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…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) The Lacemaker (De kantwerkster) 1669–1670 Oil on canvas transferred to panel, 24 x 21 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris The motif of the lacemaker at work is traditionally a sign of domestic virtue, tinged with religious moralism (the…
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste (1841-1919) Nature morte au bouquet (Still Life with Bouquet) 1871 Oil on canvas, 73.7 × 59.1 × 3.2 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Houston “Painting is done to decorate walls. So it should be as rich as possible. For me…
Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516) Madonna in trono col Bambino e santi (San Zaccaria Altarpiece) 1505 Oil on canvas transferred from wood, 402 x 273 cm San Zaccaria, Venezia
Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516) San Francesco in estasi (St Francis in Ecstasy) c.1475–1480 Oil on panel, 124.1 × 140.5 cm Frick Collection, New York Details of Giovanni Bellini’s birth and early life remain largely unknown. He grew up in Venice, his likely…
Manet, Édouard (1832-1883) Le Chemin de fer (The Railway, Gare Saint-Lazare) 1873 Oil on canvas, 93.3 x 111.5 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington The Gare Saint-Lazare, in 1873 the largest and busiest train station in Paris, is unseen in this painting.…
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569) The Land of Milk and Honey 1567 Oil on oak, 51.5 x 78.3 cm Alte Pinakothek, Munich The theme broached here is human wrongdoing that includes idleness and gluttony. It pervades all social classes, as shown…
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Annunciazione (Annunciation) c.1472 Oil on panel, 90 x 222 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze A flourishing enclosed garden, in front of a Renaissance palace, evokes the hortus conclusus that alludes to the purity of Mary. Archangel Gabriel…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) San Francesco in meditazione (Saint Francis in Meditation) c.1606 Oil on canvas, 130 x 90 cm cm Museo Civico Ala Ponzone, Cremona The subject represents a Saint Francis “in desperate meditation on the Crucifix” (Longhi 1943), the penitent saint is…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) San Matteo e l’angelo (St Matthew and the Angel) 1602 destroyed in 1945 Oil on canvas, 232 x 183 cm Bode Museum, Berlin (former Kaiser Friedrich Museum)