Tiziano (c.1488-1576) La Bella (Portrait of a Lady) 1536–1538 Oil on canvas, 89 × 75.5 cm Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Firenze The female portrait, known by its complimentary epithet “La Bella”, is one of the most famous paintings of the later years of…
Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780-1867) Persée et Andromède (Perseus and Andromeda) c.1819 Oil on canvas, 19.7 × 16.2 cm Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Ingres‘s vulnerable figure of Andromeda is the “classic” idealized figure study. The fact that she is being…
Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640) The Four Rivers of Paradise c.1615 Oil on canvas, 208 × 283 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna According to the conventional interpretation, the four continents are depicted here as female allegoric figures paired with the gods of their…
Tintoretto, Jacopo (1518-1594) Susanna e i vecchioni (Susanna and the Elders) c.1555–1556 Oil on canvas, 146 × 193.6 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna In the Old Testament, it is told how Susanna receives lewd proposals from two men who have secretly intruded…
Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) Mort de Sardanapale (Death of Sardanapalus) 1827 Oil on canvas, 392 cm × 496 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris “The rebels besieged him in his palace… Lying on a superb bed, at the top of an immense pyre,…
Gentileschi, Orazio (1563-1639) Il ritrovamento di Mosè (The Finding of Moses) early 1630s Oil on canvas, 257 × 301 cm National Gallery, London In this vast canvas Orazio Gentileschi depicts the Old Testament story of the Finding of Moses (Exodus 2:2-10).…
Gainsborough, Thomas (1727-1788) The Artist’s Daughter Mary 1777 Oil on canvas, 77.5 × 64.8 cm Tate Britain, London On loan to Gainsborough’s House (Sudbury, UK). Gainsborough was very fond of his two daughters and painted them frequently from childhood into their late…
Rembrandt (1606-1669) Saskia with Pearls in her Hair 1634 Etching, 7.9 x 6.5 cm Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton See also: • Uylenburgh, Saskia van (1612-1642)
Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640) The Crowning of Saint Catherine 1631 or 1633 Oil on canvas, 265.7 x 214.3 cm Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Rubens painted this magnificent painting as an altarpiece for the Church of the Augustinians in Mechelen (Malines),…
Cranach, Lucas the Elder (1472-1553) Venus and Amor c.1518–1520 Oil on wood panel, 101.5 x 37.5 cm Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton