Perugino (c.1446-1523) San Sebastiano (St Sebastian) 1493–1494 Tempera, oil on linden panel, 53.8 x 39.5 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg Sebastian was a Roman soldier who served in the private guard of the Emperor Diocletian. For his faith in the teachings…
Rosso Fiorentino (1495-1540) La sfida delle Pieridi (The Challenge of the Pierides) c.1523–1527 Oil on wood transferred to canvas, 31 x 63 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris A rare mythological subject This small painting represents an episode reported by Ovid in…
David, Jacques-Louis (1748-1825) Sapho, Phaon et l’Amour (Sappho, Phaon and Cupid) 1809 Oil on canvas, 225.3 x 262 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg David is considered the founder and leading light of Neoclassicism, which dominated art in the late 18th and…
Jordaens, Jacob (1593-1678) Allegorical Family Portrait early 1650s Oil on canvas, 178.4 x 152.3 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg This group portrait is an allegorical depiction of a scene of betrothal or marriage. That is confirmed by the inclusion in the…
Bronzino (1503-1572) Ritratto di un giovane come San Sebastiano (Portrait of a young Man as Saint Sebastian) c.1533 Oil on panel, 87 x 76.5 cm Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano Tori, known as Bronzino, was one of the…
Bernini, Gian Lorenzo (1598-1680) San Sebastiano (Saint Sebastian) 1616–1617 Marble, 98 x 42 cm Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Private collection on deposit at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza. Saint Sebastian, born in Gaul according to legend, was a Roman centurion who was martyred…
Mantegna, Andrea (c.1431-1506) San Sebastiano (Saint Sebastian) 4th quarter of the 15th century Tempera on canvas, 255 x 140 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris Composition surrounded by a trompe-l’oeil porphyry border. Probably arrived in Aigueperse (Auvergne) on the occasion of the marriage…
Géricault, Théodore (1791-1824) Diane (Diana) Early 19th century Wash, pen on paper, 17.3 x 12 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid The composition is almost identical, with the same dimensions, to a Venus disarming Cupid (New York, Sotheby’s, January 28, 2015, n.…
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882) Study for “Venus Verticordia” c.1864 Pencil Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
Guercino (1591-1666) Venere, Marte e Amore (Venus, Mars and Cupid) 1633 Oil on canvas, 139 x 161 cm Galleria Estense, Modena Following the indication of Venus, whose right hand is painted almost in a trompe l’oeil, Cupid is about to…