Botticelli, Sandro (c.1445-1510) Nascita di Venere (Birth of Venus) c.1485 Tempera on canvas, 172.5 x 278.5 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze Known as the “Birth of Venus”, the composition actually shows the goddess of love and beauty arriving on land, on the…
Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) San Sebastiano (St. Sebastian) c.1478 Oil on canvas transferred from wood, 171 x 85.5 cm Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden Antonello da Messina set the martyrdom of St. Sebastian in Venice, as can be seen from the waterways…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Paride (Paris) 1816 Marble, 203.7 x 103.7 x 55 cm Neue Pinakothek, Munich Paris, the son of the Trojan king Priam, had been abandoned as a child and found and raised by shepherds. The apple in his right hand…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Dedalo e Icaro (Daedalus and Icarus) 1777–1779 Marble, 182 x 95 cm Museo Correr, Venezia This famous sculpture, his first large one in marble, is the masterpiece of Antonio Canova‘s Venetian youth. It was created for the procurator…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Paolina Borghese Bonaparte come Venere Vincitrice (Paolina Borghese Bonaparte as Venus Victrix) 1804–1808 Carrara marble, 160 x 92 cm Galleria Borghese, Roma Portrayed by Antonio Canova in the guise Venus victorious in the Judgement of Paris, Pauline Borghese…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Amore e Psiche (Cupid and Psyche) 1796 Marble, 148 x 172 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg The theories of Neoclassicism, formulated in the works of the German scholar and philosopher Johann Joachim Winckelmann, were vividly embodied in the…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Madonna d’Alba (Alba Madonna) c.1510 Oil on panel transferred to canvas, diameter 94.5 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington After four years in Florence, Raphael moved to Rome in 1508, probably to execute more significant commissions under the papal…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Le Tre Grazie (The Three Graces) c.1504–1505 Oil on panel, 17 x 17 cm Musée Condé, Chantilly This is one of the smallest paintings by the master and the only secular work from Raphael‘s Florentine period, before 1508, still under…
Raffaello (1483-1520) La Fornarina (Portrait of a Young Woman) c.1520 Oil on panel, 87 x 63 cm Palazzo Barberini, Roma The subject of this portrait, according to tradition, was Raphael’s inspirational muse and mistress: Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker in…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Pietà c.1503–1505 Oil on poplar panel, 23.6 x 28.8 cm Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston This panel was originally part of the base (predella) of the Colonna Altarpiece (Pala Colonna). Not satisfied with a single Raphael painting, Isabella Stewart Gardner…