Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510) Scoperta del cadavere di Oloferne (Discovery of the Body of Holofernes) c.1470 Tempera on panel, 31 x 24 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze
Raffaello (1483-1520) & Circle of Perugino (c.1446-1523) Nicola da Tolentino resuscita due colombe (St Nicholas of Tolentino Restoring Two Partridges to Life) c.1500 Oil on panel, 29.2 x 54 cm Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit This painting is probably a fragment of…
Zurbarán, Francisco de (1598-1664) Nacimiento de la Virgen (The Birth of the Virgin) c.1627 Oil on canvas, 141 x 108.6 cm Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena Just as striking as Zurbarán’s color scheme are his rich, descriptive treatment of the drapery, and…
Munch, Edvard (1863-1944) The Sick Child (Det Syke Barn) 1885–1886 Oil on canvas, 120 x 118.5 cm Nationalgalleriet, Oslo Edvard Munch used a simple composition for this sickbed scene, placing the main image in the centre and to the fore of…
Velázquez, Diego (1599-1660) Venus del Espejo (Venus at her Mirror, The Rokeby Venus) 1647–1651 Oil on canvas, 122.5 x 177 cm National Gallery, London This is the only surviving female nude painted by Velázquez. The subject was rare in seventeenth-century Spain,…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Venere di Urbino (Venus of Urbino) 1538 Oil on canvas, 119 x 165 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze This is one of Titian’s most famous works and it depicts the emblematic figure of a young bride about to be dressed…
Goya, Francisco de (1746-1828) San Francisco de Borja y el moribundo impenitente (St Francis Borja at the Deathbed of an Impenitent) 1788 Oil on canvas, 350 x 300 cm Catedral de Valencia, Valencia See also: • Francis Borgia, 4th Duke of Gandía
Manet, Édouard (1832-1883) Olympia 1863 Oil on canvas, 130.5 x 191 cm Musée d’Orsay, Paris With Olympia, Manet reworked the traditional theme of the female nude, using a strong, uncompromising technique. Both the subject matter and its depiction explain the scandal…
Van Eyck, Jan (c.1390-1441) Portrait of Giovanni (?) Arnolfini and his Wife 1434 Oil on oak, 82.2 x 60 cm National Gallery, London This must be one of the most famous paintings in the world, and one of the most intriguing.…
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569) The Dormition of the Virgin c.1564 Oil on panel, 67.7 x 85.3 x 12.6 cm Upton House and Gardens, England This ‘grisaille’, or grey monochrome painting, shows the death of the Virgin, attended by the…