Bronze wolf standing on four legs; two infant males suckling underneath mounted on a slim stone base displayed in a white-walled museum. Capitoline Wolf, 5th century B.C.E. or medieval, bronze, 75 cm (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

Happy Birthday, Rome! Founded in 753 B.C.E., which makes today the Eternal City's 2779th birthday.

We'll blow out a couple thousand candles, then catch our breath with a Smarthistory essay about the mythical she-wolf who suckled the twins Romulus and Remus smarthistory.org/capitoline-s...

#NationalTeaDay you say? Don't mind if we do.

smarthistory.org/meret-oppenh... #Surrealism

Tightly cropped black and white photograph of a woman from the bust up against wooden clapboards. She looks like she has and is currently experiencing hardship. Furrowed brow with a stoic expression. Walker Evans, Allie Mae Burroughs, Wife of a Cotton Sharecropper, Hale County, Alabama, 1936, gelatin silver print, 24.1 x 19.2 cm, printed in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (Minneapolis Institute of Art)

Walker Evans's photograph of Allie Mae Burroughs burns an image into your mind that can't be forgotten. Dr. Elliot Krasnopoler takes us through the politics of that 1936 image of a sharecropper's wife in rural Alabama and everything that went into making it smarthistory.org/walker-evans...

Contemporary politics and classical architecture YouTube video by Smarthistory

Speaking of US political architecture, have you seen this Smarthistory video we made on contemporary politics and classical architecture?

Status Embroidered in Late Imperial China YouTube video by Smarthistory

You know you want to see stunning close-ups of gold-wrapped thread and, can you believe it, peacock feather filament-wrapped therad on this beautiful embroidered Qing dynasty status. The photography on this video takes you nose to thread. Enjoy! #textiles #China #ArtHistory

Who doesn't want to dance with art in France? Faith Ringgold showed us the way with her 1991 "Dancing at the Louvre" story quilt. Dr. Virginia Spivey explains how Ringgold broke all the rules and had a lot of fun doing it. #ArtHistory

Watercolor of a longitudinal double-aisled church cross section. Domenico Tasselli da Lugo, view of Old Saint Peter’s Basilica looking west toward the altar, watercolor in Giacomo Grimaldi, Monumentorum veteris basilicae vaticanae delineationes et exempla picta vel adumbrata, c. 1576–1625 (Vatican Library; MS Arch.Cap.S.Pietro.A.64.ter, folio 12 recto)

It's not easy to write about things that no longer exist, but Dr. Hendrik Dey, one of Smarthistory's over 850 contributors, knocked it out of the park for this info-filled essay on Old St. Peter's. We read it and said, "Finally!" smarthistory.org/old-saint-pe...

Olivia Rodrigo’s New Music Video Is a Dizzying Romp Through Versailles Superstar songstress Olivia Rodrigo has teamed up with photographer Petra Collins on a new music video romping through Versailles.

More on Olivia Rodrigo's "drop dead" video from Artnet News: news.artnet.com/art-world/ol...

Screenshot of Olivia Rodrigo's music video "drop dead," Olivia Rodrigo and two guitarists play pink electric guitars in a bedroom of Versailles

Screenshot of Olivia Rodrigo's music video "drop dead," we look up at Olivia Rodrigo with arms up a golden chandelier hanging from a painted ceiling above her

Screenshot of Olivia Rodrigo's music video "drop dead," Olivia Rodrigo runs through a hallway with a bunch of history paintings in golden frames. She is overwhelmed with emotion.

Like Olivia Rodrigo, we might drop dead if we got the chance to run through the halls of Versailles. Read about the opulent history here: smarthistory.org/chateau-de-v...

Adorable is exactly the word we used at a staff meeting last week for these guys :-)

Historical Amnesia, Rediscovering Michaelina Wautier YouTube video by Smarthistory

Been hearing about Michelina Wautier a bit, and curious?

A wonderful video on a great ##womanartist from @smarthistory.bsky.social

youtu.be/0rPUuzmtw9o?...

Female and male votive figures (on the right is the tallest figure of the group of twelve), from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar, Iraq), c. 2900–2350 B.C.E. (Early Dynastic period) (The Iraq Museum, Baghdad; photo: Dr. Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Aw, thank you! smarthistory.org/standing-mal...

