Bellini, Gentile (c.1429-1507) Caterina Cornaro, regina di Cipro (Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus) c.1500 Oil on wood, 63.2 × 49.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest The heroine of Donizetti’s opera, Caterina Cornaro was not born to the crown. The Venetian patrician…
Memling, Hans (c.1430-1494) Virgin and Child c.1475 Oil on oak, 37.9 x 28 cm National Gallery, London The Virgin Mary, bareheaded and richly dressed, holds the naked Christ Child, who rests on a white cushion on a ledge of purple-grey veined…
Gérôme, Jean-Léon (1824-1904) Femme au balcon (Woman at a Balcony) 1887–1888 Oil on canvas, 50.2 × 41.6 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Seen from below as if from street level and posed seductively in a revealing costume, this woman is…
Gérôme, Jean-Léon (1824-1904) Portrait de femme (Portrait of a Woman) 1851 Oil on canvas, 92.6 × 73.7 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Carriera, Rosalba (1675-1757) Giovane donna con un pappagallo (A Young Lady with a Parrot) c.1730 Pastel on paper, mounted on laminated paper board, 60 x 50 cm Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Rosalba Carriera is renowned for the distinction she brought…
Cranach, Lucas the Elder (1472-1553) Charity 1540 Oil on canvas, 50 x 34 cm Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
Rubens, Peter Paul (1577-1640) Venus Frigida (Cold Venus) 1614 Oil on panel, 143 x 184 x 3.8 cm Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp The title refers to Terence: “sine Cerere et Baccho friget Venus” (“without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus freezes”)…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Madonna col Bambino (Madonna and Child) c.1560–1565 Oil on canvas, 124 x 96 cm Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venezia
Van Dyck, Anthony (1599-1641) Virgin and Child with Saint Catherine of Alexandria c.1630 Oil on canvas, 109.2 x 90.8 cm Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The infant Jesus responds with playful enthusiasm to an adoring Saint Catherine, a princess identified by…
Signorelli, Luca (c.1445-1523) Trionfo della Castità e Amore sconfitto (Triumph of Chastity: Love Disarmed and Bound) c.1509 Fresco, detached and mounted on canvas, 125.7 x 133.4 cm National Gallery, London This picture, painted in fresco (directly onto wet plaster), was part…