Carracci, Annibale (1560-1609) Madonna Montalto (The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist) c.1600 Oil on copper, 35 x 27.5 cm National Gallery, London Domesticity reigns in this exquisite little picture. A delightfully pretty Virgin Mary balances a squirming,…
Dürer, Albrecht (1471-1528) Madonna and Child 1512 Oil on lime, 49.3 × 37.4 × 2.8 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Inscription on the top right with the monogram, dat. 1512 The relatively small-format painting was certainly intended as a private devotional picture;…
Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640) The Four Rivers of Paradise c.1615 Oil on canvas, 208 × 283 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna According to the conventional interpretation, the four continents are depicted here as female allegoric figures paired with the gods of their…
Poussin, Nicolas (1594-1665) La Sainte Famille sur les marches (The Holy Family on the Steps) 1648 Oil on canvas, 73.3 x 105.8 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Poussin placed small wax models in a box pierced with holes to study…
David, Jacques-Louis (1748-1825) Cupidon et Psyché (Cupid and Psyche) 1817 Oil on canvas, 184.2 x 241.6 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Jacques-Louis David included two butterflies in this painting: one above the slumbering Psyche and the other on the base…
Pinturicchio (c.1454-1513) San Bartolomeo (Saint Bartholomew) c.1497 Tempera on wood panel, 59.6 x 51 cm Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton Flayed and crucified for spreading Christ’s word through Armenia and India, the apostle Bartholomew was represented horrifically, holding his own skin,…
Dürer, Albrecht (1471-1528) Sudarium held by two angels 1513 Engraving, 10 x 13.9 cm Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton Although Dürer made several celebrated series of Passion engravings, this related image of Christ’s head crowned with thorns is a stand-alone print;…
Cranach, Lucas the Elder (1472-1553) Venus and Amor c.1518–1520 Oil on wood panel, 101.5 x 37.5 cm Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton
Courbet, Gustave (1819-1877) Beatrice Bouvet (born c.1861) 1864 Oil on canvas, 91.9 x 73.2 cm National Museum Wales, Cardiff The Salins industrialist Alfred Bouvet purchased two Courbet landscapes and commisioned this portrait of his daughter, then aged three. She is holding…
Allori, Alessandro (1535-1607) Madonna col Bambino e i Santi Francesco e Lucia (Virgin and Child with Saints Francis and Lucy) 1583 Oil on canvas, 258.4 x 167.5 cm National Museum Wales, Cardiff