Of Chess and Art

Chess is a beautiful game. Like artists painting their worlds within the confines of a canvas, so do chess players build their vision within the square-format of their board.

Vittorio Matteo Corcos – The Addict (1899)

Freshly returned from Paris, where he had gained a reputation as the painter of pretty women, at the end of the 1890s Vittorio Matteo Corcos started exploring the underlying psychological dimensions of his favorite subject: women. Marking a departure from his previous paintings that revolved around peacefully content subjects, some of the artworks from this […]

Giorgio de Chirico – Self-portrait (1922)

Giorgio de Chirico had always been a classicism enthusiast. Even during the early stages of his career, the artist had resorted to iconography reminiscent of Ancient Greece and Rome. It may come as no surprise then, that since he was an Italian born in Greece, de Chirico was not shy to take pride in his […]

Carpaccio – Preparation of Christ’s Tomb (1505)

Chances are you’ve probably heard of carpaccio – the Italian appetizer which consists of thinly sliced raw meat – but you might not know that the name was inspired by the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio. According to anecdotes, when Giuseppe Cipriani – the owner of the renowned Venetian restaurant Harry’s Bar, frequented among others by […]

Artemisia Gentileschi – Jael and Sisera (c. 1620)

The sight of a female painter in 17th century Italy must have been an absolute rarity, but Artemisia Gentileschi was lucky enough to be taught to paint in her father’s workshop. It was there where she also met Agostino Tassi, another artist that her father, Orazio Gentileschi, had hired to tutor her. One day Tassi […]