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…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) Sacra Famiglia con san Giovannino (The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist) early 1600s Oil on canvas, 117.5 x 95.9 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York This is the only private devotional painting of the Madonna…
Lippi, Filippino (1457-1504) Incontro di Gioacchino e Anna fuori dalla Porta Aurea di Gerusalemme (Meeting of Joachim and Anne outside the Golden Gate of Jerusalem) 1497 Tempera on panel, 112.5 x 124 cm Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen Filippino Lippi first studied…
Zurbarán, Francisco de (1598-1664) Santa Águeda (Saint Agatha) c.1635–1640 Oil on canvas, 129 × 61 cm Musée Fabre, Montpellier The prefect Quintianus wants to marry the beautiful and noble Sicilian Agathe; having dedicated her life to Christ, she refuses. So he makes…
Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) San Gregorio (Saint Gregory) 1473 Oil on panel, 125 x 63 cm Museo Regionale, Messina This is the left panel of the Saint Gregory Polyptych. Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) Polittico di San Gregorio 1473 Museo Regionale, Messina See…
Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) San Benedetto (Saint Benedict) 1473 Oil on panel, 125 x 63 cm Museo Regionale, Messina This is the right panel of the Saint Gregory Polyptych. Antonello da Messina (c.1430-1479) Polittico di San Gregorio 1473 Museo Regionale, Messina See…
Lotto, Lorenzo (1480-1557) Madonna col Bambino tra i santi Caterina e Tommaso (Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine and Thomas) 1527–1533 Oil on canvas, 117 x 152 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna The motif of a gathering of saints around the Madonna,…
Ribera, Jusepe de (1591-1652) San Sebastiano curato da Sant’Irene (St Sebastian Cured by St Irene) 1628 Oil on canvas, 156.5 x 188 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg Jusepe de Ribera lived the greater part of his life in Naples, which at…
La Tour, Georges de (1593-1652) La Madeleine au miroir, La Madeleine pénitente (Magdalene at a Mirror, The Repentant Magdalen) c.1635–1640 Oil on canvas, 113 × 92.7 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington According to the tenets of the 17th–century Catholic church, Mary…
Michelangelo (1475-1564) Madonna di Manchester (Manchester Madonna: The Virgin and Child with Saint John and Angels) c.1494 Tempera on wood, 104.5 × 77 cm National Gallery, London This picture – known as ‘The Manchester Madonna’ since 1857, when it was exhibited in the…