Praising Sacred Icons as Art

If your exposure has been primarily to Western art, it can be difficult to fully appreciate the artistry of icons. Knowing something about the underlying iconography and typologies, and putting aside expectations of artistic originality and realism, will make these deeply symbolic images more accessible. […]

Who was Everhard Jabach?

He’s such an obscure figure today that he doesn’t even warrant a Wikipedia entry — but he must have been Somebody, to have been the subject of this outsized painting by Charles LeBrun, court painter to King Louis XIV.  In 2014, at the time of its acquisition, Thomas P. Campbell, then-Director of the Metropolitan Museum of […]