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A noble Roman widow and mother of five children, Saint Paula decided to retreat to the desert and abandon her worldly ways in favour of a life of prayer and penitence. In 285 AD she abandoned Rome with her son, Eustace, and moved to Antioch, where she joined Saint Jerome to share a hermit’s life. Claude Lorrain’s painting depicts her departure, offering an imaginary recreation of the port of Ostia
A broad landscape is the setting for Moses’s rescue from the Nile River by the Egyptian Pharaoh’s daughter and her retinue. In the foreground, a shepherd sleeps, indifferent to the events taking place behind him. The lush landscape, flowing river with a bridge, and the city in the background to the right are artistic license, and the original vegetation is evoked by only one element: the palm tree
Saint Onuphrius, a hermit saint of the fourth century AD, retired to the Egyptian desert in search of solitude. As with other works for the decoration of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid, this landscape was created by two artists: Claude himself, who painted the landscape, and a second, unknown artist who painted the hermit.
This painting shows the moment when, following an angel’s instructions, Tobias pulls out an enormous fish’s heart and entrails to cure his father’s blindness with them (Book of Tobit: VII, 15). The setting is a landscape with a flowing river that runs diagonally behind the figures. Three fifths of the canvas are occupied by the sky, beginning at the top with an intense blue and concluding at the h
The saint is depicted among ruins, imploring God to protect him from some small devils who disturb his spiritual retreat. The most striking element in the composition is its sophisticated lighting, which is both compositionally and symbolically complex. As a nocturnal scene, this work is unique within Claude’s oeuvre. It was painted for the gallery of landscapes in the Buen Retiro Palace.
Nicolas Poussin has a curious relation to the Buen Retiro Palace. Úbea considers him the determinant artist among all those who took part in its decorative project. That could explain why he was the only one to participate in the two most important sets of works commissioned in Italy: the landscapes, and the history of ancient Rome. At the very least, he painted the present work for the fir
This painting belongs to the Neapolitan group of scenes of ancient Roman life that were ordered in the early to mid 1630s by the Viceroy of Naples, the Count of Monterrey, to decorate the Buen Retiro Palace on the outskirts of Madrid.The painting underscores Lanfranco’s extraordinary powers of inventiveness and productivity during a period in which he was otherwise thoroughly preoccupied with a su
Saint Sabina, the noble Roman widow, became a Christian through the influence of her maid, Saint Serapia, a native of Antioch who fled the religious persecution of Christians there. The painting presents Serapia’s burial. Her body is carried by a group of matrons who place it in the tomb. Dressed in red and orange, Sabina stands out among all of them, mournfully contemplating the scene from above.
A bridge and river over a sunset in the background divide the landscape in depth. At the center of the foreground, three shepherds, seven head of cattle and two goats are framed by copses of woods on the right and left. Light and Nature are the true protagonists of this composition, giving it a dramatic feeling which Lorraine with replace with an elegant and classical serenity in his later works.
A depiction of the Old Testament passage (Numbers 21, 4-9) in which God orders Moses to make a bronze snake on a stick. Merely looking at it would cure those repentant sinners who had been punished with snakebites for having spoken against God or Moses. In this scene we see a bearded Moses with a red tunic pointing to the snake. He is surrounded by sick Israelites who beg for forgiveness and heali
Saturn, who represents Time in Roman mythology, has fallen beside his attributes, a scythe and an hourglass. Beauty -possibly a portrait of the painter´s wife, Virginia da Vezzo- olds him by the hear, blandishing a lance over him, while Hope threatens him with a hook, her iconographic symbol, and three cupids pluck the feathers from his wings. Time is defied by Love, which is a reversal of their t
This is rare type of tabletop that combines Roman Mannerist elements such as the border with pre-Baroque ones such as the exuberant floral and foliate motif that fills the centre. This motif replaces the central alabaster oval to be found in other compositions.
