Visual Arts Story Briefs

What does it mean when we say "art is in the eye of the beholder?" How have artists' subjects changed over the centuries? This collection features diverse art forms (from ancient mosaics to modern cubism).

Even before Rome left Britannia, Anglo-Saxons tried to invade Britain. The Romans defended against such invasions by building forts along Britain''s c...

John Vachon was a photographer for the Farm Security Administration where, he helped to document American life during the Great Depression.

As Dante and Virgil make their way through the Inferno, they encounter demons with pitchforks. Although the pitchforks are raised, as if to attack, th...

When Napoleon and his men reach the Berezina River, they find the bridge destroyed and the river thawed. To escape a trap, they must build a 100-mete...

Understanding Dante's Inferno becomes much-easier when we view illustrations by an artist like Gustave Dore.

An unknown miniaturist, working in Venice during the 1340s, created this work illuminating a page from Dante’s Divine Comedy. The 14th-century m...

The U.S. government used the domino theory to justify taking action in Vietnam. A political cartoon, however, turns that theory upside down.

Dorothea Lange, a famous American photographer who captured the plight of Depression-era people with her camera, took many still-famous pictures in th...

Americans fighting in World War I were called doughboys.

Despite early opposition to purchasing a wireless for Downton Abbey, Robert Crawley (Lord Grantham) finally gives-in when he learns that the King (Geo...

Learn about Vikings and artifacts from the Viking-era which archaeologists are finding at Norwegian burial sites.

As his body begins to turn into Edward Hyde, without his first swallowing the potion, Dr. Jekyll has to look into a mirror to see what form his body i...

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