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Titian represented the Gospel account of the burial of Christ (Matthew 27: 57-61; Mark 15: 44-47; Luke 23: 50-54; John 19: 38-42) on several occasions. There is a notable difference between his first version (Paris, Louvre) of around 1526 which is clearly indebted to Raphael´s painting of that subject (Rome, Galleria Borghese), and his other versions painted between 1559 and 1572. The main differe
Traditionally identified as the woman who was a sinner and wept on Christ’s feet and wiped away her tears with her hair (Luke 7:36-50), Mary Magdalene is shown here as the hermit saint she became upon giving up her life of moral decadence, after her encounter with the Savior. She kneels in prayer at the entrance to her cave and raises her eyes to heaven, eyes that are perhaps disproportionately la
María Tomasa Palafox (1780-1835), Marchioness of Villafranca, is shown wearing a white empire-style dress and sitting on a red silk damask armchair, with her feet on a cushion. She is painting a portrait of her husband, Francisco de Borja Álvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga, XI Marquis of Villafranca. The Marchioness received an enlightened education from her mother, the Countess of Montijo.
This exquisite floral still life and its companion, Glass Vase with Roses and other Flowers (P7935), stand out for the calculated depiction of their crystal, in which the author displays a skillful treatment of that transparent material. Marking the main lines of each vase with a successful balance of reality and evanescence, he presents them in such a way that they practically disappear in favor
On 14 February 1612 Juan Bautista Maíno signed the contract to execute the paintings for the monastery church of San Pedro Mártir in Toledo. Maíno agreed to a period of eight months to make the paintings, which had to portray the scenes and episodes specified by the prior of the monastery. Despite the agreement reached in the contract, the paintings were not completed until De
In this three-quarter portrait Queen Isabel de Valois (1546-1568) wears a black velvet gown with round sleeves from which her slashed red silk undersleeves embroidered with gold and silver thread peep out. On her head is a tilted flat cap which, like the buttons adorning the gown, is decorated with diamonds and rubies. The French queen would have dressed in this manner for solemn events, embellish
Since the moment when it was decided that the present work is by Raphael but that the sitter is not Antonio Granvela, art historians have expended considerable efforts on identifying the sitter.The most credible candidates would seem to be Cardinal Bendinello Suardi (painted by Del Piombo,Washington, National Gallery of Art), and even more probably Cardinal Giovanni Alidosi (depicted on a medal an
Under a sky filled with leaden-gray storm clouds, Saint Andrew and Saint Francis of Assisi stand next to each other in conversation. The apostle appears on the viewer’s left, wearing a cobalt blue tunic and green robes whose purple silk lining has grey reflections. He faces the viewer and leans on his characteristic x-shaped cross, turning his head to his left, where Saint Francis stands. The latt
This portrait of María Antonia Gonzaga y Caracciolo (1735-1801), the dowager Marchioness of Villafranca, corresponds to the period in which Goya executed his two portraits of her eldest son, José Álvarez de Toledo (one now in the Museo del Prado and the other in the Art Institute of Chicago). Her son was the eleventh Marquis of Villafranca and Duke of Alba through his marriage
In this work, Fortuny establishes an eloquent link between painting and music and a clear exposition of what his friend, the Baron Davillier, called his very lively and very pure taste in music. Fortuny depicts one of the musical evenings that he attended in Madrid during the summer of 1866 at his friend and former classmate, Catalan painter Francisco Sans y Cabot’s studio at no. 13, calle Flor Ba
Painted in London when the artist was nearly seventy years old, Moses Rescued from the Nile is undoubtedly the finest work from Orazio Gentileschi’s final period. Exquisitely refined and subtle in its emotions, it was conceived to please that most informed and demanding connoisseur of painting, King Philip IV of Spain. The artist sent it to him as a gift in the summer of 1633, and his son Francesc
This carefully executed and exquisite floral still life and its companion, Crystal Flower Vase with Roses and jazmins (P7934), stand out for the calculated depiction of their crystal, in which the author displays a skillful treatment of that transparent material. Marking the main lines of each vase with a successful balance of reality and evanescence, he presents them in such a way that they pract
Born in 1786 in New Spain, María Francisca de la Gándara y Cardona was the widow of General Fñelix María Calleja del Rey, the last Spanish Viceroy of Mexico. She died in Valencia in 1855. She sits across from the viewer and looks directly at him. In her right hand she holds a breviary, marking the page where she intends to continue her interrupted reading. Her left hand
This portrait is a full-length likeness of Philip II’s third wife, Queen Isabel de Valois. She wears a black gown with pointed sleeves and a long train that is curled around her body and billows at the back. Poking out from beneath her hanging sleeves, held in place with ruby and diamond buttons and lined in white fabric, are silver and gold undersleeves. The one-piece gown is decorated with appli
After establishing himself in Paris as portrait painter to the elegant and cosmopolitan high society of his time, Raimundo de Madrazo cultivated a particularly abundant clientele among the great ladies of the French capital. A posterior trip to America allowed him to expand his client base to include the leading families of New York. In the 1870s, when Raimundo was beginning to make a place for hi
A frontal view of the Queen. She sits, wearing a red silk dress with white sleeves and bonnet. Her right arm rests very naturally on a table, while her left holds a book. She is marking one of the pages with her finger as though she had just interrupted her reading. This is quite common in female portraits. Maria Amalia was born to Friedrich Augustus III, King of Poland and elector of Saxony; and
This portrait of García de’Medici (1547–1562), third son of Cosimo de’Medici and Leonor de Toledo, is an excellent example of the scant interest in the depiction of children prior to the Enlightenment period. Bronzino offers a faithful rendering of a child’s small, undefined features, but presents him with the same distant, impassive pose used for adult portraits of the Florentine court amb
The overall composition conforms to the type of portrait prevailing in Europe in the second half of the 16th century. The arrangement of the figure, slightly turned to the left in order to avoid a rigid frontality; the strong lighting that models the face and hands; the way in which the hands are arranged; and the inclusion of a curtain as a decorative element were all formulas created in the mid-
