Announcing a NEW VIDEO release on my YouTube channel Denise Laurin’s Art Realm! Are you an AP Art History student or teacher? Studying art appreciation in college? A life long learner? Learn about the Apadana, a formidable audience hall in the ancient capital of the Persian empire in modern Iran. Like and subscribe—it's free! www.youtube.com/@Deniselaurin

Raqib Shaw. Paradise Lost. 100 ft wide. Mixed Media. 2009-2025. Run don't walk to the Art Institute of Chicago to see this breathtaking work of art. It will leave you awestruck for its sheer level of detail, skill, and poetic symbolism. The artist devoted over two decades to its development innovatively combining traditional materials and tools with unusual ones like automotive enamel, syringes, quills, and glittering embellishments. You'll find the 100-foot wide multi-panel artwork displayed...

Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting , 1638-39. Oil on canvas. Royal Collection Trust, London. Artemisia’s Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting imaginatively matches the description of the personification of Painting found in the book Iconologica by Cesare Ripa (1593). This book became popular among artists and other creatives throughout the 17th century. He describes Painting as, “A woman, beautiful, with full black hair, disheveled, and twisted in...