Italian Art for Travelers
Your passport to culture, history, and art

Two friars became renowned early Renaissance Florentine painters. Fra Angelico was a pious friar whose faith was mirrored in his art and was later beatified. Fra Filippo Lippi, the rogue friar, fathered two children with a nun. Each was renowned for their innovation and style. Born Guido di Pietro, Fra Angelico worked as a Dominican artist in Fiesole then Florence. “Fra” means “brother,” short for Fratello in a religious order. A prolific painter, his most famous frescoes are

Saints Carlo Acutis, Margaret of Cortona, and Stephen are three of the approximately 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic church. Each saint has their own story reflecting culture, society, and the church. Carlo is the millennial saint, Margaret a medieval penitent, and Stephen an early Christian martyr.

St. Catherine of Siena, was a gutsy fourteenth century history making woman. She was determined to make a difference, even with doubters and

Renaissance hair served dual functions. Hair beautified the individual and indicated well-being and character. The length and style of hair

If you visit Italy you can’t miss the frescoes. Fresco paintings decorate castles, Roman villas, public buildings, and of course,...

Fascists cherry picked iconic images as the perfect foil for disseminating concepts of cultural purity and superiority. The role of Fascism

Suffering Madonna overload in museums and churches? Are paintings of Annunciations starting to look the same? Now for something...

It was a gruesome site: a woman’s partially decomposed head eerily lit behind a metal screen. Her name is Caterina Benincasa, better...

Nothing brings on analysis paralysis like trying to decide on a paint color. Which shade of blue should I paint the bathroom? The sheer...