It has been two years since I began The Vivid Eye, this newsletter devoted to the pleasures of close looking at artwork. Thank you to all of my subscribers! I am so grateful for your readership. Let’s celebrate two years with two party games!
Feel free to share with a friend or three so that they can play along!
Party Game #1
My writing often features Western art from about 1400 to the present, given my scholarly background in Renaissance prints, but I aim to include more global and lesser-known artworks so that there will be something for everyone to learn about here, including myself.
If you want an art historical challenge that more randomly tests your eyes and your sense of artwork produced across vast spaces and timelines: try Anthropeum (anthropeum.com)! In this online game, which draws from the enormous holdings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, you try to guess an artwork’s age and place of origin using nothing but your eyes and your knowledge of materials. It’s humbling and inspiring and boring—again, something for everyone given the range of options—so try your hand at it and let me know if you think it’s fun.
Here are some images from today’s Atheneum. Can you guess their dates and their places of origin?
The only ones I guessed sufficiently well in both time and space were the watery blue garment and the granary box with scribes. Doesn’t the latter look delightfully like stop-motion animation? The gold with granulation has a major place clue given the elephant, though I was far off on the timeline. Same with the walrus-ivory tool. Both of the humanesque figures threw me off (and when the description includes a hand-waving generalization like “could indicate a divine quality” you can tell the experts don’t know much about it either. But I digress….). Anthropeum includes a link to the image on the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, if you’d like more information. (I’m not telling you the answers, in case you want to try it yourself today:)
You can even share your score with friends, just like in Wordle or Connections (from the NY Times Games). Here’s mine for today…
Anthropeum.com · Aug 22 2026
🟨🟨🟨🟩🟩🟨🟦🟨🟩🟩
65,309 · top 20% of players today!
Party Game #2
Speaking of, I know some of my readers are Wordlers, and so here are three custom Wordles just for you! If you’ve never played, you try to guess the five letter word (more instructions here). The first word is a warm up, and the second and third name the upcoming regular reward for my paying subscribers:
Warm up Wordle One!
Wordle Two and Wordle Three!
Last year I paused all payment during a turbulent time in my schedule, during which I wasn’t able to write regularly. This September 1, I’m restoring the paying option for my most devoted subscribers, with more rewards for you generous art-loving souls. It means a lot to me if you can thus subscribe, but if that’s not feasible for you right now, I get it! Most of my writing and art historical teaching will remain absolutely free.
There is so much more to come on The Vivid Eye this year! I can’t wait to bring my wonderful readers more tools for close looking, more artists to discover, and more personalized content. Here’s to a great year of close looking ahead! Eva
Meanwhile, feel free to revisit past episodes. Hello Tang Dynasty Chicken Lady, nice to see you again!
A Chicken Lady from Tang Dynasty China
·
November 15, 2024
Lady with Bird, Tang dynasty China (618-906), cold-painted earthenware, 16 1/2 x 5 /14 x 5 1/4 in. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara. My photo.
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