No Description

Munch had a troubled familial past. In addition to his overbearing pietist father, his mother died of tuberculosis when he was a small child, and his sister died nine years later of the same disease. This painting is an image of Munch’s older and favorite sister Sophie lying in bed, dying of tuberculosis when she was 15 years old. Munch created many reproductions of this painting, including one that was held in Dresden, Germany. In the 1930’s and 40’s Nazi’s deemed Munch’s art as “degenerate art” and removed all of them from Germany to be sold at auction. This piece was bought and later donated to the Tate Gallery in London, where it remains today.

No Description

The Holy Trinity, with the Virgin and Saint John and donors (Italian: Santa Trinità ) is a fresco by the Early Italian Renaissance painter Masaccio. It is located in the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, in Florence. It is thought to have been created by Masaccio sometime between 1425-1427. He died in late 1428 at the age of 26, or having just turned 27, leaving behind a relatively small body of work. This painting was one of his last major commissions, and is considered to be one of his masterpieces.

Madonna with Child is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Filippo Lippi, executed around 1465. It is one of the few works by Lippi which was not executed with the help of his workshop and was an influential model for later depictions of the Madonna and Child, including those by Sandro Botticelli.

The Annunciation is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi, finished around 1443-1450. It depicts the Virgin humbly accepting her role as mother of Jesus, with a hand on her breast, while the dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, is given to her. The angel is kneeling next to her, also with a hand on his breast a greeting sign. The scene is framed into a portico opening to a close garden.

The Madonna in Glory with Saints is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino, dating to c. 1500-1501. It is housed in the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Bologna, Italy. It was originally located in the Scarani Chapel of the church of San Giovanni in Monte. The scheme of the composition, typical of Perugino's mature works (based on the lost Assumption of the Sistine Chapel and used in numerous works of the period, such as the San Francesco al Prato Resurrection and the Vallombrosa Altarpiece), includes two different levels. The Madonna with Child, depicted within an almond in the upper part; and a group of four saints above a hilly landscape in the lower one.

The Virgin of the Rocks (sometimes the Madonna of the Rocks) is the name used for two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, and of a composition which is identical except for several significant details. The version generally considered the prime version, that is the earlier of the two, hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the other in the National Gallery, London. The paintings are both nearly 2 metres (over 6 feet) high and are painted in oils. Both were painted on wooden panel; that in the Louvre has been transferred to canvas. Both paintings show the Madonna and Christ Child with the infant John the Baptist and an angel, in a rocky setting which gives the paintings their usual name. The significant compositional differences are in the gaze and right hand of the angel. There are many minor ways in which the works differ, including the colours, the lighting, the flora, and the way in which sfumato has been used. Although the date of an associated commission is documented, the complete histories of the two paintings are unknown, and lead to speculation about which of the two is earlier.

The Doni Tondo, sometimes called The Holy Family, is the only finished panel painting by the mature Michelangelo to survive. Now in the Uffizi in Florence, Italy, and still in its original frame, the painting was probably commissioned by Agnolo Doni to commemorate his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi, the daughter of a powerful Tuscan family. The painting is in the form of a tondo, or round frame, which is frequently associated during the Renaissance with domestic ideas. The work was most likely created during the period after the Doni's marriage in 1503 or 1504, as well as after the excavation of the Laocoön about 1506, yet before the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes were begun in 1508, dating the painting to approximately late 1506 or 1507. The Doni Tondo features the Christian Holy family (the child Jesus, Mary, and Saint Joseph) along with John the Baptist in the foreground and contains five ambiguous nude male figures in the background. The inclusion of these nude figures has been interpreted in a variety of ways.

The Madonna of the Meadow is also known as Madonna del prato. In it, the three figures in a calm green meadow are linked by looks and touching hands. The Virgin Mary is shown in a contrapposto pose, wearing a gold-bordered blue mantle set against a red dress and with her right leg lying along a diagonal. The blue symbolizes the church and the red Christ's death, with the Madonna the uniting of Mother Church with Christ's sacrifice. With her eyes fixed on Christ, her head is turned to the left and slightly inclined, and in her hands she holds up Christ, as he leans forward unsteadily to touch the miniature cross held by John. The poppy refers to Christ's passion, death and resurrection.

The Age of Innocence is an oil on canvas picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, painted in either 1785 or 1788 and measuring 765 x 638 mm. The sitter is unknown, but was possibly Reynolds's great-niece Theophila Gwatkin (who was three in 1785), or Lady Anne Spencer (1773–1865), the youngest daughter of the 4th Duke of Marlborough. The picture is a character study, or, in 18th-century terms, a fancy picture, and was painted over another Reynolds work, A Strawberry Girl, perhaps because Strawberry had suffered some paint losses. Only the hands remain in their original state. Innocence itself has deteriorated since 1859. The picture was presented to the National Gallery in 1847 by Robert Vernon, and has hung in the Tate since 1951. The picture became a favourite with the public, and was copied hundreds of times.

Madonna Enthroned, also known as the Ognissanti Madonna, is a painting by the Italian late medieval artist Giotto di Bondone, housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. It is generally dated to around 1310. The painting has a traditional Christian subject, representing the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child seated on her lap, with saints surrounding the two. It is celebrated often as the first painting of the Renaissance due to its newfound naturalism and escape from the constraints of Gothic art.

The Arnolfini Portrait is an oil painting on oak panel dated 1434 by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck. The painting is a small full-length double portrait, which is believed to represent the Italian merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and possibly his wife, presumably in their home in the Flemish city of Bruges. It is considered one of the more original and complex paintings in Western art because of the iconography, the unusual geometric orthogonal perspective, the use of the mirror to reflect the space, and that the portrait is considered unique by some art historians as the record of a marriage contract in the form of a painting.

The Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo and Her Son is a painting by the Italian artist Agnolo di Cosimo, known as Bronzino, finished ca. 1545. One of his most famous works, it is housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy and is considered one of the preeminent examples of Mannerist portraiture. The painting depicts Eleanor of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, sitting with her hand resting on the shoulder of one of her sons. This gesture, as well as the pomegranate motif on her dress, referred to her role as mother. Eleanor wears a heavily brocaded dress with black arabesques. In this pose, she is depicted as the ideal woman of the Renaissance.