Masterwork of the Day

Fra Bartolommeo's oil-on-panel Nativity, painted in Italy around 1504–07, brings Renaissance devotion to life on canvas.

Hokusai's c.1806 woodblock print Ishibei captures a quiet moment from his famed Tokaido road series in Japan.

This 1870 oil painting by French artist Henri Leopold Lévy dramatically portrays the death of Orpheus, the legendary musician of Greek mythology.

This 1662 engraving by French artist Robert Nanteuil captures a striking portrait of Louis Phélypeaux de la Vrillière, held in the Prints and Drawings collection.

This 1st-century gold coin, minted in Rome, immortalizes the brief reign of Emperor Otho through his portrait.

Mary Cassatt captures a quiet Parisian moment in this 1878–79 oil painting, 'On a Balcony,' from the Arts of the Americas collection.

Hiroshige's woodblock print imagines Mount Fuji rising on the left along the Tokaido road near Yoshiwara, part of his famed 53 Stations series.

Handcarved in mid-19th-century Algeria, these wooden bath clogs shimmer with delicate mother-of-pearl inlay.

Fragonard's 1774 ink-and-wash drawing reinterprets a Rubens original, capturing a satyr pressing grapes right beside a watchful tiger.

Rembrandt's celebrated etching Christ Preaching, crafted around 1657 in Holland using drypoint and burin on fine ivory laid paper.

Hokusai's iconic 1830s woodblock print captures a towering wave dwarfing boats before Mount Fuji, a timeless treasure of Japanese art.

Willem van Mieris's 1707 oil-on-panel painting "A Mother Feeding her Child" showcases tender Dutch domestic life from Holland's golden age.

Torii Kiyonaga's charming 1779 color woodblock print reimagines poet Ono no Komachi washing a copybook, part of a witty ukiyo-e series from Edo-period Japan.

This stunning Greek terracotta storage jar, crafted in Athens using the black-figure technique between 490 and 480 BCE, is a remarkable survivor of ancient everyday life.

British master Sir Joshua Reynolds captured the elegance of Lady Sarah Bunbury in this stunning 1763–65 oil on canvas, now a jewel of European painting.

This striking Flemish engraving by Paul Pontius, made after Anthony van Dyck between 1630 and 1645, brings the portrait of Daniel Mytens to vivid life in black ink on cream paper.

Monet captured the golden beauty of harvest season in this 1890–91 oil on canvas, transforming humble French wheat stacks into a breathtaking study of light and color.