Fontana, Lavinia (1552-1614) Autoritratto alla spinetta (Self-portrait at the spinet) 1577 Oil on canvas, 27 x 23.8 cm Accademia di San Luca, Roma Inscription: LAVINIA VIRGO PROSPERI FONTANAE FILIA EX SPECULO IMMAGINEM ORIS SUI EXPRESSIT ANNO MDLXXVII (Lavinia, virgin, daughter of…
Tissot, James (1836-1902) La fille du guerrier (The Warrior’s Daughter) c.1878 Oil on panel, 21.8 x 36.2 cm Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Modern life was the central theme of Tissot‘s art, with a focus on bourgeois social behaviour. His genre pieces…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) The Milkmaid (Het melkmeisje) c.1660 Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 41 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam A maidservant pours milk, entirely absorbed in her work. Except for the stream of milk, everything else is still. Vermeer took this simple everyday…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) The Love Letter (De liefdesbrief) c.1669–1670 Oil on canvas, 44 x 38.5 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Vermeer chose an unusual vantage point for this painting. From a dim space in the foreground, a glimpse is afforded of another room…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) A Maid Asleep (Slapend meisje) 1656–1657 Oil on canvas, 87.6 x 76.5 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The misbehavior of unsupervised maidservants was a common subject for seventeenth-century Dutch painters. Yet in his depiction of a…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) Salomè con la testa del Battista (Salome with the Head of John the Baptist) c.1607 Oil on canvas, 116 x 140 cm Palacio Real, Madrid The painting is in good condition after being restored by Patrimonio Nacional in 2015. It…
Caravaggio (1571-1610) Salomè con la testa del Battista (Salome receives the Head of John the Baptist) c.1609–1610 Oil on canvas, 91.5 x 106.7 cm National Gallery, London The story of the death of Saint John the Baptist is related in the Gospel…
Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851) Dido building Carthage 1815 Oil on canvas, 155.5 x 230 cm National Gallery, London Turner’s painting is based on the English seventeenth-century author and poet John Dryden’s translation of the Aeneid, the monumental Latin poem written by…
Bazille, Frédéric (1841-1870) La Toilette 1870 Oil on canvas, 130 x 128 cm Musée Fabre, Montpellier Inspired by the orientalist imagination as well as the biblical universe, the painting depicts a modern Bathsheba being prepared by two servants for nuptial union. This…