts of data quickly.

The Birth of Venus 6

 ￮ was the first full-length, non-religious nude since antiquity, and was made for Lorenzo
de Medici. It’s claimed that the figure of the Goddess of Love is modeled after one
Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, whose favors were allegedly shared by Lorenzo and his
younger brother, Giuliano. Venus is seen being blown ashore on a giant clamshell by
the wind gods Zephyrus and Aura as the personification of spring awaits on land with a
cloak.

“ Unsurprisingly, Venus attracted the ire of Savonarola, the Dominican monk who led a
fundamentalist crackdown on the secular tastes of the Florentines. His campaign included the
infamous “Bonfire of the Vanities” of 1497, in which “profane” objects—cosmetics, artworks,
books—were burned on a pyre. The Birth of Venus was itself scheduled for incineration, but
somehow escaped destruction. Botticelli, though, was so freaked out by the incident that he gave
up painting for a while.

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Pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais, in true
Pre-Raphaelite fashion, painted directly
from life whenever possible. Much of the
exuberant foliage found in “Ophelia” can
be found in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and
was painted en plein air. Millais, however,
didn’t subject his 19-year-old model,
Elizabeth Siddall, to the elements; she
reportedly posed for the artist in a bathtub
full of water in his London studio.

Ophelia
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depicts the Greek myth of the Titan
Cronus (Romanized to Saturn),
who, fearing that he would be
overthrown by one of his
children, ate each one upon
their birth. The work is one of
the 14 Black Paintings that Saturn Devouring
Goya painted directly onto the
walls of his house. His Son, Francisco
Goya, 1823
The Son of Man René
Magritte
1946
The works of the Belgian painter René Magritte are
frequently head-scratchers, and “The Son of Man”—a
self-portrait of the artist with his face obscured by a
giant apple—is no exception. The apple was one of
the artist’s favorite motifs, but its meaning is
uncertain. The title chosen by Magritte is perhaps
more illuminating, referencing Jesus Christ. Some
critics have called the piece a 
surrealist interpretation of the transfiguration of Jesus.
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