caravaggio top 10 paintings ranked

Artnet News published a ranked list of Caravaggio's top 10 paintings, highlighting works such as 'Victorious Cupid' (1601–02), 'The Cardsharps' (c. 1594), 'Young Sick Bacchus' (c. 1593), 'The Incredulity of Saint Thomas' (1602), 'Supper at Emmaus' (1601), 'Narcissus' (1597–99), and 'Boy Bitten by a Lizard' (1594–96). The article scores each painting on storytelling, behind-the-scenes intrigue, and sheer audacity, and notes that 'Victorious Cupid' recently went on view in the U.K. for the first time.

conclave hidden ritual

On May 8, 2025, white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel signaling the election of Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff. Born in Chicago in 1955, Prevost has strong ties to Peru and was appointed Prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops by Pope Francis in 2023. The article explores the secretive process of the papal conclave, noting that 133 cardinals voted under Michelangelo's famed ceilings, and draws parallels to the 2024 film *Conclave* which some cardinals reportedly used for insight.

about last week an orbit through the highs and sighs of new yorks art fair multiverse

Writer and critic Domenick Ammirati chronicles a whirlwind week in New York during Frieze Week, visiting art fairs, exhibitions, and social events. Highlights include Jeff Koons' Hulk sculptures at Gagosian's Frieze booth, discovering painter Karol Palczak at Emalin gallery, and attending the group painting show "R U Still Painting???" curated by the collective FALCON in a raw Midtown office space. Ammirati notes a subdued, less intoxicated atmosphere compared to previous years, reflecting a broader unease in the art world.

art bites zuccaro drawing banished from rome

Federico Zuccaro, a 16th-century Italian Mannerist painter, was banished from Rome in 1581 after presenting a satirical drawing at a feast in the church of Saint Luke. The 13-foot work, 'Porta Virtutis (The Gate of Virtue),' depicted King Midas with donkey ears as a thinly veiled attack on papal steward Paolo Ghiselli, who had rejected Zuccaro's altarpiece. Zuccaro explicitly identified Ghiselli as the foolish Midas and labeled Bologna the 'Reign of Ignorance,' leading Pope Gregory XIII to sentence him for 'excesses' and banish him from the city. He avoided prison by paying a 400 scudi bail.

bernini the ecstasy of saint teresa

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's iconic Baroque sculpture *The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa* (1647–1652) is examined in detail, depicting the Spanish Carmelite nun Saint Teresa of Ávila in a moment of divine rapture as an angel pierces her heart with a golden arrow. The artwork, housed in the Cornaro Chapel at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, was commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cornaro and remains one of Bernini's most celebrated and controversial masterpieces, blending theatricality, religious fervor, and virtuosic marble carving.

The art of being Pope Leo: from a Raphael portrait to the first pontiff to be captured on film

The article examines the artistic and historical legacy of popes named Leo, following the election of Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV on 8 May. It traces the name through figures like Leo I (Leo the Great), Leo IX, and Leo X, focusing on Raphael's iconic 1518-20 portrait of Pope Leo X with cardinals Giulio de' Medici and Luigi de Rossi. The piece also discusses Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican's Stanze and Loggia, which depict earlier Leonine popes, and highlights the Medici family's role in bankrolling the Renaissance.

That Time Raphael Visited Tivoli, Transforming Antiquity into Art

Quella volta che Raffaello visitò Tivoli trasformando l’antichità in arte

In April 1516, Raphael Sanzio embarked on a historic excursion to Tivoli alongside a prestigious circle of Renaissance intellectuals, including Baldassarre Castiglione and Pietro Bembo. This journey served as a critical field study for Raphael, who had recently been appointed as Rome's prefect of antiquities. By examining the complex ruins of Hadrian's Villa and the Sanctuary of the Sibyl, the group engaged in a sophisticated blend of archaeological investigation and humanist leisure that defined the cultural climate under Pope Leo X.

This Massive Collection of More Than a Million Tools Tells the Striking History of Jewelry Making in America

Kevin Potter, a jeweler based in Tucson, Arizona, has assembled the world's largest collection of artifacts from America's industrial jewelry manufacturing era. His collection, housed in two warehouses, contains an estimated 1.2 million hubs and dies—the hand-carved steel tools used to mass-produce jewelry through die-striking—along with related machinery and ephemera, preserving a vast physical archive of a vanished craft.