These masterful sculptures and paintings reveal our humanity.

To talk about the world’s most famous art is hard to capture in a short amount of space. But we can talk about sculpture and paintings. There are many great examples of such art.

Sculpture

“The Discus Thrower” is a great example from ancient Greece. This statue is renowned for its contribution to the contrapossto form of sculpture. Here a sculpture should be seen from more than one angle to understand its complexity.

The “Lady Justice” statue symbolizes the impartiality of justice?that it is balanced and impartial. It is found in almost every courthouse and legal office in the country.

“The Kiss” by Auguste Rodin is another masterpiece. It is about a couple engaged in a passionate touch of the lips. 

“The Pieta” from Michelangelo is a rendition of the death of Christ with the body resting on his mother’s lap. This image was the first to represent Mary as young and serene. Her look of sadness couldn’t be captured by a photograph any better.

“The Thinker” is another sculpture from Auguste Rodin. Perhaps the best sculpture since Michaelangelo, “The Thinker” was originally designed for the gates of Hell. Yet it became a standalone sculpture.

The “Venus de Milo” for many is the ultimate symbol of art. It has been around since the second century B.C. This armless woman statue from an unknown sculptor has achieved worldwide attention.

The statue of “David” is one of Michelangelo’s greatest. This towering statue of a well-built man who took on a giant contrasts with the biblical image of a frail boy who confronts Goliath.

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Paintings

 

Another representation of great art comes from the paintings by artists down through the centuries.

Michaelangelo has already had representation in the list but you can’t ignore his majestic paintings. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican which shows nine scenes from Genesis is an example of the poetry of paint.

Leonardo da Vinci was so many things it it hard to talk about just one aspect. Artist, inventor and scientist, his talent was enormous. His most famous painting is the “Mona Lisa.” Is she smiling? Like the “Venus de Milo,” this is what people think of when they think of great art.

Van Gogh and his “Starry Night” are famous for the image of Impressionism that broke from the mold of representing what was seen. Instead the painter saw the colors and forms.

Raphael’s “Cherubim” is a painting where two young angels are glancing at the sky and looking, well, angelic. The unique thing about his art was the life he could bring to his subjects. His paintings conveyed an idea.

Pablo Picasso was the 20th century’s premier painter. His “Guernica,” the bombing of a town in Spain by the Fascists, represented a different style. It had sharp angles and distorted forms. Many of his paintings were not pretty, but they were dramatic.

Salvidor Dali, like Picasso, changed styles more than once in his career. His “The Lugubrious Game” is an example of a painting with many – over 50 – images, each conveying a different idea or concept.

This list of the world’s most famous art represents different epochs, different painters, different styles and different perspectives. You can almost see the changing view of the human self-image over time by looking at how the artists see themselves and their subjects.