Art history and art travel guides
Learn to read art, one work at a time.
Most art writing gives you too much or too little. The Art Newbie gives you the part that matters: what you are looking at, why it was made, and what to notice when you stand in front of it. Every term is explained, and nothing is called unmissable unless it is.
Everything on this page has a guide.
The two sections
Two ways in
Art History
The story of art, one question at a time.
Periods, works and ideas in plain English. Every term is explained the first time it appears, so you can start anywhere.
Art Travel
Where the art is now, and how to see it well.
The museums, the monuments and the routes, with how long you need and what to look at first.
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Byzantine ArtChora Church (Kariye) and Its Byzantine Mosaics
Istanbul's Chora Church holds early 14th-century Byzantine mosaics and frescoes paid for by the statesman Theodore Metochites.
Byzantine ArtMeteora: The Monasteries on the Rocks
The pillars made the monasteries hard to reach, and for centuries monks were hauled up in nets or climbed rope ladders.
Byzantine ArtCappella Palatina, Where Norman, Arab and Byzantine Art Meet
Consecrated in 1140, Palermo's Cappella Palatina joins Norman architecture, an Arab-style wooden ceiling and Byzantine mosaics.
Byzantine ArtWhy Did Byzantine Christians Carve Churches Into Rock?
Whole churches were dug out of cliffs near Göreme. Who carved them, and what is painted inside?
Byzantine ArtVenetians Say They Stole St Mark’s Body. What Is the Story?
Venetian tradition says two merchants took St Mark's body from Alexandria in 828. How much of the story is true?
Islamic ArtUmayyad Mosque of Damascus: History and Design
Al-Walid I built the Great Mosque of Damascus in 706-715 on the site of a church of John the Baptist.
Islamic ArtDome of the Rock: History, Design and Meaning
The Dome of the Rock, finished around 691 under Abd al-Malik, is an octagonal shrine built around a sacred rock in Jerusalem.
Islamic Art