Central panel of a triptych, The Coronation of the Virgin Mary

c. 1525-1530

The retabel or altarpiece fragment shows Saint Martin on horseback who will cut his cloak in half to give one part to a crippled beggar. The back o...

The painting represents the Old Testament story of Joseph being seduced by the wife of Potiphar (Gen. 39:5-20). Joseph, who had become the attendant of Potiphar – an official of the Pharaoh –, took care of the household of his master. Potiphar’s wife was charmed by the handsome Joseph and tried to get him into her bed. Joseph, who didn’t want to damage Potiphar’s trust, refused to respond to her advances. When she invited him again to have sex with her, Joseph ran out of the house one day. His cloak, with which she wanted to draw him closer, remained in her hand. The grace and elegance of the style – also known as ‘mannerism’- is typical of the “First School of Fontainebleau”. This term refers to the Italian painters – among whom Francesco Primaticcio and Rosso Fiorentino - who were engaged by the French King François I...

Attentive observer, may I challenge you to find some unusual elements in this panel painting? One detail has to do with the symbolic use of color, the other with a later adjustment of the image. Indeed! The Blessed Virgin is not dressed in her usual sky blue cloak, which refers to her purity, but in a red robe. During the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the Virgin often wore such a red garment to refer to the Passion of Christ. After all, the blessing Christ child with his orb would shed his blood for the redemption of mankind. The second strange element catches the eye when one looks closer at the little Jesus. It appears that he was originally depicted completely naked, but got on a transparent loincloth over time. In the past there were several times when nudity in art was subject to some form of censorship. For example, the supervision of Christian art was strongly encouraged by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). This assembly was dealing with the inner-ecclesiastical reform of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the important theologians who followed the council’s guidelines was Joannes Molanus (1533-1585). He did not consider the nakedness of the Christ Child to be edifying and pointed out that children could be endangered in this way. He may have been referring to the dangers of paedophilia. During the 19th century, puritanism emerged. A famous example of a moral preacher was Pope Pius IX...

The Namur painter and engraver, Louis Decoeur (1884-1960) became a member of “L’Effort” around 1910. This artist’s association provided a free studio for painters in Brussels, on the...

Willem Muys was a Dutch, 18th-century painter of history pieces, portraits and cabinet pieces. Above all, he appears to have been active as a painter of ‘wallpaper’. Until the mid-18th century, ‘wallpaper’ was not painted on paper but on coarsely woven linen. Wealthy citizens had their mansions or country estates adorned with ‘wallpaper’ with landscapes, exotic birds or chinoiseries. Willem Muys mainly painted ‘wallpaper’, which means that few of his works have been preserved. They are hardly represented in public collections. The works of his sons, Nicolaas en Robbert, both painters, are a little less rare. The painting with Rebecca and Eliezer...

Around the middle of the 19th century, the missionary Thomas Savage and the anatomist Jeffries Wyman described a new animal species – the Troglodytes Gorilla – in their Boston Societ...

Lorenzo Lippi (Florence, May 6, 1606 - Florence, April 15, 1665) is a Baroque painter of the Florentine school and a seventeenth-century Italian poet.

Oleh Denysenko is known for his unique style, resembling Northern Renaissance paintings, which he calls Antiqvitas Nova. It is the whole new World filled with utopia philosophers, self-sacrificing knights, eternal pilgrims, king and queen puppets, secret keys, labyrinths of illusional personalities and undiscovered emotions. This painting is done in a technique of old icon...

Oil Painting of modern renaissance figures by Cuban Artist Jesus Nordarse. Dark neutral Oil Painting of a Love and Sacrifice by Cuban Artist Jesus ...

Oil Painting of a Minotaur. Bright Blue painting by Cuban Artist Jesus Nordarse. Oil on Canvas. 8 x 11 inches. THE MAN: Jesús Nodarse Valdés w...

Provenance: Palazzo Pisani at San Stefano, Venice Mrs. F. Craighead (possibly Mrs. Fay Stinson Craighead, Evansville, Indiana) Sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 7 June 1978, lot 310, as Bonifazio Veronese Daniel M. Friedenberg, New York, until 2011; and by descent to: Russell Friedenberg, until 2014 Literature: Giuseppe Pavanello, Gli Inventari di Pietro Edwards nella Biblioteca del Seminario Patriarcale di Venezia, Venice 2006, pp. 132, 140, as no. 10 in Pietro Edwards’ inventory of the Palazzo Pisani: “Giuseppe che fugge dalla moglie di Pitifarre” by Bonifacio Veronese. Philip Cottrell and Peter Humfrey, Bonifacio de’ Pitati, (forthcoming), cat. no. 166h. Antonio Palma is the least well-known member of the illustrious Palma family of Venetian painters of the 16th century. He was the nephew of Jacopo Palma—Palma il Vecchio—and upon his uncle’s death in 1528, he began to work with Palma Vecchio’s principal student and the inheritor of the elder artist’s studio, Bonifazio de’ Pitati (Bonifazio Veronese). Antonio worked with Bonifazio as his principal assistant and right-hand man until Bonifazio’s death in 1553, after which he continued his independent career. He married a niece of his master, and their second son, Jacopo, born in 1648, would achieve fame as Palma il Giovane...

Two oil on panel Old Master landscape paintings by Johannes Jakob Hartmann (Bohemian, 1680-1730) Bohemia, early 18th Century Panel: Height 73cm, width 93cm Frame: Height 90cm, width...