13 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Greek painter from Kos — court painter to Alexander the Great — regarded in antiquity as the greatest painter who ever lived, though none of his works survive. Known through Pliny's descriptions of his paintings, including Aphrodite Anadyomene and the portrait of Alexander holding a thunderbolt.
David Hockney is a British painter known for his California paintings and his 'Secret Knowledge' thesis about optics in Old Master painting.
American filmmaker and visual artist whose Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive created the defining cinematic language for the American uncanny — dreams, violence, and suburban darkness — and whose advocacy for Transcendental Meditation made him an unusual ambassador for contemplative practice.
Cuban-American painter and physicist whose large-scale paintings combine poetic imagery with philosophical inquiry — he holds a PhD in applied physics from Cornell and an MFA — and whose work explores memory, loss, and meaning at the intersection of art and science.
Italian painter, architect, and art historian — author of The Lives — architect of the Uffizi Gallery — Michelangelo's friend — who created art history as a discipline through his biographies of Renaissance artists.
Canadian-American comedian and actor whose physical comedy and dramatic range (The Truman Show, Eternal Sunshine) made him one of the defining entertainers of the 1990s — and whose later philosophical turn, public advocacy of psychedelics and spirituality, and painting practice make him a compelling figure on questions of identity and meaning.
Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, and architect who produced the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the Pietà, and David — widely considered the greatest artist of all time and the supreme exemplar of Renaissance humanism.
Newell Convers Wyeth, American illustrator and painter best known for his dramatic adventure illustration — Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Robin Hood — and as the patriarch of the Wyeth artistic dynasty.
Spanish painter and sculptor — co-founder of Cubism, creator of Guernica and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon — one of the most prolific and commercially successful artists in history, who reinvented his style multiple times across eight decades.
Swiss painter and Jungian analysand whose work was guided by his analytic work with Jung and Zurich Jungians — Light From the Darkness (a posthumous collection of his dream paintings) became a key text in Jungian art psychology.
Rembrandt van Rijn was a 17th-century Dutch Golden Age painter celebrated for his mastery of light and shadow (chiaroscuro) and his psychologically penetrating portraits and self-portraits.
British philosopher who wrote Art and Its Objects and Painting as an Art — developing the theory of 'seeing-in' (the experience of seeing a depicted object in a painted surface) and integrating psychoanalytic theory with philosophy of mind and aesthetics.
Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Florentine noblewoman Ginevra de' Benci (c. 1474-78) — the only Leonardo painting in the Americas, notable for the juniper bush (a pun on 'ginepro'/Ginevra) framing the face.