Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (Zittende virginaalspeelster) c.1670–1672 Oil on canvas, 51.5 x 45.5 cm National Gallery, London A colourful hanging tapestry has been swept to one side to reveal a young woman seated at a…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) The Concert (Het concert) 1663–1666 Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 64.7 cm Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston In a pristine domestic parlor, two women and a man concentrate on making music. The standing woman holds a sheet of…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) View of Delft (Gezicht op Delft) c.1660–1661 Oil on canvas, 96.5 x 115.7 cm Mauritshuis, The Hague View of Delft today: This is the most famous cityscape of the Dutch seventeenth century. The interplay of light and shade,…
Vermeer, Jan (1632-1675) The Little Street (Het Straatje, Delft) c.1658 Oil on canvas, 54.3 x 44 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam This is an unusual painting in Vermeer’s oeuvre, and remarkable for its time as a portrait of ordinary houses. The composition is…
Mantegna, Andrea (c.1431-1506) Orazione nell’orto (Agony in the Garden) c.1455–1456 Egg tempera on wood, 62.9 × 80 cm National Gallery, London Christ is shown in prayer. Aware that his disciple Judas had betrayed him, he left Jerusalem and took refuge in…
Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516) Madonna del Prato (Madonna of the Meadow) c.1500–1505 Oil on synthetic panel, transferred from wood, 66.5 × 85.1 cm National Gallery, London The Virgin Mary adores the Christ Child sleeping on her lap. Giovanni Bellini was one of…
Bellini, Giovanni (c.1430-1516) San Francesco in estasi (St Francis in Ecstasy) c.1475–1480 Oil on panel, 124.1 × 140.5 cm Frick Collection, New York Details of Giovanni Bellini’s birth and early life remain largely unknown. He grew up in Venice, his likely…
Manet, Édouard (1832-1883) Le Chemin de fer (The Railway, Gare Saint-Lazare) 1873 Oil on canvas, 93.3 x 111.5 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington The Gare Saint-Lazare, in 1873 the largest and busiest train station in Paris, is unseen in this painting.…
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569) The Beggars (The Cripples) 1568 Oil on panel, 18.5 x 21.5 cm Musée du Louvre, Paris The real meaning of the scene, in particular the meaning of the motif of fox tails (a motif dear to…
Bruegel the Elder, Pieter (c.1525-1569) The Peasant Wedding c.1568 Oil on oak, 113 × 164 × 3.2 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna The apparent “snapshot” of this picture is in fact carefully composed. Dispensing with allegorical meaning the painting is a realistic…