Abundance, personified by Ceres, goddess of fertility and agriculture, sits in front of a thicket of reeds at the edge of a forest. She has adorned her hair with wheat spikes -her attribute- and bears [+]
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 [+]
With the owners or house servants away, the animals sneak into the larder, giving free rein to their instincts. This leads to a fight. Scenes of animal fights in domestic settings were customary in mi [+]
A group of travelers stop to rest, sitting together in the road. One of them speaks to a muleskinner, who leads a caravan of loaded mules. A very broad landscape unfolds on the left. In this painting, [+]
A wedding procession moves towards the church in a rural setting. The male members of both families lead the procession, headed by the groom. The flower in his hand is clearly a symbol of matrimony. T [+]
In 1724, Antonio Palomino, who had been Juan Carreño de Miranda’s disciple, included his teacher’s biography in his Parnaso español pintoresco y laureado. Their close relationship makes [+]
In this composition, various species of birds perched on the branches of a tree -a stork, an eagle, a red macaw, etc.- sing around a musical score. As in many of Frans Snyders’ compositions, the large [+]
Como es habitual en Jan Brueghel el Joven, el modelo iconográfico para esta composición se encuentra en los paisajes de Adán y Eva en el Paraíso inventados por su padre, Jan Brueghel el Viejo, si bien [+]
The dinner guests occupying the center of the composition symbolize the senses. Music and the singing children are hearing, and the young woman petting a mink is touch. The young woman preparing to ea [+]
This painting is Jacopo´s first depiction of the passage from Genesis 6:20 and the only one in which the theme is treated separately rather than as part of a series depicting the story of Noah. Jacopo [+]
Cardinal Fernando de’ Medici gave this canvas to the Minorite seminary of San Francisco de Paula, the saint who kneels in the foreground. The seminary, in Alcalá de Henares, was founded by the [+]
Saint Francis´s sermon to the birds is one of the most popular episodes from his life. In his biography of that saint (chapter XXI, 58), Celano narrates the event that occurred near Menavia in t [+]
This scene is inspired by a passage from the Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid. Orpheus, the mythological Greek musician and poet, sung and played the lyre so sublimely that all the animals, even t [+]
According to Plutarch, Philopoemen, a strategist and general of the Aequian League that fought against Sparta, visited the city of Megara. Because of his unassuming, humble appearance, the lady of the [+]
In the composition, an owl on a branch directs a chorus of fifteen other types of birds while holding a score between its feet. Such images of different species of birds perched on tree trunks, someti [+]