Lairesse, Gérard de (1641-1711) Odysseus and Calypso c.1680 Oil on canvas, 125 x 94 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam The Greek poet Homer recounts how the heroic warrior Odysseus found refuge on the island of the nymph Calypso. The Trojan War is over:…
Lairesse, Gérard de (1641-1711) Selene and Endymion c.1680 Oil on canvas, 177 x 118.5 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam The chaste goddess of the moon, Selene (or Diana), is in love with the shepherd Endymion. Only at night when he is asleep does…
Guercino (1591-1666) Autoritratto mentre dipinge ‘Amore fedele’ (Self-Portrait before a Painting of “Amor Fedele”) 1655 Oil on canvas, 116 x 95.6 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington In this vertical portrait painting, a pale-skinned, bearded man holding a painter’s palette…
Guercino (1591-1666) Amor virtuoso (Cupid Spurning Riches) c.1653 Oil on canvas, 99 x 75 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid The papal nuncio to Spain, Camillo Massimo (1620–1677), presented Guercino’s Cupid spurning Riches and Guido Reni’s Cupid with a Bow (P150)…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Danae c.1545 Oil on canvas, 118.5 x 170 cm Museo di Capodimonte, Napoli
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Salomè con la testa del Battista (Salome with the Head of John the Baptist) 1515 Oil on canvas, 90 x 72 cm Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Roma This early masterpiece by Titian, which illustrates the terrible biblical episode in a dark…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) & Workshop Venere e il suonatore di liuto (Venus and the Lute Player) c.1565–1570 Oil on canvas, 165.1 x 209.6 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Venus, the goddess of love, interrupts her music making to be crowned…
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) Amore e Psiche (Cupid and Psyche) 1800–1803 Marble, h. 148 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg Entered the Hermitage in 1815; previously in the collection of Jósephine de Beauharnais in the Castle of Malmaison near Paris. By the end…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Amore e Psiche (Cupid and Psyche) 1796 Marble, 148 x 172 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg The theories of Neoclassicism, formulated in the works of the German scholar and philosopher Johann Joachim Winckelmann, were vividly embodied in the…