11 Paintings, Olympian deities and Mythology, by the Old Masters, with footnotes #9

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828-1882

PANDORA, c. 1869

Model: Jane Burden Morris

Faringdon Collection Trust, Buxted Park

The Titan Prometheus was once assigned the task of creating the race of man. He afterwards grew displeased with the mean lot imposed on them by the gods and so stole fire from heaven. Zeus was angered and commanded Hephaistos and the other gods create the first woman Pandora, endowing her with beauty and cunning. He then had her delivered to Prometheus' foolish younger brother Epimetheus as a bride. Zeus gave Pandora a storage jar (pithos) as a wedding gift which she opened, releasing the swarm of evil spirits trapped within. These would forever after plague mankind. Only Elpis (Hope) remained behind, a single blessing to ease mankind's suffering. More Pandora

Jane Morris (née Jane Burden; 19 October 1839 – 26 January 1914) was an English artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to William Morris (1834 – 1896), the English textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist, whom she later married, and to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. More Jane Morris

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828-1882

PANDORA, c. 1871

Model: Jane Burden Morris

Watercolour

39 3/4 x 24 1/2 in..

Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882) was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

Rossetti's personal life was closely linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth and Jane Morris. More

Rossetti began studies for the picture in December 1868. It was completed in February 1871. In the fall of 1869. He thought of altering the picture from three-quarter to full-length, but he decided against the change. He made a chalk replica of this work for his regular patron William Graham in 1869 and in 1878 executed yet another version in colored crayons for his friend Watts Dunton.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828-1882

PANDORA, c. 1871

Model: Jane Burden Morris

Oil on canvas

131 by 79cm., 51 by 31in.

Private Collection

Rossetti's interest in photography can be traced through this painting, where Mrs. Morris assumes a pose that distinctly recalls one of the photographs that Rossetti and John Parsons made of her in 1865

Jane Morris standing, in marquee

Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Parsons

1865 June

Victoria and Albert album

François Boucher, PARIS 1703 - 1770

VENUS AND ADONIS

oil on canvas

28  5/8  by 50  1/4  in.; 72.7 by 130.2 cm.

Private Collection

Venus and Adonis is a narrative poem by William Shakespeare published in 1593, the same year that Christopher Marlowe published Hero and Leander and Thomas Nashe published The Choice of Valentines, all three classic erotic poems. It is probably Shakespeare's first publication.

The poem tells the story of Venus, who is Goddess of Love, and her attempted seduction of Adonis, an extremely handsome young man, who would rather go hunting. The poem is dramatic, pastoral, and at times erotic, comic, tragic, pastoral-comical.. It contains discourses on the nature of love, and many brilliantly described observations of nature. More Venus and Adonis

François Boucher (29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories, and pastoral scenes. He was perhaps the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century. He also painted several portraits of his patroness, Madame de Pompadour. More

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem and studio

JUPITER DISGUISED AS DIANA SEDUCING THE NYMPH CALLISTO

oil on canvas

99.2 x 147.8 cm.; 39 x 58 1/4  in.

Private Collection

This scene of seduction is inspired by an episode recounted by the poet Ovid in Metamorphoses. It shows the bare-breasted nymph Callisto – Diana's favourite – embraced by the god Jupiter in the guise of the goddess herself. In the background looms Jupiter's tell-tale attribute, the eagle, while the crescent moon crowning 'Diana' identifies the imposter. More

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1 October 1620 – 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number of allegories and genre pieces.

He was a member of the second generation of "Dutch Italianate landscape" painters. These were artists who travelled to Italy, or aspired to, in order to soak up the romanticism of the country, bringing home sketchbooks full of drawings of classical ruins and pastoral imagery. His paintings, of which he produced an immense number, were in great demand, as were his 80 etchings and 500 drawings. His landscapes, painted in the Italian style of idealized rural scenes, with hills, mountains, cliffs and trees in a golden dawn are sought after. Berchem also painted inspired and attractive human and animal figures in works of other artists, like Allaert van Everdingen, Jan Hackaert, Gerrit Dou, Meindert Hobbema and Willem Schellinks. More Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem

Jacopo Amigoni, (1682–1752)

Juno Receiving the Head of Argos, c. between 1730 and 1732

Oil on canvas

Height: 108 cm (42.5 in). Width: 72 cm (28.3 in).

