Art History: Required Images and Works (Renaissance to Modern Era)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the required art history works, including titles, artists, media, dates, artistic movements, and contextual significance.

Madonna and Child Enthroned (Cimabue)

A 1280–90 tempera and gold on panel painting showing the Virgin Mary seated on an elaborate throne holding baby Jesus and pointing toward him. It marks a transition from the traditional symbolic style into a more realistic, three-dimensional style.

The Sacrifice of Isaac (Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi)

Two 1401 gilded bronze relief sculptures created for the Florence Baptistery door competition depicting Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac. Ghiberti's version emphasizes grace, while Brunelleschi's emphasizes drama.

Dome of Florence Cathedral (Filippo Brunelleschi)

A major breakthrough in Renaissance architecture constructed between 1417 and 1436 using an innovative method to build an enormous dome without relying on traditional wooden framework.

Trinity with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist, and Donors (Masaccio)

A 1425 early Renaissance fresco notable for using linear perspective to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat wall, along with chiaroscuro to model volume through light and shadow.

David (Donatello)

A 1440 bronze sculpture recognized as the first freestanding, life-size nude male sculpture produced since classical antiquity, reflecting a renewed interest in Greek and Roman art.

Mérode Altarpiece / Triptych of the Annunciation (Robert Campin)

A Northern Renaissance oil on panel work known for its fine realistic detail, mastery of oil painting, rich religious symbolism, and depiction of everyday domestic life.

The Arnolfini Portrait (Jan van Eyck)

A 1434 Northern Renaissance oil on panel painting portraying a wealthy couple in their home, showcasing mastery of light, texture, realistic detail, and symbolic elements.

Venus of Urbino (Titian)

A 1538 High Renaissance oil on canvas painting combining idealized beauty and realism with themes of love, marriage, and wealth, utilizing rich coloring and tactile surface textures.

Portrait of Vlad III Dracula / Ambras Portrait

A late Renaissance oil on canvas portrait from the second half of the 16th century that uses rich details to communicate authority and illustrate how historical figures were represented and remembered posthumously.

Isabella d'Este / Isabella in Black (Titian)

A c. 1536 Italian Renaissance oil on canvas portrait that combines realistic textures with idealized youthful beauty, using luxurious garments to project high status, wealth, and public image.

Madonna of the Long Neck (Parmigianino)

A 1530–33 Mannerist painting characterized by exaggerated proportions, an unbalanced composition, and unusual poses that deliberately reject High Renaissance harmony and naturalism.

David (Michelangelo)

A 1501–04 High Renaissance marble masterpiece that synthesizes idealized human beauty, precise anatomical realism, and classical Greek and Roman influences.

David (Gian Lorenzo Bernini)

A 1623 Baroque marble sculpture capturing David dynamically in the middle of action, charged with intense physical and psychological emotion.

Portrait of Don Marcos Chiguan Topa

A 1740–45 Colonial Latin American oil on canvas portrait merging indigenous Inca authority symbols with Spanish colonial status markers to declare noble rank, ancestry, and political identity in Peru.

Crucifixion of St. Peter (Caravaggio)

A c. 1601 Baroque oil painting in the Cerasi Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo) defined by dramatic lighting, intense realism, dynamic movement, chiaroscuro, and tenebrism.

Judith Slaying Holofernes (Artemisia Gentileschi)

A 1620–21 Baroque painting that renders a biblical narrative using high-contrast dramatic lighting, raw emotional intensity, and energetic, violent movement.

Still Life with a Chinese Bowl, Nautilus Cup and Other Objects (Willem Kalf)

A 1662 Dutch Golden Age oil on canvas depicting luxury goods connected to global trade and wealth through tactile textures, while subtly evoking the fleeting nature of material possessions.

Hall of Mirrors, Palais de Versailles (Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart)

A grand French Baroque interior designed between 1678 and 1684 symbolizing the supreme authority, wealth, and power of King Louis XIV.

Oath of the Horatii (Jacques-Louis David)

A 1784 Neoclassical oil on canvas showing three Roman brothers swearing an oath to defend their nation, defined by classical architectural order, clean lines, and balanced composition.

Death of Marat (Jacques-Louis David)

A 1793 Neoclassical painting employing austere simplicity and stark realism to elevate the murdered French revolutionary leader into a secular political martyr.

Portrait of Citizen Jean-Baptiste Belley (Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson)

A 1797 Neoclassical portrait of a formerly enslaved Black man who rose to become a prominent politician, symbolizing ideals of freedom and racial equality.

Raft of the Medusa (Théodore Géricault)

An 1818–19 Romantic oil on canvas based on an actual contemporary shipwreck, functioning as a dramatic indictment of governmental incompetence and an inquiry into human suffering and endurance.

Paris Boulevard / View of the Boulevard du Temple (Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre)

An 1839 daguerreotype milestone in the history of photography, noted for capturing one of the earliest surviving photographic images of an individual human being.

A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (Édouard Manet)

An 1881–1882 oil on canvas bridging Realism and Impressionism that examines modern alienation, urban labor, and social class by illustrating everyday life in Paris rather than historical idealizations.

Impression: Sunrise (Claude Monet)

An 1872 oil on canvas foundational to Impressionism that rejected traditional academic conventions in favor of loose brushwork to capture fleeting moments and optical atmospheric effects.

Absinthe Robette (Privat Livemont)

An 1896 Art Nouveau advertising poster displaying characteristic sinuous, flowing lines and natural motifs applied in an elegant, stylized feminine aesthetic.

Kelmscott Chaucer (William Morris)

An 1896 Arts and Crafts movement publication designed as a critique of industrial mass production, drawing inspiration from the craftsmanship of medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Black Hawk and His Son Whirling Thunder (John Wesley Jarvis)

An 1833 Realist oil on canvas presenting Native American figures with dignity amidst forced displacement, emphasizing their intentional personal presentation and self-chosen attire.

War News from Mexico (Richard Caton Woodville)

An 1848 Realist genre painting reflecting the national fervor surrounding Manifest Destiny and the Mexican-American War while highlighting societal divides and unequal social status.