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Three women and five men play cards around a round table covered with piles of gold coins in this square painting. The people all have pale skin. The women have round faces, close-set, small eyes, delicate noses and lips, and cleft chins. They wear dresses with tight bodices and long sleeves, and cloth head coverings. The men have prominent, bumped noses, furrowed brows, and lines around their eyes. They wear hats and voluminous robes and coats in shades of ruby red, moss green, golden brown, and black. Two women and two men play cards, and each has a second person behind them or at their shoulders. The woman along the left edge of the painting wears gloves, and she looks out at us. She points at the table or at the space between her and another card player. She holds her cards up so the six of hearts at the front is visible in front of a face card of hearts and a card with spades. A clean-shaven man standing behind her stoops and drapes his arms across her shoulders, one hand limp and gesturing with a three and the other hand cupping the woman’s cards. He looks across the table. The next player is also a woman, who rests one wrist on her face-down cards on the table. She counts out coins with her other hand, and the bearded man behind her stands with one hand tucked into the opening of his robe, leaning back as he looks across the table. Next, a clean-shaven man holds three cards up to his chest as he turns to look to our left, his brows gathered and lips parted. A woman stands between these two players with a hand draped over each of their shoulders. She peers down at the man’s cards and makes a number two with that hand. Her other loose fist rests on the shoulder of the second female card player. The final pair, along the right edge of the painting, are two men. The card player holds his cards so we see the ace of spades at the front. He points at a row of coins or toward the gap left between him and the woman to our left. He leans forward and looks intently, chin jutted out, at the man with his hand tucked into his robe. A man with a long gray beard sits just over the fourth player’s shoulder and appears to look across the scene absently with heavy-lidded eyes. The round table is covered in a teal-blue cloth. A rectangular sideboard in the back left of the room is covered with a white cloth and holds a vase of white flowers, a vessel, a wooden basket, and a piece of fruit. The wall behind this is gray along the top and wood-paneled below. An alcove in the wall to the right holds two vessels, a round gold-colored, plum-sized object, and another basket. A pale yellow curtain is pulled to the right side of that alcove.

Le Tricheur à l’as de carreau

The Holy Family

La Femme au miroir

Shown from the waist up, a young woman with pale, peachy skin faces and looks directly at us in this vertical portrait painting. The subtly upturned corners of her mouth and the outer corners of her eyes are touched with shadows. Her delicate eyebrows are faintly painted over dark brown eyes. She has a long straight nose and an oval-shaped face framed by large teardrop pearl earrings. Her dark brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under a wide, gold-colored headdress, which creates a halo-like ring around her head. Precisely formed curls rest against her forehead over each temple. Her black dress has voluminous, puffy sleeves framing a sheer, butter-yellow panel covering her chest. White ruffles emerge at her neck and cuffs. A gold Maltese cross, which flares at the end of each arm, hangs from a thick gold chain that falls over her chest and down to her waist. She touches the chain with her left hand, on our right, and with the other she holds the body of a small furry brown animal with bared teeth. The background behind the woman is black down the center and a dark emerald-green curtain falls to either side.

Margaret of Austria

A woman with pale white skin and her blond hair covered by a wide veil is shown from the waist up in this vertical portrait painting. Her folded hands rest on the lower edge of the panel, suggesting that she sits just on the other side, close to us. The transparent white veil covers her blond hair and falls in stiff, wide panes down in front of her shoulders. Her hair is pulled back behind a black ribbon over a high forehead. Her light brown eyes are downcast and she has a straight nose and full, pale pink lips. Her chest is covered by another veil and is tucked into the deep V-neck of her long-sleeved, black dress. A wide scarlet-red belt adorned with an ornately filigreed gold belt buckle encircles her narrow waist. Her skin, white veils, and red belt contrast sharply with her velvety black dress and the dark pine green of the background.

The head, shoulders, and chest of a man wearing a deep rose-red garment fills this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our left, and he looks directly at us from the corners of his eyes. His brown hair falls across his forehead, sweeps down over his ears, and curls gently at the nape of his neck. His eyebrows arch over brown eyes, and he has a long, angular nose. His upper lip is full, and his mouth is closed. He has high cheekbones and a cleft in his chin. The high collar is a black band over the voluminous red garment, which falls in pleats or folds down his chest. His right hand, on our left, lifts to clutch the fabric near his chest, in the lower left corner of the painting, and he wears a gold ring on his pinky finger. The background behind the man fades from dark aquamarine blue across the top to pale arctic blue at his shoulders, which span the width of the composition.

In the stone ruins of a building, a woman, Mary, kneels with her hands in prayer over a thin-limbed baby lying in front of her in this vertical painting. There is a man behind Mary, to our left, two more in a field to our right, and a winged angel in the upper right corner. They all have pale skin. Mary’s unbound blond hair falls over her shoulders. She wears a celestial-blue dress, and her teal-blue cloak is edged with gold. Her body is angled to our right, and she looks down her straight nose at the baby near her knees. The nude baby has blond curls and a chubby tummy and cheeks. An ox and an ass look down at the baby from behind a stone trough to our right. The man behind Mary wears a forest-green cap and scarf over a tomato-red robe. One hand rests on a staff, and he looks up at the angel in the top right corner. An owl looks down at the man from atop the stone ruins, near the top left corner. Two men recline and about a dozen white sheep lie on low hills in the near distance to our right. One of those men sleeps and the other holds up both hands as he looks into the sky. The angel in the top right corner emerges from a petal-pink and pale yellow halo against a star-strewn blue sky. The angel wears rose pink and has dark pink wings. A scroll held across both arms reads, “GLO” and “INECELSIS DEO.”

The laurel branch is a traditional Medici emblem.

Shown from the waist up, a young woman embraces a baby in this vertical painting. They both have peachy skin, reddish-blond hair, and round faces. The woman is angled to our left and almost takes up the height of the painting. She looks down with gray eyes through lowered lids, under slender, arched brows. She has a straight nose and her pale pink lips are closed. Barely visible, a thin dotted white line spans her brow. A few loose, copper-colored tendrils frame her face under an azure-blue mantle that drapes over her head, shoulders, and arms. Under the mantle she wears a brick-red robe with a stylized, plant-like pattern in gold on the upper bodice and the cuff we can see. Her left elbow, on our right, rests on a sage-green ledge that runs along the bottom edge of the composition, and that hand dangles over the child’s leg. Her other hand curves around the baby’s back. The child is turned to our right to face the woman. He is wrapped in a cloak the same red as the woman's robe, and it has a thin gold border. He sits on a kelly-green cushion resting along the left side of the ledge. His head is turned to gaze off to our right with large hazel eyes under thin brows. He has a button nose and a rosy flush around his small pink mouth, which is slightly open. His right hand dips into the woman’s neckline while the other arm embraces her neck. His right leg stretches out toward her so one pudgy foot peeks out from under the red cloth. The horizon of the landscape behind them comes halfway up the painting. Sloping fields are dotted with trees. Low hills are ice blue in the hazy distance along the horizon, and the sky above is nearly white near the mountains, deepening to pale blue along the top edge.

Shown from the chest up, a clean-shaven, pale-skinned man holds one hand to his chest and rests the other on a rug-covered ledge with the other in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled to our left, and he looks down in that direction with dark eyes under thick brows. Crow’s feet crinkle at the corners of his eyes, and there are dark hollows underneath. Soft jowls hang to create a slight double chin. His thin lips are set in a line over a wide, round chin, which is darkened with a five o’clock shadow. He has chin-length, reddish-blond hair, and straight, wispy bangs sweep loosely across his high forehead. He wears a white chemise under a gold, brocade garment, which is mostly hidden by a slate-blue cloak. The cloak is lined with spotted fur, which is turned over to create a wide collar across his shoulders. The sleeve on his left arm, to our right and closer to us, splits over a dusky-pink sleeve. Two gold buttons on the cloak there are decorated with thistle plants and blossoms. The fingers of his right hand, to our left, are gathered like a closed rose bud at his chest. He wears a gold ring on the index finger of the other hand, which rests on the end of the gray stone ledge so his fingertips brush the tapestry draped there. The man is lit from our left against a black background.

Virgin and Child

The Merry Family

This vertical portrait shows the head, shoulders, and chest of a young man with smooth, pale skin and shoulder-length, dark blond hair positioned behind a narrow gray, stone ledge. Shown against a black background, the man tilts his head to our left and his eyes cut to our right. His left eyebrow, on our right, is slightly arched over brown eyes. He has a long, straight nose, pale pink lips, and his hair falls down the sides of his face from beneath a crimson-red, flat-topped cap. He wears a brown garment with white linen peeking through at the shoulder seams. The neck and seam down the front are lined with white, perhaps fur. He holds his right hand to his chest with his middle finger overlapping his ring finger.

Against a deep, hilly landscape, a young woman sits facing us on a rocky ledge with a small child in her lap in this square painting. The woman and child, Mary and Jesus, both have pale skin and blond hair. Mary wears a cobalt-blue gown over a coral-pink undergarment that peeks out from under the bottom hem and at her cuffs. A paler blue mantle is draped over the back of her head and falls to cover her shoulders and body. A sheer white veil covers her hair and forehead. Jesus wears a sheer white, loose, long-sleeved tunic. Both gaze downward to the bunch of green grapes Mary holds delicately in her left hand, to our right. Jesus reaches forward with both hands to pluck some fruit as Mary supports his body with her other hand. An oval shaped, woven basket with a lid sits on the ground next to Mary’s feet. The gray, rocky outcropping on which they sit is blanketed with straw-colored moss or other growth. A small clearing behind the pair is framed by trees on either side. The trees have tall, slender trunks speckled with light gray patches and canopies of olive and celery-green leaves. To our left and beyond the outcropping, a gray donkey stands behind a tree, nibbling on some grasses at the edge of the outcropping. To our right, in the middle distance, a pale-skinned, bearded man stands and arches back with a long stick raised overhead, as if about to strike the tree in front of him. Beyond him and about two-thirds of the way up the panel, a row of dark green shrubbery separates the clearing from rolling blue hills in the distance.

Madonna and Child

A young, pale-skinned woman with reddish-blond hair sits with a nearly nude, chubby toddler standing in her lap in this vertical painting. She looks down at him, her body and face angled to our left. Thin lines creating a gold halo fan out from the back of her head. An ivory-white scarf wraps around her head and trails down the back of her neck where it is tucked into a dark, teal-blue cloak covering her shoulders and draping across her lap. Under the robe, she wears a loose, cherry-red gown with vertical pleats over her chest. The baby, also with pale skin, reddish blond hair, and a delicate gold halo, looks up at her face with light brown eyes. He stands on the woman’s right thigh, to our left. One of the woman's hands wraps around his body and supports his legs, while she props up his chest with her other. A length of pale gray fabric wraps over one shoulder and around his stomach. The two are situated in front of a column and pillar supporting a horizontal lintel overhead. The view beyond is of a blue sky over a golden field with dark green conical cypress trees in the distance.

This intimate devotional panel, an early work by Antonio da Correggio, reveals the young artist's evolving style. The distant landscape demonstrates his awareness of Northern European precedents, and the figural composition references the manner of Raphael, while its soft outlines recall Da Vinci. The gentle sensuousness of the figures and the tenderness they show one another, however, are unique to Correggio.

