Leonardo da Vinci | Ultima Cena / Last Supper, 1494-1498

Last Supper, one of the most famous artworks in the world, painted by Leonardo da Vinci probably between 1494 and 1498 for the Dominican monastery Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan.

It depicts the dramatic scene described in several closely connected moments in the Gospels, including Matthew 26:21–28, in which Jesus declares that one of the Apostles will betray him and later institutes the Eucharist.

According to Leonardo’s belief that posture, gesture, and expression should manifest the “notions of the mind”, each one of the 12 disciples reacts in a manner that Leonardo considered fit for that man’s personality.

The result is a complex study of varied human emotion, rendered in a deceptively simple composition.

Leonardo da Vinci | Ultima Cena / Last Supper, 1494-1498 | Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan

Happy New Year! | Vintage Greeting Cards

New Year's Day, also called simply New Year's or New Year, is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar.

In pre-Christian Rome under the Julian calendar, the day was dedicated to Janus, god of gateways and beginnings, for whom January is also named. As a date in the Gregorian calendar of Christendom, New Year's Day liturgically marked the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, which is still observed as such in the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church.

Rembrandt | Adoration of the Magi, 1632

The Adoration of the Magi (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: A Magis adoratur) is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and worship him.

Piero della Francesca | The History of the True Cross, 1466

The History of the True Cross or The Legend of the True Cross is a sequence of frescoes painted by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo.

It is his largest work, and generally considered one of his finest, and an early Renaissance masterpiece.

Its theme, derived from the popular 13th century book on the lives of saints by Jacopo da Varagine, the Golden Legend, is the triumph of the True Cross - the legend of the wood from the Garden of Eden becoming the Cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified.

Max Liebermann (German, 1847-1935)

Max Liebermann (20 July 1847 - 8 February 1935) was a German painter🎨 and printmaker of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism🎨 in Germany.

The son of a Jewish fabric manufacturer turned banker from Berlin, Liebermann grew up in an imposing town house alongside the Brandenburg Gate.

He first studied law and philosophy at the University of Berlin, but later studied painting and drawing in Weimar in 1869, in Paris in 1872, and in the Netherlands in 1876-77.

Michelangelo | La pietà / The Pity, 1498-1499

The Pietà is a work of Renaissance sculpture by Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. It is the first of a number of works of the same theme by the artist.

The statue was commissioned for the French Cardinal Jean de Bilhères, who was a representative in Rome.

The sculpture, in Carrara marble, was made for the cardinal's funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the right as one enters the basilica, in the 18th century. It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed.

Lucio Massari | Madonna of the Laundry, 1620

"Mary washed, Joseph laid... "

The subject of this painting really seems to illustrate the famous lullaby your grandparents or parents used to sing to you when you were a child.

You know, no one can escape household affairs, not even Joseph, Mary and Jesus!

The scene depicted by the Bolognese painter Lucio Massari (1568-1633) is in fact very unusual: every member of the Sacraiglia works with commitment and organization to clean and iron the laundry.

Lucio Massari Holy Family (Madonna of the Laundry), 1620 | Galleria degli Uffizi, Firenze

Michelangelo | Pietà for Vittoria Colonna, 1538-44

"The Pietà for Vittoria Colonna" is a black chalk drawing on cardboard (28.9×18.9 cm) by Michelangelo Buonarroti, dated to about 1538-44 and kept at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

History

Michelangelo became acquainted with Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547, marchioness of Pescara, was an Italian noblewoman and poet) around 1538.

Their lively friendship gained Michelangelo admission to her social circles, and he became acquainted with issues of church reform.

For Colonna, Michelangelo executed several paintings in the fifth decade of the sixteenth century.

All of them are now lost or of controversial attribution, but several sketches and copies by students and admirers of Michelangelo have been preserved.

Apart from a famous Crucifixion, Michelangelo's most notable work for Vittoria Colonna is a Pietà, of which a remarkable drawing is exhibited at Boston.

Orsola Caccia (1596-1676) | Mannerist painter

Orsola Maddalena Caccia, born Theodora Caccia (1596-1676) was an Italian Mannerist painter and Catholic nun.

She painted religious images, altarpieces, and still lifes.

The daughter of painter Guglielmo Caccia and Laura Olivia, she was baptized Theodora Orsola on December 4, 1596.

In 1620, she entered the Ursulines convent at Bianzè, where she changed her name to Orsola Maddalena after she took her vows.

Mattia Preti | Baroque Era painter

Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 - 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist🎨 who worked in Italy and Malta. He was appointed 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 appointment as a Knight of 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🎨.

19th century Art | Sitemap

From Realism to early Modernism, the 19th century gave birth to a variety of artistic movements.

The Realism and Romanticism of the early 19th century gave way to Impressionism and Post-Impressionism in the later half of the century, with Paris being the dominant art capital of the world. In the United States the Hudson River School was prominent.

