An inquiring and original artist, as well as an extraordinary draughtsman, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione travelled throughout much of Italy (besides his native Genoa, he worked in Rome, Mantua, Venice, and possibly Parma, Florence, Bologna and Modena) absorbing and appropriating a great variety of tendencies and languages, from the vigorous naturalism of painters living in Genoa, such as Sinibald
As court painter to the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand, Snayers’s compositions both document and glorify Spanish military activities. This painting represents the capture of Aire-sur-la-Lys from the French troops by the Cardinal-Infante’s army in 1641. The topographical landscape in the background and the genre episodes in the foreground are influenced by Jacques Callot’s etching The Siege of Breda.
In October 1777, Goya received a commission to paint 20 cartoons for tapestries intended to decorate the walls of the Prince and Princess of Asturias´s bedchamber and its anteroom in the palace of El Pardo, north of Madrid, while he was completing designs of other tapestries for their dining room. This would be the third set of cartoons commissioned from the young Goya and proposed by Anton Raphae
This painting enters the Museum as the work of Salomon Koninck, an attribution which remains valid until the 1963 catalogue, when, according to Valdivieso (1973), a proposal by Clotilde Brière-Misme and Horst Gerson cause it to be attributed to Abraham van den Hecken (active 1635-1655).However, despite the harsh modelling of the facial features, the compositional arrangement and, above all,
The son of painter Giovanni Maria Galli da Bibiena and brother of Ferdinando Galli da Bibiena, Francesco was raised in a family of artists and took an early interest in architecture and set design. He worked in various Italian cities before being appointed architect to the court of Mantua and moving to Vienna, where he took charge of the construction of the new opera theatre. Later trips took him
This preparatory drawing for the etching Capricho 54, The shameful one (G02156) is part of The Dreams, a series of twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that serve as the basis for The Caprichos. Headed by Dream 1. The Author Dreaming, which became number 43 in the definitive and expanded Caprichos. Here, Goya focuses his social criticism on the bestiality of a deformed man whose head emerges from his b
This preparatory drawing for the etching Capricho 5, Two of a Kind (G02093) is part of The Dreams, a series of twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that serve as the basis for the Caprichos in the first stage of its creation. The subject matter was common in depictions of that period. At first glance, the preparatory drawing might seem to be a simple genre scene—a lady being courted by a gentleman whil
This preparatory drawing for the etching Capricho 7, God forgive her: Even thus he cannot make her out (G02095) is part of The Dreams, a series of twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that serve as the basis for the Caprichos in the first stage of its creation. The composition is similar to the final print, although two figures and the construction in the background are missing from the latter. The su
This watercolor offers a profile view -similar to a low relief- of a child or young faun sitting on a fragment of an Ionic entablature with egg-and-dart decorations above an astragal. The slender, nude child recalls the Italian boys who worked as models in academies and were depicted by European painters and sculptors. At the academies where he studied, Fortuny had drawn numerous nude boys, some p
This preparatory drawing for the etching Capricho 36, Bad Night (G02124) is part of The Dreams, a series of twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that serve as the basis for the Caprichos. This type of composition was common in that period among Enlightenment critics. Immediate precedents for some of these works may be found in the Sanlúcar and Madrid Albums, but there tend to be important seman
International Language is the preparatory drawing for the well-known Capricho 43, The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, and it bears the marks of having been transferred to the copper plate. The final composition presented here differs from the original idea, whose composition was more confused yet attractive, as its technique reflected the fire of creative passion in the rays of light emerging f
This preparatory drawing for the etching of Capricho 16. For Heaven’s sake: And it was his Mother (G02104) is part of the Dreams series, which consists of twenty-six pen drawings that form the basis of The Caprichos. A customary subject, this vehicle for enlightened criticism marks the initial phase of Goya’s creative process. Both the drawing and the completed print share the same composition, an
This preparatory drawing for the etching Capricho 11, Lads Making Ready (G02099 / G00644) is part of The Dreams, a series of twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that serve as the basis for the Caprichos. Headed by Dream 1. The Author Dreaming, which became number 43 in the definitive and expanded Caprichos. The subject matter was common in that period in compositions employed by Enlightenment critics
This preparatory drawing for the etching Capricho 14, What a Sacrifice! (G02102) is part of The Dreams, a series of twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that serve as the basis for the Caprichos. Headed by Dream 1. The Author Dreaming, which became number 43 in the definitive and expanded Caprichos. The subject matter was common in that period as dreams were used to represent the world from the perspec
This preparatory drawing for the etching Capricho 66, There it goes (G02102) is part of The Dreams, a series of twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that serve as the basis for the Caprichos. Headed by Dream 1. The Author Dreaming, which became number 43 in the definitive and expanded Caprichos. The subject matter was common in representations of that period. The preparatory drawing’s composition show
A preparatory drawing for the etching, Capricho 57, The filiation (G02145). Together, the twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that constitute the basis for The Caprichos are known as The Dreams. The first, Dream 1, The Author Dreaming (D03923), became number 43 in the Caprichos. This was a common subject during that period. In the composition, a standing man reads to a seated woman. Both wear masks. A
A preparatory drawing for the etching, Capricho 68, Pretty teacher! (G02156). Together, the twenty-six pen-and-ink drawings that constitute the basis for The Caprichos are known as The Dreams. The first, Dream 1, The Author Dreaming, became number 43 in the Caprichos. This was a common subject during that period. The composition shows two witches riding a broom, one young and the other, aged. The
This preparatory drawing for Caprichos, 70, Devout profession is in two parts. The image on the front of the paper is called Dream of a beginner witch while the rear one, which appears with the title, Dream of witches, has been traced from the previous one with some variants that reflect ideas from Witches in flight, a drawing in Album B or the Madrid Album. Flying was a skill that had always been