Franciabigio | The Last Supper / L'Ultima cena, 1514

The frescoes with the Last Supper are among the most interesting artistic monuments in Florence.

As a result of the suppressions of religious orders which took place in the 18th and 19th century, a great many Florentine convents have been turned into museums.

In them visitors can directly experience the art of the several excellent painters who in various periods have sought to express the beguiling spirituality of the Last Supper which Christ took with His disciples.

Franciabigio | Renaissance painter

Franciabigio (1482-1525) was a Florentine artist, who closely associated with, though had a distinct style from, his colleague Andrea del Sarto (1486-1531). He was born Francesco di Cristofano, but was called Marcantonio Franciabigio or Francia Bigio. Some of his works now known were once attributed to his contemporary Raphael (1483-1520). He was highly praised for his painting of frescoes.

Paul Horton, 1958 | Storyteller artist

Paul Horton was born in Harborne, Birmingham. "- Looking back on my childhood it seems I was always drawing and painting, I think it was my destiny to become an artist. By the mid-seventies I was taking my art very seriously and studied Life Drawing and History of Art at Bournville School of Art, I also began exhibiting my work at regular intervals. 

I was awarded a Certficate of Merit in 1976 by the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists which gave me my first critical acclaim and in a strange way seemed to seal my fate adding to my determination and desire to become a professional artist.

Johan Zoffany | The Tribuna of the Uffizi, 1772-1778

In the summer of 1772 Zoffany set off for Florence with £300, letters of introduction and a commission from the Queen to paint highlights of the Grand Duke of Tuscany's collection shown within the Tribuna of the Uffizi Palace.

The inspiration for the commission could have been the Cabinet of Paintings (Royal Collection, now given to Formentrou), then attributed to Gonzales Coques, which hung in Queen Charlotte's work-room at Kew.

Gianluca Mantovani, 1974 | Figurative painter

Italian painter Gianluca Mantovani was born in Livorno, where he lives and works.

In 2004, driven by the innate passion for drawing and reached a level of personal maturity, begins to engage in the self-taught oil painting.

Livorno, the city of Macchiaioli, introduced him initially to Impressionism: the first works in fact strongly affected by these characteristics but his artistic research and experimentation led him to approach other styles, until he meets his teacher Bruno Di Maio.

James Wiens | Abstract painter

James Wiens is a professional artist who grew up in British Columbia. This avid outdoorsman uses his paintings to express his love of landscapes and nature. He also uses them as a mean of communication through which he expresses his feelings to his viewers. What inspire his paintings are the dramatic mountains and rivers that surround his place of residence. Wiens joined the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver where he studied and graduated with a diploma in painting and printmaking. He has combined his formal education with the work ethic he gained on his family farm to advance his professional career as an artist.

Amedeo Bocchi | Figurative Realist Painter /Sculptor

Amedeo Bocchi (August 24, 1883 - December 16, 1976) was an Italian painter, active mainly in Rome.

• Biography

He was born in Parma to a father who worked in painting wall decorations. At the age of 12 years, he was enrolled in the Royal Institute of Fine Arts of Parma, under the direction of Cecrope Barilli. In 1901, at the age of 18 years he was graduated, and Barili prompted him to travel to Rome to the Scuola del Nudo on Via Ripetta.

Myles Sullivan | Figurative painter

Myles Sullivan spends his days working from his West Coast studio. Surrounded by the serenity of the countryside he creates works that capture the energy of the world around us.

After graduating from Art School, Myles experimented with his art career, painting in a variety of styles and mediums. Today, he focuses on compositions that capture a fleeting moment in time.

When not painting, Myles escapes to the wilderness of the back country. His wife and children are a constant source of inspiration and joy.

Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain | Rococo Era sculptor

Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain (11 October 1710 - 1795) was a French sculptor who tempered a neoclassical style with Rococo charm and softness, under the influence of his much more famous brother-in-law, Jean-Baptiste Pigalle.

Allegrain was born into a well-established family of landscape painters in Paris.

His single most famous work, a marble Bather (La Baigneuse), was commissioned for the royal residences through the Bâtiments du Roi in 1755; a modelled sketch was shown at the Salon of 1757.

Christophe-Gabriel Allegrain portrait by Joseph Duplessis, 1774,

Giorgio Vasari | Allegory of Italian cities

Giorgio Vasari | Allegory of Romagna

Vasari’s (1511-1574) life is intimately rooted in the Uffizi Gallery. With five of his paintings in various rooms throughout the museum, he also chronicled the lives the Renaissance artists that fill the Gallery, but even more importantly, he laid the original architectural design for the Palazzo degli Uffizi.

