This altarpiece was painted for the monastery of Santo Domenico in Fiesole, near Florence. The central panel shows the Archangel Gabriel’s Annunciation to Mary under a portico. On the left, Adam and E [+]
On what appears to be a wooden table or ledge we see boiled crabs and shrimp, several freshwater fish (two carp, a roach, possibly several ide, and a northern pike), a dark glass goblet, a brass candl [+]
This painting, together with Still life with Fish, Candle, Artichokes, Crabs and Shrimp, also in the Prado (P1621), is very likely identical to a picture first documented when it was in the Spanish ro [+]
This scene of a young man blowing on burning embers was already developed by El Greco in Italy. Here, the motif is complicated by a mischievous young man and a monkey. This possible allegory of sexual [+]
The blind man appears in profile playing his hurdy-gurdy, a stringed instrument with which he earns his living. Despite his miserable state, La Tour depicts him with considerable dignity, dressed in a [+]
The Roman saint Cecilia was martyred for her faith. As the patron saint of music she is normally depicted playing an instrument, crowned with flowers and accompanied by the angel who defended her puri [+]
Brígida del Río was a well-known character in the late 16th century, as indicated by the descriptions of her in various literary and visual accounts; works that reflect a para-scientific [+]
Margaret of Austria married Philip III in 1599 after Philip II chose her from among the women of the Austria-Styria family. The marriage was planned to coincide with that of infanta Isabel Clara Eugen [+]
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 ( [+]
Along with its religious emotiveness and the perfect rendering of Christ´s anatomy, the most attractive aspect of this composition is the landscape, which reproduces the view of the via San Giovanni f [+]
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 c [+]
Margaret, who married Philip III in 1599, was the daughter of the Archduke of Bavaria. In this portrait by Pantoja de la Cruz -the most representative painter of the reign- she wears the so-called “Ri [+]
Stylistically, this work appears to have been made in the early 1630s -soon after the artist returned from Italy- and most authors date it from around 1632. The Apollonian perfection of the anatomy an [+]
Among the painters working in Madrid, Pereda possessed one of the most distinctive styles, which derived from his study of Flemish and Venetian painting and is evident in works that combine chromatic [+]
It has often been stated that this painting is part of a series of four, all now in the Prado, but that is probably not the case. The dimensions of all four paintings (P1619, P1620, P1621, P1622) are [+]
This painting is illustrative of the beach scenes monopolised in Utrecht by the Willaerts family, who combined the two typical genres of Dutch painting in their work: seascapes and genre scenes. They [+]
A profusion of cooking utensils and hearty meats -game birds fresh from the hunt and not yet dressed, a recently-killed lamb, a calf’s head, and other cuts- are laid out on a work surface, as if the p [+]
At the German Imperial court, into which Queen Margaret of Austria (1584-1611) was born, portraits of royalty were often included in religious scenes; these paintings were known in Spanish as portrait [+]