Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510) Venere e Marte (Venus and Mars) c.1485 Tempera and oil on poplar, 69.2 x 173.4 cm National Gallery, London Venus, the goddess of love, looks over at her lover Mars. She is alert and dignified, while he – the…
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) 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) Venere e Marte (Venus and Mars) 1815–1819 Marble, 208 x 137 x 65.5 cm Royal Collection, Buckingham Palace, London A full length marble statue of Mars and Venus, standing. Venus stands partially draped gazing upwards at Mars, who…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Il sogno del cavaliere (Vision of a Knight) c.1504 Oil on poplar, 17.1 x 17.3 cm National Gallery, London This painting was inspired by a passage in the Punica, an epic poem by Silius Italicus (AD 25–101) recounting the…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Resurrezione di Cristo (Resurrection of Christ) 1499–1502 Oil on wood panel, 56.5 x 47 cm Museu de Arte, São Paulo Ever since he began his training in the workshop of Pietro Perugino (1446–1524), Raphael Sanzio circulated in the court…
Raffaello (1483-1520) San Giorgio e il drago (Saint George and the Dragon) c.1506 Oil on panel, 28.5 x 21.5 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington Raphael was born in Urbino, a central Italian duchy noted for its elegant gentility and Renaissance scholarship.…
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…
Manet, Édouard (1832-1883) Le Déjeuner dans l’atelier (Luncheon in the Studio) 1868 Oil on canvas, 118.3 x 154 cm Neue Pinakothek, Munich The title of the painting, “Le déjeuner dans l’atelier”, distracts from the fact that this is a portrait of…
Velázquez, Diego (1599-1660) Las hilanderas, o La fábula de Aracne (The Spinners or The Fable of Arachne) 1655–1660 Oil on canvas, 220 x 289 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid This painting is the result of two acts carried out in…