Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640) Samson and Delilah c.1609–1610 Oil on wood, 185 × 205 cm National Gallery, London Peter Paul Rubens’s Samson and Delilah portrays a tragedy of love and betrayal. According to the Old Testament, Samson, a Jewish hero blessed…
Poussin, Nicolas (1594-1665) Le Triomphe de Silène (The Triumph of Silenus) c.1636 Oil on canvas, 142.9 × 120.5 cm National Gallery, London This playful scene celebrates Silenus, companion to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and drunkenness. Silenus, a naked old…
Millet, Jean-François (1814-1875) Femme et enfant dans un paysage (Woman and Child in a Landscape) 1846–1847 Oil on canvas, 45.7 × 38.1 cm National Gallery, London A woman sits on a rocky ledge, her head gracefully turned toward a young naked…
Michelangelo (1475-1564) Deposizione di Cristo nel sepolcro (The Entombment, or Christ being carried to his Tomb) c.1500–1501 Oil on wood, 161.7 × 149.9 cm National Gallery, London This is one of perhaps only three surviving panel paintings by the great Florentine…
Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780-1867) Oedipe et le Sphinx (Oedipus and the Sphinx) c.1826 Oil on canvas, 17.5 × 13.7 cm National Gallery, London Oedipus, a figure from Greek mythology, stands nude and in profile before the Sphinx, who guards the…
Fragonard, Jean-Honoré (1732-1806) Psyché montrant à ses soeurs les présents de l’amour (Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid) 1753 Oil on canvas, 168.3 × 192.4 cm National Gallery, London This painting illustrates an episode from the classical story of Cupid…
El Greco (1541-1614) Cristo expulsando a los mercaderes del templo (Christ driving the Traders from the Temple) c.1600 Oil on canvas, 106.3 × 129.7 cm National Gallery, London El Greco has used theatrical gestures and intense colours to express the chaos and…
El Greco (1541-1614) Adoración del Nombre de Jesús (The Adoration of the Name of Jesus) late 1570s Oil and egg tempera on pine, 55.1 × 33.8 cm National Gallery, London This picture is closely related to a larger work of the…
Raffaello (1483-1520) La predicazione di San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist Preaching) 1505 Oil on poplar, 26.2 × 52 cm National Gallery, London This is the only surviving predella scene of Raphael’s Ansidei Altarpiece for the Ansidei chapel in S. Fiorenzo,…
Botticini, Francesco (1446-1498) La crocifissione (The Crucifixion) c.1471 Tempera on wood, 28.5 × 35 cm National Gallery, London Christ is shown nailed to the Cross at his crucifixion, flanked by the two thieves who were crucified alongside him. His mother, the Virgin…