Guido Reni | The Head of a Woman Looking Up (Judith), 1625-26

Striking for its coloristic richness -a pictorial quality imparted by the combination of red and black chalk- this head of a young woman is a preparatory study for Reni's painting Judith and Holofernes, a celebrated and much replicated composition.

The present study was most probably derived from life, to judge from the bold immediacy of the contours and the quick zig-zagging of the parallel hatching of the shading.

Guido Reni | The Head of a Woman Looking Up (Judith), 1625-26 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bartholomeus van der Helst | The Musician, 1662

Tuning the strings of her theorbo-lute, a beautiful musician directs an engaging glance at the viewer.

The foreground of the picture displays a viola da gamba and sheet music for tenor and soprano voices, suggesting that the lute player anticipates a duet.

Dutch painters of the seventeenth century frequently associated music-making and courtship with amateur concerts, providing opportunities for mingling and flirtation. | Source: © Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bartholomeus van der Helst | The Musician, 1662 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Guido Reni | The Immaculate Conception, 1627

Guido Reni (Bologna, 1575-1642), the most celebrated painter of seventeenth-century Italy, was particularly famous for the elegance of his compositions and the beauty and grace of his female heads, earning him the epithet “Divine".

This altarpiece, with its otherworldly space shaped by clouds and putti in a high-keyed palette, was commissioned in about 1627 by the Spanish ambassador in Rome for the Infanta of Spain.

Guido Reni | The Immaculate Conception, 1627 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Johannes Vermeer | View of Delft, 1660-61

"Ever since I saw the View of Delft in the museum in The Hague, I have known that I had seen the most beautiful painting in the world" - Marcel Proust.

View of Delft (Dutch: Zicht op Delft) is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer (Dutch painter, 1632-1675), painted c. 1659-1661.

The painting of the Dutch artist's hometown is among his best known.

It is one of three known paintings of Delft by Vermeer, along with The Little Street and the lost painting House Standing in Delft, and his only cityscape.

Tomaso Albinoni | Oboe concerto in D minor op. 9

"Oboe Concerto in D minor" has long been regarded as one of the finest concertos composed for the instrument.

Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (1671-1751) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era.

His output includes operas, concertos, sonatas for one to six instruments, sinfonias, and solo cantatas.

While famous in his day as an opera composer, he is known today for his instrumental music, especially his concertos.

Samuel Scott | London, a view of the Thames and Old Westminster Bridge looking towards Westminster Abbey

Ginevra Cantofoli (Bologna, 1618-1672)

Ginevra Cantofoli è stata una pittrice Italiana dell'epoca Barocca.

Nata da Francesco Cantofoli ed Ottavia Buldrini, si avvicinò tardi alla pittura.

Studiò presso l'Accademia del disegno di Elisabetta Sirani e quindi operò presso la sua bottega.

Sigismondo Coccapani | Baroque painter

Sigismondo Coccapani (1585-1643) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.

Born in Florence, he studied under Ludovico Cigoli in Rome, before returning to his native city.

He at first studied literature and mathematics, but abandoned them for painting, becoming a pupil of Ludovico Cigoli in Rome where he assisted him on his work at Santa Maria Maggiore in 1610-13.

Using his scientific background he showed Cigoli, who was making a record of solar activity for his friend Galileo, how to observe and record sunspots through a method of projection.

Wisława Szymborska | Le donne di Rubens

Ercolesse, fauna femminile,

nude come il fragore di botti.

Fanno il nido in letti calpestati,

nel sonno la bocca si apre al chicchirichì.

Le pupille rovesciate all’indietro

Penetrano dentro le ghiandole da cui i lieviti stillano nel sangue.

Peter Paul Rubens | Frans Snyders - Ceres with two Nymphs, 1624 | Museo Nacional del Prado