Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Ritratto di Ginevra de’ Benci (Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci) c.1474–1478 Oil on panel 38.1 x 37 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington This square portrait shows the head and shoulders of a young woman in front…
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Adorazione dei Magi (Adoration of the Magi) c.1482 Drawing in charcoal, watercolour ink and oil on wood, 244 x 240 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze A document from July 1481 states that Leonardo da Vinci had received a…
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Annunciazione (Annunciation) c.1472 Oil on panel, 90 x 222 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze A flourishing enclosed garden, in front of a Renaissance palace, evokes the hortus conclusus that alludes to the purity of Mary. Archangel Gabriel…
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) Madonna Litta mid 1490s Tempera on canvas (handed over from panel), 42 x 33 cm Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg This painting would seem to have been produced in Milan, where the artist moved in 1482. It was one…
Monet, Claude (1840-1926) La Tamise à Westminster (The Thames at Westminster) c.1871 Oil on canvas, 47 x 73 cm National Gallery, London Monet arrived in London in September 1870, fleeing from the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, and stayed until May…
Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Le Christ jaune (The Yellow Christ) 1889 Oil on canvas, 92.07 x 73.34 cm Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo The Symbolists, who emerged during the 1880s, were weary of modern society and sought escape from reality. They began to…
Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Van Gogh peignant des tournesols (Van Gogh Painting Sunflowers) 1888 Oil on canvas, 73 x 91 cm Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Was Van Gogh really painting a vase of sunflowers when his friend Gauguin produced this portrait of him?…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) Sacrificio di Isacco (Sacrifice of Isaac) c.1603 Oil on canvas, 104 x 135 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze The painting illustrates the Old Testament passage in which God subjected Abraham to an extraordinary test of obedience by ordering him to…
Bouguereau, William-Adolphe (1825-1905) La Vierge aux anges (The Virgin with Angels / Song of the Angels) 1881 Oil on canvas, 213.4 x 152.4 cm Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale