Art | Culture | History

These Masterpiece Paintings Had Even Better Backstories

How art becomes an expression of a moment in time and, often, a moment in crisis.

Raphael School of Athens by Raphael. Painted between 1509–1511 (Vatican Public Domain)

A painting’s value goes well beyond what you see.

If you look a little deeper and see the stories behind them, you can see your own humanity, and a shimmer of your own culture shining back.

My goal is simple: I want to help you enjoy art more — and learn to look for the story in each piece. Here are five that blew my mind — for completely different reasons.

Telling a story with a painting

This is, perhaps, my favorite painting of all time — and it is dark.

It is dubbed The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche and is based on a true historical event.

Note the detail on her white dress, and the lighting hitting the ripples. (Paul Delaroche — The National Gallery Online via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain).

Jane wasn’t deserving of being executed and was only 16 at the time. But she was caught up in political forces she had no control over. She was seen as a threat to the crown and was beheaded in 1554.