Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510) Nascita di Venere (Birth of Venus) c.1485 Tempera on canvas, 172.5 x 278.5 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze Known as the “Birth of Venus”, the composition actually shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the…
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…