Gian Lorenzo Bernini | David, 1623-1624

David is one of the four sculptures executed by the young Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680) for Cardinal Scipione Borghese.

The artist worked on the statuary groups for the Villa on the Pincio for seven crucial years during which his brilliance, freedom, narrative bent, and delight in amazement blossomed and then developed in all their power.

The work had been commissioned from Bernini by Cardinal Montalto for his villa in 1623.

The cardinal’s untimely death blocked the commission, but Scipione Borghese decided to take it over.

Bernini interrupted his work on the Apollo and Daphne, dedicating himself to this new sculpture, which - according to Baldinucci, one of the artist’s first biographers - he finished in only seven months of work.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini | David, 1623-1624 | Galleria Borghese

Janice Darr Cua | Ladies and horses

Whether exercising her powers to capture the spirit of Arabians, the romance of the Renaissance, classic sensuality of femininity, or the universal bond between mother and child, Janice Darr Cua delivers striking depth and passion.

Paintings that radiate a glow that mesmerizes the viewer, a comforting warmth which evokes the passion within all.

Her work can be seen in select galleries around the world, with over thirty sell-out shows abroad as well as dozens of American exhibitions.

Cua is a sure stock, an intelligent investment as her popularity, technique, and price point increases in favor.

Rembrandt van Rijn | Woman with a Pink, early 1660

Her forehead crisscrossed with jewels, the sitter of this portrait displays a pink, or carnation, a symbol of love and marriage.

The gilt picture frame visible in the background locates her in a luxurious interior, but her pensive expression elevates the portrait beyond a mere statement of status.

If scholars are correct in identifying the sitter in the pendant portrait hanging next to this one as auctioneer Pieter Haringh, then the woman who appears here must be his wife, Elisabeth Delft. | Source: © Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rembrandt | Woman with a Pink, early 1660s | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beethoven | Heiligenstadt Testament, 1802

Il Testamento di Heiligenstadt è una lettera manoscritta del musicista tedesco Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) indirizzata ai suoi fratelli Kaspar Karl e Nikolaus Johann, scritta il 6 ottobre 1802 a Heiligenstadt, un sobborgo di Vienna, dove il compositore aveva la residenza.

A soli 32 anni, Beethoven intuisce che la sua sordità sarà irreversibile.

I primi sintomi erano stati già individuati dal grande compositore tedesco nel 1796, cioè a 26 anni.

Joseph Karl Stieler | Beethoven with the Manuscript of the Missa Solemnis, 1820

Rembrandt's 'recipe for a stopping-out varnish'

Rembrandt's 'recipe for a stopping-out varnish' on the verso of a drawing 'Landcape with a River and Trees', 1654-55.

• "..in order to etch, take white turpentine oil, and add half the turpentine to it; pour the mixture into a small glass bottle and let it boil in pure water for half an hour".

It is evident that Rembrandt refers (alas fragmentarily) to a so-called 'stopping-out varnish', used to terminate the bite of acid in select areas of a plate that had already been exposed to the etching agent.

Thus other portions will remain exposed to the acid to deepen the bite.