Guercino (1591-1666) Il ritorno del figliol prodigo (The Return of the Prodigal Son) 1654–1655 Oil on canvas, 155.6 x 146.1 cm Timken Museum of Art, San Diego The parable depicted by Il Guercino (a nickname meaning “squint-eyed”) is the one most…
Modigliani, Amedeo (1884-1920) Nu féminin assis (Seated Female Nude) c.1916 Oil on canvas, 92.4 x 59.8 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London This is one of a series of celebrated female nudes which Modigliani painted in 1916 and 1917. His unusual…
Gauguin, Paul (1848-1903) Nevermore 1897 Oil paint on canvas, 60.5 x 116 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London Paul Gauguin painted Nevermore in February 1897, during his second and final stay in Tahiti, an island in the southern Pacific colonised by France. Intended…
Michelangelo (1475-1564) Il Sogno (The Dream) c.1533 Black chalk on laid paper, 27.8 x 39.8 cm Courtauld Institute of Art, London One of the finest Renaissance drawings, The Dream is amongst The Courtauld’s greatest treasures. The meaning of this enigmatic work is elusive,…
Rousseau, Henri (1844-1910) Mauvaise surprise (Unpleasant Surprise) 1899–1901 Oil on canvas, 194.5 x 129.5 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia The large-scale jungle scenes of Henri Rousseau are rife with violent struggles between wild animals such as lions, tigers, and horses. Here, a…
Matisse, Henri (1869-1954) Nu couché (Reclining Nude) 1923–1924 Oil on canvas, 60 x 92 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Matisse painted this work in Nice, a city in the South of France that he visited frequently in the 1920s. The canvas is…
Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906) Léda au cygne (Leda and the Swan) c.1880 (possibly later) Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 74.9 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia This picture is unusual in Cézanne‘s oeuvre for its specific literary subject matter. It represents the story from Ovid‘s…
Zurbarán, Francisco de (1598-1664) La crucifixión (The Crucifixion) 1627 Oil on canvas, 290.3 × 165.5 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, the Roman Catholic Church clarified and reaffirmed its doctrine and practices in an effort to…
Dalí, Salvador (1904-1989) Sueño causado por el vuelo de una abeja alrededor de una granada un segundo antes del despertar (Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Waking) 1944 Oil on panel, 51…
Cranach, Lucas the Elder (1472-1553) The Nymph at the Fountain c.1530–1534 Oil on panel, 75 x 120 cm Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid Together with Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach was among the most important 16th-century German painters. His oeuvre includes religious compositions as…