Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) Ovide chez les Scythes (Ovid among the Scythians) 1862 Oil on paper, laid down on wood, 32.1 x 50.2 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York This is the final work Delacroix devoted to a theme that had first…
Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) Ovide chez les Scythes (Ovid among the Scythians) 1859 Oil on canvas, 87.6 × 130.2 cm National Gallery, London In AD 8 the Roman poet Ovid, author of The Art Of Love and the epic poem Metamorphoses, was banished…
Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863) Le Christ sur la croix (Christ on the Cross) 1853 Oil on canvas, 73.5 × 59.7 cm National Gallery, London Delacroix depicts a moment described in Gospel of John, when Christ addresses his mother, the Virgin Mary, and one…
Daumier, Honoré (1808-1879) Don Quichotte et Sancho Panza (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza) c.1855 Oil on oak, 40.3 × 64.1 cm National Gallery, London Don Quixote, the hero of Miguel de Cervantes’s novel Don Quixote, preoccupied Daumier throughout his career, particularly in…
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…
Canaletto (1697-1768) Eton College c.1754 Oil on canvas, 61.6 × 107.7 cm National Gallery, London This view is from the bank of the River Thames, looking across a sprawling meadow towards Eton College on the horizon. A shady glade gives way to…
Brueghel, Jan the Elder (1568-1625) The Adoration of the Kings 1598 Bodycolour on vellum, 32.9 × 48 cm National Gallery, London Jan Brueghel seems to have squeezed a whole world into his tiny picture. A crowd waits patiently for a turn…
Botticini, Francesco (1446-1498) La crocifissione (The Crucifixion) c.1471 Tempera on wood, 28.5 × 35 cm National Gallery, London Christ is shown nailed to the Cross at his crucifixion, flanked by the two thieves who were crucified alongside him. His mother, the Virgin…
Botticini, Francesco (1446-1498) L’Assunzione della Vergine (The Assumption of the Virgin) c.1475–1476 Tempera on wood, 228.6 × 377.2 cm National Gallery, London Heaven and earth are united in this vast, dramatic scene. A dome-shaped vault has opened up in the sky to…
Bosch, Hieronymus (c.1450-1516) Christ Mocked (The Crowning with Thorns) c.1510 Oil on oak, 73.8 × 59 cm National Gallery, London Christ stares calmly out at us from the heart of this picture, his serenity a vivid contrast to the brutality of…