POMPEO BATONI (1708-1787) A gentleman in a red coat (1758-60) Private collection Oil on canvas (99 x 74 cm) (To enlarge the picture, right click on it and chose "Open in a new window") Pompeo Batoni, one of the finest portrait painters in European history, is beginning to emerge from the darkness to which he …
Category: Italian Artists
Ottavio Leoni (1578-1630)
(To enlarge the images, right click on them and chose "Open in a new tab") "The Cavalier Ottavio Leoni, the son of Ludovico Leoni, Padovano, was likewise known as Padovano although he was born in Rome. His father desired him to devote to painting and particularly to make portraits "alla macchia", a skill in which …
The Noble Musician
POMPEO BATONI (1708-1787) John Montagu, Marquess of Monthermer (1758) Oil on canvas (96.5 x 71 cm) The Duke of Buccleuch (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") In my previous post, The Marquess of Monthermer, I mentioned that the young Lord Brudenell commissioned portraits from Batoni and Mengs. …
A medieval epic
PIER FRANCESCO MOLA (1612-1666) Erminia and Vanfrino tending the wounded Tancred (c.1653) Oil on canvas: 69 x 92 cm The Legion of Honor Museum, San Francisco (To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab") Born in a small village near Lugano, Pier Francesco Mola moved to cosmopolitan Rome with …
The Vision of St Francis
FEDERICO BAROCCI (c. 1530-1612) The Stigmatisation of St Francis (1594-95) Oil on canvas (360 x 245 cm) Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino Throughout his late period, Barocci continued to be much occupied with ecclesiastical commissions. Unlike the whole of the 1580's, during which he did not paint a single altarpiece for his native city, some …
Portrait of a Gardener
CARLO MARATTA (1625-1713) Portrait of Andre Le Notre (1679-80) Oil on canvas (112 x 85 cm) Chateau de Versailles To enlarge the image, right-click on it and choose "Open in a new tab" Carlo Maratta was one of the great Italian masters of the Late Baroque who excelled particularly in the genre of portraiture. From …
The French Cardinal
GIOVANNI BATTISTA GAULLI, known as BACICCIO Portrait of Emmanuel Theodose de La Tour d'Auvergne, Cardinal de Bouillon (1670) Oil on canvas (121 x 97 cm) Chateau de Versailles To enlarge the picture, right-click on it and then "Open in a new tab" Dramatized by the crimson velvet drapery, this sumptuous composition showing a young prelate …
Portrait of a Knight of Malta
CARAVAGGIO (1571-1610) Portrait of a Knight of Malta (c. 1608) Oil on canvas (118 x 95 cm) Palazzo Pitti, Florence To enlarge the picture, right-click on it, then "Open in a new tab" The Portrait of a Knight of Malta is one of the works that the Italian scholar Mina Gregori has convincingly identified as …
Portrait of a Young Knight
LUDOVICO CARDI (known as IL CIGOLI) 1559-1613 Portrait of a Young Knight (1594) Oil on canvas (78 x 62 cm) Palazzo Pitti, Florence The Florentine artist Ludovico Cardi, better known as Il Cigoli was a pupil of the late Mannerist painter Alessandro Allori (1535-1607) and of the architect Bernardo Buontalenti (1536-1608). He was born in …
The Resurrection
TINTORETTO (1518-1594) The Resurrection (c. 1565-70) Oil on canvas (201 x 139 cm) Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane To enlarge the picture, right-click on it, then "Open in a new tab" Few painters have treated the resurrection of Christ more dramatically than Jacopo Robusti better known as Tintoretto. In the most famous painting of the subject, …
Old Masters 