This set of paintings on the five senses (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch) was one of the most successful collaborations of Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel “the elder.” Rubens placed his figures in the magnificent courtly scenes created by Brueghel as settings for these allegories of the senses, resulting in a series of enormous quality and esthetic appeal. The subject was widely employed i
Lupercalia was a festival involving sacrifices to the two deities associated, respectively, with fecundity and childbirth: Pan and Lucina. As part of the celebrations, the men whipped their wives to make them more fecund. Two young musicians close to the scene of the sacrifice to the gods, as well as the statue on the altar itself, carry wind instruments characteristic of this type of festivity.Wi
This is the central panel of an altarpiece from Siguenza Cathedral, part of which is preserved in the sacristy. It was made up of ten panels distributed into five vertical sections and a predella. The Prado owns five of them. Two key moments marked the history of the altarpiece of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Catherine, originally sited in a chapel at the east end of Sigüenza Cathedral. T
This is a preliminary study for a scene from the Trojan War, painted for an unknown decorative scheme in the Royal Palace or another royal residence in Madrid. Agamemnon is about to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia so that his fleet can reach Troy, as the Oracle told him. Moved by the sorrowing priests, warriors and companions of the young woman, whose innocence is emphasised by her white clothing
According to the legend, the lactation of Saint Bernard occurred during a dream, and through it he acquired the gift of eloquence. Originally from the Cistercian monastery of Nuestra Señora in Benifazá (Castellón), the panel constitutes a triple homage to Mary, Saint Bernard (founder of the order) and Saint Benedict, who appears in it because the Cistercians belonged to the Be
This work is a variation on the painting executed by Jacopo towards 1580 for the main altar of the church of the Capuchins in Bassano del Grappa (Museo Civico, inv. 18), a large work (237 x 155 cm) with over fifty figures that constitutes una sorta di compendio di tutte le positure fatte da Jacopo Bassano per le sue opere (Marini: 1992, p. 298), and which was inspired by Titian´s La Gloria (P432),
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
According to Ovid (Metamorphosis, book V), in order to avoid her husband Jupiter´s infidelities, the goddess, Juno, converted the nymph, Io, into a lamb and called on Argos, the shepherd, to look after her. Jupiter sent Mercury, the gods´ messenger, to kill Argos and recover the nymph. Rubens depicts Mercury without his traditional attributes. He only carries his sword and the flute with which he
In the Place du Grand Sablon in Brussels various groups of magistrates, confraternities, religious orders and leading citizens march with a statue of the Virgin and the reliquary of Saint Juliana of Nicomedia. The painting is part of a series commissioned from Van Alsloot by Albert of Austria and Isabel Clara Eugenia, governors of the Spanish Netherlands, to mark various festivities that took plac
This scene from the Old Testament (Exodus II, 5-6) depicts the moment when the Pharaoh´s daughter and her ladies-in-waiting remove from the Nile River the basket in which baby Moses was placed by his Hebrew mother in order to save him from the slaughter of boy children ordered by that ruler. Outside the biblical text, Veronese has included a dwarf in the scene. Dwarves were often present at sixtee
A group of figures dance to the tune of a flute played by a man perched on an oak tree, and to the bells that some dancers have attached to their lower legs. The scene evokes the dances that are part of Ancient Greek history and myths and the tradition that followed - the book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili includes a description and a woodcut of a similar dance. The painting also evokes the arcadian s
Es una litografía de Gaspar Sensi y Baldachi (1794-1880) que reproduce un lienzo pintado por Rubens y su taller (P01673). El título que aparece en la estampa es Mercurio matando á Argos. Esta estampa se entregaba con el cuadernillo CXL acompañado de un texto explicativo de José Musso y Valiente. Está encuadernada en el tomo III de la serie dirigida por José de Madrazo, Colección litográfica de cua
The Company for the engraving of the paintings from the Royal Palaces was one of the Spanish Enlightenment’s major undertakings during the second half of the 18th century. It supervised the reproduction of prints of paintings from the Royal Collections and its early projects were carried out by Francisco de Goya, who reproduced some of Velázquez’s paintings in 1778, and by Juan Barcel&oacut
The Company for the engraving of the paintings from the Royal Palaces was one of the Spanish Enlightenment’s major undertakings during the second half of the 18th century. It supervised the reproduction of prints of paintings from the Royal Collections and its early projects were carried out by Francisco de Goya, who reproduced some of Velázquez’s paintings in 1778, and by Juan Barcel&oacut
The Company for the engraving of the paintings from the Royal Palaces was one of the Spanish Enlightenment’s major undertakings during the second half of the 18th century. It supervised the reproduction of prints of paintings from the Royal Collections and its early projects were carried out by Francisco de Goya, who reproduced some of Velázquez’s paintings in 1778, and by Juan Barcel&oacut
The Company for the engraving of the paintings from the Royal Palaces was one of the Spanish Enlightenment’s major undertakings during the second half of the 18th century. It supervised the reproduction of prints of paintings from the Royal Collections and its early projects were carried out by Francisco de Goya, who reproduced some of Velázquez’s paintings in 1778, and by Juan Barcel&oacut
Es una litografía de Gaspar Sensi y Baldachi (1794-1880) que reproduce un lienzo pintado por Rubens y su taller (P01673). Esta estampa se entregaba con el cuadernillo CXL acompañado de un texto explicativo de José Musso y Valiente. Está encuadernada en el tomo III de la serie dirigida por José de Madrazo, Colección litográfica de cuadros del rey de España el señor don Fernando VII, editada por el
Es una litografía de Gaspar Sensi y Baldachi (1794-1880) que reproduce un lienzo pintado por Rubens y su taller (P01673). Esta estampa se entregaba con el cuadernillo CXL acompañado de un texto explicativo de José Musso y Valiente. Iba encuadernada en el tomo III de la serie dirigida por José de Madrazo, Colección litográfica de cuadros del rey de España el señor don Fernando VII, editada por el R