Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Venere che benda Amore (Venus Blindfolding Cupid) c.1560–1565 Oil on canvas, 118 x 185 cm Galleria Borghese, Roma In all likelihood, this painting entered the Borghese Collection in 1608, when it was given to Scipione Borghese by Cardinal Paolo Emilio…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Adorazione dei Magi (Adoration of the Magi) c.1557–1560 Oil on canvas, 223 × 120 cm Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milano Painted around 1559–60, the painting has much in common with Titian’s mature works. The rendering of the sky is interesting, for the…
Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516) Madonna col Bambino (Madonna and Child) c.1510 Oil on panel, 94.2 x 73 cm High Museum of Art, Atlanta An innovative artist whose influence resonated for generations, Giovanni Bellini was the foremost painter of the early Renaissance in Venice,…
Lotto, Lorenzo (1480-1557) Madonna col Bambino tra i santi Caterina e Tommaso (Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine and Thomas) 1527–1533 Oil on canvas, 117 x 152 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna The motif of a gathering of saints around the Madonna,…
Carracci, Annibale (1560-1609) Pietà c.1603 Oil on copper, 41.3 x 60.7 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Overwhelmed by her helplessness and pain, Mary holds her dead son in her lap. Pale colours and the pathos of marbles by Michelangelo and from antiquity…
Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516) Giovane donna nuda allo specchio (Young woman at her toilette) 1515 Oil on poplar panel, 62.9 x 78.3 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Inscription: “Joannes bellinus faciebat M.D.X.V.” As an elderly man, Bellini turned to the depiction of a…
Brueghel, Jan the Elder (1568-1625) Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee 1596 Oil on copper, 26.6 x 35 cm Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Jan Brueghel belonged to a dynasty of painters whose first outstanding member was Pieter Bruegel, Jan’s…
Rosso Fiorentino (1495-1540) La sfida delle Pieridi (The Challenge of the Pierides) c.1523–1527 Oil on wood transferred to canvas, 31 x 63 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris A rare mythological subject This small painting represents an episode reported by Ovid in…
Picasso, Pablo (1881-1973) La Maternité (Motherhood) 1901 Oil on fibre board, 100.1 × 72.9 cm National Gallery, London On loan from a private collection. A mother cradles a naked child, its long limbs folded into her embrace as if still in…
Lorenzo di Credi (c.1459-1537) Madonna col Bambino (The Virgin and Child) c.1480–1485 Oil on wood, 71.1 × 49.5 cm National Gallery, London The Virgin Mary is seated directly in front of us. Together with swathes of drapery, she covers almost the…