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

Are selfies an evolution of the self-portrait, or do they lack the cleverness and creativity of early modern self-images? The Italian Nation

Sandro Botticelli was a go-getter and lived in time when Florence had no lack of talent and innovators. Competition was intense for commissi

Four mysteries: one is a painting with no clear meaning, an unexplained self-portrait, Botticelli's muse, and a da Vinci painting that might