Eugene de Blaas | Gypsy Girl

Eugene de Blaas, also known as Eugene von Blaas or Eugenio Blaas (24 July 1843 - 10 February 1931), was an Italian-Austrian painter in the school known as Academic Classicism.

He was born at Albano, near Rome, to a Tyrolean father and Italian mother.

His father Karl, also a painter, was his teacher.

His mother, Agnesina Auda, was a well-to-do Roman woman.

The family moved to Venice when Karl became professor at the Academy of Venice.

He often painted scenes in Venice, but also portraits and religious paintings.

Angelo Morbelli | Per 80 centesimi! 1895

"Per 80 centesimi!", opera di Angelo Morbelli, uno dei capolavori del Museo Borgogna, venne acquistata nel 1912 alla Mostra d’Arte della campagna irrigua tenutasi a Vercelli, a pochi anni dall'apertura al pubblico del Museo.

Il dipinto, firmato e datato 1895, ha avuto una lunga e tormentata elaborazione, come testimonia la corrispondenza fra l’artista e il collega Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo: iniziato nel 1893, venne ripreso prima di essere esposto nel 1895 alla Biennale di Venezia.

Luigi Pastega | Genre painter

Luigi Pastega (Venice, 1858-1927) was an Italian painter, mainly of genre subjects.

He was a pupil of Pompeo Marino Molmenti and Napoleone Nani at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice.

He continued to reside in Venice painting vedute and genre subjects in a style that recalled Giacomo Favretto.

Kajetan Kovič | Istruzioni per dormire

Certo, addormentarsi.

Scacciare la luna

dalla finestra.

Mettere in contumacia

le zanzare.

Stabilire per i gatti

lo spazio notturno.

Zittire i malinconici

cani dei vicini.

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

Vincent van Gogh | Landscape under a stormy sky, 1889

Van Gogh's dramatically atmospheric Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé is one of the finest of the artist's Arles landscapes.

Painted amidst the most fruitful period of the artist's career, when his canvases were flooded with rich passages of densely-painted color, the composition depicts a verdant field under threat of an explosive rainstorm.

Van Gogh creates a scene of intense anticipation here, replete with psychological drama as the laborers hurry to finish their work before the heavens rain down upon them.

Vincent van Gogh | Landscape Under a Stormy Sky, 1889 | Sotheby's