As long as people have told stories, we have told stories about animals. Stories of slow turtles and fast rabbits, sly foxes and cunning monkeys, that are really stories about ourselves. But why? What can animals tell us about human nature? And what happens to our fellow creatures when we turn them—in art and literature and myth—into something they’re not?

You can see Edwin Landseer’s startling painting of the 17th century fable “The Monkey and the Cat” in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art (just don’t show your cat):

https://collections.artsmia.org/art/3077/the-cats-paw-sir-edwin-henry-landseer

Leonora Carrington has never felt at home in her wealthy, conservative family. But when she meets the Surrealists in the 1930s, and runs from everything she knows, it will take everything she has to become the artist and writer she wants to be. Most importantly: her singular imagination, which reveals the world as both more magical and more haunted than most of us care to admit.

You can see her feminist take on Surrealism in this painting from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/98514/dear-diary-never-since-we-left-prague-leonora-carrington

No one lives forever. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying, and for a long time the noble way to avoid getting old and dying was to avoid getting old at all: the Greek notion of the “glorious death” that confers immortality in battle. It’s an idea that resurfaces throughout history—until it meets its match in a war of many deaths and little glory.

You can see “Kiss of Victory,” the sculpture that kicks off this episode and launched the career of Sir Alfred Gilbert, in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2279/kiss-of-victory-sir-alfred-gilbert

The man behind "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" was one of the richest, most popular authors in the world—an adventurous celebrity who could fight as well as write. But many of Alexandre Dumas’ readers today don’t know that he was Black—or that his best story may have been his own.

A portrait of Alexandre Dumas, widely reproduced in his day, was recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art:

https://collections.artsmia.org/art/142671/portrait-of-alexandre-dumas-pere-pierre-francois-eugene-giraud

Another portrait of Dumas in Mia’s collection—younger, dashing, looking a little like Prince: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/54426/portrait-of-alexander-dumas-achille-deveria

In the 1970s, Georgia O’Keeffe is supposedly the hermit savant of the New Mexico badlands, rarely heard and seldom seen, even as the outside world can’t get enough of her enigmatic art. But when curators, journalists, and even the FBI come calling, it seems the head ghost of Ghost Ranch is the host with the most—and hardly ever alone. A fresh look at a myth we can’t stop believing.

You can see one of O'Keeffe's badlands pictures, "Black Place I," in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/119128/black-place-i-georgia-okeeffe

Also, one of her iconic views from Ghost Ranch, "Pedernal--From the Ranch #1": https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1554/pedernal-from-the-ranch-1-georgia-okeeffe

And a photograph of her with husband Alfred Stieglitz: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/1973/stieglitz-and-okeeffe-arnold-newman

(Season 4 premiere) It’s one of the largest jade sculptures in the world, a 640-pound mountain commissioned by the Chinese emperor. But in 1901, in the ugly aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion, it ends up leaving China with an American diplomat—only to resurface on the dinner table of a lumber baron. It’s a story of power and scandal, a story as old as stone: can anyone be king of the hill for long?

You can see "Jade Mountain Illustrating the Gathering of Scholars at the Lanting Pavilion" here: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/4324/jade-mountain-illustrating-the-gathering-of-scholars-at-the-lanting-pavilion-china

In 1852, Harriet Hosmer packs her pistol, her anatomy degree, and two pictures of a sculpture she made and moves to Rome. There, among other “emancipated women” in the expat colony, she becomes one of the world’s most famous artists. But it’s the spirit world that truly calls to her, the realm of the dead that she channels through clairvoyance and seances. So what happens when she answers? (This episode first aired in June 2021. New season begins March 14.)

You can see Hosmer's remarkably tender sculpture of Medusa, now on view in the "Supernatural America" exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, in the online collection: collections.artsmia.org/art/81074/med…oodhue-hosmer

Elizabeth Catlett, the granddaughter of enslaved African-Americans, is a struggling artist at the height of Jim Crow. But when she moves to Mexico City in 1946, she finds love, inspiration, and eventually fame. There's just one catch: she can't come home. (This episode first aired in March 2020.) New season begins March 14.

Check out her work in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/7890/sharecropper-elizabeth-catlett

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood,” wrote Tom Robbins, the novelist. He could have been referring to Henri Rousseau, the fin de siècle autodidact who begins painting seriously in retirement: storybook-style scenes of exotic animals and jungles that eventually catch the eye of Picasso and Matisse. A story worth remembering as you contemplate a new year, same as the old year—or not.

You can see a print of Rousseau’s “War,” a possible inspiration for Picasso’s “Guernica,” in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/7859/la-guerre-henri-rousseau

You can see one of Rousseau’s most iconic works, “The Dream,” in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79277

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It’s good to be the pope in the 1600s. But staying pope is not so easy, as the famous Barberini family finds out when one of their own takes up the tiara in 1623. As Rome fills up with their art, and dungeons fill up with their enemies, can they survive the forces of change threatening their worldview—and the forces of the occult threatening to kill the pope on Christmas Day?

You can see some of the art commissioned by the Barberini family, including Pope Urban VIII, all over Rome—in the Piazza Barberini, the Palazzo Barberini, and of course St. Peter’s Basilica—and also in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/search/pope%20urban

Look closely and you may see the curious Barberini family crest—a trio of bees—on fountains, frames, and even the altar in St. Peter’s Basilica. Read about its symbolism and ubiquity here: https://theframeblog.com/2017/08/22/bees-in-the-frame-part-1-the-barberini-bee/