1. San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk
   Starry Night
2. Branches with Almond Blossom
   A Dash for the Timber

Created by the eternally famous Vincent Van Gogh, "Starry Night" introduces the viewer to the world as seen from his asylum window. He adds in a village below, giving the appearance of peace below as the clouds roil above.

1. A Bar at the Folies-Bergère
   Along the River During the Qingming Festival
2. The Kiss
   The Marriage Arnolfini

Painted by Édouard Manet, "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" shows a woman standing in front of a mirror as an enormous party goes on around her. The insertion of a bowl of oranges actually is a subtle signal that the woman is a courtesan, an association that the painter had used in other works.

1. The Kiss
   Mona Lisa
2. Madame X
   Windflowers

Perhaps the single most famous artwork of all time, the Mona Lisa is Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. Thought to be a painting of Lisa Gherardini, Lisa's smile will continue to haunt viewers with its mystery for as long as it exists.

1. The Headless Horseman
   Angelus (Angelus Domini)
2. The Scream
   The Accolade

"The Scream," by Edvard Munch, one of the few Norwegian paintings on this list, has garnered great repute due to its chaotic, alienating horror. It was actually stolen by gunmen in 2004, but police recovered it two years later.

1. The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulchre on the Morning of the Resurrection
   The Creation of Adam
2. The Calling of Saint Matthew
   The Young Martyr

Actually a fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel rather than a painting per se, Michaelangelo's "The Creation of Adam" is one of the most famous works of religious art in the world. The full spark of life has not yet occurred in the image; experts have theorized that this will happen when God's finger actually touches Adam.

1. The Birth of Venus
   The Magic Circle
2. Ecstasy
   Water Serpents

Painted by Sandro Botticelli, "The Birth of Venus" shows not the goddess's birth, but rather her subsequent arrival on shore, blown by the wind god Zephyr. The poses and stances of the figures in the painting are actually either physiologically impossible or awkward, and are meant to convey a sense of the fantastic.

1. The Avenue in the Rain
   Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)
2. The Japanese Footbridge
   Blossoming Almond Tree

Claude Monet's gorgeous "The Japanese Footbridge" embraces the viewer in a sea of vivid greens and blues. The delicate pink water lilies add an adventurous splash of color that Monet was particularly proud of.

1. The Last Supper
   The Madonna of the Chair
2. Allegory of Spring (La Primavera)
   Samson's Youth

Perhaps the single most famous religious painting the West has created, Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" shows Christ's final meal as described in the Book of John. Tragically, little of the original painting remains, due to a confluence of environmental and deliberate human factors.

1. Luncheon on the Grass
   The Garden At Argenteuil (A Corner of the Garden With Dahlias)
2. An Italian Village by a Lake
   Morning in the Pine-Tree Forest

"Luncheon on the Grass" by Édouard Manet is a painting that saw a great deal of controversy. It shows the titled luncheon, but one of the women there is fully nude and partly looking at the viewer, and there is another partly dressed woman in the background. She is held up against the male luncheon-goers as starkly different, white and glowingly nude, versus their full dressed, more conservative selves.

1. Nighthawks
   The Marriage Arnolfini
2. Fort Vimieux
   Blue Poles

Created by the English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner, "Fort Vimieux" shows a British vessel meeting its end during a battle in the Napoleonic wars. Run aground, its colors blend with the sun as it sinks sadly beneath the waves.

1. Bal du moulin de la Galette
   The Persistence of Memory
2. The Scream
   Portrait of a Young Man

Created by the artist known as Raphael, the identity of the titular young man in "Portrait of a Young Man" is unknown. Tragically, the painting's location too is unknown, as it was stolen from Poland by the Nazis during WWII.

1. The Great Western Railway
   The Raft of the Medusa
2. The Night Watch
   American Gothic

Painted by Théodore Géricault, "The Raft of the Medusa" refers to a tragic accident by which a French captained ship was destroyed off the coast of Mauritania. This work is held up as a paragon of the French Romanticist style, in contrast to the Neoclassical school that typified its era.

1. Lady With an Ermine
   Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains
2. The Last Judgment
   The Starry Night

One of only four known paintings of women created by Leonardo da Vinci, "Lady With an Ermine" is a painting of Cecilia Gallerani, mistress to the Duke of Milan. Note the particular detail of Cecilia's outstretched hand as it pets the beast!

1. The Transfiguration
   Les demoiselles d'Avignon
2. The Astronomer
   The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Created by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer, "The Astronomer" portrays a robed man poring over a globe while reading a letter. It was stolen by Nazis in 1940, but thankfully recovered, and can now be found hanging in the Louvre.

1. The Night Watch
   Nighthawks
2. Cardsharps
   Girl With a Pearl Earring

Painted by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, "Cardsharps" was an attempt by the artist to create something personal, with meaning for him, after a career essentially factory-painting crowd-pleasers like fruit. The viewer of the painting can see the skullduggery afoot in this game of cards, in spite of the seeming innocence of the young players.

1. Boreas 1903
   Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee
2. The Night Cafe
   Luncheon of the Boating Party

"Night Cafe" was painted by Vincent Van Gogh. The setting, with its lurid colors, is a place for drunkards and the prostitutes who are found with them. They are meant to symbolize the more brutish and low passions of humankind. The gaslight and slumped patrons make for a depressing scene.

1. Ecce Homo
   The Return of the Prodigal Son
2. Idleness II
   Charles I in Three Positions

Painted by the Flemish man Anthony van Dyck, "Charles I in Three Positions" portrays the doomed monarch as he appeared prior to the English Civil War. The triple portrait was meant to be a reference for creation of a marble bust. A companion portrait of his wife was called for, but the war ensured this would never come to pass.

1. The Storm
   Impression Sunrise
2. Paris Street; Rainy Day
   Ship at Sea at Sunset

Although it looks almost quaint to our modern eyes, "Paris Street; Rainy Day" by Gustave Caillebotte shows us a world in the throes of great change. The people dressed as they are symbolize the surging prosperity and wishes of the lower classes, and the architecture is that of a newly changed Paris.

1. El Vendedor De Alcatraces
   The Angelus, 1857-59
2. The Supper at Emmaus
   Wheat Field With Crows

Painted by Caravaggio, "The Supper at Emmaus" is a Baroque painting showing the resurrected Jesus' appearance to two of his disciples. His lack of a beard may be due to his description as being physically different upon his resurrection.

1. Man in a Golden Helmet
   The Hunters in the Snow
2. Battle of Grunwald
   Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Painted by Jacques-Louis David, "Napoleon Crossing the Alps" is an extraordinary piece of hero-worshiping art. The chief artist of Napoleonic France, here David creates a masterpiece aimed at lionizing the Emperor Napoleon and his Grande Armee, who at the time seemed all but invincible.

1. Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose
   Mulberry Tree
2. The Hay Wain
   Roses and Jasmine in a Delft Vase

The most famous work of John Constable, "The Hay Wain" is regarded as one of England's finest paintings. A wagon is passed at a pastoral ford in the English countryside as the clouds billow majestically overhead, giving the viewer a deep impression of rural England. Ironically, the painting was originally better received when shown in France!

1. Yellow Red Blue
   Apple Tree With Red Fruit
2. Composition VIII
   Buddha in His Youth

"Composition VIII" by Vasily Kandinsky was thought of by the artist as his finest post-war work. The painting radiates synesthesia as befits its name - to look upon it is to imagine music. It is frequently held up as a landmark example of Western non-representational art.

1. Kern's River Valley, California
   The Third of May 1808
2. Circe Invidiosa
   Garden of Eden

Created by Francisco Goya, "The Third of May 1808" breaks with the conventional glorification of war in art to show a brutal scene of a man defying his executioners. It was created to commemorate Spanish resistance to the Napoleonic occupation during the Peninsular War, particularly during the Dos de Mayo uprising.

1. The Birth of Venus
   La Grenouillere
2. Venus and Mars
   Portrait of a Gentleman Skating

Made by Gilbert Stuart, the jauntily dressed gentleman cannot help but amuse and entertain the viewer. The gentleman is actually William Grant, a Scotsman who inspired the painting during one of Gilbert's trips to Hyde Park.

1. Hip Hip Hurrah! Artists' Party at Skagen
   The Wedding at Cana
2. The Annunciation
   La Grenouillere

A physically huge painting, telling innumerable small stories simultaneously, "The Wedding at Cana" by Paolo Veronese has the main image is at its center, showing Jesus turning water into wine. Interestingly, we have the commission describing how the work was to be made and what Paolo was to be paid - 324 ducats and a barrel of wine, among other things!

1. A Magnolia on Red Velvet
   Spanish Dancer
2. The Swing
   The Painter's Honeymoon

Painted by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, "The Swing" is a joyous display of color, with a well-dressed young lady enjoying swinging high in the air as she is spied upon by a mischievous gentleman. Enlightenment era killjoys would later attack the style of art demonstrated by this painting in particular as being overly frivolous.

1. The Milkmaid
   The Soul of the Rose, 1908
2. Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
   The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

A Rembrandt painting of great reputation, "The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp" portrays what its name describes, as a corpse is used to demonstrate anatomy to the eager onlooking students. The corpse was based on a real body, that of executed criminal Aris Kindt.

