Point of Reference

We're just a couple days away from the start of this list, so I thought it'd be interesting to take a moment and enjoy (and appraise) what humanity has long considered its greatest masterpieces from the most celebrated artists in history. Consider this the competition. Have a look and enjoy.

The Arnolfini (Wedding) Portrait by Jan van Eyck, 1434

La Primavera by Botticelli, 1482

Pieta, by Michelangelo, 1498-99

The Mona Lisa, by Da Vinci, 1503-6?

The School of Athens by Raphael Sanzio, 1509-11

The Incredulity of St. Thomas by Caravaggio, 1601-2

Apollo & Daphne by Bernini, 1622-5

The Lute Player by Frans Hals, 1623-4

The Night Watch by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1642

The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Vermeer, 1665

The Swing by Jean-Honore Fragonard, 1767

Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss by Canova, 1787

Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David, 1793

The Wanderer by Caspar David Friedrich, 1818

'Raft of the Medusa' by Gericault, 1818-9

'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' by Katsushika Hokusai, 1829-33

'Burial at Ornans' by Courbet, 1849-50

'Luncheon on the Grass' by Monet, 1866

'Boat Haulers on the Volga' by Ilya Repin, 1870-3

'Arrangement in Grey & Black, Portrait of the Artist's Mother' by Whistler, 1871

'Dance at the Moulin de la Galette' by Renoir, 1876

'Ballet at the Paris Opera' by Edgar Degas, 1877

'Bar at the Folies-Bergère' by Manet, 1882

'Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte' by Seurat, 1884

'Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose' by John Singer Sargent, 1885-6

'The Lady of Shallot' by Waterhouse, 1888

'Starry Night' by Van Gogh, 1889

'Summer Night' by Winslow Homer, 1890

'The Scream' by Edvard Munch, 1893

'The Black Cat' by Theophile Steinlin, 1896

'Forest Interior' by Paul Cézanne, 1898-9

'Self Portrait' by Picasso (blue period), 1901

'The Kiss' by Gustave Klimt, 1907

'Bath Time, Valencia' by Joaquim Sorolla y Bastida, 1909

'Portrait of Max Oppenheimer' by Egon Schiele, 1910

'Bicycle Wheel' by Marcel Duchamp, 1913

'Green Reflection (Waterlilies)' by Monet, 1920-6

'This is Not a Pipe' by Magritte, 1929

'The Persistence of Memory' by Salvador Dalí, 1931

'Portrait of Dora Maar' by Picasso, 1938

'Blue Nude' by Matisse, 1952

'Marilyn Monroe' by Andy Warhol, 1967

'The Spiral Jetty' by Andy Goldsworthy, 1970

'The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living' by Damien Hirst, 1991

'Balloon Dog' by Jeff Koons, 1994-2000