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

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

Michelangelo began working on St. Peter's at age 71. The last 17 years of his life were devoted to St. Peter's.

What does Covid-19 and plague in Italy have in common? A lot it turns out, including disagreements about what to do or not do, and what reme

April 6, 2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of Raphael (1483-1520), Renaissance artist extraordinaire. Italy planned grand...

The hidden history of women artists continues with Artemisia Gentileschi, the most studied and famous of the sixteenth and seventeenth...

Welcome to the hidden history of women artists. Were there really women artists in the 1600s and 1700s? Yes, there were. White male...

Venice became a mecca for European and American artists from 1860-1915. Approximately 90 American artists worked in Venice producing over 3,

Some artists came to Venice to make money, and some came because they were drawn to the beauty. Some were destitute like James McNeil Whistl

How did Venice become such an iconic symbol and why do 30 million visitors swarm the city each year? Blame it on the Brits and the Grand Tou

St. Peter’s is a showcase of seventeenth century Italian art and the two personalities who put a defining plan in place to finish it. What P

Approximately six million people visit the Sistine Ceiling and Vatican Museums each year. Who made these treasures possible? Two popes from

Trastevere embodies an old world atmosphere with narrow cobblestone streets and a dynamic neighborhood. Literally meaning across the...

Roman political views vacillate equally between complaining and throwing their hands up as a lost cause. Manefestazioni and scioperi...

The Etruscans were the homegrown Italians, the native peoples inhabiting Etruria, just north of Rome to Northern Tuscany. Etruscan culture i

Caravaggio’s life was as dramatic as his art. He was equally known in Rome as an artistic innovator and trouble maker. Until recently, his d

Seventeenth century Roman art is one of surprises, contrasts, and drama. No one style predominated. Paintings could be evenly lit or have...

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...

How Vincent van Gogh and a Roman Missal led me to study art history. From the graceful ornate elegance of the 1400s, to the classic figural

Venice slowly grew on me. At first the tourist mono culture was a turn off, a distraction obscuring the treasures to be discovered. My...

Would you gulp a fine wine or savor it slowly? Try enjoying art in the same way as you would a fine wine especially on April 14 for...

As I left the exhibit at the Met, a little overwhelmed, and took a taxi back to the hotel, my thoughts turned to three questions...