La Tour, Georges de (1593-1652) La Madeleine aux deux flammes (The Penitent Magdalen with two flames) c.1640 Oil on canvas, 133.4 x 102.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York With its extreme contrasts of candlelight and shadow, pared-down geometry, and meditative…
Boucher, François (1703-1770) Diane sortant du bain (Diana leaving her Bath) 1742 Oil on canvas, 57 x 73 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris
Boucher, François (1703-1770) Le Bain de Vénus (The Bath of Venus) 1751 Oil on canvas, 107 x 84.8 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington In Enlightenment France the dedicated search to define truth engendered a re–evaluation of the natural. The belief that…
Rembrandt (1606-1669) Juno c.1662–1665 Oil on canvas, 127 x 123.8 cm Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Allori, Alessandro (1535-1607) Maria de’ Medici c.1555 Oil on poplar, 116 x 90 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Since the early Renaissance the foremost artists and workshops in Florence had worked for the Medici. In 1570, Cosimo I became Grand-Duke of Tuscany, elevating…
Guercino (1591-1666) La morte di Cleopatra (Death of Cleopatra) 1648 Oil on canvas, 173 x 237 cm Palazzo Rosso, Genova This painting, in which Cleopatra is depicted in the act of taking her life, in order not to suffer the shame…
Fontana, Lavinia (1552-1614) Visita della regina di Saba al re Salomone (The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon) 1599 Oil on canvas, 256 x 325 cm National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin In 1872, just eight years after first opening…
Léger, Fernand (1881-1955) Femme au vase (Woman with vase) 1924 Oil on canvas, 92 x 65 cm Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen A woman with a red vase in her arms is depicted strictly frontally and with a linear precision that…
Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) La Mort de Sardanapale, esquisse (The Death of Sardanapalus, sketch) 1826–1827 Oil on canvas, 81 × 100 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris Compare: Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) La mort de Sardanapale 1844 Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) Mort…
Cassatt, Mary (1844-1926) Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge 1879 Oil on canvas, 81.3 × 59.7 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Cassatt created a series of theater scenes in the late 1870s, displaying an interest in city nightlife…