A woman wearing a cobalt-blue robe and a white veil sits with her hands raised, palms out, as she looks toward a slender, bearded man who stands to our left in this vertical painting. Both have light skin and delicate features, and they sit in a room with stone walls and arched windows. There are faint circles under the woman’s light brown eyes. She has a long slender nose, and her pink lips are pursed. One knee is bent, and she is low to the ground, suggesting she sits on a stool. A book lies open on a wooden stand in front of her to our right, below her left elbow. The ruffled edges of her multi-layered, white veil sweep over her forehead and down to her shoulders. Her loose, long-sleeved blue garment is edged with gold and falls in angular folds to pool at her feet. She holds her long-fingered, slender hands up at her chest, palms facing the man to our left. He stands with his body angled toward her as he looks down, his head tipped slightly forward. His brown hair falls over his shoulders. His voluminous, gold-edged, red cloak is fastened at his throat with a gold, jeweled brooch, and it drapes over his shoulders and around his lower torso, leaving his arms, chest, and a gash over his right ribs exposed. He holds a tall, gold staff topped with a jeweled cross in his left hand, to our right. A moss-green pennant flutters back from the base of the cross, as if lifted in a breeze. The man holds up his other hand so the palm faces the woman with the first two fingers raised. Round, puncture wounds with red blood mark the palm of that hand and tops of both bare feet. The floor is patterned with gray, brown, blue, and green tiles. The wall behind the woman has honey-brown paneling along the bottom half and the top half is slate gray. Gray columns are spaced along that wall, supporting a curving, vaulted ceiling. Two arched windows pierce the wall behind the woman, and both have stained glass designs within the curving tops. The window closer to us opens onto a narrow view of a landscape with a rose-pink arch over a bridge, and a path winding through green fields. An open door over the shoulder of the man, to our left, shows the stepped roofline of a pink building under a blue sky. The entire scene is framed with a flattened arch supported by gleaming columns of polished, veined brown stone, creating the impression that we look onto the people and room through the arch. The columns have leafy capitals and white bases. The tan-colored arch is carved with a row of stylized rosettes along the opening that spans the top of the painting.

The Birth and Naming of John the Baptist

Portrait de l'artiste tenant un chardon

This painting depicts three people seated side-by-side outdoors. The central person is a young, nude child with curly, reddish hair and a red beaded necklace, sitting on a red cushion. Their head is turned to the right. The woman on the left wears a white head covering, a sheer veil around her neck, a green dress, and a red cloak with floral designs. She holds the torso of the child and drapes a white cloth around its legs. The woman on the right has long, flowing reddish hair and wears a white dress or robe with gold detailing down the front, on the neckline, and on the wrists. She holds an open red book, and the child is turning one of the thin pages. All three people have pale skin. Above them, in the cloudy blue sky, there is a white dove with its wings outstretched, gold lines radiating from it. Above the dove, there is an image of a crowned bearded man with pale skin, wearing red robes and holding an orb. He is against a golden background with red dots that breaks through the pale clouds. The background shows a landscape with green trees, hills, and pale blue buildings.

Annunciation

Shown from the chest up, a clean shaven, young man with pale, rosy skin and curly, mahogany-red hair, looks at or toward us against a black background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he turns his face slightly to look our way with sienna-brown eyes under curved eyebrows. He has a long, prominent nose and small thin pink lips. His shoulder length hair curls tightly around his face and covers his ears. He wears a tomato-red shirt with a high collar trimmed with white.

Jean Hey, known as the Master of Moulins, was a leading painter in 15th-century France. Here, he captured the moment the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would give birth to a son. The painting once formed the right side of an altarpiece, with the left side depicting Mary’s own Immaculate Conception and a central section, now lost, featuring the enthroned Virgin and Child.

Shown from the shoulders up, a man with peachy skin looks off to our left as he holds the feathered end of an arrow up in a hand resting along the bottom edge of this vertical portrait painting. Shown against a marine-blue background, he looks into the distance with hazel eyes under bushy eyebrows. He has a long, bumped nose, and his full, pale pink lips are closed. His round cheeks are tinged with pink, and there is a hint of a five-o-clock shadow around his mouth and jawline. Chestnut-brown, curly hair hangs to the base of his neck, and wispy curls fall across his forehead from under his tall, chocolate-brown cap. The cap has a small gold pin high over the ear we can see. The man wears a garnet-red jacket with a black collar over a white collarless shirt decorated with five black, narrow bands below the neckline. The fingers of his right hand, to our left, rest with the fingertips braced along on the bottom edge of the painting, as if along a ledge. He pinches the shaft of an arrow with his index finger and thumb, so we see the sienna-brown feathers. He wears a gold ring embedded with a small blue gem near the first knuckle of his ring finger.

Portrait de Lisa Gherardini, épouse de Francesco del Giocondo, dit La Joconde ou Monna Lisa

Young Woman with Ibis

Portrait of Isabella Brant

St Fredianus Diverts the River Serchio

A woman and nude child, both with pale skin, sit in front of a deep landscape in this vertical painting. Shown from about the knees up, the woman’s body is angled slightly to our right, and she supports the baby under his bottom with her left hand, on our right. She wears a long-sleeved, crimson-red dress with a sheer, nearly translucent fabric around her shoulders. Fern-green drapery, nearly matching the color of the grassy landscape, is gathered behind her hips, and a deep lapis-blue cloth lies across her lap. Her blond hair is pulled back. She has a straight nose, rosy cheeks, and her pink lips are closed. Her head tilts to our left, and she gazes down and to our right with brown eyes. Her right hand, on our left, rests in her lap, and she holds the baby with her other hand. The blond baby half sits, half stands on the woman’s lap so one foot rests on the hand in the woman’s lap. He reaches his arms around her neck and turns to look over his left shoulder, also gazing down and to our right. Thin, gold halos above their heads are barely visible against the pale blue sky. An expanse of green grass extends behind the pair leading to a cluster of trees to our left and buildings on a distant hill to our right. Hazy blue hills line the horizon in the distance below a blue, nearly cloudless sky.

