Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
1652 · Church of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome
Bernini staged the saint's own account of her vision as theater, lit from a window he hid above and watched by marble spectators in boxes.
★ 9.4
The Art canon
Sourced and hung.
Every work chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Bodhisattva Padmapani
Artist unknown
478 · Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra
The bodhisattva lowers his eyes with a blue lotus in his hand, painted into living rock at Ajanta and lost to the jungle for centuries.
★ 8.4
Beheading of St. John the Baptist
1608 · Co-Cathedral of St. John, Valletta
The only canvas Caravaggio ever signed, and he signed it in the blood running from the saint's throat, for the knights of Malta.
★ 8.4
The Conversion of Saint Paul
1601 · Palazzo Odescalchi Balbi, Rome
Caravaggio's first attempt at the subject, turned down by the patron, before he threw out the angels and left one man, one horse and the light.
★ 8.4
Christ Pantocrator (Sinai)
Artist unknown
560 · Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai
Cover one half of the face, then the other, and two expressions emerge, merciful and severe. Sinai was too remote for the iconoclasts to reach.
★ 8.2
Saint Francis in Ecstasy
1480 · The Frick Collection, New York City
Francis steps barefoot from his hermitage into a light coming from the left, and Bellini gives him no seraph and barely any wounds.
★ 8.0
Crucifixion of St. Peter
1601 · Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
Three laborers strain to lever the cross upright with Peter nailed to it upside down. No crowd, no glory, just heavy work in the dark.
★ 7.8
The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Bosch)
1505 · Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
Flying fish, reading toads and a burning village, and in the middle of it Anthony kneels and blesses a small Christ, entirely undistracted.
★ 7.2
Saint George and the Dragon
1470 · National Gallery, London
The princess has the dragon on a leash made from her own belt, and a spiral storm cloud winds up behind the saint.
★ 6.9
San Sebastian
1480 · Louvre, Paris
Sebastian takes his arrows with the composure of a statue, tied to a Roman column in a field of accurately ruined antiquity.
★ 6.6
Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata
1300 · Louvre, Paris
Golden rays come off a winged crucified figure in the sky and strike Francis in the hands, feet and side. Giotto signed this one.
★ 6.5
Christ with St. Joseph in the Carpenter's Shop
1642 · Louvre, Paris
Christ as a boy holds a candle for his father and the flame glows red through his fingers, which is the whole subject.
★ 6.5
St. Martin Shares his Cloak with a Beggar
1326 · San Francesco Church (Assisi), Assisi
Martin cuts his soldier's cloak in half with his sword to give a beggar the other part, dressed by Simone in courtly gold.
★ 6.5
St. Francis Standing
1660 · Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Boston
No landscape, no story, just a man in patched brown wool holding a skull and one shaft of light finding him in the dark.
★ 6.3
The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Dali)
1946 · Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels
Elephants on impossibly long insect legs carry obelisks and naked women across the plain while the saint holds up a makeshift cross.
★ 6.3
St. George and the Princess
1438 · Sant'Anastasia (Verona), Verona
A white Gothic city, a horse shown daringly from behind, and two hanged men on a gallows in the corner of the fairy tale.
★ 6.1
The Dream of Saint Joseph
1640 · Musee d'Arts Nantes, Nantes
A child-angel leans toward the sleeping old man, its small fingers glowing translucent where they pass in front of the candle flame.
★ 5.9
The Conversion of St. Paul
1530 · Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Saul sprawls on the ground with his arm up while the white horse rears above him with something close to ballet in it.
★ 5.9
Saint Francis Preaching to the Birds (Louvre)
1300 · Louvre, Paris
The same story at miniature scale, squeezed into a predella panel, and Giotto loses none of the plainness that made it convincing.
★ 5.7
Conversion on the Way to Damascus
1601 · Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome
The horse and the groom take up most of the canvas and neither notices anything. The miracle happens entirely inside the man on the ground.
★ 5.4