Tag: Mythology

Apollo and Aurora (1671)

Lairesse, Gérard de (1641-1711) Apollo and Aurora 1671 Oil on canvas, 204.5 x 193.4 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Largely forgotten today, De Lairesse was celebrated in his lifetime as a painter and advocate for an idealizing manner based…

Bellona (1633)

Rembrandt (1606-1669) Bellona 1633 Oil on canvas, 127 x 97.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Typical of Rembrandt’s domestication of ancient myth, this depiction of the Roman goddess of war may have reflected the Dutch readiness for conflict during…

Flora (c.1654)

Rembrandt (1606-1669) Flora c.1654 Oil on canvas, 100 x 91.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Unlike many of his ambitious contemporaries, Rembrandt never traveled to Italy. Nonetheless, Italian art had a profound effect on him; in this depiction of…

Autoritratto mentre dipinge ‘Amore fedele’ (1655)

Guercino (1591-1666) Autoritratto mentre dipinge ‘Amore fedele’ (Self-Portrait before a Painting of “Amor Fedele”) 1655 Oil on canvas, 116 x 95.6 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington In this vertical portrait painting, a pale-skinned, bearded man holding a painter’s palette…

La Sibilla Samia (1651)

Guercino (1591-1666) La Sibilla Samia (The Samian Sibyl with a Putto) 1651 Oil on canvas, 218.5 × 180 cm National Gallery, London The Samian Sibyl was one of 12 pagan sibyls (or priestesses) who, like the Old Testament prophets, were…

Sibilla Cumana con putto (1651)

Guercino (1591-1666) Sibilla Cumana con putto (The Cumaean Sibyl with a Putto) 1651 Oil on canvas, 222 x 168.5 cm National Gallery, London The Cumaean Sibyl is one of 12 pagan sibyls, or prophetesses, said to have foretold the coming…

Amor virtuoso (c.1653)

Guercino (1591-1666) Amor virtuoso (Cupid Spurning Riches) c.1653 Oil on canvas, 99 x 75 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid The papal nuncio to Spain, Camillo Massimo (1620–1677), presented Guercino’s Cupid spurning Riches and Guido Reni’s Cupid with a Bow (P150)…