Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) Crocifissione (Christ Crucified) 1475 Oil on wood, 41.9 x 25.4 cm National Gallery, London Christ’s body hangs limply on the Cross; the torment of his crucifixion is almost over. He is supported in his final moments by…
Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) Cristo benedicente (Christ Blessing) c.1465 Oil on wood, 38.7 x 29.8 cm National Gallery, London Christ blesses the viewer with his right hand. Antonello has altered the original position of the fingers and hand, foreshortening them –…
Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) Madonna Salting (The Virgin and Child) c.1460–1469 Oil on wood, 43.2 x 34.3 cm National Gallery, London The Virgin Mary glances down at her baby son, Christ, who clutches a pomegranate in his tiny fist. The fruit,…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Il sogno del cavaliere (Vision of a Knight) c.1504 Oil on poplar, 17.1 x 17.3 cm National Gallery, London This painting was inspired by a passage in the Punica, an epic poem by Silius Italicus (AD 25–101) recounting the…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Ritratto di papa Giulio II (Portrait of Pope Julius II) 1511 Oil on poplar, 108.7 x 81 cm National Gallery, London This portrait of Pope Julius II (1443–1513) is usually dated to the one-and-a-half-year period during which he wore…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Pala Colonna (Colonna Altarpiece) c.1504–1505 Oil and gold on wood, 242 x 169.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Raphael painted this altarpiece around 1504/5 for the Franciscan convent of Sant’Antonio in Perugia. It hung in a part of…
Raffaello (1483-1520) Processione al Calvario (The Procession to Calvary) c.1504–1505 Oil on poplar, 24.4 x 85.5 cm National Gallery, London This is one of three scenes from the predella of Raphael’s Colonna Altarpiece, painted for the convent of S. Antonio da Padua…
Holbein, Hans the Younger (c.1497-1543) Erasmus 1523 Oil on wood, 73.6 x 51.4 cm National Gallery, London On loan from Longford Castle collection, © Longford Castle Collection Erasmus (1466/9 – 1536) was one of the most famous writers of his day…
Dürer, Albrecht (1471-1528) Portrait of Albrecht Dürer the Elder (Bildnis des Albrecht Dürer des Älteren) 1497 Oil on lime, 51 x 40.3 cm National Gallery, London The inscription at the top of this picture tells us the sitter is Dürer’s father, Albrecht…
Velázquez, Diego (1599-1660) Venus del Espejo (Venus at her Mirror, The Rokeby Venus) 1647–1651 Oil on canvas, 122.5 x 177 cm National Gallery, London This is the only surviving female nude painted by Velázquez. The subject was rare in seventeenth-century Spain,…