Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510) Primavera (Allegory of Spring) c.1480 Tempera on panel, 207 x 319 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze This painting, usually known as the Primavera [or ‘Spring’] shows nine figures from classic mythology advancing over a flowery lawn in a grove…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Venere e Marte (Venus and Mars) 1815–1819 Marble, 208 x 137 x 65.5 cm Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace, London A full length marble statue of Mars and Venus, standing. Venus stands partially draped gazing upwards at Mars, who…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Il sogno del cavaliere (Vision of a Knight) c.1504 Oil on poplar, 17.1 x 17.3 cm National Gallery, London This painting was inspired by a passage in the Punica, an epic poem by Silius Italicus (AD 25–101) recounting the…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Amor sacro e amor profano (Sacred and Profane Love) 1515–1516 Oil on canvas, 118 x 278 cm Galleria Borghese, Roma This work was probably sold to Scipione Borghese in 1608 by Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati. A veritable interpretative enigma, critics…
Courbet, Gustave (1819-1877) L’Atelier du peintre (The Painter’s Studio) 1854–1855 Oil on canvas, 361 x 598 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris The enormous Studio is without doubt Courbet‘s most mysterious composition. However, he provides several clues to its interpretation: “It’s the whole world…
Goya, Francisco de (1746-1828) Las floreras, o La Primavera (The Flower Girls, or Spring) 1786 Oil on canvas, 277 x 192 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid A young woman holding a girl by the hand receives a rose from another who kneels…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) The Art of Painting (De Schilderkunst) c.1666–1668 Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Signature: Marked on the lower border strip of the map: I Ver-Meer Inscribed on the top border of the map: NOVA…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) Allegory of Faith (Allegorie op het geloof) 1670–1672 Oil on canvas, 114.3 x 88.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York This picture, made at a moment when public celebrations of the Mass were forbidden in the Dutch…
Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516) Allegoria sacra (Sacred Allegory) c.1490–1500 Oil on wood panel, 73 x 119 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze One of the most enigmatic and fascinating works of the Italian Renaissance, this painting by Bellini shows the Madonna seated on…
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569) Two Chained Monkeys 1562 Oil on oak panel, 19.9 x 23.3 cm Gemäldegalerie, Berlin SHELFMARK / INSCRIPTION: Inscription lower left: • BRVEGEL • MDLXII • This unusual picture dates from the year 1562, shortly before Bruegel…