The Sacrifice of Isaac

Portrait of a Lady

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman sits in front of a vast landscape and holds a nude baby boy on her lap in this horizontal painting. The woman, Mary, sits with her knees angled to our left, but she looks at us from the corners of brown eyes. She has a delicate nose, smooth cheeks, a pointed chin, and her pink lips are closed. A few strands of blond hair escape from braids that overlap across the top of her head. She wears a rose-red dress over a translucent white undergarment, which is visible along the neckline and on the forearms. A cloth striped with azure and powder blue, pale pink, lemon yellow, and teal drapes across her seated thighs and wraps back around her hips. One hand rests in her lap near one of the baby’s feet, and the other braces the child’s other hip. The baby, Jesus, has tightly curled blond hair and a flushed face. His body resembles a somewhat muscular adult. Jesus rests his shoulders back against the woman’s chest and turns to look up at her. One hand touches one of her breasts and the other holds a butterfly by its parchment-yellow wings. The foot not by the woman’s hand rests on a gold dagger near the woman’s far hip. A gnarled tree with dark green leaves winds from a rocky crag to our left. The pair are lit from our left, and Mary casts a shadow on the large, flat boulder on which she sits. The land dips steeply down beyond the boulder. A man wearing a pale pink garment that flaps in the wind stands on a rocky outcropping near a grazing animal. Tiny in scale, three more people walk or run in the distance to our right. Stone structures are tucked in among tree-dotted hills that roll gently back to a hazy blue, mountainous horizon, which comes about five-sixths of the way up this composition. The sky above is a similar icy blue.

A young, bearded man wearing only a white loincloth stands facing us in a pale blue river with a man to one side and a winged angel to the other in this vertical painting. They all have pale or tanned skin and tawny-brown hair. The man at the center, Jesus, stands knee-deep in the placid water with his hands together in prayer. He looks off to our left, his hollow eyes set above a drooping mouth. To our left, a man kneels on the rocky riverbank and trickles water from his hand onto Jesus’s head. That man wears a fawn-brown robe under a raspberry-red cloak. He is bearded with curly brown hair, and he has dark circles under his eyes and a downturned mouth. The winged angel stands to our right on a flat stone, closer to us. Gold and pink wings rise vertically along the right edge of the composition. The angel wears voluminous white robes and holds a marine-blue garment in both hands. A white dove hovering over Jesus’s head is surrounded by a halo edged with teal, pea-green, and pink rings. A bearded man wearing a tiered, jeweled crown looks down from a round opening in the ice-blue sky above the dove. He holds one hand up in blessing and holds an orb topped by a cross in the other. About ten fish nibble at the rocks near Jesus’s feet in the river, which winds through a pale green field to a town of turrets and towers in the distance.

Christ and the Virgin in the House at Nazareth

This painting depicts a woman holding a child. The woman is turned towards the left, and she looks down at the child in her lap. She has pale skin, reddish-brown hair, high, arched, eyebrows, and thin, slightly downturned lips. Her hair is put up above her head under a red and brown net with a thin veil hanging over her face. A golden halo is behind her head. Her clothes are ornate, in shades of gold and brown with a collar decorated with pearls and green gems. The child is nude except for a red necklace and red bracelets. They also have pale skin and brown hair, and they are looking up at the woman. The child rests on a green cushion and holds a light pink peach or apple in one hand, and there is a faint golden halo around their head. Next to the woman, on a white marbled surface, is a white bowl of light pink fruit. Behind her is a landscape of green fields, tree-lined, rocky hills, and a light blue body of water. The sky above is a gradient of blue, white towards the horizon and fading into dark blue at the top of the painting. Puffy white clouds drift across the top of the sky.

The Adoration of the Magi

The Holy Family with Saints Anne and Catherine of Alexandria

A young girl stands next to and holds the hand of an elegantly dressed woman sitting in a wooden armchair near stone columns, in front of a crimson-red curtain pulled up to reveal a distant landscape view in this vertical portrait painting. The child and woman have smooth, light skin, and the fabric of their dresses has a silken sheen. To our right, the woman sits with her knees angled slightly to our left, and she looks at us with dark blue eyes under faint brows. Her brown hair is pulled back from her high forehead under a hair covering set with pearls. Her pointed chin is slightly pulled back, and her pale pink lips are closed. A teardrop-shaped pearl hangs from the ear we can see, and she wears two strands of pearls like a choker, above a thick, pleated lace ruff. The fabric of the long-sleeved bodice has a gold-on-gold pattern, and is lined with a row of buttons down the front. Filmy lace cuffs extend back over her forearms from her wrists. Her full, floor-length skirt is scarlet red with a gold, brocade-like pattern, and has silvery-gray stripes down the front and around the lower hem. The cloak she wears over the dress has a black-on-black floral pattern. Three thick gold chains hang across her bodice, and she wears a square-cut, gray stone set in a gold ring on the third finger of her left hand. To our left, the young girl stands next to the wooden arm of the chair and holds the woman’s hands with both of hers. The child looks at us with gray eyes, and her pale pink lips are parted in a slight smile. Her light brown hair is pulled back under a gray band, perhaps of fur, around her head, over an apricot-colored head covering that matches her dress. The tight-fitting, long-sleeved bodice is striped with bands of alternating gold and pink geometric designs against the apricot-peach background. A lace-edged collar lies across her shoulders. A red, oval pendant hangs from her three-standed pearl necklace, and she wears three pearl bracelets on one wrist. A thick gold chain falls across her chest and around one hip. The floor-length, full skirt has buttercup-yellow and shell-pink highlights on the coral-colored background. Behind the pair, the red curtain has been pulled up so it seems to flutter behind the woman’s head, in front of stone columns that frame a distant landscape view with trees. A blocky structure, presumably a building, sits on the far distant, hazy horizon. Light pours down in streaks from steel-gray clouds against a pale blue sky.

