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Mary, wrapped in a red tunic, with a white headdress under her blue robes, is depicted here with an intense sense of devotion. The luminous halo alludes to the image´s sacred character and is used by El Greco to emphasize the figure´s volume. Equally characteristic are the features of the female figure, which the painter would use on numerous occasions: an adolescent with a melancholy face, a fine
In the second half of the 16th century, Flemish artists established the mountain view as a new type of landscape and Valckenborch was one of the leading representatives of this genre. Based on real, albeit idealised, locations, his views include small figures that he used as a pretext to depict craggy mountains.
Lorenzo Lotto`s various depictions of the penitent Saint Jerome span early versions influenced by Albrecht Dürer and Giovanni Bellini (Musée du Louvre, Paris, 1506) and by young Raphael (Museo Nazionale di Castel Sant`Angelo, Rome, c.1509), to his most personal interpretations from the 1540s. Lotto`s Libro dei Conti (Book of Accounts) lists four paintings between 1544 and 1546 with thi
Eugenio was the son of Tuscan painter Patricio Cajés, who came to Spain to work for Philip II at the monastery of El Escorial. His mother, Casilda de la Fuente, was Spanish. He began studying painting with his father and later moved to Rome (1595-1599), where he discovered two new trends in painting that would largely define the course of art in the 17th century: Caravaggio’s chiaroscuro an
The Apostles sleep in the foreground, indifferent to the suffering of Christ who is attended by angels. One holds a chalice, prefiguring the Passion. The artist looked to Correggio (c. 1489-1534) in the treatment of the figures and folds of the drapery, which have details characteristic of a miniature. The canvas was in the Roman collection of the painter Carlo Maratta (1625-1713) and was acquired
This painting, also known as the Embarkation of the Doge in the Riva degli Schiavoni, is dated after 1595, the year Leandro was ennobled, since the signature denotes his knightly status. In the 17th century, two works with similar characteristics depicting this theme arrived in Spain and are today housed at the Museo Nacional del Prado and the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (n. 546)
These four paintings of flowers and sumptuary objects (P250, P251, P252 and P3239) are part of those sent from Rome to Madrid by Mario Nuzzi and other artists for the decoration of the Buen Retiro Palace. Nuzzi, also known as Mario dei Fiori, studied with his uncle Tommaso Salini, a follower of Caravaggio and one of the first still-life specialists active in Rome after the latter’s death. Nuzzi dr
There are two classical Floras: the mythological goddess, wife of Zephyrus and an example of marital harmony and fertility; and the legendary Roman prostitute of that name. The two became associated in the Middle Ages, and by the Renaissance both young brides and courtesans were identified with Flora. The wild rose held by this figure has a similarly dual meaning: a symbol of both marital fecundit
The Florentine Bartolomé Carducho arrived at the royal monastery of El Escorial in 1585, two years after El Greco had completed The Martyrdom of Saint Maurice for that building. Philip II was unhappy with the latter work and El Greco thus failed to establish connections with the Spanish court, in contrast to Carducho whose appointment to the key position of Painter to the King allowed him t
These four paintings of flowers and sumptuary objects (P250, P251, P252 and P3239) are part of those sent from Rome to Madrid by Mario Nuzzi and other artists for the decoration of the Buen Retiro Palace. Nuzzi, also known as Mario dei Fiori, studied with his uncle Tommaso Salini, a follower of Caravaggio and one of the first still-life specialists active in Rome after the latter’s death. Nuzzi dr
This is a modest bottega product illustrating the passage on the birth of Christ (Luke 2: 8-20) which lends itself particularly well to a nocturnal setting. It is a replica, not of the Adoration of the Shepherds Jacopo executed in 1590 for San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, as previously believed, but of the painting depicting the same theme housed at the Louvre (inv. 430), which is an entirely autog
Aunque sus obras derivan de los paisajes de tipo panorámico, Valkenborch se especializa en paisajes montañosos, llenos de detalles, que reflejan un realismo nuevo y a veces una topografía real. En esta tabla tardía, con la línea del horizonte baja, muestra un tema de su gusto, unos altos hornos -quizá en tierras de Lieja-, con un pozo y obreros en primer plano.
In 1648 Carlo Ridolfi began his biography of Leandro Bassano by praising his talent as a portraitist (particolarmente eccellente ne`ritratti). This skill was generously acknowledged during his lifetime and led him to be ennobled in 1595 for his Portrait of Doge Marino Griman (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie). Initially close to the style of Jacopo Tintoretto, Leandro developed under the influence of
This late work whose composition recalls those of Raphael, is listed in the 1746 inventory of the La Granja Palace as a panel by Aníbal Caracho’s [sic.] hand, Our Lady sitting on the ground with the Infant Jesus on her lap and Young Saint John alongside, one third [of a rod] in diameter. Born in Bologna in 1650, Anibal Carracci was the younger brother of Agostino and cousin of Ludovico. In
In this work Cajés combines Caravaggesque tenebrism with Correggio’s soft, fleshy Mannerism. The resulting painting, with its gentle, delicate appearance, reveals the artist’s clear assimilation of ideas from Italian art. Cajés studied in Rome between 1595 and 1599 where he was for a while associated with the Cavaliere d’Arpino and from where he returned determined to develop his own
The Bible story (Samuel 1:17) depicted here corresponds to the moment when, as a young shepherd, David kills Goliath, the giant, with his sling and cuts off his head to triumphantly exhibit it. The episode of tying the giant’s tresses to reveal his head has no iconographic precedent and is not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, making this work yet another example of Caravaggio’s originality and i
El Greco executed various versions of the Holy Face on the Veil of Veronica, an iconographic motif that became very popular at the end of the Middle Ages. According to the story that developed during the medieval period, on His way to Calvary a woman offered Jesus a white cloth to wipe the sweat and blood from His brow, and the features of His face became imprinted on the cloth. There is no biblic
This work is an important addition to the Museo del Prado’s collection, as it is signed by an artist from the area of Toledo who made very few paintings. Indeed, the museum has only one other signed still life by him -The Chicken Seller (P08063)- and three more that are attributed to him: Saint John the Baptist (P01308), The Penitent Mary Magdalene (P01309) and The Miracle of Saint Bernard (P03489
