The Secret History of Art is a guide to seeing art in an entirely new way.
This blog, and its accompanying videos, takes you on a private guided tour of a special selection among the greatest artworks in the world. International best-selling author and professor of art history Noah Charney presents the history, symbolism, and importance of each work selected.
The Secret History of Art is a series of lessons in miniature on great works of art around the world. By spending just a few minutes per masterpiece, you can learn the mysteries, stories, and secrets of some of the world’s greatest art treasures.
This blog is an extension of Noah Charney’s acclaimed Museum Time (De Museos) series, guidebooks to the museums of Spain, published in Spanish and English by geoPlaneta.
The museums of the world can be daunting. The art presents a strange new language, one that certainly intrigues but is often intimidating and foreign. Museum-goers often like to know what they should see and why. This blog and its accompanying videos offer an answer.
The history of art is full of unsolved mysteries. Art historians have spent centuries trying to decipher paintings whose exact meanings have been lost to Modern man. Before the Modern period, educated men understood a visual language of symbol and allegory which is no longer used today. Learning this visual vocabulary of allegory and symbol allows us to interpret and decode these masterpieces, which are renowned for their beauty, but the interpretation and understanding of which has remained elusive. Real art history is full of coded messages and hidden meanings, which require a guide to illuminate. But most of all, great works of art speak in universal truths about the human condition, about love, fear, death, jealousy, and faith. Though these masterpieces were created centuries ago, human beings have changed remarkably little—only modern man has lost the ability to read the mysterious and beautiful language of symbols that are the key to understanding art history’s mysteries. Together, we will unlock the puzzles and learn the stories behind the artworks.
Join us for this series of illuminations of the secret history of art.