Isaac and Rebecca, Known as ‘The Jewish Bride’

A man, woman, and four winged angels gather and kneel around a nude infant lying on the ground under a stone arched opening set in front of a landscape in this vertical painting. All of the people have pale white or lightly tanned skin. To our left, the woman wears gold-edged, royal-blue robes and has long, curly brown hair. The baby lies on the hem of her robe, his body facing her. An older, balding and bearded man kneels to the right, leaning on a walking stick. He wears a red garment under a green robe, and he holds a hat in his hands as he gazes at the baby. About a third the size of the man and woman, two of the angels kneel between the man and woman and another pair kneel to our left of the woman, seeming close to us. The angels wear colorful gold, pink, red, or yellow robes and all have long wavy blond hair. Their hands touch in prayer and all look down toward the baby. The people are sheltered in front of a crumbling stone wall under a wooden structure. To our left, a cow and donkey are penned in a stable. Two pairs of men stand near or lean on the other side of the rock wall that encloses the scene. A landscape with green rolling hills and a distant town with towers and buildings fills the background beneath a clear blue sky. A triangular structure made of wood beams is framed within the carved archway, which seems to separate us from the space of the painting. The face of the arch looks like it is carved with a nude man atop a column to the left and a similar woman to the right, and with miniature scenes stacked on tiny platforms curving upward to the apex of the arch.

This painting depicts a man with light skin, white hair, and a white beard wearing an orange cloth draped over a dark-blue garment with gold embroidery around the shoulder and neckline. He holds two large red keys in his left hand, and a thin, red, cross-topped rod in his right hand. There is a faint outline of a halo around the man's head, which is slightly turned to the right. The background is gold, enclosed within a red, white, and black patterned border.

Close to us, a bearded, balding man leads a donkey carrying a woman and child to our right against a hilly landscape in this horizontal painting. All three people have pale, peachy skin and halos. The man has a gray beard and hair, and wears a royal-blue tunic under a ruby-red robe. He leans on a walking stick and looks back at the donkey. The woman riding the donkey wears a blue and gold brocade-like cloak covering her head and body. She has a straight nose, small pink lips, and she looks toward the infant she holds close to her body. The baby wears a white garment and reaches for the woman’s face with one hand as he turns to look over his shoulder toward us. The path they walk on is lined with grass and detailed plants. A river runs parallel to the path a short distance away. The horizon line comes about two-thirds of the way up the painting is lined with green trees, blue mountains, and a few buildings to our left. Wispy white clouds sweep across an azure-blue sky streaked with peach near the horizon.

Shown from the chest up, an older, pale-skinned man dressed in scarlet red faces us in this vertical portrait painting. His slender body is turned slightly to our right, but his head turns back to our left so he gazes at a point just over our left shoulder. His large, deep-set dark blue eyes are lined with crow’s feet over high, angular cheekbones. His dark brown beard is shot through with silvery gray, and he has brown, chin-length hair and bangs across his lined forehead. His red garment has a high neck, and the opening down the front is lined with white, perhaps fur. A black sash drapes over his left shoulder, to our right. He is illuminated with warm light from the upper left and set against a dark brown background. A portion of an inscribed plaque is visible just over his right shoulder. It reads, “…TIS …OIX.”

This painting depicts a woman seated outdoors with a baby in her lap on the left and a young child standing nearby on the right. The woman is sitting on the ground, while the baby is facing the right with their arms outstretched. The baby is partially wrapped in a white cloth. The woman has a serene expression and delicate facial features. She is wearing a green and red robe. The young child on the right is holding a small lamb and has curly blond hair. In the upper left corner of the painting, two cherubic faces peer down from a cloud. The background shows a pastoral setting with trees, shrubs, hills, grass patches, and bunnies near the forest edge, under a cloudy sky.

Paradise

Shown from the thighs up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a cream-white gown ornamented with gold bows looks at us from the corners of her brown eyes in this vertical portrait. Her body faces us, but she turns her head to our left. She has thin, arched eyebrows, a straight nose, flushed cheeks, a dimple in her chin, and her pink lips are closed. Her chestnut-brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under a gold and pearl headdress, but two wispy curls lie on her smooth forehead near the temple we can see. A string of black pearls ending in a gold pendant hangs down the front of her ear. A white ruffled collar encircles her neck over two heavy, gold necklaces. A blue stone and a pearl in a gold setting lies on her chest, and the second chain reaches to her waist. The satin bodice is fitted, and the sleeves are puffy below the shoulders. Voluminous long sleeves are slitted and a white chemise patterned with delicate black designs is pulled through, creating little tufts. She wears three gold rings on her two hands. She holds white gloves and a pink carnation in one hand, which rests on a table covered in a red tapestry to our right, and a dark green feather fan in her other hand. Her gown splits over a pine-green skirt beneath. A shimmering, forest-green velvet curtain behind the woman sweeps to one side to reveal a caramel-grown stone pillar along the left edge of the painting.

Portrait of a Man, Possibly Girolamo Rosati

This painting is a portrait of a seated woman, her body turned slightly to the right and her head looking towards us. She has a fair complexion, with round, rosy cheeks, pale eyebrows, large green eyes, and thin pink lips in a neutral expression. Her light blonde hair is styled in short curls close to her head and adorned with pearls and a clip or barrette in the shape of small leaves. She is dressed in a cream-colored dress with intricate embroidery in shades of brown, gold, and black. On top of the dress is a long black garment that flows over her shoulders and upper arms and has a high collar, decorative buttons, and more embroidery. Her gown is paired with a ruffled white collar and lace at her neckline and wrists. Long gold chains drape across her chest, and she wears a pearl necklace around her neck and two small golden rings on her fingers. In her left hand, our right, she holds a small book, while a lace handkerchief is in her right hand, our left. She wears pearl earrings, strands of pearl bracelets, and a decorative brooch in the shape of a white dog with a pink bow. The seat she sits on is wooden with dark red cushions decorated with golden tassels and embroidery, behind her on the left is a draped green cloth, and on the right, a table is covered with music sheets, a stringed instrument, books, and small blue and yellow ribbons. The wall behind the table is brown, and there is some gold lettering in the top right corner.

A partially nude woman with pale, peachy skin sits to our left looking into a mirror held up by a nearly nude, winged child to our right in this vertical painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left but she looks across her body to our right. She holds her left hand to her chest, and her right hand grips the fur-lined edge of the scarlet-red, velvet fabric that drapes over that upper arm and around her hips. Her blond hair is coiled up in rows of pearls, and she has dark eyes, a straight nose, and her pale pink lips turn up in a subtle smile. A teardrop pearl earring hangs from the ear we can see, and she wears rings and gold bracelets. The child-like figure to the right stands on a gold-striped cushion facing away from us as he holds up the rectangular, black-framed mirror. He has small silver wings and a sash of golden yellow hangs from one shoulder around the opposite hip. A second child reaches from behind the mirror to hold up a ring of laurel leaves. A forest-green curtain is gathered in the upper left corner and the beige wall beyond falls into shadow to our right.