Moor Park, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, UK

The painting of Juno and Argus originated from the Roman myth of how the peacock received it’s unique eyed tail feathers. Juno asked the hundred eyed Argus to guard her beloved Io from Jupiter’s lustful pursuit. Jupiter learned of this and sent Mercury kill the Argus while he was sleeping. To honor the decapitated Argus Juno took it’s eyes and placed them on the tail of the peacock thus giving it’s tail the signature eyespots. The peacock is a sacred symbol of Juno that represents royalty and the watchfulness of the goddess. More Juno and Argus

William J. Glackens, (1870-1938: American)

Untitled (from the Nymph series), 1914-1917

Preparatory sketch

Pastel, charcoal, graphite on paper 

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

From 1914-1917, William Glackens completed more than 40 works of nymphs, a concept that derives from Greek mythology and the Greek belief that desirable, free-spirited, and provocative minor nature goddesses inhabited the world’s forests, trees, rivers, and streams. Glackens’ nymph series was as dramatic a departure from his well-known and highly celebrated depictions of modern contemporary life. He was perhaps inspired to address the nymph theme in response to works of similar subjects by other artist contemporaries, such as Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Arthur B. Davies, Henri Matisse, and Édouard Manet.

William J. Glackens (1870-1938: American)

Untitled (from the Nymph series), 1914-1917

Preparatory sketch

Watercolor & graphite on paper 

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

William J. Glackens (1870-1938: American)

Untitled (from the Nymph series), 1914-1917

Preparatory sketch

Pastel & charcoal on paper

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

Four preparatory sketches for these works from the NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale collection, are also included here. In the oil and the watercolor, a mature, nude wood nymph emerges to the left of the composition’s central tree and runs toward a fleeing, clothed child on the right. In the oil painting, the child protectively holds a doll or a small child. Both works imply conquest, danger, exoticism, and a sense of intrigue. More Nymph Series

William J. Glackens (1870-1938: American)

Untitled (from the Nymph series), 1914-1917

Pastel, charcoal, graphite on paper 

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

Here, a voluptuous nude woman, a nymph, emerging from a tree, prods a young girl forward into the forest as a grown man lurks threateningly in the background. In mythology, the nymph is the guardian of wild nature and a symbol of female fertility, who can sing and dance with abandon and enjoys complete sexual freedom. More

William J. Glackens (1870-1938: American)

Untitled (from the Nymph series), 1914-1917

Oil on canvas

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale

William James Glackens (born March 13, 1870, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died May 22, 1938, Westport, Conn.), American artist whose paintings of street scenes and middle-class urban life rejected the dictates of 19th-century academic art and introduced a matter-of-fact realism into the art of the United States.

Glackens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and at the same time worked as an illustrator for the Philadelphia Record, the Public Ledger, and The Philadelphia Press. In 1895 he spent a year in Paris and then settled in New York City, where he worked as an illustrator for The New York Herald and the New York World. He went to Cuba in 1898 to cover the Spanish-American War for McClure’s Magazine. While establishing his reputation as a graphic artist, Glackens also began to paint in oils and was a regular participant in the Pennsylvania Academy’s annual exhibitions. Hammerstein’s Roof Garden (1901), a cabaret scene, was his first important oil painting and was exhibited at the Allen Gallery in New York.

William J. Glackens (1870-1938: American)

Nymph series, with man, circa 1917

Oil on canvasboard

12 by 16 inches, (30.5 by 40.7 cm)

Private Collection

Glackens joined a group of artists who were also interested in depicting contemporary life. Robert Henri, with whom Glackens had traveled to Paris in 1895, was the leader of this group, which included John Sloan, George Luks, and Everett Shinn, as well as the more romantic painters Ernest Lawson, Maurice Prendergast, and Arthur B. Davies. Known as The Eight, they held one memorable exhibition in 1908, but, because of diversity of viewpoints, they disbanded.

Later, he became interested in Impressionism and was particularly influenced by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. During the last two decades of his life, Glackens became a regular traveler to Europe, spending much of his time in Paris and the south of France. More William J. Glackens

Charles Meynier, PARIS 1768-1832

A SCENE FROM CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY, POSSIBLY CERYX AND ALCYONE

Oil on canvas

58.2 by 74.5 cm.; 22 by 29  3/8  in

Private Collection

The lovely Alcyone was the daughter of Aeolus, the Greek god of the wind. She was the devoted wife of Ceyx, King of Trachis, in central Greece. Ceyx ruled his kingdom with justice and in peace. Alcyone and Ceyx were admired by gods and mortals alike for their great physical beauty, as well as the profound love they had for each other. 

They were so happy in their marriage that they used to often playfully call one another Zeus and Hera. This infuriated the chief of the gods who regarded it an audacity. Zeus waited for the proper time to punish the arrogant couple who dared to make themselves comparable to gods. 

While Ceyx was at sea (going to consult an oracle), the god threw a thunderbolt at his ship. Soon after, Morpheus (god of dreams) disguised as Ceyx appeared to Alcyone as an apparition to tell her of his fate, and she threw herself into the sea in her grief. Out of compassion, the gods changed them both into halcyon birds, named after her. More Alcyone and Ceyx

Charles Meynier (1763 or 1768, Paris – 1832, Paris) was a French painter of historical subjects in the late 18th and early 19th century. He was a contemporary of Antoine-Jean Gros und Jacques-Louis David. Already at a young age he was trained by Pierre-Philippe Choffard. As a student of François-André Vincent, Meynier won the second prize in the 1789 prix de Rome competition; Girodet won. He became a member of the Académie de France à Rome. In 1793 he went back to Paris.

He made designs for the bas-reliefs and statues on the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the Paris Bourse. From 1816 onward, he was a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1819 Meynier was appointed teacher at the École des Beaux-Arts. Like his wife he died of cholera. More

Herbert James Draper (1863–1920)

 Halcyone

Oil on canvas

61 × 85 inches

Private collection. 

Halcyone is seeking her husband Ceyx; kingfishers are painted over her head.

Herbert James Draper (1863 – 1920) was an English Classicist painter whose career began in the Victorian era and extended through the first two decades of the 20th century. Born in London, the son of a jeweller, he was educated at Bruce Castle School in Tottenham and then went on to study art at the Royal Academy. He undertook several educational trips to Rome and Paris between 1888 and 1892, having won the Royal Academy Gold Medal and Travelling Studentship in 1889. In the 1890s, he worked as an illustrator, eventually settling in London. He died of arteriosclerosis at the age of 56, in his home on Abbey Road. More

Acknowledgement: Sotheby's, 

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others

11 Paintings, scenes from the Bible, by The Old Masters, with footnotes # 39

Antonio Badile, VERONA 1518-1560

SAINT GEORGE AND THE DRAGON

Oil on canvas

104 1/8  by 59 in.; 264.3 by 149.7 cm.

Private Collection

Saint George (circa 275/281 – 23 April 303 AD) was a soldier in the Roman army who later became venerated as a Christian martyr. His parents were Christians of Greek background; his father Gerontius was a Roman army official from Cappadocia and his mother Polychronia was from Lydda, Syria Palaestina. Saint George became an officer in the Roman army in the Guard of Diocletian, who ordered his death for failing to recant his Christian faith.

In the fully developed Western version of the Saint George Legend, a dragon, or crocodile, makes its nest at the spring that provides water for the city of "Silene" (perhaps modern Cyrene in Libya or the city of Lydda in Palistine, depending on the source). Consequently, the citizens have to dislodge the dragon from its nest for a time, to collect water. To do so, each day they offer the dragon at first a sheep, and if no sheep can be found, then a maiden is the best substitute for one. The victim is chosen by drawing lots. One day, this happens to be the princess. The monarch begs for her life to be spared, but to no avail. She is offered to the dragon, but then Saint George appears on his travels. He faces the dragon, protects himself with the sign of the Cross, slays the dragon, and rescues the princess. The citizens abandon their ancestral paganism and convert to Christianity.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, (1828–1882)

The Wedding of Saint George and Princess Sabra, c. 1857

Watercolor on paper

36.5 × 36.5 cm (14.4 × 14.4 in)

Tate Britain

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882) was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais. Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

Rossetti's personal life was closely linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth and Jane Morris. More

On 24 February 303, Diocletian issued an edict that every Christian soldier in the army should be arrested and every other soldier should offer a sacrifice to the Roman gods of the time. George objected, and approached the Emperor and ruler. Diocletian attempted to convert George, even offering gifts of land, money, and slaves, but George never accepted. Recognizing the futility of his efforts and insisting on upholding his edict, Diocletian ordered that George be executed for his refusal. Before the execution, George gave his wealth to the poor and prepared himself. More 

Antonio Badile (c. 1518 – 1560) was an Italian painter from Verona. He is the grandson of the Veronese 15th century painter Giovanni Badile. He trained with his uncle Francesco Badile. He was the first master of Paolo Veronese, and later his father-in-law. Veronese later moved to train with Giovanni Francesco Caroto. Badile also trained Giovanni Battista Zelotti. Badile is described as continuing the "retardataire" tradition of Giovanni Francesco Caroto well past the 1540s. His masterpiece is the altarpiece for Santi Nazaro e Celso of a Madonna and Saints (1540); another notable work is his Resurrection of Lazarus for the chapel of Santa Croce in the church of San Bernardino. More Antonio Badile

Unknown

The 'De Grey' Hours, c. 1390

Vellum

National Library of Wales

A medieval Book of Hours probably written for the De Grey family of Ruthin c.1390

The book of hours is a Christian devotional book popular in the Middle Ages. It is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. Like every manuscript, each book of hours is unique in one way or another, but most contain a similar collection of texts, prayers and psalms, often with appropriate decorations, for Christian devotion. Illumination or decoration is minimal in many examples, often restricted to decorated capital letters at the start of psalms and other prayers, but books made for wealthy patrons may be extremely lavish, with full-page miniatures.

Tens of thousands of books of hours have survived to the present day, in libraries and private collections throughout the world.

The typical book of hours is an abbreviated form of the breviary which contained the Divine Office recited in monasteries. It was developed for lay people who wished to incorporate elements of monasticism into their devotional life. Reciting the hours typically centered upon the reading of a number of psalms and other prayers. More The book of hours

Bernat Martorell, (1390–1452)

Saint George and the Dragon, 1434/35

Tempera on panel

155.6 x 98.1 cm (61 1/4 x 38 5/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

In the second quarter of the 15th century, Bernat Martorell was the leading painter of Barcelona. Saint George was the patron saint of Catalonia, the capital of Catalonia in northeastern Spain, and Martorell's vivid painting probably once formed the center of the altarpiece of the chapel of the Catalan government in its palace in Barcelona. The central image would have been flanked by smaller narrative panels, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; they illustrate the martyrdom of the saint in gruesome detail. More

Bernat Martorell (1390 died 1452 in Barcelona) was a Catalan painter. He is considered to be the most important artist of the International Gothic style in Catalonia. Little is known of his life prior to 1427. The style of Martorell is contrastingly different from the Catalunyan Gothic painters who preceded. Martorell was familiar with contemporary Flemish painting, however, the documented part of his biography does not explain this influence. On the other hand, stylistic parallels have been drawn between Martorell and contemporary Italian artists.

One of the earliest surviving works of Martorell, Saint George Killing the Dragon (above), depicting Bernat Martorell's patron saint, was created in the early 1430s and already demonstrates the complexity of composition, richness of colors and fine details which could only been executed by a fully trained artist. These details were not present in Catalan art before Martorell.

In 1437, Bernat Martorell got a commission to create an altarpiece for the church in Púbol. The altarpiece devoted to Saint Peter, is currently in Museu d'Art de Girona and is the only directly documented piece produced by the artist. More Bernat Martorell

Paolo Veronese, (1528–1588)

Martyrdom of Saint George, circa 1564

Oil on canvas

Height: 426 cm (167.7 in). Width: 305 cm (120.1 in).

San Giorgio in Braida, Verona

Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese (1528 – 19 April 1588) was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, most famous for large history paintings of both religious and mythological subjects, such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi. With Titian, who was at least a generation older, and Tintoretto, ten years older, he was one of the "great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento" or 16th-century late Renaissance. Veronese is known as a supreme colorist, and after an early period with Mannerist influence turned to a more naturalist style influenced by Titian.

His most famous works are elaborate narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful style, full of majestic architectural settings and glittering pageantry. His large paintings of biblical feasts, crowded with figures, painted for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona are especially famous, and he was also the leading Venetian painter of ceilings. Most of these works remain in situ, or at least in Venice, and his representation in most museums is mainly composed of smaller works such as portraits that do not always show him at his best or most typical.

He has always been appreciated for "the chromatic brilliance of his palette, the splendor and sensibility of his brushwork, the aristocratic elegance of his figures, and the magnificence of his spectacle", but his work has been felt "not to permit expression of the profound, the human, or the sublime", and of the "great trio" he has often been the least appreciated by modern criticism. Nonetheless, "many of the greatest artists ... may be counted among his admirers, including Rubens, Watteau, Tiepolo, Delacroix and Renoir". More

Master of the Madonna del Ponterosso, possibly identifiable as Giovanni di Papino Calderini

ACTIVE IN AROUND FLORENCE IN THE LATE 15TH AND EARLY 16TH CENTURY

THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS JOHN THE BAPTIST AND ANTHONY ABATE AND TWO ANGELS

Oil on panel, a tondo

Diameter: 35 5/8  in.; 90.5 cm.

Private Collection

John the Baptist (sometimes called John in the Wilderness) was the subject of at least eight paintings by the Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610).

The story of John the Baptist is told in the Gospels. John was the cousin of Jesus, and his calling was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. He lived in the wilderness of Judea between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, "his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey." He baptised Jesus in the Jordan, and was eventually killed by Herod Antipas when he called upon the king to reform his evil ways. More

Saint Anthony the Abbot, also known as Saint Anthony the Great. Although he is often overshadowed by similarly named Saint Anthony of Padua, this Egyptian saint is particularly important throughout southern Italy, and is the patron saint of butchers, domestic animals, basketmakers,and gravediggers; he also protects against skin diseases, especially shingles known as "Fuoco di Sant'Antonio" (Fire of Saint Anthony) in Italy. Saint Anthony the Abbot was a hermit who renounced his worldly possessions to follow Jesus and performed miracles throughout his life. He is considered the first to live a truly monastic lifestyle and was repeatedly tempted by the devil, persevering through prayer. This aspect of the saint's life is often portrayed in images of him with the devil at his feet. - See more Saint Anthony the Abbot

Follower of Jan van Scorel

CALVARY WITH THE THREE CROSSES

oil on oak panel

137 x 118.1 cm.; 54 x 46 1/2  in.

Private Collection

A copy after the central panel of the triptych by Jan van Scorel and Studio, of circa 1535, in the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, Netherlands.

Jan van Scorel (1495 – 6 December 1562) was a Dutch painter, who played a leading role in introducing aspects of Italian Renaissance painting into Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting. Van Scorel was one of the early painters of the Romanist style who had spent a number of years in Italy, where he thoroughly absorbed the Italian style of painting. His trip to Italy coincided with the brief reign of the only Dutch pope in history, Adrian VI in 1522-23. The pope made him a court painter and superintendent of his collection of antiquities. His stay in Italy lasted from 1518 to 1524. He also visited Nuremberg, Venice and Jerusalem. Venetian art had an important impact on the development of his style.

He differed from most Romanists in that he was a native of the northern Netherlands and not of Flanders and that he remained most of his life in the northern Netherlands. He settled permanently in Utrecht in 1530 and established a large workshop on the Italian model. The workshop mainly produced altarpieces, many of which were destroyed in the Reformation iconoclasm in the years just after his death. He also held clerical appointments. This did not stop him from having a long-time relationship with a mistress who may have modelled for some of his female figure. More Jan van Scorel

Mattia Preti, TAVERNA, CALABRIA 1613 - 1699 VALLETTA, MALTA

DANIEL INTERPRETING NEBUCHADNEZZAR’S DREAM

Oil on canvas

60 1/4  by 77 1/8  in.; 153 by 196 cm.

Private Collection

This large canvas is Preti's only known treatment of the subject, which is taken from the Old Testament book of Daniel 2:1-49. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar called upon magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers to decipher his troubled dreams, and demanded that they relate the content of the dream before attempting an interpretation, so as to prove their clairvoyant abilities. When they failed to deliver on this request, the king sentenced them and the other wise men of Babylon to death. Daniel, after appealing to his God for aid, successfully relayed the topic of the dream and subsequently interpreted it. Nebuchadnezzar had dreamed of a magnificent statue (shown here in mid-tones to make explicit its ephemerality), its head “made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.” In the dream a rock struck the statue and broke it into innumerable pieces, and the rock itself grew into a mountain that filled the earth. More Daniel

Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta. He was also a member of the Order of Saint John. Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called Il Cavalier Calabrese (the Calabrian Knight) after he was accepted into the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) in 1660. His early apprenticeship is said to have been with the "Caravaggist" Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, which may account for his lifelong interest in the style of Caravaggio.

Before 1630, Preti joined his brother Gregorio in Rome, where he became familiar with the techniques of Caravaggio and his school as well as with the work of Guercino, Rubens, Guido Reni, and Giovanni Lanfranco. In Rome, he painted fresco cycles in the churches of Sant'Andrea della Valle and San Carlo ai Catinari. Between 1644 and 1646, he may have spent time in Venice, but remained based in Rome until 1653, returning later in 1660-61. He painted frescoes, and participated in the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Pamphilj in Valmontone.

Mattia Preti (1613–1699)

Doubting Thomas, c. 656/1660

Oil on canvas

187 x 145.5 cm 

Kunsthistorisches Museum,  Vienna, Austria

During most of 1653-1660, he worked in Naples, where he was influenced by another major painter of his era, Luca Giordano. One of Preti's masterpieces were a series of large frescoes, ex-votos of the plague, depicting the Virgin or saints delivering people from the plague. The bozzetto of the Virgin with the baby Jesus looming over the dying. 

Having been made a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John, he visited the order’s headquarters in Malta in 1659 and spent most of the remainder of his life there. Preti was fortunate to enjoy a long career and have a considerable artistic output. His paintings, representative of the exuberant late Baroque style, are held by many great museums, including important collections in Naples, Valletta, and in his hometown of Taverna. More Mattia Preti 

A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience—a reference to the Apostle Thomas, who refused to believe that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles, until he could see and feel the wounds received by Jesus on the cross.

In art, the episode (formally called the Incredulity of Thomas) has been frequently depicted since at least the 5th century, with its depiction reflecting a range of theological interpretations. More doubting Thomas

Jacopo Amigoni, NAPLES 1682 - 1752 MADRID

CLORINDA RESCUING OLINDO AND SOPHRONIA

Oil on canvas

49 1/2  by 61 1/2  in.; 125.7 by 156.2 cm.

Private Collection

The present canvas corresponds with paintings executed by Amigoni in the period following his return to Venice from Great Britain in 1739.

Amigoni takes his subject from Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, an epic poem completed in 1575 Tasso’s poem recounts tales from the first crusade, culminating in Godfrey de Bouillon's liberation of Jerusalem in 1099.  The episode selected by the artist is an account from Book II, in which a female mercenary, Clorinda, dramatically rescues two Christian lovers from burning at the stake. In the painting we see Sophronia, a Christian accused of desecrating an Islamic image, sentenced to death by the Saracens and lashed to the stake with her lover, Olindo, who has chosen to die by her side. A Saracen, poised to ignite the pyre, is interrupted by the arrival of the Persian Clorinda, in full armour, who rides in on a white stallion, to the evident surprise of the Saracen king at left. More Clorinda

Jacopo Amigoni (1682–1752), also named Giacomo Amiconi, was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Rococo period, who began his career in Venice, but traveled and was prolific throughout Europe.

He was born in Naples or Venice. Amigoni initially painted both mythological and religious scenes; but as the panoply of his patrons expanded northward, he began producing many parlour works depicting gods in sensuous languor or games.

In 1747 he left Italy and established himself in Madrid. There he became court painter to Ferdinand VI of Spain and director of the Royal Academy of Saint Fernando. He died in Madrid. More Jacopo Amigoni

Alexander Altmann (Russian, 1885-1950)

Three Orthodox Priests

Oil on canvas

43 x 94.5 cm (17 x 37 1/4 in.)

Private Collection

Alexander Altmann, born in Sobolevka ( Ukraine ) in 1885 and died in Nemours (France) in 1934 , is a painter of Ukraine of the School of Paris , known for his painting "The flood of Paris."

Alexandre Altmann studied at the Fine Arts of Odessa . He left Odessa in 1905 and, on foot, to Paris where he finds a studio in La Ruche .

He became acquainted with Emile Schuffeneckers . In 1910 Altmann knows notoriety after the exhibition of his painting "The flood of Paris." More Alexander Altmann

Acknowledgement: Sotheby's, 

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others