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Three figures enjoy tobacco in an expressive manner in the foreground while an onlooker leans through the window. Around a table in the background, another group of figures drinks or plays cards. This is an example of scenes inside taverns with smokers, drinkers and players, which Teniers made during the sixteen thirties. He began with figures by his teacher, Adriaen Brouwer (1605/1606-1638), whic
In the immediate foreground, six dead birds arranged on a table that runs parallel to the picture plane stand out against a dark ground. These are, from right to left, three greenfinches, a goldfinch and what appears to be a grouse; the one behind them is difficult to identify. They are all game fowl, making it possible to classify the scene as a still life with game. The light enters from the lef
On August 29, 1626, King Philip IV’s painter, Vicente Carducho (ca. 1576-1638), signed a contract for the creation of a cycle of paintings to celebrate the founding of the Carthusian Order by Saint Bruno and its leading members. This colossal undertaking sought to visually narrate numerous episodes from the Carthusians’ history and tradition. It was the most complete commission ever dedicated to t
This work and its companion (P6413) belonged to Jean de Croy, Count of Solre and captain of the Flemish Royal Guard of Archers, of which Van der Hamen was a member. Unframed, the two paintings hung in De Croy’s Madrid palace, where they flanked the entrance to the painting gallery. As such, they may have served as a trompe l’oeil expansion of the real space, whose floor they probably reproduce. Th
This highly original still life presents various oysters in the fore and middle grounds—a relatively infrequent element in Meléndez’s paintings. The foreground is completed by some cloves of garlic and a decorated ceramic plate, probably from Talavera. Behind them, the powerful volume of an enormous copper pot vies for the leading role in this composition. It is tilted, as one edge rests on
A portrait of Ignacio, the artist´s youngest son and one of his favorite models, shown here at the age of eleven. The profusion of child portraits by Pinazo is based on his capacity to capture the freshness and spontaneity of children´s acts, making works of great intimacy and closeness. This portrait may be one of the painter´s finest and it reveals his most personal characteristics. The dark ton
Mariana of Austria, Queen Consort between 1665 and 1675, talks to the Jesuit priest Nithard, her confessor and confidant, in the presence of her son Charles II, still a minor. The scene takes place in a room in the Buen Retiro Palace –on the left we see a Hieronymite monk– decorated by the painter with works related to Velazquez and King Philip IV: Las Meninas, the equestrian portraits of Philip I
On a table partially covered by a green tablecloth, the painter has placed a white cloth, delicate gold-worked jars and glasses that reflect the light, a dish with ham, bread and a large basket of peaches and several types of grapes. There is also a half-peeled lemon, typical of Nordic still-lifes. In the background, there is a large red curtain and a gallery with columns. Charged with symbolic an
Painted for the base of the main altarpiece of San Esteban in Valencia (P00838, P00839, P00840, P00841 and P00842), Inspired by Leonardo, both in the definition of the space and in the eloquent expressiveness of the apostles, it also shows Juanes’s close relationship with Raphael. In keeping with traditional iconography in Spain, he focussed the scene on Jesus, serene and triumphant at the moment
These two paintings (P7804 and P7805) are part of a series on similar subjects, yet they stand out among Giandomenico`s work. These works are small depictions of everyday life in Venice, exquisitely rendered with a very agile touch that reflects the technical skills Giandomenico learnt from his father. This genre work is infrequent in Giandomenico`s oeuvre. In Spain the only known works of this so
The daughter of Henri IV of France and Marie de Médicis, Isabel de Borbón (1603-1644) was the first wife of Philip IV and the mother of Prince Baltasar Carlos and María Teresa of Austria. In Villandrando’s portrait, painted a year before Isabel became Queen of Spain, she wears a stiff, sumptuous dress that emphasises her presence and royal status. Although Spanish in cut, the
Alberto de Austria, the sovereign prince of the Low Countries, is dressed in black and sits under a canopy indicating that this is a court portrait. Unlike the customary indoor portraits, this one is set on a balcony open to a landscape that includes Tervuren Palace, near Brussels. This portrait, and that of his wife, Isabel Clara (P01684), seeks not only to bring out the figure of the Archduke, b
Like Fortuna (P1674) and the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis (P1634), the Rape of Hippodamia was part of the massive cycle of mythologies designed by Peter Paul Rubens in 1636-37 for the Torre de la Parada, Philip IV´s newly constructed hunting lodge on the outskirts of Madrid. The oil sketch for this picture, now in Brussels (Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique), was largely replicated in the
Steenwijck brings to the vanitas a genre in which he specialised, according to the surviving inventories -the compositional structure, scheme, colour range and lighting characteristic of the so-called monochrome banketjes or monochrome still lifes of Willem Claesz. Heda (P2754, P2655 and P2756) and Pieter Claesz. (P2753). Accordingly, the objects are arranged on a simple wooden table that is half
Depictions of painting galleries became popular in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century. The exhibition of paintings and other artistic or natural objects was originally a way of manifesting the high social standing of an eminently bourgeois class with a strong desire to ennoble itself. In many cases, the paintings did not rigorously reflect the client’s collection, but served inst
Espinosa was the leading painter working in Valencia in the mid-seventeenth century. He deployed a naturalistic style characterised by precise description and a selective use of light. Most of his works depict religious themes, including the present canvas with its unusual subject matter. The compositional rigour and monumental character make this canvas particularly outstanding within Espinosa’s
Surrounded by the apostles, Mary lies on her deathbed. Dressed as a priest, Saint Peter gives her a lit candle, while Saint John and another apostle read the Holy Scriptures beside her. The scene of the Assumption is visible through the open window. Maintaining certain elements of the work of his teacher, Juan de Borgoña, such as the human types and the palette; in this work Correa reveals
A member of a leading family of Madrid painters, Juan Rizi entered the Benedictine Order. Most of his worksdepict subjects related to the Order such as its saints and illustrious members. This canvas depicts one of Saint Benedict’s miracles and has a clearly Eucharistic content. It was painted for the Monastery of San Juan Bautista in Burgos.