A woman sits in the center of this vertical panel painting and gazes down at a baby lying across her lap while two winged angels hold up a red, gold, and black brocade-like patterned cloth behind her. All the people have pale skin, pink cheeks, blond hair, and flat, gold halos. The woman’s body is angled slightly to our right, and she holds her hands crossed over her chest as she gazes down at the baby. The woman has a straight, pointed nose and a small, pink-lipped mouth. Her azure-blue robe covers her head and drapes over much of the crimson-red dress beneath. The edge of the robe and cuff of her dress are trimmed in gold. The baby lies with his arms slightly raised, and he looks up at the woman. His hips and legs are wrapped with sheer white cloth. The angels in the upper corners of the panel both wear robes in the same azure blue of the woman, and the garments have a gold band around the high waist and gold around the neckline. They look at the woman and hold up the cloth that falls behind and under her and the baby.

Standing Saint

The Night Watch Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq

This painting shows a young man against an olive-green background. The man is standing, his body partially turned to the right, with one hand on his hip and the other near his waist. He is looking at us with a neutral expression. The man has light skin and short brown hair under a black hat with pointed ends on either side. He wears a dark outfit with a high white collar and puffed black sleeves. A thin gold ring is visible on his right hand. The green background has visible brushstrokes and some slight variation in color.

Saint John on Patmos

The Milkmaid

A woman and two children, all with pale skin and flushed cheeks, sit together in a landscape in this round painting. The woman takes up most of the composition as she sits with her right leg, to our left, tucked under her body. Her other leg, on our right, is bent so the foot rests on the ground, and that knee angles up and out to the side. She wears a rose-pink dress under a topaz-blue robe, and a finger between the pages of a closed book holds her place. Her brown hair is twisted away from her face. She has delicate features and her pink lips are closed. She looks and leans to our left around a nude young boy who half-sits and half-stands against her bent leg. The boy has blond hair and pudgy, toddler-like cheeks and body. The boy reaches his right hand, on our left, to grasp the tall, thin cross held by the second young boy, who sits on the ground next to the pair. This second boy has darker brown hair and wears a garment resembling animal fur. The boy kneels facing the woman and looks up at her and the blond boy. The trio sits on a flat, grassy area in front of a body of water painted light turquoise. Mountains in the deep distance are pale azure blue beneath a nearly clear blue sky.

Shown from the chest up, a clean-shaven young man with pale, peachy skin looks off to our left against a cloudy sky in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he gazes in that direction with dark eyes under thick, arched brows. He has a long nose, smooth cheeks, and a hint of a five-o-clock shadow around his closed, peach-colored lips. Chestnut-brown hair is covered by a black headdress with two long tails. One end drapes over the front of his right shoulder, farther from us, and the other end hangs down his back. He wears a brick-red garment that falls in vertical pleats from a high collar. A white undergarment peeks out from the top of the neckline, and the collar is fastened with a small clasp at the throat. Behind him, tan-colored clouds float across a blue sky.

Shown from the waist up, a woman with pale skin and brown hair, wearing a dark corset and white fabric over her shoulders, looks down at needlework in her hands in this vertical painting. Her cheeks are rosy and her dark hair is pulled back, though it seems looser down the sides of her face. A small, coral-red, crescent shape at the back of her head could be covering her hair or holding it in place. White, nearly translucent fabric lies loosely across her shoulders over a dark, moss-brown, long-sleeved dress. Her breasts swell over the squared, lace-trimmed neckline. She holds white fabric and perhaps a needle in her hands, which rest on a tan cushion on her lap. The scene is loosely painted throughout so some of the details are difficult to make out. A darker spot along her right index finger could be a thimble. The background is the same olive-tan of the cushion.

Gian Lodovico Madruzzo

Shown from the hips up, a young boy with pale, peachy skin wears a voluminous, black cloak that nearly falls off his shoulders over a rose-pink tunic, with a sword hanging from one hip in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our right, and he looks off to our left with dark brown eyes under gently arched brows. He has a wide nose, and his pink lips are closed with the corners pulled slightly back. His skin is smooth and his cheeks slightly flushed. His dark brown hair is cut close and comes to a point in front of his ears. His tunic is painted with dusky pink highlights against wine-red to suggest a sheen across a vertically striped, leafy pattern. The garment has a high neck lined with a white ruffle and has a row of buttons down the front. His black coat has wide lapels that reach beyond his shoulders, and the puffy sleeves gather on his arms. The coat has a silvery-white cross over the chest to our right. The left and right arms of the cross are lost in the folds but the arms at the top and bottom are forked at the ends. The boy’s pine-green belt is edged with gold, and the hilt of the sword is angled toward us on his left hip, to our right. He holds one fawn-brown glove in his right hand, to our left, and his other arm disappears behind the folds of his coat. The background is deep olive green, almost brown. The artist signed the painting with dark paint near the right edge of the canvas near the boy’s shoulder, “TITANVS F.”

