"Beauty is a manifestation of secret natural laws, which otherwise would have been hidden from us forever."–Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
ARCHITECTURE–The Parthenon has been voted the most beautiful building in the world and continues to be a source of inspiration for architects. a stunning piece of architectural art, has stood atop the Acropolis of Athens for nearly 2,500 years. Like paintings and sculptures, buildings can be beautiful works of art.
SCULPTURE–The Venus of Arles–Regarded as a supreme icon of feminine beauty, the Venus of Arles embodies ideal classical beauty. She was named after the place where she was found – the Roman theatre of Arles in southern France, in 1651, during the reign of Louis XIV.
The Sun King had the statue restored by the sculptor François Girardon, who endowed her with her traditional attributes: the apple (awarded by Paris to the most beautiful goddess) and the mirror.
PAINTING: “ The School of Athens" by Raphael. He was one of the three undisputed masters of the Renaissance, together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
Regarded as Raphael’s greatest masterpiece, "The School of Athens" is a virtuosic wonder of perspective and populated by an intellectual who’s-who of Western thought from Plato and Aristotle to Ptolemy and Euclid.
PAINTING–“Boreas" by John William Waterhouse–In the style of the The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848, which sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colors and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art. They rejected what they regarded as the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo.
John William Waterhouse (6 April 1849 – 10 February 1917) was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His artworks were known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend.