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[1333-10]
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The Graces were minor deities but in this splendid work Peter Paul Rubens devotes his best effort to them. The three goddesses embrace each other forming a circle. The positioning of their feet suggests movement; they seem to dance gently. The setting is as luscious as the nude bodies of the goddesses. A field illuminated by sunlight filtered through dense trees stretches to a distant blue. The shadows cast by the figures show that they are lit from a source placed opposite the sun; Rubens is not a realist, he strives for effect. All is watered by a fountain crowned by a child with a cornucopia, the horn of abundance. A few touches of paint on his back suggest the presence of a wing. If so, this is Cupid, the child god who is sometimes associated with a problematic kind of love but is shown here in a positive light: the liquid emanating from his fountain is a blessing to the world. From the cornucopia and the branch of a tree hangs a garland of white and red roses in full bloom. They echo the splendour of the Graces, as the forms of the fountain echo their bodies. [Source: museodelprado.es] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Three Graces, The | 1630-5 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Rubens, Peter Paul (Pieter Pauwel) | 1577-1640, aged 63 | Flemish painter Antwerp | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-11] | |
| Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Spain | 221 x 181 |
| The Adoration of the Magi is a painting of 1632–34 by the Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens, made as an altarpiece for for the chapel at the Convent of the White Nuns in Louvain. It is now in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge England. In June 1974 the painting was vandalised, with two-foot-high letters ‘IRA’ scratched on it. When Rubens visited Madrid on a diplomatic mission in 1628-29 he found the painting below, which he himself had executed in 1609 for Antwerp city council, and which now belonged to Philip IV’s collection. It too is entitled Adoration of the Magi. He made substantial changes to the composition. He added a strip to the top of the scene and another to the right-hand side and adapted the language of the painting to the style he was then using, which was greatly inspired by Titian. He also included a portrait of himself on horseback with gold chain and sword, conveying his noble status. This version is in the Prado.  [Source: Wikimedia commons and museodelprado.es] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Adoration of the Magi, The | 1632-4 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Rubens, Peter Paul (Pieter Pauwel) | 1577-1640 | Flemish painter Antwerp | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-12] | |
| King’s College Chapel, Cambridge | 420 x 320 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Stylistically, this work appears to have been made in the early 1630s -soon after the artist returned from Italy- and most authors date it from around 1632. The Apollonian perfection of the anatomy and the figure`s pale complexion recall the neo-Attic character of Guido Reni`s work, but it must have been Velázquez`s intention to imbue the figure with a divine and ineffable beauty, reflecting the belief that Christ was the most beautiful of men. Four nails hold Christ on the cross, following the painterly formula that Pacheco began using in 1611 and that he defended with a number of historical and religious arguments that appear at the end of his Art of Painting from 1649. [Source: museodelprado.es] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Christ Crucified | 1632 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Velázquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y | 1599-1660, aged 61 | Spanish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-13] | |
| Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Spain | 249 x 170 |
| An incident in Roman mythology in which the men of Rome committed a mass abduction of young women from the other cities in the region. It has been a frequent subject for artists and sculptors. Poussin’s The Rape of the Sabine Women, is essentially a recreation of his original work (see below) and was likely completed around 1637–1638. The word ‘rape’ has often been used but a more correct translation would be ‘kidnap’. The architectural setting of this work is more developed than in the original. This painting currently resides in the Louvre Museum in Paris. According to the Louvre, painting multiple version of one subject was not uncommon throughout Poussin’s career. As stated above, Poussin produced two major versions of this subject. His initial version was entitled The Abduction of the Sabine Women and was most likely completed around 1633–1634. The painting depicts Romulus giving the signal to the Romans for the abduction. According to the Met, the subject matter of Poussin’s work allowed him to highlight his understanding of pose and gesture as well as his knowledge of Roman architecture. This version of the painting currently resides at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons  Original version from the Metropolitan Museum Image source: metmuseum.org |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Abduction of the Sabine Women, The | 1633-4 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Poussin, Nicolas | 1594-1665, aged 71 | French painter Rome | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-14] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 155 x 210 |
| This extraordinary painting by Zurbarán, the only signed and dated still life by this great master of the school of Seville, has been widely admired as a masterpiece of the genre. The painting shows three groups of objects – a saucer of four citrons, a basket of oranges, and a saucer holding both a cup of water and a rose – resting on a table against a dark background. Each group of objects are placed equidistant from one another and form a spatial and geometrical balance due to their pyramidal organisation. To devout Spanish Catholics in the 17th century, the apparently humble objects portrayed here contained significant religious meaning. The measured placement of the three motifs, for example, would have been instantly understood as an allusion to the Holy Trinity. The painting has also been interpreted as an homage to the Virgin, with the oranges, their blossoms, and the cup of water symbolizing her purity, and the thornless rose referring to her Immaculate Conception. [Source: nortonsimon.org] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Still Life with Lemons, Oranges and a Rose | 1633 | Oil | Still Life |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| de Zurbarán, Francisco | 1598 – 1664, aged 65 | Spanish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-15] | |
| Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA USA | 62 x 107 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | 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 of Flanders. Breda`s extraordinary strategic importance made it one of the most disputed cities in the Spanish monarchy`s prolonged war against the United Provinces of the North. Its conquest after a lengthy siege was considered a military accomplishment of the first order, generating a plethora of texts and images intended to exalt the winners. It is therefore not surprising that the decision to decorate the Buen Retiro Palace`s Hall of Realms with a series of paintings narrating the military triumphs of Philip IV`s reign called for a depiction of what was probably the most resounding victory of all. Nor is it any surprise that Velázquez, who was then the court`s most prestigious painter, was commissioned to paint it. [Source: museodelprado.es] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Surrender of Breda, The (Las Lanzas) | 1634-5 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Velázquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y | 1599-1660, aged 61 | Spanish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-16] | |
| Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain | 307 x 367 |
 Image source: metmuseum.org | Rubens took the subject of this painting from the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Accidently pricked by one of Cupid’s arrows, Venus fell in love with the handsome hunter Adonis. With cavalier indifference to the goddess’s charms and her warnings of danger, Adonis hunted a wild boar and was gored to death. Rubens shows their leave-taking—a popular subject also famously depicted by Titian in another picture now at The Met. Technical examination indicates that a later hand altered Adonis’s expression to make it less foreboding. [Source: metmuseum.org] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Venus and Adonis | 1635-40 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Rubens, Peter Paul (Pieter Pauwel) | 1577-1640 | Flemish painter Antwerp | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-17] | |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY USA | 198 x 243 |
| Charles I at the Hunt depicts Charles in civilian clothing and standing next to a horse as if resting on a hunt, in a manner described by the Louvre as a ‘subtle compromise between gentlemanly nonchalance and regal assurance’. Van Dyck gives his naturalistic style full expression: ‘Charles is given a totally natural look of instinctive sovereignty’. The painting depicts Charles in lighter colours to the left of the painting, standing against the darker ground and the shadowed servants and horse under a tree to the right; his hat prevents his face from appearing washed out by the sky. Charles is dismounted, and stands as if surveying his domain and the sea beyond (perhaps the Solent with the Isle of Wight visible in the distance). His head is turned and his face pinched in a disdainful and somewhat bitter smile. The king was famously sensitive about his height, and the painting compensates by placing the viewer at a low angle point of view, looking up at the king. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Charles I at the Hunt | 1635 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| van Dyck, Sir Anthony | 1599-1641, aged 42 | Flemish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-18] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 266 x 207 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The Trinity shows Ribera´s confidence in his pictorial possibilities. The tragedy of the scene is emphasized by the use of light and a sumptuous palette. The bluish cadaver of Christ, marked by blood that runs down his side, staining his loincloth and shroud, contrasts with the hieratic appearance of God the Father, who shows us his dead Son, accompanied by the dove of the Holy Ghost. This work´s message, Christ´s death and suffering for Humanity, is extraordinarily clear. There is another, slightly different, version of this work at the Monastery of El Escorial. [Source: museodelprado.es] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Holy Trinity, The | 1635 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Ribera, Jusepe de | 1591-1652, aged 61 | Spanish painter, Italy | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-19] | |
| Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Spain | 181 x 226 |
| The heads in the painting are drawn and modelled with a care and restraint unusual in Van Dyck. The contrast between the blue Garter ribbon and the three different colours of the King’s costume, which include three differently patterned lace collars; in the richly worked sky all contribute to turning a utilitarian commission into a work of great beauty. The fashion for men to wear their hair longer on the left at this date is clearly shown with the figure rotated in space. Van Dyck had presumably been influenced by Lotto’s Portrait of a Man in Three Positions (in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna), which was in Charles I’s collection at this time. The King’s portrait in turn probably influenced Philippe de Champaigne, who in 1642 painted a Triple Portrait of Cardinal Richelieu (National Gallery London UK). [Source: rct.uk] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Charles I in Three Poisitions | 1635-6 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| van Dyck, Sir Anthony | 1599-1641, aged 42 | Flemish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-20] | |
| Royal Collection Trust, London UK | 84 x 99 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Et in Arcadia ego (aka Les bergers d’Arcadie or The Arcadian Shepherds) is a 1637–38 painting by Nicolas Poussin, the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style. It depicts a pastoral scene with idealised shepherds from classical antiquity, and a woman, possibly a shepherdess, gathered around an austere tomb. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Et in Arcadia Ego | 1637 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Poussin, Nicolas | 1594-1665, aged 71 | French painter Rome | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-21] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 85 x 121 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The painting was commissioned for the high altar of the St Thomas Church of the Augustinian Order where it remained until 1896. It is one of his most famous paintings. [Source: wga.hu] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| St Augustine | 1639 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Rubens, Peter Paul (Pieter Pauwel) | 1577-1640, aged 63 | Flemish painter Antwerp | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-22] | |
| National Gallery in Prague, Prague Czechia | 263 x 175 |
| Sarazin returned to sixteenth-century models for his caryatids below the dome of the Pavillon de l’Horloge at the Louvre. These tall figures, skillfully grouped in pairs, constitute a clear homage to Jean Goujon, an early 16th c French Renaissance sculptor and architect, famous for his Fountain of the Innocents with its six nymphs and Caryatids, for the musician’s platform in the Louvre. [Source: wga.hu] |   Image source: wga.hu |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Caryatids on the Pavillon de l’Horloge, Palais du Louvre | 1640 | Facade | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Sarazin, Jacques | 1592-1660, aged 68 | French sculptor | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-23] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The painting depicts a young Jesus with Saint Joseph, his earthly father. Joseph drills a piece of wood with an auger. The shape of the auger reflects the shape of the Cross and the geometry of the wood arrayed on the floor, set cross-wise to the seated child Christ, is a foreshadowing of the crucifixion. One source writes that Jesus’ patience represents ‘filial obedience and the acceptance of his destiny as martyr’. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Joseph the Carpenter | c1642 | Oil | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| de la Tour, Georges | 1593-1652, aged 58 | French painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-24] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 130 x 100 |
| Venus, the goddess of love, reclines languidly on her bed, the curve of her body echoed in the sweep of sumptuous satin fabric. The pearly tones of her smooth skin contrast with the rich colours and lively brushstrokes of the curtain and sheets. Venus‘ face is reflected in the mirror held up by her son, Cupid, but her reflection is blurred – we can’t see who she really is. Perhaps Velázquez wanted to make sure that Venus – the personification of female beauty – was not an identifiable person; we have to ‘complete’ her features with our imagination. Cupid’s face and far leg are very loosely painted and appear almost unfinished: Velázquez deliberately used a sketchy style in order to focus our attention on Venus. This is Velázquez’s only surviving female nude and one of his most celebrated works. Its nickname, ‘The Rokeby Venus’, originates from Rokeby Park, a country house in County Durham, where the painting hung for much of the nineteenth century. [Source: nationalgallery.org.uk] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Rokeby Venus, The | 1647-51 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Velázquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y | 1599-1660, aged 61 | Spanish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-25] | |
| National Gallery, London UK | 123 x 175 |
| L’Estasi di Santa Teresa or Santa Teresa in estasi) is the central sculptural group in white marble set in an elevated aedicule in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. It was designed and completed by Bernini, the leading sculptor of his day, who also designed the setting of the Chapel in marble, stucco and paint. It is generally considered to be one of the sculptural masterpieces of the High Roman Baroque. It depicts Teresa of Ávila. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |  Image source: khanacademy.org |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Ecstasy of St Teresa, The – Cornaro Chapel | 1647-52 | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Bernini, Gian Lorenzo | 1598-1680, aged 81 | Italian sculptor Rome | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-26] | |
| Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome, Italy | Life-size |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Dating from his mature period, this canvas reflects in its figural arrangement a thorough study of such High Renaissance artists as Raphael and Andrea del Sarto, while the background reveals Poussin’s genius in adapting classical architecture to a religious theme. Concerned with achieving a perfectly harmonised composition, the artist has contained the figures within a triangular format; the heads of the Virgin and the Christ Child being at the apex of this pyramid. Although Poussin, the son of a minor government official in Normandy, spent almost the whole of his adult life in Rome, he was held in the highest esteem in France, and more than any other single figure, influenced the course of the seventeenth-century French painting. [Source: wga.hu] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Holy Family on the Steps, The | 1648 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Poussin, Nicolas | 1594-1665, aged 71 | French painter Rome | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-27] | |
| National Gallery of Art, Washington DC USA | 69 x 98 |
| Claude Lorrain was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in Italy, and is one of the earliest important artists, apart from his contemporaries in Dutch Golden Age painting, to concentrate on landscape painting. According to an inscription on a tree stump in the centre, this painting shows the marriage of Isaac and Rebecca described in the Old Testament book of Genesis. The couple dance with tambourines, surrounded by other figures reclining and enjoying the festivities. The flat landscape and expanse of water stretching far into the distance are imaginary, but inspired by the countryside around Rome. Claude’s landscapes often included a mill and town in the background, under a naturalistic sky. Although a tower is also a common feature, this was the emblem of painting’s original owner, the duc de Bouillon. [Source: nationalgalleryimages.co.uk] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca | 1648 | Oil | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Lorrain, Claude | 1604-1682 | French painter Rome | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-28] | |
| National Gallery, London UK | 152 x 201 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Portrait of Pope Innocent X is an oil on canvas portrait by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez, executed during a trip to Italy around 1650. Many artists and art critics consider it the finest portrait ever created. It is housed in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome. A smaller version is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and a study is on display at Apsley House in London. The painting is noted for its realism, in that it is an unflinching portrait of a highly intelligent, shrewd but aging man. He is dressed in linen vestments, and the quality of the work is evident in the rich reds of his upper clothing, head-dress, and the hanging curtains. The pope was initially wary of having his portrait by Velázquez, but relented after he was given reproductions of examples of Velázquez’s portraiture. Yet the pope remained wary and cautious, and the painting was initially displayed to only his immediate family, and was largely lost from public view through the 17th and 18th centuries. The parchment held by the pope contains Velázquez’s signature. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Pope Innocent X, Portrait of | 1650 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Velázquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y | 1599-1660, aged 61 | Spanish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-29] | |
| Galleria Doria Pamphili, Via del Corso, 305, 00186 Roma RM, Italy | 141 x 119 |
| This is one of Velázquez`s largest paintings and among those in which he made most effort to create a complex and credible composition that would convey a sense of life and reality while enclosing a dense network of meanings. The artist achieved his intentions The painting has never lost its status as a masterpiece. It was painted in 1656 in the Cuarto del Príncipe in the Alcázar in Madrid, which is the room seen in the work. Most of the figures, court servants grouped around the Infanta Margarita, have been identified. She is attended by two of the Queen`s meninas or maids-of-honour, María Agustina Sarmiento and Isabel de Velasco. In addition to that group, we see the artist himself working on a large canvas, the dwarves Mari Bárbola and Nicolasito Pertusato, the latter provoking a mastiff, and the lady-in-waiting Marcela de Ulloa next to a guardadamas (attendant), with the chamberlain José Nieto standing in the doorway in the background. Reflected in the mirror are the faces of Philip IV and Mariana of Austria, the Infanta`s parents who are watching the scene taking place. [Source: museodelprado.es] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Meninas, Las | 1656 | Oil/Canvas | Genre Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Velázquez, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y | 1599-1660, aged 61 | Spanish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-30] | |
| Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Spain | 318 x 276 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Clear, soft light illuminates a peaceful landscape, giving a sense that everything is in its place and all’s well with the world. But the rider’s attention is caught by a young lad who seems to point anxiously towards something likely to disturb the tranquillity. Crouched in the bushes on the left, a man aims his gun at the birds on the river. Cuyp was probably the most important of the Dutch landscape artists who drew on the experience and style of other Dutch painters who had lived and worked in Rome for several years, admiring their images of pastoral idylls bathed in golden light. When this painting arrived in Britain in 1764 it was highly praised, causing an upsurge of enthusiasm for Cuyp’s work, and many of his most important pictures were brought into the country. [Source: nationalgallery.org.uk] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| River Landscape with Horseman and Peasants | 1658 | Oil/Canvas | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Cuyp, Aelbert | 1620-1691, aged 71 | Dutch painter Dordrecht | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-31] | |
| National Gallery, London UK | 123 x 241 |
| This was the only work by the artist known in France before the 19th century. It seems to have been intended for a monastery in Madrid, before Maria Theresa of Spain gave it to the ‘Colinettes’ Franciscan monastery in Lyon. This had been founded by the marquis and marquise de Coligny in 1665. On the French Revolution it was sold to a Lyon painter and engraver Jean-Jacques de Boissieu and was used in 1797 as the model for one of his prints, Les pères du désert. A few years later, in 1807, de Boissieu sold it to the musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, where it has hung ever since. It was long misattributed to José de Ribera, before being reattributed to Zurbarán in 1847. A kneeling version of the painting Saint Francis in Meditation, is held by the National Gallery, London UK. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Saint Francis of Assissi | 1659 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| de Zurbarán, Francisco | 1598 – 1664, aged 65 | Spanish painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-32] | |
| Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France | 152 x 99 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | In assuming power, the mayors of Amsterdam were inspired by the ancient Roman Republic. This is powerfully expressed in this imposing portrait bust of Andries de Graeff. With his cloak wrapped to resemble a Classical toga, the mayor had himself immortalized in marble in the guise of a Roman consul, as is suggested by the letters ‘COS’ (the abbreviation for a consul in ancient Rome) following his name on the pedestal. [Source: rijksmuseum.nl] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Bust of Andries de Graeff | 1661 | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Quellinus the Elder, Artus | 1609-1668, aged 59 | Flemish sculptor Antwerp | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-33] | |
| Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam NL | 76 x 76 x 36 |
| View of a corridor aka A View through a House, by Samuel van Hoogstraten, one of Rembrandt’s most successful pupils,. It is dated 1662 on the map. It depicts a perspective view through a classical archway, above which hangs a birdcage, into a staircase hall and a succession of rooms. A dog stands in the foreground, and a cat by the doorway into the room beyond the staircase hall. Two men and a woman can be seen seated around a table in the second room, and one of the men is reflected in a mirror on the opposite wall. [Source: nationaltrustcollections.org.uk] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| View of a Corridor | 1662 | Oil/Panel | Still Life |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Hoogstraten, Samuel van | 1627-1678, aged 51 | Dutch painter Dordrecht | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-34] | |
| Dyrham Park, Chippenham SN14 8HY UK | 160 x 140 |
 Image source: artnet.com | The Bust of Louis XIV is a marble portrait by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. It was created in the year 1665 during Bernini’s visit to Paris. This sculptural portrait of Louis XIV of France has been called the ‘grandest piece of portraiture of the baroque age’. The bust is on display at the Versailles Palace, in the Salon de Diane in the King’s Grand Apartment. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Bust of Louis XIV | 1665 | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Bernini, Gian Lorenzo | 1598-1680, aged 81 | Italian sculptor Rome | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-35] | |
| Palace of Versailles, Versailles France | 80 cm (h) |
| The sculpture of Apollo served by the Nymphs is composed of seven figures. It was created between 1667 and 1675 by the sculptors François Girardon and Thomas Regnaudin. Originally intended to be placed in the Tethys grotto, a structure overlooking the gardens, formerly located near the Chapel, this work is one of Louis XIV’s first commissions in the area of sculpture. It introduces the theme of Apollo into the gardens. It is hard now to judge this work because not only was it placed in the late eighteenth century in a new ‘picturesque’ setting of rocks and ruins designed by Hubert Robert, but the arrangement of the figures in the group was altered. An engraving by Le Pautre shows the original disposition of the group in an enclosed niche, which was flanked by two other similar niches containing the horses of Apollo carved by Guérin and the Marsy brothers. This idea of continuing the action through several different parts of the building and so linking them up is a Baroque device. [Source: artsandculture.google.com and wga.hu] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Apollo tended by the Nymphs of Thetis | 1666-75 | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Girardon, Francois (and Thomas Regnaudin ) | 1628-1715, aged 86 | French sculptor | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-36] | |
| Palace of Versailles, Versailles France | 0 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The young woman at the keyboard holds our eye with a direct gaze. The empty chair suggests she is expecting someone and the large painting of a naked Cupid, the god of erotic love, on the wall behind her may be a signal that she is waiting for her lover. Scenes of music making were a popular genre in seventeenth-century Holland. They were often associated with romantic encounters, sometimes obviously bawdy ones, sometimes apparently innocent. Here, the style of the Cupid painting derives from a book illustration on the theme of faithful love. There has been much speculation that this picture and another by Vermeer, A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal (also in the National Gallery), might have been made as a pair. There are many similarities between the two, but also an apparent contrast. One may represent fidelity, the other a venal, mercenary approach to love. [Source: nationalgallery.org.uk] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Lady Standing at a Virginal | 1670-2 | Oil/Canvas | Genre Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Vermeer, Johannes (Jan Vermeer van Delft) | 1632-1675, aged 43 | Dutch painter Delft | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-37] | |
| National Gallery, London UK | 52 x 45 |
| This work of art is one of Vermeer’s final artistic activities, providing insight into the techniques he mastered and approaches to painting he favoured. The painting has been on display at Kenwood House, London since the 1920s, as part of the Iveagh Bequest collection. After being recovered from a theft in 1974, when the painting was held for ransom, The Guitar Player was returned to Kenwood House. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Guitar Player, The | 1672 | Oil/Canvas | Genre Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Vermeer, Johannes (Jan Vermeer van Delft) | 1632-1675, aged 43 | Dutch painter Delft | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-38] | |
| Kenwood House, London UK | 53 x 43 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | The Church of the Gesu (Chiesa del Gesu) of Rome was first conceived by the main founder of the order, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and was built from 1568 to 1584. The principal architects were Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Giacomo della Porta. However, the interior was rather plain until the latter part of the 17th Century when frescoes were painted, and sculptures were sculpted. Other decorative elements were added over the next couple of centuries, until the level of decoration is overwhelming to someone walking in the door. The ceiling of the apse was adorned by the painting Glory of the Mystical Lamb by Giovanni Battista Gaulli aka Baciccio or Baciccia. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Glory of the Mystic Lamb | 1673-79 | Fresco | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Gaulli, Giovanni Battista (aka Baciccio) | 1639-1709, aged 69 | Italian painter Rome | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-39] | |
| Church of the Gesù, Via degli Astalli, 16, 00186 Roma RM, Italy | 0 |
| Emanuel de Witte specialized in paintings of church interiors and excelled at suggesting space. An eighteenth-century biographer remarked that he was inclined to ‘brag about his geometry’. It is therefore surprising that he seldom applied the rules of central perspective. Initially, De Witte painted colourful church interiors with striking colours. In the 1660s he tempered his palette. This painting, dating from 1668, is one of the best examples of this new period in his development. The eye-catching colour accent in the foreground is missing and the clear, cool light has changed into a warm and restrained colouring. De Witte manipulated the interior of the church in this painting in an ingenious way. The heavy wooden pillars of the St. Bavo in Haarlem are combined here with the wooden roofing of the Old Church in Amsterdam. The small organ against the northern side aisle is also from there. It will be clear that the church interior cannot claim to be a true representation. [Source: artsandculture.google.com] |  Image source: wga.hu |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Interior of a Church | 1680 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| de Witte, Emanuel | 1617-1692, aged 75 | Dutch painter Amsterdam | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-40] | |
| Hamburger Kunsthalle, Glockengießerwall 5, 20095 Hamburg, Germany | 0 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Milo (or Milon) of Croton was a legendary Greek wrestler from the Greek settlement of Croton in southern Italy. He won the wrestling contest at five successive Olympic Games, and swept the board at all other festivals. A man of huge stature, he boasted that no one had ever brought him to his knees. It is said that he carried a live ox upon his shoulders through the stadium at Olympia, then ate it all in a single day. Tradition has it that in his old age, on seeing an oak tree partly split open with a wedge he tried to wrench it apart, but only succeeded in causing the wedge to fall out, thereby trapping his hands. He was left a helpless prey to the wild beast who soon finished him off. He is usually depicted in Baroque art as a partly naked muscular figure, his hands imprisoned by a tree trunk, and attacked by a lion. [Source: wga.hu] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Milo of Crotona | 1682 | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Puget, Pierre | 1620-1694, aged 73 | French sculptor | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-41] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 269 (h) |
| Theodosius was Roman emperor from 379 to 395, best known for making Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire and for his great architecture projects in Constantinople. Although he had co-emperors at the beginning of his reign, Theodosius is “generally acknowledged by scholars as the last man to rule” both the Eastern and the Western Roman Empires. Ambrose as Bishop of Milan, took a firm position against Arianism and attempted to mediate the conflict between the co-emperors Theodosius and the usurper Magnus Maximus. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |  Image source: ancient-origins.net |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Theodosius Repulsed from the Church by Saint Ambrose | 1700-1710 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Magnasco, Alessandro | 1667-1749, aged 82 | Italian painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-42] | |
| Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago USA | 155 x 214 |
 Image source: smarthistory.org | Portrait of Louis XIV painted in coronation robes in 1701. Rigaud was commissioned by the king who wanted to satisfy the desire of his grandson, Philip V, for a portrait of him. Louis XIV kept it hanging at Versailles. This portrait has become the ‘official portrait’ of Louis XIV. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Louis XIV, Portrait of | 1701 | Oil/Canvas | Portrait |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Ruigaud, Hyacinthe | 1659-1743, aged 84 | French painter Paris | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-43] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 277 x 184 |
| The exceptional beauty of this child, the fruit of an incestuous union engineered by the insulted Aphrodite, caused an argument among the gods that could only end in his death. He was killed by a boar while hunting. In devoting one of his chief works to that fatal incident, Mazzuoli expressed in a typically Baroque depiction of a dramatic moment the idea of the transience of beauty. [Source: wga.hu] |  Image source: myartprints.co.uk |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Death of Adonis, The | 1710s | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Mazzuoli, Giuseppe | 1644-1725, aged 81 | Italian sculptor Siena | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-44] | |
| State Hermitage Museum, Palace Square, 2, St Petersburg, Russia, 190000 | 193 (h) |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | This intimate view of Venice, weatherbeaten and dilapidated, is one of Canaletto’s masterpieces. In the early morning sun, workmen chisel away at pieces of stone. Everyday life continues around them: a mother rushes to comfort her crying child, watched by a woman on the balcony above. This square – the Campo San Vidal – was not usually a mason’s yard: it appears to have been temporarily transformed into a workshop while repairs are done to the nearby church of San Vidal. The church of Saint Maria della Carità and its campanile (bell tower) are visible on the far side of the Grand Canal. Painted during the late 1720s, this is one of Canaletto’s finest early works. He has skilfully described various materials and textures: the crumbling plaster, exposed brick, and rough timber in a subtle range of colours. The buildings of different styles and heights, the animated figures and the areas of light and shadow in this theatrical picture may recall the stage sets Canaletto painted at the very beginning of his career. [Source: nationalgallery.org.uk] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Stonemason’s Yard | 1720s | Oil/Canvas | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio | 1697-1768 | Italian painter Venice | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-45] | |
| National Gallery, London UK | 124 x 163 |
| The eight paintings for the series are now in Sir John Soane’s Museum. They were Hogarth’s second series of ‘modern moral subjects’ and were painted soon after the publication of ‘A Harlot’s Progress’ in 1732. The subscription for the prints after them began in late 1733, but Hogarth delayed publication until 25 June 1735, the day the Engravers’ Copyright Act became law. Even so, pirated copies had already appeared by that time. The set cost two guineas, but Hogarth had also a smaller and cheaper set, copied by Thomas Bakewell and costing 2s 6d, published soon after. The original copperplates were sold by Quaritch in 1921 and are now in a private collection. [Source: tate.org.uk] |  Image source: tate.org.uk  Plate 8 in Bedlam |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Rake’s Progress, Plate 3 (of 8) | 1732-4 | Oil/Canvas | History Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Hogarth, William | 1697-1764, aged 66 | English painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-46] | |
| Sir John Soane’s Museum, 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, Holborn, London WC2A 3BP | 32 x 39 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Lacret specialised in light comedy which reflected the tastes and manners of French society during the regency of the Duke of Orleans and, later, early reign of King Louis XV. Luncheon with Ham was commissioned by King Louis XV in 1735. In 1965 was bequested by Forsyth Wickes to the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Luncheon with Ham, The | 1735 | Oil/Canvas | Genre Painting |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Lancret, Nicolas | 1690-1743, aged 53 | French painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-47] | |
| Museum of Fine Arts, Boston USA | 188 x 123 |
| A member of a French dynasty of sculptors headed by the woodcarver Francois Coustou and brother-in-law to the Baroque sculptor Antoine Coysevox, Guillaume Coustou studied at the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and also in Rome. He returned to France where his exceptional talents were employed by King Louis XIV. Coustou is best known for his two pieces of marble sculpture, each called Horse restrained by a Groom, known jointly as the Marly Horses. Originally created for the royal chateau at Marly, then relocated to the Place de la Concorde before settling finally at the Louvre. These powerful statues exude equestrian elegance and power. They are among the most enduring images of energetic Baroque art of the early eighteenth century. [Source: visual-arts-cork.com] |  Image source: wga.hu |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Horse restrained by grooms, the Marly horses | 1739-45 | Marble | Sculpture |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Coustou, Guillame | 1677-1746, aged 69 | French sculptor | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-48] | |
| Musée du Louvre, Paris France | 340 x 284 x 127 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Looking across the basin of San Marco, this vast view captures the scale and splendour of a ceremony taking place along the waterfront. Boats carrying spectators and animated gondoliers surround the gold and red state barge or Bucintoro, its upper deck crowded with figures. Every year on Ascension Day, the Bucintoro was rowed out onto the lagoon where the doge (the head of the Venetian state) cast a blessed ring into the water to symbolise the marriage of Venice and the sea. A large crowd gathers along the quay; more spectators spill onto the balconies of the Doge’s Palace to the right and peer out from the bell tower of San Marco beyond. Canaletto conjured up this eager audience with great precision, in places using careful dots of paint to create the swarm of people. A hazy light illuminates the facades of the buildings and casts beautiful, soft reflections on the water. [Source: nationalgallery.org.uk] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day, The | c1740 | Oil/Canvas | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio | 1697-1768 | Italian painter Venice | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-49] | |
| National Gallery, London UK | 122 x 183 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| Bellotto was an Italian urban landscape painter or vedutista, and etcher. He was the student and nephew of the famous Giovanni Canaletto and sometimes used the latter’s illustrious name, signing himself as Bernardo Canaletto. The large church at the left of the painting is the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute. [Source: Wikimedia commons] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Entrance of the Grand Canal, Venice | 1741 | Oil/Canvas | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Belloto, Bernardo | 1721 – 1780, aged 59 | Italian, Venice | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-50] | |
| Fitzwilliam Museum, Trumpington St, Cambridge CB2 1RB UK | 59 x 95 |
| This stunning view of the River Adige by Canaletto’s nephew was bought by Robert, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey, ‘Clive of India’ by 1771 and was saved for Powis Castle, Wales in 1981. It remains inset in the oak-panelled niche in the Oak Drawing Room which was made for it over a hundred years ago. [Source: nationaltrustcollections.org.uk] |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| View of the Ponte delle Navi, Verona | 1745 | Oil/Canvas | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Belloto, Bernardo | 1721 – 1780, aged 59 | Italian, Venice | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-51] | |
| National Trust, Powis Castle, Welshpool SY21 8RF | 133 x 231 |
 Image source: Wikimedia commons | Horse Guards, the building with the clocktower in the centre, was the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief of the army, and housed the horse guards and some foot guards. It was replaced in the 1750s with the white stone building that stands today. Canaletto’s paintings were in demand from rich patrons. However, this work was produced speculatively, possibly in the hope of selling it to a wealthy resident of Downing Street (seen on the right). Canaletto invited prospective buyers to view the painting at his Soho lodgings. [Source: tate.org.uk] |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Old Horse Guards, The | c1749 | Oil/Canvas | Landscape |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Canaletto, Giovanni Antonio | 1697-1768 | Italian painter Venice | Baroque/Rococo |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | [1333-52] | |
| Tate Galleries, Millbank, Westminster, London SW1P 4RG UK | 117 x 236 |
| From the early 1730s until the early 1750s Chardin’s output was principally of genre scenes. He then returned to still lifes and, at the end of his career, a few pastel portraits. Carefully balanced composition, soft diffusion of light, and granular impasto characterize his work. |  Image source: Wikimedia commons |
| TITLE: | YEAR: | FORM: | GENRE: |
| Still Life with Glass Flask and Fruit | c1750 | Oil/Canvas | Still Life |
| ARTIST: | DATES: | ORIGIN: | MOVEMENT: |
| Chardin, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon | 1699-1779, aged 80 | French painter | Baroque |
| LOCATION: | SIZE (cms): | ||
| Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe | 55 x 40 |
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