Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) Madonna Salting (The Virgin and Child) c.1460–1469 Oil on wood, 43.2 x 34.3 cm National Gallery, London The Virgin Mary glances down at her baby son, Christ, who clutches a pomegranate in his tiny fist. The fruit,…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Perseo con la testa della Medusa (Perseus with the Head of Medusa) 1804–1806 Marble, 242.6 x 191.8 x 102.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York When Countess Valeria Tarnowska first met the sculptor Antonio Canova, on December…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Napoleone come Marte pacificatore (Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker) 1803–1806 Marble, h. 345 cm Wellington Museum, Apsley House, London Commissioned by Napoleon in 1802 this colossal statue of the Emperor was sculpted by Canova in Rome. Completed…
Raffaello (1483-1520) La Perla (The Holy Family, or La Perla) c.1518 Oil on panel, 147.4 x 116 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid Philip IV called this painting The Pearl, as it was his favorite among all those in his collection. The…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Consegna delle chiavi del Regno (Christ’s Charge to Peter) c.1515–1516 Bodycolour over charcoal underdrawing on paper, mounted on canvas, 344 x 534 Victoria and Albert Museum, London Acquired by the Prince of Wales, future King Charles I in 1623…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Angelo, Pala Baronci (Angel, Baronci Altarpiece) 1500–1501 Oil on wood, 31 x 27 cm Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia This painting is a fragment of the Baronci Altarpiece, seriously damaged during an earthquake in 1789. Pala del beato Nicola da Tolentino, o Pala…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Madonna Sistina (Sistine Madonna) 1512–1513 Oil on canvas, 265.5 x 201 cm Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden Raphael originally created the Sistine Madonna on behalf of Pope Julius II for the high altar of the monastery church of San Sisto…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Incoronazione della Vergine, detta Pala Oddi (Crowning of the Virgin, called Oddi Altarpiece) 1502–1504 Tempera grassa on wood transferred to canvas, 272 x 165 cm Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vaticano The Crowning of the Virgin was painted for the altar of…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Pietà c.1503–1505 Oil on poplar panel, 23.6 x 28.8 cm Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston Not satisfied with a single Raphael painting, Isabella Stewart Gardner waited just two years before purchasing her second work by the artist. This small panel,…
Holbein, Hans the Younger (c.1497-1543) Noli me Tangere 1526–1528 Oil on oak panel, 76.7 x 95.8 cm Royal Collection, Hampton Court Palace, London When the diarist John Evelyn saw this painting in Charles II’s Private Lodgings at Whitehall in 1680 he recorded…