Sofonisba Anguissola (1532-1625) | Renaissance painter

Sofonisba Anguissola also known as Sophonisba Angussola or Sophonisba Anguisciola, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Cremona to a relatively poor noble family.

Anguissola is significant to feminist art historians. Although there has never been a period in Western history in which women were completely absent in the visual arts, Anguissola's great success opened the way for larger numbers of women to pursue serious careers as artists; Lavinia Fontana expressed in a letter written in 1579 that she and another woman, Irene di Spilimbergo, had “set [their] heart[s] on learning how to paint” after seeing one of Anguissola’s portraits.

Edwin Austin Abbey / Shakespeare | Who is Sylvia? What is She...

Who is Sylvia - What is she, that all the swains commend her by Edwin Austin Abbey (1899)

The "Two Gentlemen of Verona" is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1589-1593.

It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as showing his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and motifs with which he would later deal in more detail; for example, it is the first of his plays in which a heroine dresses as a boy.

The play deals with the themes of friendship and infidelity, the conflict between friendship and love, and the foolish behaviour of people in love.

The highlight of the play is considered by some to be Launce, the clownish servant of Proteus, and his dog Crab, to whom "the most scene-stealing non-speaking role in the canon" has been attributed.

Two Gentlemen is often regarded as one of Shakespeare's weakest plays. It has the smallest named cast of any play by Shakespeare.

Leonardo da Vinci | Quotes / Paintings

• "Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest".

• "La pittura riguarda tutti i 10 attributi della vista; che sono: oscurità, luce, solidità e colore, forma e posizione, distanza e propinquità, movimento e riposo".

• "Learning never exhausts the mind".

Michelangelo Buonarroti | Crouching Boy, 1530

Author: Michelangelo Buonarroti (Italian High Renaissance / Mannerist Painter / Sculptor, 1475-1564)

Title: Crouching Boy

Place: Italy. Florence

Date: circa 1530-1534

Material: marble

Dimensions: height: 54 cm

Acquisition date: Entered the Hermitage in 1851; transferred from the Academy of Fine Arts

Claude Monet at the Hermitage Museum

Claude Monet (1840-1926), a leading Impressionist painter is exhibited at the The State Hermitage Museum in Room 403.

The State Hermitage Museum / Госуда́рственный Эрмита́ж is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

The second-largest art museum in the world, it was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky.