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Juan Francisco Alfonso de Pimentel Ponce de León, 10th Count and 7th Duke of Benavente (1584-1652), is portrayed more than half length with a whole host of attributes that confirm is supreme military rank in the Spanish army. In addition to gentleman-in-waiting to Phillip IV, he was appointed captain general in charge of frontier defense during the Portuguese uprising (1641) and participate
A court portrait of Queen Anne (1549-1580), the daughter of Emperor Maximilian II (1527-1576) and Maria of Austria (1528-1603), married her uncle Philip II in 1570; their son later became Philip III (1578-1621). This portrait is thought to be a copy of one by Anthonis Mor, painted in 1570 when the future queen was travelling to Spain to be married. She is wearing a white partlet over an ornate dou
John Frederick I of Saxony (Torgau, 30 June 1503–Jena, 3 March 1554), Duke of Saxony-Wittenberg from 1532, was the principal defender of Luther, a fact that brought him into conflict with Charles V. In 1546 these differences resulted in an armed conflict that culminated at Mühlberg on 24 April 1547 when the Imperial army defeated the Schmalkaldic League and captured its leaders, John Frederic
The Baptism of Christ, in the central panel, contains echoes of Gerard David, while the two side panels -The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos- recall the work of Hans Memling. Both artists worked in Bruges in the fifteenth century. The apocalyptic vision of the Virgin is based on an engraving by Dürer. To adapt these models to contempor
The Virgin Mary lies on her deathbed, surrounded by eleven Apostles. Through the window, the Borgo di San Giorgio and the Laguna of Mantua can be seen in the background. This scene depicts the Virgin Mary´s final moment on earth. According to the Apocrypha, her body and soul were carried up to Heaven by Jesus following her earthly death. This moment is also known as the “Dormition of the Virgin”.
This portrait of García de’Medici (1547–1562), third son of Cosimo de’Medici and Leonor de Toledo, is an excellent example of the scant interest in the depiction of children prior to the Enlightenment period. Bronzino offers a faithful rendering of a child’s small, undefined features, but presents him with the same distant, impassive pose used for adult portraits of the Florentine court amb
Philip II (r. 1556-98) was Titian´s most important patron, and together they forged one of the most fruitful artistic relationships of the European Renaissance. Philip surpassed all of the Venetian painter´s previous patrons both in the number of commissions and in their variety. Unlike his father, Emperor Charles V (r. 1519-56), Philip was not satisfied with only portraits and devotional works; h
Bosch thus shows how man, irrespective of his social class or place of origin, is so possessed by the desire to enjoy and acquire material possessions that he allows himself to be deceived or seduced by the Devil. Thus the artist proposes that we should renounce earthly goods and the delights of the senses in order to avoid eternal damnation. The painting offers an exemplum of a different type to
This scene from the New Testament (John 13, 1-20) shows the moment just before the Last Supper, when Jesus washed Saint Peter´s feet as an example of humility and service to others. The displacement of the main characters, Christ and Saint Peter, to one end of the composition is due to the original location of this work on the right wall of the presbytery of San Marcuola, where the image of Christ
The Descent from the Cross was painted for the Chapel of Our Lady Outside the Walls at Leuven, which was founded in the fourteenth century by the Great Crossbowmen`s Guild, sold in 1798 and demolished soon afterwards. The two small crossbows that hang from the tracery in the corners of the panel indicate that it was commissioned by that guild. The earliest datable copy, the Edelheere Triptych of 1
Titian painted his first self-portrait before leaving for Rome in 1545. However, it was after his Roman stay that he showed the most interest in disseminating his image in order to fully establish his position in a context of intense rivalry with Michelangelo. In 1549 Paolo Giovio acquired a self-portrait by the artist for his Museo in Como, while in 1550 the painter had another one sent to Charle
The literary source for the Furies is Ovid´s Metamorphoses (IV, 447-464) and Virgil´s Aeneid (VI, 457-8), which recounts the eternal sufferings in Hades of Tityus, whose liver was devoured by a vulture as a punishment for having raped Latona; Tantalus, condemned to try to reach food and drink in vain for having killed and cooked his son Pelops as a banquet for the gods; Sisyphus, founder and king
This painting belongs to a series of scenes of hunting parties at the entrance to country manors or villas built in a classical style. They all document a series of innovations in fashion and dressage, which reveal them to have been painted in the artist`s final phase. In keeping with this chronology, the male characters sport the French clothing and hairstyles that prevailed among the Dutch upper
Philip II was Titian’s most important patron, and the pair’s artistic relationship was one of the most fecund of the Renaissance. They met twice while Philip was still a prince, in Milan (December 1548-January 1549) and Augsburg (November 1550-1551), and Titian painted the prince’s portrait on both occasions. On 29 January 1549 Philip paid the painter 1000 escudos for certain portraits he paints a
The old attribution to the Mannerist painter Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527-1596) may have been suggested by the handling, with its extensive passages of white heightening, as well as the Michelangelesque figure types. Originally from the Ticino, Tibaldi spent his youth in Bologna, later transferring to Rome, where he spent much of his early career. Towards the end of his life, in 1585/86, he moved to S
Preparatory drawing for Capricho 42. The abuse of ordinary people by those in power and the ignorance that perpetuates this system of exploitation are recurring themes in the Caprichos. Here, asses representing the nobility literally ride the backs of the laboring poor. Contemporary manuscripts echo these ideas, including one in the Biblioteca Nacional de España: "The poor and useful classe
An image of the Emperor (1500-1558) with the armor he wore during the Battle of Mühlberg and the customary attributes of his power: the Golden Fleece and the Sash. The profuse carving on the armor shows numerous motives. A low relief on the breastplate Christ standing on the Cross, alluding to the Emperor´s condition as a “soldier of Christ”, or “defender of the Faith.” The epaulettes have a
In 1549 in Brussels Charles V commissioned Leone Leoni to execute a group of statues of himself and his deceased wife the Empress Elizabeth of Portugal.They were to be in different formats (bust and half-length) and materials (marble and bronze).The most famous is Charles V and the Fury due to its conceptual and artistic importance and complexity.This was the first monumental sculpture by Leoni an