Camille Claudel, Debussy and La Valse, 1891

René Xavier Prinet | Impressionist / Genre painter

René François Xavier Prinet (1861-1946) was a French painter and illustrator who drew his subjects from middle-class society.

He was born to Henri Prinet, an Imperial Prosecutor in Vitry-le-François.

A promotion led to him being posted in Paris, where they lived in a home not far from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts.

His father painted as a hobby and was supportive of his desire to study art, having him seek the advice of Louis Charles Timbal, a well-known church painter and friend of the family.

René Xavier Prinet | The Kreutzer Sonata inspired by the story by Tolstoy

Orazio Borgianni | Baroque painter

Orazio Borgianni (6 April 1574 - 14 January 1616) was an Italian painter and etcher of the Mannerist and early-Baroque periods. He was the stepbrother of the sculptor and architect Giulio Lasso.

Borgianni was born in Rome, where he was documented in February 1604. He was instructed in the art of painting by his brother, Giulio Borgianni, called Scalzo.

The patronage by Philip II of Spain induced him to visit Spain, where he signed an inventory in January 1605.

He returned to Rome from Spain after April 1605 at the height of his career, and most of the work of his maturity was carried out 1605–16.

Józef Mehoffer (1869-1946) | Symbolist painter

Józef Mehoffer was a Polish painter🎨 and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most revered Polish artists of his time.

Mehoffer was born in Ropczyce, studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków under Władysław Łuszczkiewicz, and later at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, as well as in Paris at the Académie Colarossi among others.

Correggio | Mannerist painter

Correggio, byname of Antonio Allegri (born August 1494, Correggio [now in Emilia-Romagna, Italy]-died March 5, 1534, Correggio), most important Renaissance painter of the school of Parma, whose late works influenced the style of many Baroque and Rococo artists.

His first important works are the convent ceiling of San Paolo (c. 1519), Parma, depicting allegories on humanist themes, and the frescoes in San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma (1520-23), and the cathedral of Parma (1526-30).

The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (c. 1526) is among the finest of his poetic late oil paintings.

Hans Zatzka | Madonna with the Infant Jesus, 1930

Austrian artist Hans Zatzka was born in 1859 in Vienna.

He spent his childhood in the 19th district of Vienna, Braytenzeer Strasse, 2.

His artistic talent was noticeable at an early age.

From 1877-1882 Hans Zatska studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, his teacher was Professor Blaas.

Leonardo da Vinci | Adoration of the Magi, 1482

Current location: The Uffizi Gallery🎨

Collection: Painting

Location: Room 35

Technique: Drawing in charcoal, watercolour ink and oil on wood

Size: 244 x 240 cm

Inventory: Inv. 1890 n. 1594

A document from July 1481 states that Leonardo da Vinci🎨 had received a commission from the Augustinian monks to paint a panel for the high altar in the church of San Donato in Scopeto, outside Florence’s city walls.

The painting, which Leonardo undertook to finish within 30 months, had the Adoration of the Magi as its subject, i.e., the celebration of the feast of the Epiphany when, according to St Augustine, all people respond to the call of Christ.

For this subject, Leonardo studied an extremely complex composition, rich with figures, set out in a semi-circle, with the Virgin and Child as the focus. In the foreground, the kneeling Magi offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus.

Leonardo has painted a background with ruined buildings and clashes between knights on horseback, while on the left, we can see work on a building, perhaps a temple, with in the foreground, two flights of stairs, like the presbytery of several Mediaeval churches (San Miniato al Monte in Florence, for example).

Marc Chagall | Stained glass windows

One of Chagall's major contributions to art has been his work with stained glass. This medium allowed him further to express his desire to create intense and fresh colors and had the added benefit of natural light and refraction interacting and constantly changing: everything from the position where the viewer stood to the weather outside would alter the visual effect (though this is not the case with his Hadassah windows).

It was not until 1956, when he was nearly 70 years of age, that he designed windows for the church at Assy, his first major project. Then, from 1958-1960, he created windows for Metz Cathedral.

Hugo Urlacher, 1958 | Portrait / Figurative painter

Hugo Urlacher was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He is considered a very accomplished portrait painter.

During his career as a plastic artist, instead of focusing on art shows and exhibitions and depending on a middle person, he concentrated on commissioned works, while developing his own personal art.

Marc Chagall | The Tree of Life, 1963 | Stained glass

The Tree of Life or The Peace window - La Paix ou L’Arbre de vie - at the chapel of Cordeliers of Sarrebourg, a small town in the Vosges Mountains in France, is a stained-glass window about 15 feet (4,6 meters) wide and 12 feet (3,7 meters) high, contains several symbols of peace and love, such as the young child in the center, being kissed by an angelic face which emerges from a mass of flowers.

The Peace Window / Tree of Life is the largest stained-glass window made by Marc Chagall.

On the left, below and above, motherhood and the people who are struggling for peace are depicted.

Musical symbols in the panel evoke thoughts of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, which was a favourite of Mr. Hammarskjöld's.