Early Christian & Byzantine
This underground burial site in Rome contains some of the earliest Christian frescoes, including the Good Shepherd and Orant figures.
What is the Catacomb of Priscilla?
This Early Byzantine manuscript includes scenes of Rebecca and Eliezer and uses purple vellum with gold and silver leaf.
What is the Vienna Genesis?
This Romanesque pilgrimage church in Conques features a Last Judgment tympanum warning pilgrims about salvation.
What is the Church of Sainte-Foy?
This mosque in Córdoba features horseshoe arches and a hypostyle prayer hall.
What is the Great Mosque of Córdoba?
This Northern Renaissance portrait includes a convex mirror, a small dog symbolizing fidelity, and meticulous oil technique.
What is The Arnolfini Portrait?
This basilica in Rome reused columns from the Temple of Juno, demonstrating spolia and the triumph of Christianity over paganism.
What is Santa Sabina?
This Hiberno-Saxon manuscript from c. 700 CE includes intricate cross-carpet pages and animal interlace designs.
What are the Lindisfarne Gospels?
This embroidered linen narrative depicts the Norman Conquest and may have been commissioned by Bishop Odo.
What is the Bayeux Tapestry?
This ivory container decorated with royal imagery and lions was made for the Umayyad prince al-Mughira.
What is the Pyxis of al-Mughira?
This bronze sculpture by Donatello was the first freestanding nude since antiquity.
What is David?
This octagonal church in Ravenna includes famous mosaics of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.
What is San Vitale?
This Gothic manuscript was commissioned by Blanche of Castile and includes scenes from the Apocalypse.
What is the Bibles moralisées (Dedication Page with Blanche of Castile and King Louis IX)?
This Gothic cathedral in France was rebuilt after a fire in 1194 and houses the relic of the Virgin’s tunic.
What is Chartres Cathedral?
This pair of silver-gilt brooches from the Merovingian period features cloisonné and zoomorphic design.
What are the Merovingian Looped Fibulae?
This Florentine palace designed by Alberti features classical pilasters and a rusticated ground floor.
What is Palazzo Rucellai?
This massive domed structure in Constantinople used pendentives to place a dome over a square base and was rebuilt after the Nika Riots.
What is Hagia Sophia?
This Jewish illuminated manuscript from medieval Spain depicts scenes from Exodus and Passover.
What is the Golden Haggadah?
This chapel in Padua was commissioned by Enrico Scrovegni to atone for the sin of usury and features Giotto’s Lamentation.
What is the Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel?
This small private devotional image from Germany emphasizes the suffering of Christ and intense emotional expression.
What is the Röttgen Pietà?
This Botticelli painting depicts the goddess emerging from the sea on a shell and reflects Neoplatonic humanism.
What is The Birth of Venus?
This encaustic icon from Mount Sinai depicts the Virgin and Child flanked by Saints Theodore and George.
What is Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George?
This manuscript was created during the Reformation and contrasts Old Testament Law with New Testament Grace.
What is Allegory of Law and Grace by Lucas Cranach the Elder?
This Islamic palace complex in Granada includes the Court of the Lions and muqarnas ceilings.
What is the Alhambra?
This multipaneled altarpiece in a monastery hospital depicts a harrowing Crucifixion to comfort patients suffering from ergotism.
What is the Isenheim Altarpiece?
This fresco by Raphael in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura depicts Plato pointing upward and Aristotle gesturing horizontally.
What is The School of Athens?