adoration of the Magi

Against a shiny gold background, a man with peach-colored skin nearly fills this tall, narrow, vertical panel above a row of twelve people, significantly smaller in scale, kneeling by his feet and looking up at the man, their hands together in prayer. The top of the panel comes to a point above the man’s head. His body faces us, and he looks at us with brown eyes under furrowed, dark eyebrows. His nose is long and straight, and his mouth is small with a rosy lower lip. He has a brown, trimmed beard, and his hair is receding. He holds up a gold-handled sword with a slate-gray blade in his right hand, on our left, while in his other hand, he cradles a thick black book with a gold-edged pages against his chest. The man wears a floor-length, celery-green tunic with a flowing, rose-pink robe over his left shoulder, on our right, and around his body. The robe is lined with tangerine orange and has a faint, patterned border. The toes of his sandaled feet stick out. On a smaller scale, along the bottom of the painting, six pairs of people kneel facing the center, three couples to each side. Eleven of the people gaze with heads tipped back, up at the man with their hands folded in prayer. To our right, one woman turns and gestures, mouth open, to her neighbor. Their long robes are painted in shades of shell pink, indigo blue, scarlet red, butter yellow, sage green, and chestnut brown. Some wear white fabric over their hair while others are bareheaded. The gold background is incised around the man’s head to create a halo. Molding and a band of alternating strips of slate blue and brick red enclose the pointed panel. Three shapes, like small banners, are painted in red with gold lettering around the man’s head, with an “S” at the top center, “PAU” over his shoulder to our left, and “LUS” to our right. In the blue and red band set into the frame at the lower center, an inscription reads, “NI.MCCCXXXIII M II.ESPLETUM FUIT HC OPUS.” There is a noticeable network of cracks across the painting’s surface, especially on the gold background behind the man.

Charles II of Valois, duke of Orléans.

Amitabha Triad, Tokyo National Museum

A Maid Asleep

A man hangs from a wooden cross at the top center of this vertical painting, with a woman standing at the foot of the cross to our left and a man to our right, all in front of a deep landscape with mountains along a river. All the people have light skin. The feet of the man on the cross, Jesus, line up with the tops of the heads of the people standing below. Jesus hangs by a nail driven through each palm, and his overlapping feet are nailed into a short platform that angles downward. He has shoulder-length brown hair and a short brown beard. His head tips forward, and his eyes are downcast or closed. He has a straight nose, high cheekbones, and his lips are closed. Blood trickles down his forehead from a ring of thorns around his head, from the nails in his hands and feet, and from a short gash over his right ribs, on our left. A white loincloth is wrapped around his hips, and the end of it flutters as if in a breeze to our left. The man’s body is lean but muscular. A slip of paper with the letters “INRI” has been affixed to a small panel on the cross above Jesus’s head. Below and to our left of the cross, a woman stands with her head bowed, looking down with her hands clasped in prayer. Her hair is covered with a tan-colored veil and she wears a gold-edged, navy-blue robe that covers her head and body. She and the cleanshaven, blond man standing to our right of the cross both have bare feet. The man looks up at the cross with his lips parted. His fingers are intertwined and then flipped, palms-down, with his arms straight. His raspberry pink-robe falls over one shoulder and around his hips, over a topaz-blue, ankle-length tunic. The dirt-packed ground on which they stand is lined along the bottom edge of the panel with plants and flowers. The golden-brown land dips beyond the people, leading down to a river that winds into the distance. A castle-like structure perches on cliff-like outcroppings high along the left edge of the painting, and buildings at the foot of that outcropping line the river. Two people walk and one person fishes off a bridge near the town. A few boats, one with full sails unfurled and another possibly with oars out to row, float in the river beyond, which is flanked in the deep distance by mountains painted blue in the haze. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, crossing the painting just beneath Jesus’s feet. The sky above deepens from pale yellow along the horizon to robin’s egg blue where a few wispy clouds create streaks along the top edge.

The Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John

Copy of The Night Watch

Shown from the waist up, a cleanshaven man with pale, peachy skin, wearing a black cap and a voluminous fur-lined, black cloak, is positioned behind a crimson-red ledge or tabletop in this vertical portrait painting. His head and torso nearly fills the composition. His body is angled to our left, and he looks off in that direction with dark brown eyes under faint eyebrows. His high cheeks are lightly flushed, and he has a pointed nose and a hint of a five o-clock shadow. His soft black cap has flaps that cover his ears. The wide, fur lapels of his black cloak nearly reach his shoulders. The sleeves of the garment beneath has a tan and black checked pattern, and a white undershirt peeks out at his neck and cuffs. A cross hanging from a heavy gold chain has black pearls in the cross of each arm and a teardrop-shaped black pearl hangs from the bottom. The cross has a hand on each short arm, two feet on the long leg, and a red circle at the center. The sitter’s left hand, on our right, rests on the red ledge holding a pair of gloves that are ivory white around the wrist and charcoal gray at the fingers. His right hand, father from us, rests in a loose fist near his other wrist. A folded piece of white paper with black writing lies to our left of the hands. It reads, “NVNQVID NON PAVCITAS DIERVM MEORVM FINIETVR BREVIS.” The background behind the man is mottled with rust brown and steel gray. Gold writing spans the background to either side of the man’s head, reading, “BRIANVS TVKS, MILES, ANO ETATIS EVAE LVII” along the top and “DROIT ET AVANT” below.

About three dozen people gather in a grassy field to either side of a crumbling structure to kneel and pray before a woman and baby in the center of this horizontal painting. The woman, Mary, and baby, Jesus, have smooth, pale skin while the others have light or tanned skin. The structure has sand-colored stone pillars, a wooden triangular, pitched roof, and a straw floor. Mary, who has an elongated torso, sits facing us with her knees apart. She wears an azure-blue robe over a rose-pink dress. A shell-pink veil covers her head and body. Jesus sits on her left knee, his pudgy body angled to our left. He is nude except for a transparent cloth wrapped over one shoulder and the opposite hip. Mary’s left hand braces his torso. On Mary’s right, our left, Joseph, an older man, stands facing us. He clasps his hands at his chest and leans on a long stick. He has wrinkled skin, long, gray curly hair, and a full beard. Both Mary and Joseph tilt their heads to their right, our left, as they look down at Jesus. Joseph wears a golden yellow robe over a blue tunic. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus have faint gold halos. Behind them, a brown cow and gray donkey rest on the straw. People closest to Mary and Jesus kneel and bow their heads while the people to the left and right sides mostly stand. Three men kneeling closest to Mary and Jesus offer gifts, including a bronze vessel and a gold jar. One man has long dark brown hair and a beard, and wears a gold crown. Another man is bald with long gray hair and beard, while the third is cleanshaven with shoulder-length brown hair. These men wear robes in powder blue, carnation pink, or celery green with delicate silver and gold embelishments. Others in the crowd range in age from young and cleanshaven to older and bearded. They wear robes and tunics in shades of raspberry pink, butterscotch yellow, lapis blue, plum purple, or forest green. Several horses, their coats white or cinnamon brown, stand among the crowd, a few with riders. To our right, one horse rears its head and two others stand facing each other. Beyond the crowd, grassy green meadows and hills dotted with trees lead back to the horizon. A pale blue sky fills the top third of the composition.

