Pietro LONGHI, Patrician family [Famiglia Patrizia] c.1752
At a time when most of the contemporary art was allegorical and decorative Longhi’s scenes of 18th century life were a novelty. Working in an almost miniaturist tradition he painted well-to-do...
View ArticleSebastiano RICCI, The Rape of Europa [Ratto d'Europa] c.1720
This is one of nine mythological scenes commissioned to celebrate a marriage. The supreme Greek god Zeus has transformed into a friendly bull to abduct the daughter of the King of Tyre (modern day...
View ArticleDonato CRETI, Dance of the nymphs [Ballo di ninfe] c.1724
A nymph is a goddess of mountains, forests, meadows and water, all of which appear in this poetic work. A musical conversation flows between the lute, the reed and the viol players.The lute player is...
View ArticleGiovan BARBIERI detto il Guercino, Arcadia also exists in the afterlife [Et...
Guercino began his academic training in the Carracci academy and became a master Baroque painter. Shepherds contemplate the after-life expressed in the motto on the stone monument. The mouse and the...
View ArticleGuido RENI, Mary Magdalene [Maria Maddalena] unknown
Reni dominated the Bolognese school in the 17th century and boasted he ‘could paint heads with their eyes uplifted a hundred different ways’ to express divine inspiration. Mary Magdalene in the grotto...
View ArticleGianlorenzo BERNINI, Bust of Pope Clement X [Busto di Clemente X] c.1676
Bernini was the greatest Baroque sculptor of the 17th century. He admired the carving of Michelangelo, the classicism of Annibale Carracci and the emotionalism of Guido Reni. He strived to express both...
View ArticleMichelangelo CARAVAGGIO, Narcissus [Narciso] c.1595
Narcissus rejected the love of all, including the love of the nymph Echo and for his cruelty was condemned by the god Nemesis to drown while admiring his own reflection. Employing dramatic naturalism,...
View ArticleAngelo CAROSELLI, Rest on the flight into Egypt [Riposo nella fuga in Egitto]...
Travelling to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod, the Holy family is seen resting beside a stream. Joseph is in the background, and it may be Salome the midwife who gives cherries a fruit which alludes...
View ArticleAnnibale CARRACCI, St Margaret [Santa Margherita] unknown
With his cousin Ludivico, and his brother Agostino, Annibale established an academy in Bologna based on the traditions from the High Renaissance, especially careful preparation, study of anatomy and...
View ArticleG BONITO, King Solomon praying before the Temple of Jerusalem [Dedicazione...
King Solomon is sitting on the elevated plinth at the top of the stairs. The temple focussed attention on the importance of Jerusalem as a major power in the ancient world. Designed to be seen from...
View ArticleLuca GIORDANO, The Archangel Gabriel appearing to St Zachary [L'Arcangelo...
A supernatural light illuminates the many figures in this dramatic canvas. Zaccariah was a priest in a temple where the angel appeared to tell him he would become the father of St John the Baptist. The...
View ArticleGiovanni Antonio CANALETTO, The view of San Marco Quay from the Bay [Veduta...
Canletto’s views of Venice contain a wealth of detail about social and commercial life. The strongly horizontal composition emphasises the contrast of the tilting, active gondola poles against the...
View ArticleCASTIGLIONE, Noah's sacrifice [Il Sacrificio di Noè] unknown
Noah makes a sacrifice on reaching dry land in the ark after the flood. All manner of domestic animals and colourful birds huddle around the family and its polished metal pots and rich textiles. The...
View ArticleBernardo STROZZI, Paradise- the vision of St Domenico [Il Paradiso] c.1620-1621
This is a study for a ceiling fresco in a church in Genoa. A Genoese who belonged to the Capuchin order he became one of the many foreign residents seeking inspiration in Venice. His modelling of forms...
View ArticleLeonardo da VINCI, Study for the head of Christ for The Last Supper [Testa di...
Versatile genius of the Renaissance, Leonardo created this drawing for his wall painting in Milan The Last Supper. The artist defined the role of artist as philosopher when he portrayed the moment...
View ArticlePaolo VERONESE CALIARI, Matyrdom of St Justine [Martirio di Santa Giustina]...
Justine of Padua became a martyr to the Christian faith when she was killed by a sword in her breast. Emperor Maximian, who ordered her persecution, sits high on his throne. Saints appeared to Justine...
View ArticleTiziano TITIAN VECELLIO, Sacred conversation: Mother and Child, St Catherine...
The Virgin, holding the Christ child, and St Catherine are sumptuously clothed in their heavenly space. In stark contrast St Dominic, from Spain, wears the black cloak and white tunic of his order...
View ArticleJacopo TINTORETTO ROBUSTI, The Visitation [La Visitazione] unknown
This religious drama typifies the arrival of Mannerism in Venice with its heightened colour and uninhibited figures in action. The Virgin and her cousin Elizabeth, soon to become the mother of John the...
View ArticleRosso FIORENTINO, Moses defending the daughters of Jethro [Mos-difende le...
This artist developed Florentine Mannerism, influenced by Michelangelo. Figures are muscular and in inventive poses, compressed into a space which has little depth. The painting may contain several...
View ArticleMORONI, Portrait of the cavalier in red [Ritratto di Gian Gerolamo Grumelli...
Dressed Spanish-style in fine silk from Bergamo, a town on the outskirts of the Venetian Republic, this proud and haughty young knight is about to marry for the second time. The inscription ‘Better the...
View ArticleMORETTO, Madonna and Child [Madonna con Bambino] unknown
Moretto, from Brescia, was one of the most distinguished Renaissance painters of the16th century. He was influenced by both the naturalism of Lombardy and the colour and light of Venice. The artist was...
View ArticleLorenzo LOTTO, Altarpiece of the Annunciation to the Virgin [L'Annunciazione]...
Lotto was a restless traveller who absorbed many influences but left many letters and records. Here is a miraculous story told in simple and direct human terms. Gabriel announces to the Virgin ‘You...
View ArticleGIORGIONE, Double portrait [Doppio ritratto] unknown
This reflects on different experiences of ‘love’. The idealised noble figure, holding a wild-orange as a symbol of love, occupies a shadowed spiritual space of melancholy love. The other young man is...
View ArticleVincenzo CAMPI, The fruitseller [L'Ortolana] c.1580
Campi introduced a regional realism to the Carracci Academy in Bologna and also influenced Carravaggio, who was born in Lombardy. This sentimental subject is treated formally in a strong composition of...
View ArticleJacopo BASSANO, Matyrdom of St Catherine [Martirio di Santa Caterina] 1544
Bassano was a leading 16th century Venetian Mannerist and this was painted in his youth. When Catherine remained true to her faith and refused the advances of a Roman Emperor in Alexandria, she was...
View ArticleAndrea DEL SARTO, Madonna and Child [Madonna con Bambino] c.1515-20
In Florence, del Sarto probably worked from a life sketch but often departed from the ‘coloured drawing’ and composed his paintings using patches of colour and shade. The Madonna, perhaps modeled on...
View ArticleGiambattista TIEPOLO, Time unveiling truth [Il Tempo scropre la Verita] c.1743
Time with a scythe to cut short time unveils Truth who holds the sun in her left hand while old Lies tumbles from a cloud. This allegory extols the virtues of Tiepolo’s patron, a prominent lawyer, who...
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