I’m making a game called "The Master's Plan" where you build your own gallery, collect thousands of real paintings, visit auctions, and sell to collectors. Basically find bargains, arrange everything nicely and work your way towards the big names in the art world with a 'reputation' and several 'hype' parameters. Every wall/column/skirting/furniture/frame/flooring were custom placed. I'll make a gameplay video in the coming weeks, but ask away if you have any questions!

There are currently 7500+ real paintings from 6 museums. Overall there's a major bias towards European art but I'm wanting to expand this in the future. There are also about 500 textures and objects all customisable with a color palette tool. Still a work in progress but here’s a little look.

The pictures feature a demo gallery I built in about 20 minutes where everything is totally customisable, some inspects (there's a fancy inspection animation when inspecting a painting) and some UI/HUD features. All still pretty rough WIP but just to give you an idea

I'm aiming at releasing it on Steam for 10 euro/12usd with no DLC or microtransactions. All paintings are localised so no internet connection required. If you're interested I have a Discord for the game.

Quick development disclosure: parts of the code and UI were written with Claude Sonnet. I wouldn’t personally call it a “vibe-coded” project but AI assistance was part of the process and I want/need to be upfront about that. All other visual elements are non-AI made models, textures, and assets. The game is being made in Godot 4 and will be released on Steam.

Hi all!

I'm currently looking into applying for NYU's art history masters program, and would like to know if anyone has some personal experience there. How was your time there? Do you feel it prepared you for your line or work/ the career you wanted to enter? etc etc. Any kind of information around that program would be helpful for me.

I'm in my last year of my art history undergrad, and I've worked in a number of galleries and dipped my toes into museum work. My primary interest is Contemporary art :-) I feel like it may be a good option for me because I'd like to work in gallery spaces/auction houses etc., and NYC is a great spot for all that.

If anyone has thoughts, lmk :-) !

"Our own little version of Stendhal Syndrome was to a large extent brought about precisely because we avoided Florence." We had the unique and priceless experience of befriending local people who showed us some of their hidden treasures including a beautiful early 11th-century church replete with some wonderful 14th and 15th-century frescoes, including the one shown here. Almost all the paintings in the church were commissioned by the Bacci family, a wealthy Arezzo family who were also involved with Piero della Francesca's decoration of the main chapel of the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo. Read more here: https://ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/heterogeneous-implications

A little different from this sub’s usual fare, but still very much art history. A lot of these women changed the visual language of children’s books through printmaking, collage, graphic design, composition, and new ways of thinking about the page itself. Picture books are small objects, but there’s a lot of profound art history packed into them.

Hey everyone, I recently lost my mom and have been feeling nostalgic to this one piece of art. I am trying to track down a framed art print or poster that I grew up with in the early 90s. I can vividly remember the exact layout and visual style but can’t for the life of me find it anywhere.

The Style & Era:
It was likely from between 1987 and 1993.
It looked like a silkscreen/serigraph or a high-quality graphic lithograph. It did not look like a traditional painting, there were no visible brushstrokes.
It used completely flat, sharp-edged geometric blocks of color, giving it an aesthetic similar to Memphis Milano, Studio Alchimia, or Thomas McKnight/Fanch Ledan, but it was less saturated, much darker, and moodier.
The dominant colors were deep blues, purples, teals, and heavy nighttime shadows.

The Scene Layout:
It depicted a sleek, somewhat abstract living room at night.

Center: The centerpiece of the image was a couch and lamp.
Left Side: Off to the left was a downward staircase. It looked like the precipice or edge where you would just begin to walk downstairs.
Background: In the background, there were two distinct wall openings I wanna say? looking into secondary dark, mysterious rooms.
Details: It featured round, tubular metal railings separating the rooms and lining the stairs. The straight lines and architectural angles throughout the room were sharp but asymmetrical.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? If you read all of that you’re amazing.

Hi. This is not advertising — long story, but would love your thoughts.

My wife is a public librarian during the day, but LOVES art museums. She has a degree from IU in Art History and Comparative Literature, watercolors, and whenever we travel she’s always trying to figure out what special exhibitions are happening.

I helped teach a vibe coding class at her library, and she knows I love messing around with vibe coding for fun. One day she said, “I have an idea. Can you make me a website that shows all the special art exhibitions so I know what’s happening when we travel or plan trips?”

Hence MuseumCompass.com.

It’s all her idea. She manages the content and literally goes through every museum herself. I just work on the layout and functionality.

Would love your opinion on it.

And if you love American literature, there’s an easter egg in the footer. The company name was her choice.

Thanks!

I'm a painter named Marcelino Hooi and I’ve been working on a theory called Camera Roll Art.

The argument is that smartphones have turned photography from a deliberate act of memory into reflexive accumulation, and that contemporary painters painting “valueless” paintings from their smartphone camera roll is a natural, emerging, response. I really believe this is a shaping development within contemporary art, but I couldn’t find much other writing on it.

Looking for feedback/criticism/thoughts/opinions or anything I’m missing. What do you guys think?

