Loading...
Joseph is a handsome and virtuous slave falsely accused of rape by his master´s wife, whose advances he has rejected. He is imprisoned, but eventually raised to the highest office by Pharaoh (Exodus: 39). Joseph and the Wife of Putiphar and Susannah and the Elders (P386) can be understood as parables of righteousness threatened and preserved, but here -as was usual for artists of the Renaissance a
Mounted on a white steed and flanked by an angel bearing a flag, Saint James gallops over a multitude of fallen Moors and horses. The battle scene occupies a rocky landscape in the middle ground. This canvas is a sketch for the elliptical dome at the entrance to the Royal Palace’s chapel and was painted by Giaquinto between 1756 and 1757. The canvas and its corresponding fresco are clearly derived
Saint Joseph grasps Jesus’s arm to prevent him from taking fruit from the basket. This action is loaded with meaning, given the sacrificial and Eucharistic significance of both the Child’s violet tunic and the grapes and pomegranates that predominate in the fruit basket. The painter, who is now getting better known, worked in Jaen and at Court in Madrid in the mid-seventeenth century.
On June 5, 1625 the Dutch governor of Breda, Justinus van Nassau, surrendered the keys of that city to Ambrosio Spínola, the Genoese general commanding the Spanish tercios (a group of soldiers that included pikemen, swordsmen and musketeers) of Flanders. Breda`s extraordinary strategic importance made it one of the most disputed cities in the Spanish monarchy`s prolonged war against the Uni
This work belongs to a group from the History of Rome series for the Buen Retiro Palace. Dedicated to depictions of Roman public pastimes, the group includes athletes, gladiators, chariots, animal fights, mock sea battles and so on. Following initial doubts, the Buen Retiro Palace was conceived as a place of leisure, where it would be possible to forget the worries associated with running the mona
Juan Francisco Alfonso de Pimentel Ponce de León, 10th Count and 7th Duke of Benavente (1584-1652), is portrayed more than half length with a whole host of attributes that confirm is supreme military rank in the Spanish army. In addition to gentleman-in-waiting to Phillip IV, he was appointed captain general in charge of frontier defense during the Portuguese uprising (1641) and participate
La infanta Catalina Micaela fue la menor de las dos hijas habidas en el matrimonio del rey Felipe II con su tercera esposa, Isabel de Valois. Nació en Madrid en 1567. Junto a su hermana mayor, Isabel Clara Eugenia, ocupó un lugar preferente en los sentimientos del rey, su padre, como denotan sus relaciones epistolares. Como Infanta de España, tenía reservado además un puesto preciso en la política
A domestic scene set in classical antiquity. An old man and a youth recline on divans while an attractive young woman plays music on a double flute. Both the clothing and the setting suggest the Greek world, and the motives and clothing are rigorously faithful to archeological discoveries made in the mid nineteenth century. Despite being Dutch by birth, Sir Lawrence Alma cultivated an eclectic per
Saint Peter Nolasco, founded the order of Our Lady of Mercy, also known as the Mercederians, whose main objective was to rescue Christians held captive by the Muslims. The convent of la Merced Calzada for which this work was painted had been founded by Ferdinand III in 1249 -the year Pedro Nolasco died- but it was entirely reconstructed in the early 17th century. In August 1628, Zurbarán wa
Luis Meléndez distinguished himself as the greatest bodegón, or still-life, painter in late eighteenth-century Spain. By this time, the popularity of the genre had declined in Spain and was not practiced by any of Meléndez’ contemporaries at court. Even so, Meléndez painted over one hundred bodegones in his lifetime, leading art historians to infer that he took a person
This painting celebrates the freeing of the Swiss town of Constance from its besiegement by Swedish troops under General Horn, who sought to cut off communication between imperial troops and Spanish soldiers at La Valtellina and the Duchy of Milan. Along with The Storming of Rheinfelden (P637) and The Capture of Breisach (P859), this is one of the three paintings at the Hall of Realms that commemo
This work and Vespasian’s Triumphal Entry in Rome (P237) are among the earliest examples of the collaboration between Domenico Gargiulo (also known as Micco Spadaro) and Viviano Codazzi, in which the former painted the figures and the latter, the architectural backgrounds. These two paintings were part of a group that also included Lanfranco’s depiction of an emperor’s triumphal entry into Rome: T
The painting entered the Museum`s holdings as an original work by Herman van Swanevelt, an attribution that has been maintained by subsequent catalogues. In 1973 Valdivieso identifies it as the landscape described in the inventory of 1701 and maintains the ascription to Van Swanevelt, which is also backed by Burke (1976), Luna (1984), Barghahn (1986), Galera Mendoza (2001) and Steland (forthcoming
This painting depicts the battle of Fleurus, near Brussels, which pitted troops from the Catholic League commanded by General Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba against Protestant Union soldiers led by Count Ernst von Mansfeld and Prince Christian of Brunswick. The Catholic League’s victory on August 29, 1622 freed Brussels—governed at that time by Isabel Clara Eugenia—from the threat pose
This is one of seven canvases (P00386, P00388, P00389, P00393, P00394, P00395, P00396) in a group linked by the same color scheme, a general accentuation of surface drawing and a rhythm of curved forms that link on painting to another. The scenes were designed to be seen together, at a certain height and laid out on canvases conceived as inclined planes that converged on a central painting. Clearl
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
Two Cows in a Meadow is one of Paulus Potter`s characteristic cabinet paintings featuring domestic animals, which were generally much more accomplished than his large compositions. They may be interpreted as a transposition to the Dutch countryside of the Roman rural landscapes with animals of Pieter van Laer, il Bamboccio (ca. 1592-1642). Hofstede de Groot does not mention this painting. Walsh (1
The painting entered the Museum as an original by Jan Both, and it is recorded as such in subsequent inventories and catalogues until the edition of 1976. Further, up until 1972 it is described in the Museum publications as the companion piece to Landscape with Carthusian (Saint Bruno?) (P02064) and Landscape with Saint Benedict of Nursia (P02065). In 1959 Blunt identifies it as the landscape desc
