Title Creator Datesort icon Era City Country Emotional Sum (Sense of Life or emotional World View) Theme
Sainte-Chapelle Architect: Anonymous 1248 Paris, Ile de la Cite France

The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly.

The world is brilliant, light, colorful, orderly.

Old Man with a Young Boy Painter: Domenico Ghirlandaio 1490 1400s Florence Italy

Human companionship or family closeness is real.

Quiet familial love. (A grandfather (perhaps) gazing upon a grandson, and vice versa, in a clear moment of happy communion.)

Pieta Sculptor: Michelangelo Buonarotti 1500 1500s

Resignation in the face of tragedy.

Recognition and acceptance of a great personal loss.

David Sculptor: Michelangelo Buonarotti 1504 1500s Florence Italy

Man is a strong, indomitable creature who has the intelligence to overcome terrible odds.

[requires assumption of some context of this work -- not a "cold" introduction to it]: A man able to face a daunting task, with tremulous calm and determination. This is the depiction of the David/Goliath story of the Bible in which David takes on the much more formidable Goliath and wins.

Burgos Cathedral Crossing Architect: Unknown 1569 circa 1500s Burgos Spain

God is order and reason and light.

The spirit of god is rational, uplifting and rich in detail

Othello: the Moor of Venice Playwright: William Shakespeare 1603 1600s Stratford-on-Avon United Kingdom

Malevolence and horrible tragedy is unrelieved.  Evil is potent.

A great man can be gullible and controlled by an evil character.  Or, an evil character can have potency in the world, because of the weakness of a good man.

Head of a Bearded Man Domenichino: 1625c 1600s New York United States

Pensive, worried, detached qualities of humanity

Worry is the way of the world.

Chariot of Apollo Sculptor: Jean Baptiste (1630-1700) Tuby 1668-1670 1600s Versailles France

The world has thrilling powerful men of action.  There are no limits to what can be achieved.

Elegant, physical power.  The fantasy ability to fly through water and air with grace and ease.

Real Chiesa di San Lorenzo (Royal Church of St. Lawrence) Architect: Guarino Guarini 1680 1600s Torino (Turin) Italy

The world is perfected. The joy of seeing complexity that is simplicity, i.e., that the rich complex vision arises from simple elements which because of their arrangement provide layers of visual thrills.

Complex, soaring geometric order.

Three Graces Sculptor: Antonio Canova 1814 1800s Italy

The female human form is beautiful, graceful, ideal.

Quiet repose and sisterly love. The piece exudes a quiet elegance and peacefulness amidst the complex three-dimensional composition. The inclusion of "sisterly love" is less certain, except that taking into account the mythological background of the piece. It can be argued that one should not take that into account, so perhaps that should not formally be included in the theme.

Rape of Polyxena, The Sculptor: Pio Fedi 1866 1800s

Strength and complex beauty are central. Vitality, passion and action are hallmarks of this work.

Life is complex strife, entwined with strong god-like characters.

Shade, The Rodin, Auguste: 1880-1904 1900s Paris France

Life is a gruesome trial. There is no hope.

The world destroys man. (Some unknown evil force is destroying this young strong man.) Given that the sculpture is titled as a "Shade" and is related to the Group sculpture "Gates of Hell", one can presume the evil is some unnamed condition that can overpower life and cause destruction of the good.

The New Colossus Author: Emma Lazarus 1883 1800s New York, NY United States

Benevolent celebration of liberty as a beacon to a troubled world.

A marvelous land of liberty offers welcome to the oppressed of the world.

Ebben? Ne andrò lontana (aria from La Wally) Composer: Alfredo Catalani 1892 1851-1900 Milan Italy

Longing is the overall emotional tone of the music. The lyric gives reason to this overall tone.

Sadness at having to leave forever the place where you were happy once.

Comedia Painter: Thomas Wilmer Dewing 1892-4c 1800s Philadelphia United States

Life is sumptuous and beautiful and alive.

Feminine vivacity and gaiety

Repose Painter: John White Alexander 1895 1900s New York United States

Life is extravagant and lush and sensual.

Feminine Sensuality is a main theme, though one can argue that a related (equal theme or sub-theme) is: The Lushness of the Material World. The dramatic draped womanly figure pressing against a divan, whose figure is clearly oulined, shares the visual dominance of the painting along with the magnificent sweeps of her dress and the giant pillows, the massive backrest, and even the strong elements of the floor material and the golden back wall. All together a remarkable composition.

Cyrano de Bergerac Playwright: Edmond Rostand 1897 1900s France

Life can be exciting. Life can be grand, literally. There is also some great sadness about consummated love, since it is portrayed as unreachable.

The importance of independence and independent thought. Compromise is deadly to one's soul. Sub-themes: a) Doubt of one's goodness because of an incidental fact (physical feature) is terribly damaging and tragic. b) Helping someone by faking reality is damaging and can come to no good.

Trees Alexander, John: 1899 1900s Olathe United States

A sense of the world as dynamic and strong.

Nature is wild and dynamic.

Merry Widow (Die Lustige Witwe) Composer: Franz Lehar 1905 1900s Vienna Austria

Love brings gaiety and joy to life.

Love can be gay and tender, solemn and lighthearted, painful and joyous.

Brass Bowl, The Vance, Louis Joseph: 1907 1900 - 1950 United States

The world is a delightful place. Good things happen to the deserving.

Life as a gay, lighthearted adventure.

National Farmers' Bank Architect: Louis Sullivan 1907 1900 - 1950 Owatonna MN United States

Being able to breath freely -- expansively, and feeling that there are no limits to what man can do.

The world is expansively, infinitely rich.

King in Khaki, A Author: Henry Kitchell Webster 1909 1900 - 1950 United States

Honesty is a noble and practical way of life.

Business acumen produces both material wealth and moral right.

The success of the entrepreneur in this story, along with his relation to all his staff and secondary and tertiary folks on the island who work for him -- makes him into a "king" based on important human relations and the rightness of his decisions that result in a successful business enterprise.

A subsidiary theme might be termed the power of morality over physical power or economic "power".

La Gomena (Towing a Boat) Painter: Ettore Tito 1909 1900s Italy

There is great effort in life, and a woman can be the master of it. This painting is a curious combination of romantic heroism and 19th century genre naturalism. It has a visual dynamism and dramatic content that is strongly romantic, yet the subject is the prosaic task of pulling a boat out of the water.

The will and the power of a woman. Implacable determination.

Robie House Architect: Frank Lloyd Wright 1910 1900 - 1950 Chicago, Illinois United States

The world is open and has sweeping, unending possibilities.

The essence of a house as shelter, and providing a sense of strength and privacy. That is, a structure that exudes strength through its massive cantilever and massive brick and stone forms, along with its big overhangs sheltering the windows to create a sense of privacy and enclosure, in its urban situation.

Hyacinths to feed thy soul White, James Terry: 1911c 1900s United States

Hopeful. Even in poverty one can have beauty.

Beauty is a form of sustenance