Tiepolo, Giambattista (1696-1770) Tisaferno e Vafrino (Tisaferno and Vafrino) c.1740–1746 Oil on canvas, 158.8 × 53 cm National Gallery, London Two men in turbans are seated under a tree that provides little shade. One has his back to us; the other, who…
Poussin, Nicolas (1594-1665) Le Triomphe de Silène (The Triumph of Silenus) c.1636 Oil on canvas, 142.9 × 120.5 cm National Gallery, London This playful scene celebrates Silenus, companion to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and drunkenness. Silenus, a naked old…
Millet, Jean-François (1814-1875) Femme et enfant dans un paysage (Woman and Child in a Landscape) 1846–1847 Oil on canvas, 45.7 × 38.1 cm National Gallery, London A woman sits on a rocky ledge, her head gracefully turned toward a young naked…
Michelangelo (1475-1564) Deposizione di Cristo nel sepolcro (The Entombment, or Christ being carried to his Tomb) c.1500–1501 Oil on wood, 161.7 × 149.9 cm National Gallery, London This is one of perhaps only three surviving panel paintings by the great Florentine…
Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique (1780-1867) Oedipe et le Sphinx (Oedipus and the Sphinx) c.1826 Oil on canvas, 17.5 × 13.7 cm National Gallery, London Oedipus, a figure from Greek mythology, stands nude and in profile before the Sphinx, who guards the…
Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1255-c.1319) Tentazione sul monte (The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain) 1308–1311 Tempera on poplar panel, 43.2 x 46 cm Frick Collection, New York This painting was part of the predella (the bottom tier) of the Maestà altarpiece made…
Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1255-c.1319) Resurrezione di Lazzaro (The Raising of Lazarus) 1310–1311 Tempera and gold on panel, 43.5 x 46.4 cm Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth This painting was part of the predella (the bottom tier) of the Maestà altarpiece made for…
Raffaello (1483-1520) La predicazione di San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist Preaching) 1505 Oil on poplar, 26.2 × 52 cm National Gallery, London This is the only surviving predella scene of Raphael’s Ansidei Altarpiece for the Ansidei chapel in S. Fiorenzo,…
Courbet, Gustave (1819-1877) La diligence dans la neige (The Diligence in the Snow) 1860 Oil on canvas, 137.2 × 199.1 cm National Gallery, London The high viewpoint in this painting opens up the prospect of the vast distance, heightening its very…
Rousseau, Henri (1844-1910) La cascade (The Waterfall) 1910 Oil on canvas, 116.2 × 150.2 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Among the very last compositions Henri Rousseau painted, The Waterfall is typical of the large-scale jungle scenes for which he gained…