The Adoration of the Magi

“The Adoration of the Magi” (late 1750s) by Italian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It depicts the Nativity scene in which wise men and shepherds come to pay respects and offer gifts to the newborn baby. Many of the characters in the painting have their…

A Cat Stealing Fish

This scene was painted in the late 1660s by Giuseppe Recco, an Italian painter who specialized in still life art. The painting shows a cat caught in the act of eating and stealing fish. The painting exemplifies skills in lighting, and the detail into the fish scales and cat fur. The still life artistry was…

Pockets of Black Joy

Black joy is a form of resistance that gives agency to Black people in times where oppression and racism have tried to take away everything else. Stowe portrays an instance of black joy when she describes Uncle Tom’s cottage at the beginning of chapter 4. The cottage is first described as a “small log building”…