😊 We'll work to keep that going! 😊

Scroll painting with verdant landscape, mountains, clouds, and a lot of negative space judiciously applied. Poems and colophons abound in the sky area and margins. Shen Zhou 沈周 (1427–1509), A Spring Gathering (detail), attached calligraphy by Shen Zhou 沈周 (1427–1509), frontispiece, inscription on front mounting, and three inscriptions on the painting by Hongli, the Qianlong emperor (1711–1799, reigned 1735–1796), colophon by Wen Zhengming 文徵明 (1470–1559), Ming dynasty, c. 1480?, Wu School, ink and color on paper, China, 26.5 x 131.1 cm (Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1934.1). #Chinese #ArtHistory

Did Shen Zhou dream of spring break too? In partnership with the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art @asia.si.edu.web.brid.gy, an essay on Shen Zhou's "A Spring Gathering," a serene scroll painting from the reknowned artist who lived from 1427–1509. smarthistory.org/shen-zhou-sp...

@oldportraiture.bsky.social You might be interested in our most recently published chapter on world portraiture in Reframing Art History smarthistory.org/reframing-ar... #ArtHistory

CDMX is a surfeit of amazing art — and great food. We'll be envying you and comforting ourselves with Olmec colossal head essays.

Gorgeous! Enjoy

If you're teaching the treasures of Mexico City, Smarthistory has your back:
• Olmec Colossal Heads smarthistory.org/olmec-coloss...
• Aztec Sun Stone smarthistory.org/the-sun-ston...
• Virgin of Guadalupe smarthistory.org/virgin-of-gu...

Golden fatimid luster ware dish showing a man with a giraffe on a leash. The giraffe is in the center of the bowl and full of personality. The man has his hands full. Ceramic dish with luster decoration, late 10th–11th century (Egypt), 24 cm diameter (Benaki Museum, Athens)

Do you like shiny giraffes? We do. 🦒

Learn about this fantastic luster ware brought to high shine under the Fatimid dynasty in Egypt in Dr. Ariel Fein's newly published essay
smarthistory.org/fatimid-lust...

The last work of Eva Hesse YouTube video by Smarthistory

The good ick: the glistening beauty and organic revoltingness of Eva Hesse's last #sculpture.

Smarthistory's photography takes you right up to the fascinating surface, the intestinal forms, all that seemingly sticky undulation that make you want to touch it and then run away. #WomenArtists

Hah!

oil portrait of an older White woman wearing plain clothing. Half length behind a parapet, she points to herself, open-mouthed, while holding a banderole reading 'col tempo,' ("with time"). Giorgione, La Vecchia, oil on canvas, 68 x 59 cm (Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice)

Today we learned Giorgione's mother was named Altadona Barbarella, aka 'Tall Lady Little Barbarian.' Luckily, this painting called "La Vecchia" (Old Woman), probably isn't a portrait of her. Cooking up new content for you coming soon —

Oil painting portrait of seated young Rubens and his wife Isabella outdoors looking quite content and relaxed. Peter Paul Rubens, Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower, c. 1609–10, oil on canvas, 178 x 136.5 cm (Alte Pinakothek, Munich).

Hey @peterpaulrubens.bsky.social, we're fans! Smarthistory has a number of essays and videos on paintings by the 17th c. artist and diplomat

smarthistory.org/peter-paul-r...

Awesome! We love Smarthistory working for you

Using @smarthistory.bsky.social resources to enhance contextual teaching of ancient artifacts in my ARTH 100 courses

smarthistory.org/warka-vase/?...

Lavinia Fontana, Self-Portrait at the Spinet – Smarthistory Fontana’s self-portrait does not present the artist as a painter so much as it packages her as the ideal bride—or so it seems at first glance.

Lavinia Fontana, Self-Portrait at the Spinet
by Letha Ch'ien for @smarthistory.bsky.social
smarthistory.org/lavinia-font...

Ole Worm, Museum Wormianum – Smarthistory This catalog describes a very particular kind of room: a 17th-century curiosity cabinet.

.... and if you're looking for an accessible, open-access thing for intro-level teaching, I have a piece in @smarthistory.bsky.social:

smarthistory.org/ole-worm-mus...

Augustus of Primaporta: a statue wearing skin-tight armor that shows off its own #sculpture? And it happens to be drop-dead gorgeous reliefs of classical mythology? As the essay says "not just a portrait" #AncientRome smarthistory.org/augustus-of-...

Thank you! Smarthistory.org is here for all your art history needs. We've got videos, essays, high-res images, syllabi, even a (free!) textbook. Come check us out 👋

Exquisitely rendered craftsmanship of all kind sof textures and pieces. Samurai Armor (Gusoku) with a Two-Piece Cuirass and Black Lacing, early 17th century (Edo Period), owned by Sakakibara Yasumasa (Important Cultural Property), helmet: 14.5 cm high, body: 39 cm high, tassets: 24.5 cm high (Tokyo National Museum, F-20138-1).

If you like #samurai smarthistory.org/samurai-armo...