1. A Dinner Table at Night
   Nude Maja
2. Primavera
   Fumee d'Ambre Gris

Created by Sandro Botticelli, "Primavera" is a bit of a mystery. It shows various Graces and figures from myth interacting, but if there is a foundational story here, no one knows what it is. The painting also has several similarities to Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus," yet the works are not known to be meant to be a pair.

1. Las Meninas
   Forest Scene
2. Pont Neuf, Paris
   Terrace at the Seaside, Sainte-Adresse

The painting "Las Meninas," or "The Ladies in Waiting," by Diego Velázquez, is a slice of life of the Spanish royal court. The small child is the sole surviving offspring of the Spanish royals, and she will later be married to the Holy Roman Emperor upon reaching the proper age.

1. Conversion of St. Paul
   Cave of the Storm Nymphs
2. The Garden of Earthly Delights
   Regatta at Argenteuil

An extraordinary painting rendered in triptych format, "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch is a gorgeous enigma. It presents a surreal, sensual and apocalyptic vision divided into three panels, full of vivid color and strange imagery.

1. A Wall, Nassau
   The Boating Party Lunch
2. Moonlight
   The Sleepers

"The Sleepers" by Gustave Courbet shows two women entwined, asleep after sex. It is credited with helping to normalize lesbianism in France by portraying it in a beautiful light.

1. Napoleon's Farewell to Josephine (or My Destiny and France Demand It)
   Portrait of King Louis XV
2. Venus and Mars
   The Maiden

A painting by Sandro Botticelli, "Venus and Mars" shows the two deities relaxing after making love - Mars is in fact asleep. Venus has used her beauty and love to triumph over warlike aggression. Four satyrs play nearby. Don't confuse this painting with another work that bears the same title, by Paolo Veronese.

1. Battle of Issus
   Regatta at Argenteuil
2. A Boating Party
   Saint Michael Trampling the Dragon

Created by master artist Albrecht Altdorfer, "Battle of Issus" is an incredible piece of landscape art that shows Alexander winning his spectacular victory over Darius at Issus. The Earth is full of knights battling (hey, he painted what he knew!) as the sky twists and roils overhead to match the chaos below.

1. Ponte Vecchio, Florence
   When Shadows Hint Death
2. Fishing Boats, Key West
   Wheatfield With Crows

"Wheatfield With Crows" by Van Gogh shows a simple wheatfield, with crows flying beneath a menacing sky. It is that air of menace that defines the painting, giving the viewer a tingling sense of unreality and fear.

1. Last Judgement
   Ascent of the Blessed
2. Feast of the Rosary
   St. Joseph With the Infant Jesus

"The Feast of the Rosary" by Albrecht Dürer is a painting displaying a Christian Germanic feast around images of the Madonna and Child. Filled with bright colors and celebration, the painting also has a small self-portrait of Albrecht Dürer hidden in the corner by a tree. See if you can spot it!

1. At the Moulin Rouge
   A Young Girl Reading
2. The Ladies Waldegrave
   Madonna and Child

Painted by Joshua Reynolds, "The Ladies Waldegrave" is a portrait of the three named daughters, relaxing in a parlor. Their brilliant white dresses and powdered skin appear almost ghostly, but the painting was actually created to try to draw suitors for them.

1. La Grenouillere
   Street Scene in Montmartre: Le Moulin à Poivre
2. The Gulf Stream
   Ariadne, 1898

Painted by Van Gogh, "Street Scene in Montmartre: Le Moulin à Poivre" is an image of the street where the painter lived in the late 1880s. It bears his characteristic blend of Pointillism and Impressionism.

1. Lilith
   Psyche Opening the Golden Box
2. The Siren
   The Fall of the Damned

A physically enormous painting, "The Fall of the Damned" by Peter Paul Rubens shows the host of rebel angels being hurled into Hell by the Archangel Michael. It is distinct for its portrayal of the angels stripped bare, their light skin contrasted with the abyss they are being hurled into.

1. Boulevard des Capucines
   The Ninth Wave
2. Waiting for Dad
   Venice: The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore

Painted by Ivan Aivazovsky, "The Ninth Wave" is at first glance a seascape showing a mighty wave about to destroy a sinking mast and the people upon it. It is actually filled with Christian symbolism, however, as the mass is cross-shaped and the overall brightness of the work promises the possibility of salvation for the people clinging to it.

1. Liberty Leading the People
   Seven Works of Mercy
2. The Battle of Lexington
   Writing the Declaration of Independence, 1776

Created in 1830 by Eugène Delacroix, "Liberty Leading the People" was created in the hope for a bright future for the French rebels against the Monarchy. Ironically, the painting was later put into storage, due to its inflammatory political message. Today it is on display at the Louvre.