Most of the holy martyrs have been depicted as holding attributes related to their martyrdom. Many of them ended up beheaded, and one of the best known examples would be St. Denis. His attribute is quite peculiar: it is his own head. He is a cephalophore, that is a saint…

In 2016 the Bowes Museum (Barnard Castle, County Durham, UK) acquired an early-Netherlandish painting of St. Luke drawing the Virgin and Child. It is attributed to the workshop of Dirk Bouts, one of the most important Netherlandish painters of the 15th century. It was probably not completed by the Master…

The Laocoön Group is one of the most famous ancient sculptures, depicting mythical Laocoön and his sons being killed by the snakes. The statue was discovered in Rome in 1506 – it was unearthed in the vineyard of certain Felice De Fredis. Immediately Giuliano da Sangallo was called to the site…

Sometimes a curiosity in art is not about artists depicting something weird; sometimes it is something normal, but depicted in a weird way. Today I would like to show you some examples of the Last Supper which were simply not very well painted. There are such cases in medieval art;…

Some time ago I wrote o post on several animals described in medieval bestiaries (available HERE), and now I would like to get back to that subject. Today I will focus on one particular beast: a unicorn. A unicorn was a mythical creature quite often depicted in medieval art. It…