Monet, Claude (1840-1926) La plage de Trouville (The Beach at Trouville) 1870 Oil on canvas, 38 × 46.5 cm National Gallery, London Monet’s earlier paintings of the Normandy coast had emphasised it as a working seascape, peopled with fishermen who had to…
Jordaens, Jacob (1593-1678) The Meeting of Odysseus and Nausicaa c.1630–1640 Oil on canvas, 117.5 x 194 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Jordaens was one of the most renowned and versatile Antwerp painters. Here he illustrates an episode from Homer’s Odyssey. Odysseus, naked and…
Angelico, Fra (c.1395-1455) Madonna dell’Umiltà (The Virgin of Humility) c.1440 Tempera on panel, 74 x 52 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam As a Dominican monk, Fra Angelico was not subject to the strict rules of the Florentine painters’ guild. He was thus free…
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882) The Salutation of Beatrice 1869 Oil on canvas, 57.1 x 47 cm Private collection Inscription with a sonnet from Dante‘s Vita Nuova (The New Life). Beatrice Portinari was the Florentine girl who represented the ideal of…
Lorenzo di Credi (c.1459-1537) Madonna col Bambino (The Virgin and Child) c.1480–1485 Oil on wood, 71.1 × 49.5 cm National Gallery, London The Virgin Mary is seated directly in front of us. Together with swathes of drapery, she covers almost the…
Gentileschi, Artemisia (1593-c.1653) Autoritratto come Santa Caterina d’Alessandria (Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria) c.1615–1617 Oil on canvas, 71.4 × 69 cm National Gallery, London Artemisia Gentileschi, the most celebrated female artist of the seventeenth century, appears in the guise…
Bronzino (1503-1572) Sacra Famiglia con Sant’Anna e san Giovannino (Holy Family with St. Anne and the Infant St. John) c.1540 Oil on poplar panel, 126.8 x 101.5 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Inscribed on the stone under the left foot of the…
Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792) A Nymph and Cupid: ‘The Snake in the Grass’ exhibited 1784 Oil on canvas, 124.5 x 99.1 cm Tate Britain, London Compare: Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792) Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus 1788 Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
Reynolds, Joshua (1723-1792) Cupid Untying the Zone of Venus 1788 Oil on canvas, 127.5 x 101 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg This is an autograph version of Reynolds‘s famous picture of 1784, painted for Lord Carysfort (now Tate Gallery, London). Carysfort,…
Angelico, Fra (c.1395-1455) Madonna col Bambino e quattro angeli (Madonna and Child with Four Аngels) early 1420s Tempera on poplar panel, 81 x 51 cm Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg This type of Madonna was widespread in Florence in the late 14th…