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This is one of the few winter scenes painted by Hendrick Dubbels still preserved today. In the Museum`s catalogues it is described as a scene with skaters, although only three of the many characters depicted here are actually skating, and one is putting on skates. The 1873 and 1878 editions state that, despite the signature, some consider this to be by Bonaventura Peeters; the 1885 publication men
In the shadow of great names like Velázquez, a very interesting school of painting developed in Madrid during the seventeenth century. On occasions, it reached very high levels of quality. One of its members was Cabezalero. Few of his works are known, but they are all of a certain quality, as can be seen in the present Assumption, where this artist´s characteristic taste for monumenta
A landscape with waterfalls appears at one side of the composition. At the other, various buildings oppose their rational and geometrical mass to Nature’s freer expression. The canvas’s human presence consists of various tiny figures in different parts of the composition. The suggestion of the Tivoli cascades and their wild surroundings are the main argument of this painting, which is characterist
The Virgin’s facial type, the confident drawing and the forceful rendering of the spatial planes originally led this work to be attributed to Claudio Coello. But in 1986 more precise knowledge of the artistic personality of Mateo Cerezo led Rogelio Buendía and Ismael Gutiérrez Pastor to name him as its author. This attribution has been maintained and it rests on a comparison to signe
The Virgin holds Christ´s dead body on her lap and turns an imploring look towards the heavens. Saint John, in red, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus meditate on the event of which they are the protagonists. Towards the bottom, Mary Magdalene removes the Thorns form Christ´s head and Mary Salome kisses his hand. This is a work from Jordaens´ mature period, with the long, watery brushstrokes that c
El santo portugués aparece representado de tres cuartos, de pie, junto a un oratorio o bufete cubierto por un paño, sobre el que reposa un libro y una vara de azucenas, mientras sostiene al Niño Jesús en sus brazos. Se trata de una obra en la que Giordano trata de imitar el estilo de Ribera.
In this personification of the Virgin Mary as the Immaculate Conception, the protagonist, although still very youthful, is not as childlike as those of Zurbarán and Velázquez and lacks the descriptive and symbolic elements commonly found in earlier, undoubtedly archaic versions. Allusions to the litanies are omitted and artist reduces the image to the bare essentials: the young and s
On entering the Museum this painting was inventoried as a product of the Sevillian school, though the 1876 catalogue lists it as a work executed in the style of Jan Both. Valdivieso (1973) considers it to be an eighteenth-century Italian work, while Barghahn (1986) identifies it as one of the landscapes in the Palace of the Buen Retiro inventory, though in fact neither the measurements nor the des
Like many other works by Andrea di Lione, Jacob’s journey, c.1635-65, was previously attributed to Genoese painter Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (Il Grechetto). It is one of the most successful landscapes with figures by Lione, who first studied with battle painter Aniello Falcone (1607-1656) and later developed a more bucolic manner under the influence of Castiglione, whom he lived alongside in
Philip IV´s sister, Maria, was born in El Escorial in 1606. As a result of her royal lineage, she was destined to become yet another pawn in the play of matrimonial alliances that the European courts found so useful. As a marriageable infanta, marrying her was first considered a means of improving diplomatic relations with England, but those efforts failed as a result of religious incompatabilites
This is one of Bellevois`s characteristic seascapes designed to capture the atmospheric effects of the North Sea. Accordingly, in the rendering of the various elements -figures, vessels and background buildings- the artist is more concerned with blending all the features into the atmosphere than with depicting detail. The composition is structured into three planes staggered spatially towards the
This work depicts the feast of Epiphany, as can be seen by the crown on the central figure, whose paintings show an Adoration of the Magi. According to Flemish folk tradition, in this feast, the king of the celebration is chosen by chance, being the one who finds a bean in his cake. Other Flemish artists, such as Jordaens, depicted this celebration in the same way, reflecting its most festive mome
This scene from the life of Saint Bernard (twelfth century), depicts the moment when the saint received a stream of milk from a statue of the Virgin and Child, on the altar. A Cardinal watches the miracle with his hands joined in prayer. This work combines a monumental sense of forms with a very delicate treatment of color, which are the characteristics Cano´s painting acquired after he got to kno
In a landscape with classical ruins that allude to the defeat of paganism, the Christ Child tends a lamb. Murillo based this image on a print by Stefano della Bella (1610-1664), while making use of his outstanding ability to depict children to create one of the most effective depictions of the parable of the Good Shepherd.
A Triumphant Christ appears to a group of saints among whom are Saints Jerome, Francis and Mary Magdalene. It is not known what church this work was painted for, although it is clear that it was meant to be hung at a quite high. Preti was a prolific painter who worked in Rome, Naples and Malta, where he was knighted and where he probably painted this work.
In each of these paintings (P596, P597), the central motif around which the entire composition is organised is a glass flower vase, the base of which rests on a stone surface. The flask-shaped vessel contains water. The specific varieties of flowers vary in the two works, but the similarities in the paintings´ dimensions and in the strategies adopted in the depiction of their subjects -toget
This painting is the result of two acts carried out in different periods. First, Velázquez painted the surface occupied by the figures and the tapestry in the background. Later, in the 18th century, a wide strip (with the arch and oculus) was added to the top, along with narrower ones on the left, right and bottom (these additions are not visible in the current presentation of this work). T
This is one of the most successful of this painter´s many known Immaculate Conceptions, thanks to its serenity and exquisite beauty. His inventive capacity is continually visible in the vast repertoire of variations he brings to his treatment of a single religious subject. The symbols of the Marian litany are always present, but the angels´ heads are never the same, nor do their groups