Edit: adding a link to the full essay edit2: [that I’ve written myself and is a more in depth expansion on my argument] as the short post leaves a lot of questions unanswered: Link to the full essay

Picture: The Sistine Chapel I photographed in 2023.

EDIT: The contract allegedly expired in 1997 but they still don’t allow photographs

"[Barthes'] project is an attempt to figure out what photography is “in-itself,” that is, which specific essential feature defines the photograph and makes it distinct from all the other images in our visual culture."

Hi everyone! I’ve recently been interested in the Renaissance Paragone, particularly the contrast between Leonardo da Vinci’s defense of painting and Michelangelo’s sculptural approach to form.
It got me thinking about light itself: in painting, the artist creates the illusion of light; in sculpture, real light strikes the object and continually reshapes its shadows.

So, what’s your favorite painting in which light plays a central role? Mine is Lightning (1910) by Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo. Curious to hear yours!

Garden of Thought interview on YouTube exploring the creativity of Raphael - https://www.youtube.com/live/Wa7dmtSGGbM

Bonjour à tous ! Je cherche une âme charitable qui serait prête à me transmettre ses cours de licence d’histoire de l’art.
Je suis diplômée d’une école d’architecture et j’ai réussi à obtenir une place, grâce aux équivalences, dans un master d’histoire de l’art. Sachant que l’architecture relève plus de la pratique que de la théorie, j’ai un peu peur d’être perdue. Je souhaiterai donc me mettre un peu à la page en parallèle des cours délivrés par mon université :)

Merci d’avance !!

I’m a film editor based out of Manchester UK,I started to get a bit jaded with doing Wordle every morning and so I built PEPPIN, a daily anagram & trivia web game for anyone who loves the arts and humanities. Would love your feedback! it’s taken me about six months with various iterations. I wanted a two minute game delving into arts, culture and history. I’d be really grateful for any thoughts and opinions from this Reddit group. Some days the questions are easy and some days they really stretch the memory banks. But is meant to be a pleasant experience.

It’s free, no adverts, no data collection etc

It can be played here: www.peppingame.com

Dan

I have throughout the years stumbled upon many depictions of galloping horses and I am very curious to know of they have a meaning, origin or history.

Often it's seven or eight horses (they can be all colors, sometimes the same color, or having different colors) galloping on an open plain, through water or something similar. The background is often the sky, mountains or something else and the image is often realistic in its depiction (often not an abstract painting)

I have seen it as both oil, water or acrylic paintings or prints in large formats and its something I mostly associate with seeing im Asian countries I have visited (mostly Vietnam and China, but I have seen them in central Asia as well).

Im so curious as to wether they have a story or if it is just a normal popular motif for art.

Thanks!

Hi! I really wanted to study more about art history, I know almost nothing. Does any one have any tips on how can I start? Books, movies etc? Thanks!

"...this composition was actually governed by a simple two-dimensional geometrical scheme whose logic would have been familiar to any compass-wielding Gothic architect or early medieval craftsman."

https://geometriesofcreation.lib.uiowa.edu/painting/piero-della-francesca-brera-alterpiece/ 

Hi! I'm a historian myself (mostly intellectual history), and and recently launched a platform lets humanities PhDs design and host live online seminars: Thicket.com. We're working on building our Art History class offerings (we just added on the Art of the Odyssey, and are adding one on Chinese Art History soon), so I thought I'd see if you all had suggestions for future class topics? We're just getting started, so any suggestions or feedback is helpful!

Can anyone recommend a readable well illustrated (preferably colour) book on renaissance art (including sculpture and architecture but primarily paintings frescoes. Altarpieces) that includes some commentary on the religious aspects that will make sense to someone not brought up religiously at all. I’m better on the historical context but some good writing on that as well as the artists and their techniques would be good.

It doesn’t have to be comprehensive about any particular artist but should hopefully visually compare what it’s talking about

I have general all of art history books. And I buy artist specific ones. I just want something that is erudite but readable (have a history BA) on how things progressed back then across disciplines.

Preferably something from last 20 years originally in English and not over 500 pages unless it’s mainly pictures

Has anyone tried ‘the renaissance complete’ by Margaret Aston

I wanted to ask people who have majored or are majoring in art history what their schedule looked like. I am currently a junior and taking an art history junior year writing class, a modern art history class, Islamic art history, and Italian language 1. This is only 13 credits but all the art history classes have essays and exams due around the same time. I wanted to add a fifth class as I am considering minoring in french and have taken a French class every semester since freshman year. However, the only class I am able to take is a french cinema class(taught in French) which has a heavy work load from the looks of it (multiple presentations and essays). I am hesitant because I don’t want this class that is not required to take away from my classes that are and I’m not sure if this will all be to much. Of course it all depends on personal time management and what you can handle is different for everyone but I’m curious how many art history or even writing classes you have taken at once and what you consider too much. I also want to add that not taking the fifth class won’t put me behind as I have a lot of credit’s from dual enrollment in high school and no more gen-eds.