Michelangelo (1475-1564) Battaglia dei centauri (Battle of the Centaurs) 1490–1492 Marble bas-relief, 84.5 x 88 cm Casa Buonarroti, Firenze The earliest mention of the Battle of the Centaurs is to be found in a letter written in…
Michelangelo (1475-1564) Madonna della Scala (Madonna of the Stairs) c.1490 Marble bas-relief, 56.7 x 40.1 cm Casa Buonarroti, Firenze The Madonna della scala, or Madonna of the Stairs, of which no mention was made during Michelangelo’s lifetime, was cited for the…
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…
Holbein, Hans the Younger (c.1497-1543) Erasmus writing 1528 Oil on wood, 43 x 33 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris Compare: Legros, Alphonse (1837-1911) Copie de mémoire de l’Erasmus de Holbein s.d. National Gallery of Art, Washington Legros, Alphonse (1837-1911) Erasme c.1899 Musée…
Holbein, Hans the Younger (c.1497-1543) Portrait of Henry VIII of England c.1537 Oil on panel, 28 x 20 cm Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Portraiture was the most popular genre in sixteenth-century England, and indeed one of the few available to artists following the…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Ecce Homo 1543 Oil on canvas, 242 x 361 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Signature: Referenced bottom center of the note: TITIANVS EQVES CES F. 1543 The scene was rarely depicted in Italy, but is probably explained by the Flemish origin…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Ecce Homo 1547 Oil on slate, 69 x 56 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid Although we do not know when Titian first treated this subject, it was probably in 1535, when he painted a Christ for Federico Gonzaga following a…
Zurbarán, Francisco de (1598-1664) Casa de Nazareth (Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth) c.1640 Oil on canvas, 165 x 218.2 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Stories of Christ’s childhood and adolescence became increasingly popular during the Counter-Reformation…