When this work was painted, millinery work (hat making) was considered a prestigious trade, elevating the women who succeeded in the business. Degas addressed this subtle shift in the class hierarchy: He gave his milliner a dress nice enough to be worn by an affluent woman, and though she does not wear the expected hat of a high-class lady, Degas playfully positioned the hat with green trimmings so it seems to sit atop the woman’s head.

Ingelijste muurschildering voorstellende Xiwangmu en dienaressen

Das Bittenlernen (Familie Reiter)

A woman wearing long robes and standing on an upturned, gold crescent moon is surrounded by twenty winged angels who lift her up, sing, or play musical instruments in this vertical painting. Below, a grassy landscape with rocky hills, a river, and buildings stretches into the distance. Along the top edge of the painting and smaller in scale, more angels surround two men sitting on a throne, holding a crown. All the people have smooth, pale skin, oval faces with small, delicate facial features, and long wavy hair. They wear fluttering, jewel-toned robes. The woman at the center, Mary, stands facing us with her eyes downcast and her hands held together in prayer. Her strawberry-blond hair lightens where her hair rests over her shoulders, and a jeweled band encircles her head. She wears a long, ruby-red dress with a jeweled neckline and navy-blue cloak trimmed with gold. Eight of the winged angels seem to lift her body, four along each side. Seven more angels float around the scene playing instruments, including a lute, a harp, recorder-like instruments, and stringed instruments, one of which resembles a violin and another a dulcimer. Along the top of the group, around Mary’s head, four angels sing, holding sheet music. In tiny letters, writing on the sheet of music to our left reads, “A ve regina celorum mr regis,” while the writing on the music to our right reads, “A Tenor ve regina.” The angels wear robes in emerald green, royal or sky blue, butter yellow, rose pink, tomato red, silver, or white, and their wings match their robes. Some of the robes are embroidered with gold and some angels wear jeweled diadems. The edges of an oval, gold halo are visible behind the angels at Mary’s head and feet. Above Mary and the angels, a scene, much smaller in scale, recedes into the distance within a ring of dark clouds. Two haloed, bearded men wearing scarlet-red robes and with shoulder-length brown hair sit on a wide throne covered with a black and gold brocade cloth. The man to our left is bareheaded and the man to our right has a tall, blue and gold crown. A white dove with wings spread hovers above a second gold crown they hold between them. More than a dozen angels surround the throne, holding up the cloth or singing. A black and red checked tile floor stretches in front of the throne. Along the bottom edge of the painting, beneath Mary and the angels, a grassy landscape with fields and trees stretches into the distance to gray castle-like structures. A river winds from the lower right between the buildings. A man rides a horse near the riverbank to our right, and the shore is lined with minuscule shells. To our left, a second man walks in the field, away from us toward the building, and another man crosses a short bridge over a second, smaller stream.

This painting shows a woman sitting and cradling an infant on her lap. The woman faces slightly left and looks down at the child with a slight smile. She has pale skin and golden hair covered by a semi-translucent white veil. She wears a red garment with gold embroidery and a dark blue cloak with gold trim and a star-shaped brooch on her shoulder. The infant has curly golden hair and is dressed in a sheer garment, looking up towards the woman. Surrounding these two people are more people with wings and cherubic children with the bodies of red-and-gold birds. All of these people have pale skin and golden hair, and they wear colorful robes in shades of red, white, and light blue. Everyone in the painting has a golden halo around their head, and the background is a decorative golden surface with intricate patterns around the edge of the painting.

Shown from the shoulders up, a man with a flushed complexion, wearing a crimson-red cap and garment, looks at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. He is brightly lit from behind us and the mahogany-brown background is deep in shadow. The man’s shoulders angle to our right, and he turns his head slightly to look at us with brown, deep-set eyes under arched brows. His wispy, auburn-brown goatee is tinged in silvery gray. His nose is slightly bulbous, and his thin lips are tightly closed in a straight line. Wrinkles and jowls give his face a paunchy look. His tall, flat-topped, fez-shaped hat covers his hair. A white, nearly translucent collar curls up along his neck and flares out to points at his collar. Rose-pink highlights on his red cape suggest it is a shiny material, like silk, and it is fastened with several small, dark buttons down the front.

Shown from the waist up, a pale-skinned man with long, honey-blond hair and beard faces us in front of a gold background in this vertical painting. The man has a long face and nose, with closed peach-colored lips, which turn slightly down at the corners. Almond-shaped, hazel-brown eyes under arched brows stare over our left shoulder. His rose-pink robe is covered by a spruce-blue mantle that drapes over the left shoulder, on our right, and wraps around the waist. The robe and mantle are trimmed with gold. His right hand, on our left, is raised with the index and middle fingers extended up. The other hand holds an open book so the pages face us. The top edge of the pages is burnt orange, and the left and right edges are moss green. The side facing us is inscribed in gold letters, “ECO SUM LUX MUNDI.” A halo incised into the gold background surrounds the man’s head, and clusters of five dots in dark red, blue, and black are placed at the top and to either side within the halo. The panel on which this is painted has a five-sided, angular arch on top that frames the man’s head. A border within the frame has a pattern of gray circles and scarlet-red diamonds against a navy-blue band. The border follows the contours of the panel but runs behind the man’s body, as if he stands in front of it. The panel is framed with dark wood.

The Martyrdom of Saint Justina