The Death of Marat
1793 · Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels
David was Marat's friend and political ally, and he laid the murdered man out in his bath with the gravity of a religious lamentation.
★ 9.0
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.
Judith Slaying Holofernes
1620 · Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Judith and her maid hold Holofernes down together and work the blade through his throat. Artemisia painted it a decade after her rape trial.
★ 8.8
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp
1632 · Mauritshuis, The Hague
Rembrandt was twenty-five and new in Amsterdam when the surgeons' guild hired him, and he built every head in the room around one lifted tendon.
★ 8.8
The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb
1521 · Kunstmuseum, Basel
A corpse in a box barely wider than itself, with no hint of resurrection. Dostoevsky saw it in Basel and said it could destroy faith.
★ 7.4
The Charnel House
1945 · Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Bodies lie heaped and bound under a kitchen table, in grey. Picasso left it unfinished, painted after the camps were opened.
★ 6.5