2007-06-22 16:26:15 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Visual Arts ➔ Painting
This is hard to answer for many reasons. What is beautiful doesn't always make it the best or most profound.
Artists like Maxfield Parrish painted amazingly beautiful paintings but such works are seldom ranked up there with the great art works.
It would be much easier to answer what is the most popular or best loved painting of all time.
2007-06-22 16:46:39 · answer #1 · answered by Doc Watson 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Here are a couple for consideration:
Any one of several self-portraits by Rembrandt
The Last Judgement by Michaelangelo
Napolean crowning himself emporer by Jacques Louis David
For sheer prettiness almost anything by Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Nobody mentioned any of Renoir's bathers or nudes.
How about Monet's Water Lillies--They really are quite breathtaking.
Mona Lisa?--not so much. I was really underwhelmed. Any of Raphael's Madonnas are much more beautiful.
2007-06-24 03:30:11 · answer #2 · answered by David C 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Since art appreciation is one of the most SUBJECTIVE things in the universe, this can only be answered by an opinion, not a fact.
However, that being said, Leonardo daVinci's "Mona Lisa" attracts the most visitors to the Louvre in Paris.
One of the most reproduced paintings is Sallman's "Head of Christ".
2007-06-22 23:37:17 · answer #3 · answered by Mmerobin 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I would say Da Vinci's Mona Lisa in the Louvre's Denon Wing is enigmatic, but not the most beautiful in the world. (My opinion I know).
Individually I would go with Vermeer's the Lace Maker. On a grander scale, I would have to go with Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel, esp now that's its been restored. Wow!
2007-06-23 06:43:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I'm a fan of the imprssionist era, that being said I like Van Gogh's "Wheat Field Under Threatening Skies." It is thought that it is the last painting that he made before his suicide, though that is widely debated, regardless that painting has a haunting beauty to it that is mezmorising.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/gogh/fields/gogh.threatening-skies.jpg
2007-06-22 23:44:57 · answer #5 · answered by TALLcoolone 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
For deceased artists, several pieces by either Maxfield Parrish, or Bougereau.
For living artists, a piece called 'Amazon Night'
by Gerard Priault from France.
2007-06-24 10:33:56 · answer #6 · answered by Phil H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not particularly religious but I once saw a 20ft painting of Jesus by Gustav Dore in the Petit Palais in Paris - it was breath taking and oh... anything by Waterhouse.
2007-06-23 04:44:27 · answer #7 · answered by spacebunny3000 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
"Impression, Sunrise" by Monet. The first Impressionist painting ever.
2007-06-23 19:15:28 · answer #8 · answered by spanaki 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I tend to lean toward Waterhouse & love his painting of the Lady of Shallot; http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=2025717430&c=&search=Raffael&GCID=s15100x001&KEYWORD=Raffael+painting
2007-06-23 21:24:14 · answer #9 · answered by kyralan 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso, I really feel that one.
2007-06-22 23:34:13 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