TOP 10 greatest works of art

From mysterious 30,000-year-old rock paintings to Jackson Pollock's Cathedral of Mind, renowned art critic and critic Jonathan Jones tells us about his favorite pieces of art and where to see them. What do you think would make your top 10?

Leonardo Da Vinci - "The Fetus in the Womb" (Fetus in the womb) 1510-13

• Royal Collection, Windsor Castle (Royal collection, Windsor Castle)

Leonardo depicts the human condition in a nutshell - indeed, his rendition of the womb resembles a real hanging shell. This piece reveals our true origins. Five hundred years ago, this outstanding artist and scientist was able to display exactly an unknown mystery to anyone, a miracle that is not something religious, but biological. Leonardo Da Vinci presents humanity as a natural phenomenon. For me personally, this is the most beautiful work of art in the whole world.

Caravaggio - The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist 1608

Caravaggio describes a chilling moment in a prison yard. The executioner is already holding a knife at the ready, so that he can cut the blade along the tendons and skin of the Baptist's neck. On the right, you can see a silhouette in the window, which is also watching the process. Around the grave darkness. Death and human cruelty are literally shown in this masterpiece. The incredible scale and darkness of the work engulfs us and our thoughts.

Rembrandt - Sеlf-Portrait with Two Circles (Self-portrait with two circles) 1665-9

• Kenwood House, London (Kenwood House, London)

No, it is not you who are looking at Rembrandt, it is he who is looking at you. With the authority of a genius, with the gaze of a past generation and moral gravity, from this autumn masterpiece, Rembrandt looks at us. He seems to penetrate the soul and feel every emotion of the beholder. I'm not afraid to say that he is like God. Rembrandt is one of the most serious writers of paintings, as he has extraordinary power to make everyone who appears before him a pitiful supplicant in a righteous court.

Rock painting at Chauvet - (about 30,000 years ago)

• Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave, Ardche, France (Ardeche, France)

Stone Age spotted horses seen in Chauvet.

Who could have portrayed such unimaginably realistic animals? We do not have sufficient knowledge to determine the names of the writers of these portraits, since at that time even writing did not exist. The only thing we can do is assume. Perhaps the horses were portrayed by a woman, perhaps a man or a child - unfortunately, we will never know. But on the other hand, we can say with confidence that Homo sapiens (Homo Sapiens) - an ancient species of man, really wanted to leave his mark in this world. The portrait of horses is proof of the constant, intellectual and aesthetic development of a person.

Jackson Pollock - One: Number 31, (1950)

• MoMA, New York (Museum of Modern Art, New York)

Jackson Pollock's art is still a mystery of our time. Try to explain for yourself how by carelessly waving a brush across the canvas, you can create something truly beautiful and deeply meaningful? Pollock's painting can be compared with the solo performances of Charlie Parker or Jimi Hendrick, they have the same arbitrary form of improvisation, but still achieve a tremendous unity of art and man. For Pollock, this unity was observed for a short time, but nevertheless he performed pictures gorgeous. If we talk specifically about this work, then it is a real cathedral of the mind.

Velazquez - Las Meninas 1656

• Prado, Madrid (Prado, Madrid)

We can safely say that you are standing in the place where the king and queen once stood before the gathering of servants. If you look closely, you can see Velazquez himself painting a portrait of the royal couple. The Infanta with her retinue of courtiers and the dwarf entertainer gathered in front of the monarch. A minister or perhaps a messenger is visible in the background. Nearby is a mirror in which the reflection of the king and queen shines. This picture is multifaceted and expresses many different meanings, Las Meninas is a direct image of the strangeness in our world.

Picasso - Guernica

• Reina Sofia, Madrid (Queen Sofia, Madrid)

Initially, Picasso intended to portray his protest against the bombing of Guernica, the ancient capital of Basque, by Hitler's air forces during the Spanish Civil War. Thirty years later, after Picasso wrote Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, a masterpiece of modernist culture, his Cubist style was enriched by mythology and poetry released by the Surrealist movement. He was also influenced by the work of Raphael Santi, namely the painting "Fire in Borgo", which became a miracle of human art of the 20th century.

Michelangelo - Slaves (1519-34)

• Academic Gallery, Florene (Academic Gallery, Florence)

Michelangelo began to make prisoners or slaves for the tomb of Pope Julius II, but they were never finished. Overall, it is the largest unfinished masterpiece in the world, including also the Dying and Rebellious Slaves statues in the Louvre and a statue of Moses in the final, more or less completed version of the tomb, which was eventually built in Rome. Of course, Michelangelo did not stop working out of laziness. It was his personal, aesthetic choice. The tragic, incomplete story of these prisoners, when they try to break out of the shackles of rough stone, is an expression of the human condition, similar only to the famous Shakespearean character - Hamlet.

Parthenon Sculptures (447-443 BC)

• British Museum, London (British Museum, London)

Parthenon sculptures of Ancient Greece are in the British Museum in London. The long marble frieze, colossally broken statues of Greek gods, insane carvings on the busts of centaurs fighting against the people that Lord Elgin removed from the Athenian Acropolis two centuries ago are known today as objects of discussion and controversy - which is sad, since we have to understand what we are looking at to the works of genius. Most of the masterpieces of ancient Greek sculpture are known to us only due to the presence of their Roman copies. This is the greatest collection of something real, truly beautiful: virtuosity itself, which created the idea of "classics". For example, take a look at the fallen woman who inspired Keats' Ode to the Greek goddess Urn, whose attire is unusually reminiscent of Leonardo Da Vinci's paintings. Artistically, outside of squabbling, it doesn't get any better than it is now.

Paul Cezanne - Mont Saint-Victoire (1902-04)

• Philadelphia Museum of Art (Museum of Art in Philadelphia)

Cezanne's extraordinary gaze is a sparkling array of hesitation and rethinking. The intensity of his thoughts and views, the seriousness of his mind, trying to understand the essence of the obstacle in front of him, is one of the most mobile and frank battles in the history of art. It was from here that Cubism and abstraction soon came. But even if Cezanne's research had led nowhere, it would have made him one of the world's greatest artists.