Perugino (1445-1523)

Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci -il Perugino, was the greatest painter of the Umbrian school, active mainly in Perugia.

He studied under Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, assisted Piero della Francesca at Arezzo, and in the early 1470s was a fellow pupil of Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi in Verrocchio's studio in Florence.

In 1479 Perugino was summoned to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to help decorate the Sistine Chapel.

Dosso Dossi | Pittore del Rinascimento

Dosso Dossi, pseudonimo di Giovanni Francesco di Niccolò Luteri (San Giovanni del Dosso oppure Tramuschio, 1486 circa – Ferrara, 1542) fu uno dei maggiori pittori del Rinascimento a Ferrara, ed è noto per il suo stile enigmatico ed allegorico.

Il suo nome di battesimo era Giovanni di Niccolò Luteri, e nacque a Tramuschio.

Suo padre lavorava come tesoriere per le terre della famiglia estense, presso la loro corte di Ferrara.

Successivamente, gli Este furono mecenati di Dossi.

Sandro Botticelli | Portraits

Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) painted a number of portraits, although not nearly as many as have been attributed to him.

There are a number of idealized portrait-like paintings of women which probably do not represent a specific person (several closely resemble the Venus in his Venus and Mars).

Traditional gossip links these to the famous beauty Simonetta Vespucci, who died aged twenty-two in 1476, but this seems unlikely.

These figures represent a secular link to his Madonnas.

Othello and Desdemona's painting

Desdemona (The Song of the Willow) is based on a print, part of a suite of etchings by Chassériau illustrating Shakespeare’s Othello, which was published in Paris in 1844.

It depicts act 4, scene 3 of the play, a final moment of calm preceding Desdemona’s murder by her husband, Othello.

Desdemona’s maid, Emilia, who was complicit in orchestrating the crime, shrinks away, cringing at the knowledge of what is about to occur.

The lyre Desdemona holds was not described by Shakespeare; Chassériau observed it in an 1836 production in which the role was performed by the celebrated singer Maria Malibran Garcia (1808–1836), called La Malibran. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Théodore Chassériau | Desdemona (The Song of the Willow) 1849 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Italian, 1527-1593)

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was an Italian painter best known for creating imaginative portrait heads made entirely of such objects as fruits, vegetables, flowers, fish and books, that is, he painted representations of these objects on the canvas arranged in such a way that the whole collection of objects formed a recognizable likeness of the portrait subject.

Arcimboldo was born in Milan in 1527, the son of Biagio, a painter who did work for the office of the Fabbrica in the Duomo.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo did not leave written certificates on himself or his artwork. After the deaths of Arcimboldo and his patron—the emperor Rudolph II—the heritage of the artist was quickly forgotten, and many of his works were lost. They were not mentioned in the literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Only in 1885 did the art critic K. Kasati publish the monograph "Giuseppe Arcimboldi, Milan Artist" in which the main attention was given to Arcimboldi's role as a portraitist.

Luis de Morales (El Divino) | Mannerist painter

Luis de Morales, byname El Divino (Spanish: “The Divine”), (born c. 1509, Badajoz, Spain - died May 9, 1586, Badajoz), painter who was the first Spanish artist🎨 of pronounced national character, considered to be the greatest native Mannerist painter🎨 of Spain.

He is remembered for his emotional religious paintings, which earned him his sobriquet and greatly appealed to the Spanish populace.

Morales may have studied with the Flemish painter🎨 Hernando Sturmio in Badajoz or with Pedro de Campaña in Seville.

He worked in Badajoz from 1546, leaving on occasional commissions but making his home there all his life. Summoned by Philip II of Spain to help in the decoration of El Escorial, he painted a Christ Carrying the Cross that did not please the king and was removed to the Church of San Jerónimo, Madrid.

Adam de Coster (1586-1643) | Card players by candlelight

In the absence of signed and documented works by Flemish painter🎨 Adam De Coster (1586-1643), all attributions have been based on Lucas Vorsterman's engraving after a lost original entitled "The Trick-trak player".

The present painting, which was also engraved by Vorsterman, shares a number of similarities with this key, lost work.

Both compositions are multi-figural and lit by candlelight, with a figure in the foreground partially shading the light source.

The artist adopts a low viewpoint in both paintings which means that the table-tops are hardly visible.

Lorenzo di Credi (1458-1537)

Lorenzo di Credi, Lorenzo d'Andrea d'Oderigo (Firenze, 1459/1460-1537), è stato un pittore Italiano, allievo del Verrocchio che lo nominò suo erede, resse la bottega di quest'ultimo, quando era impegnato a Venezia nella statua equestre del Colleoni e ne riportò a Firenze la salma da Venezia dove il Verrocchio era morto nel 1488.

La sua formazione avvenne nella bottega del Verrocchio da cui derivò lo stile finito costruito con linee incisive e precise, modi che influenzarono il suo condiscepolo Leonardo, successivamente le parti si scambiarono e fu Lorenzo ad accogliere lo sfumato e le sottilissime velature di Leonardo.

Per la bottega eseguì la Madonna di Piazza nel Duomo di Pistoia, opera commissionata al Verrocchio, completata con l'aiuto di altri allievi tra cui Perugino e forse Leonardo da Vinci (del quale si ipotizza la paternità della tavoletta della predella raffigurante l'Annunciazione, spesso attribuita però allo stesso Lorenzo).

Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531-1588) Renaissance painter

Sánchez Coello, Alonso (Benifairó del Valls, Valencia - Spain, 1531/32 - Madrid -Spain, 1588) is a fundamental figure in the history of Spanish painting🎨.

He was the first to bring portraiture to the peninsula, where he followed the model developed by Anthonis Mor in likenesses of the Habsburg family.

Some of his paintings were included in the most important portrait galleries developed during the reign of Philip II, including those at the El Pardo and Alcázar Palaces, both sadly lost to fires in 1604 and 1734, respectively.

Today, his works hang in the Museo del Prado, in Spain’s royal foundations, including the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales and in museums and collections in Austria and Bohemia.

Auguste Rodin / Shakespeare | Romeo and Juliet, 1905

Silenzio! Quale luce irrompe da quella finestra lassù?

È l'oriente, e Giulietta è il sole.

Sorgi, vivido sole, e uccidi l'invidiosa luna,

malata già e pallida di pena

perché tu, sua ancella, di tanto la superi in bellezza.

Non essere la sua ancella, poiché la luna è invidiosa.

Il suo manto di vestale è già di un verde smorto,

e soltanto i pazzi lo indossano. Gettalo via.

È la mia donna; oh, è il mio amore! se soltanto sapesse di esserlo.

Michelangelo Buonarroti | Sol io ardendo all'ombra mi rimango | Le Rime

Sonetto 1 | Molti anni fassi qual felice, in una

Molti anni fassi qual felice, in una

brevissima ora si lamenta e dole;

o per famosa o per antica prole

altri s'inlustra, e ’n un momento imbruna.

Cosa mobil non è che sotto el sole

non vinca morte e cangi la fortuna.

A man who's happy many a year, one hour

- even less! - undoes; all's lost in grief and worry.

Another basks in his family name; that glory

is out in a flash as blacker heavens lour.

None so alive but death cuts short the story;

nothing so sweet but fortune turns it sour ...

Rubens | Portrait of Susanna Lunden, 1622

This painting is one of the most famous by Peter Paul Rubens🎨 (Flemish Baroque Era painter, 1577-1640) in the Collection of the National Gallery, London.

The title 'Le Chapeau de Paille' (meaning The Straw Hat) was first used in the 18th century. In fact the hat is not straw; 'paille' may be an error for 'poil', which is the French word for felt.

The hat, which shades the face of the sitter, is the most prominent feature of the painting.

The portrait is probably of Susanna Lunden, born Susanna Fourment, third daughter of Daniel Fourment, an Antwerp tapestry and silk merchant. Her younger sister Helena became Rubens's second wife in 1630.

Michelangelo Buonarroti | Drawings

Michelangelo, with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, is one of the three giants of the Florentine High Renaissance.

Although their names are often cited together, Michelangelo was younger than Leonardo by 23 years, and older than Raphael by eight.

Michelangelo | Arms and Hands Study

Michelangelo Buonarroti (6 March 1475 - 18 February 1564) was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.

Considered by many the greatest artist of his lifetime, and by some the greatest artist of all time, his artistic versatility was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival, the fellow Florentine and client of the Medici, Leonardo da Vinci.

Michelangelo Buonarroti: "The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection"

"The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course".

"The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection".

Michelangelo Buonarroti: "In every block of marble I see a statue"

• "My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth's loveliness".

• "The best artist has that thought alone which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone".

Michelangelo Buonarroti | 267 Drawings | Part.¹

A towering genius in the history of Western art, Michelangelo (Italian, Caprese 1475-1564 Rome) was celebrated during his long life for the excellence of his disegno, the power of drawing and invention that provided the foundation for all of the arts.

For his mastery of drawing, design, sculpture, painting, and architecture, he was called Il divino ("the divine one") by his contemporaries.

His powerful imagery and dazzling technical virtuosity transported viewers and imbued all of his works with a staggering force that continues to enthrall us today. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

El Greco | The Adoration of the Name of Jesus, 1579

The larger version of this picture is in the Escorial in Madrid, and was probably intended for King Philip II.

El Greco made small copies of several of his own pictures to keep in his studio, of which this is probably one.

The subject is thought to be an allegory of the Holy League, a military alliance between Spain, the Papacy and the Venetian Republic, which was formed to combat the rise of Islam and the Turks.

The Pope, the Doge of Venice and Philip II are shown kneeling in adoration of the name of Jesus, shown in the heavens as IHS, these being the first letters of Jesus in Greek (IHSOUS).

Pontormo | Pittore Manierista

Jacopo Carrucci (1494-1557), conosciuto come Jacopo da Pontormo, o semplicemente il Pontormo, è stato un pittore Italiano.

Avviò una sistematica opera di rinnovamento degli schemi compositivi della tradizione, talvolta spregiudicato, cercando di reagire al classicismo pittorico attraverso un'inesauribile vena sperimentale ed anticlassicista.

La sua complessa personalità, introversa e tormentata, ne fa il prototipo dell'artista malinconico e solitario.

Charles William Mitchell | Hypatia of Alexandria, 1885

Charles William Mitchell (1854-1903) was an British Pre-Raphaelite painter from Newcastle.

A contemporary of John William Waterhouse, his work is similar in many ways.

His one famous piece was Hypatia, shown in 1885 and likely inspired by the Charles Kingsley serialized novel Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face. This painting is currently in the Laing Art Gallery.

Charles William Mitchell - Hypatia, 1885