Amidst the chaos of the Civil War, Frederic Church’s “Cotopaxi” was interpreted as an allegory for the triumph of good over evil.

By elevating the beauty of ordinary objects, Spanish bodegón paintings evoke an atmosphere of comfort and domestic tranquility.

Portraiture was a vehicle to elevate the sitter’s identity through associations with intangible ideals and the magnificence of spiritual tradition.

Throughout centuries of artistic imagination, the gentle lamb has symbolized sacrifice, purity, and humble acceptance of fate.

At a time of intense scientific inquiry, the Dutch painter catered to the taste for the exotic and for natural sciences—especially during ’tulip mania.’

Thomas Wilmer Dewing’s poetic inspiration for the first White House piano dates back to ancient Greek epics and the nine muses.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, John Waterhouse, and Auguste Rodin illustrate the story of a poet whose art was born of his wife’s sacrifice and led to his own.

Frederic Leighton’s ‘Captive Andromache’ illustrates a scene from the ‘Iliad’ in which the newly widowed Andromache grieves the death of her husband, Hector.

Léon Bonnat’s intimate scene of a peasant woman captures the values and sentiments of a dwindling way of life during Egypt’s expansion.