An acclaimed artist and architect of his time, Vasari is perhaps better known today for his invaluable tome of biographies, Le Vita delle più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori (Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects) or simply the Vite or Lives of Artists.

Mikhailichenko Sergey Viktorovich, 1970 | Plein Air /Still life painter

Mikhailichenko Sergey Viktorovich / Михайличенко Сергей Викторович is an Ukrainian painter, born in Tashkent. He graduated from the Tashkent Republican XY. Studied with M. Dimov, 1990. For some time he worked in Italy.

Since 1996 lives and works in Sumy.

His works are in numerous private collections in Ukraine, Russia, Italy, Germany, Japan and the UK.

Ann Feldman | Palette Knife painter

Born and raised in New Orleans, Ann Feldman is a painter and art instructor living in Barrington, Illinois.

Her art education began at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she continued her studies in the ateliers of some of the leading contemporary artists in the United States today, namely a five year mentorship with Margaret Carter Baumgaertner in portraiture.

Alexandre-Louis Jacob | Landscape painter

French artist Alexandre Louis Jacob (1876-1972) was born in Paris in 1876. His landscape paintings are characterized by a serene mood and muted palette.

Jacob started exhibiting his works in the various French Salons in 1899.

He was a member of the Society of French Artists, the French Water Color Federation of Artists, and the Society of French Landscape Painters and Sculptors.

He was also a member of the Salon d’Hiver and an honorable member of Lagny. He was an officer of L’Instruction Publique as well.

Leonardo da Vinci | Della Pittura e della Poesia

Trattato della Pittura

Parte prima | Capitolo 40

Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura | Testo Integrale

Per fingere le parole la poesia supera la pittura, e per fingere fatti la pittura supera la poesia, e quella proporzione ch'è dai fatti alle parole, tal è dalla pittura ad essa poesia, perché i fatti sono subietto dell'occhio, e le parole subietto dell'orecchio, e cosí i sensi hanno la medesima proporzione infra loro, quale hanno i loro obietti infra se medesimi, e per questo giudico la pittura essere superiore alla poesia.

Ben Heine, 1983 | Illustrator and photographer

Ben Heine is an illustrator, portraitist, caricaturist and photographer.

Ben Heine is a Belgian visual artist, journalist and music composer born in 1983 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, currently living and working in Brussels, Belgium. He is best known for his original series “Pencil Vs Camera“, “Digital Circlism” and “Flesh and Acrylic“.

He has a Master degree in Journalism completed at IHECS school of Journalism in Brussels. He also briefly studied History of Art, Painting and Sculpture at Hastings College of Arts and Technology in the UK.

He is a self-taught person in drawing, photography and music. He also has over 10 years of work experience in communication and marketing. Throughout his academic training, he was also able to learn several music instruments (drums and piano) and several languages (French, English, Dutch Polish, Spanish and Russian).

His artworks were exhibited in countless fairs and galleries in Belgium, Hong Kong, South Korea, the UK, Russia, Romania, The Netherlands, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, the US, Turkey, Brazil, and Spain.

Simon Bull, 1958 | Abstract painter

Simon Bull is an English-born artist now living in America.

• Early years and education

Simon Bull was born in Bedfordshire, England. The second of four children. His father, Ian Bull served as an officer in the Royal Army Chaplains’ Department of the British Army. Ian’s extensive military postings stationed the family around the world in Guyana, Hong Kong, Germany, and Northern Ireland. Simon went to boarding school in Yorkshire, attending Ripon Cathedral Choir School from 1965-69 and in Surrey, at the Royal Russell School from 1969-1976. In 1976 he took a one year Foundation course at Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and went on to graduate in 1980 from Leeds Polytechnic with a BA (Hons) degree in Fine Art.

Fernando Pedrosa, 1947 | Hyperrealist Figurative painter

Fernando Saenz Pedrosa was born in Palencia, Spain. At a young age his talent as a draftsman became very evident - so evident, that in1965, at the age of 18, he was enrolled in the prestigious Architectural School of Madrid. From 1965-1970, Pedrosa’s study as a draftsman and painter became more prolic. From his studies at the architecture school, he was able to mature his skill in drawing and combine that with painting. Painting became Pedrosa’s manner in which to bring his drawingsto life and he was so astounded by the art of painting that after five yearsof study, he decided to dedicate his career and life to it.

Peter Hobden, 1952 | Figurative Impressionist painter

"Born in Geneva, Switzerland, I followed primary and secondary school at the International Scool of Geneva.

I obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Modern Languages (Chinese and French) at the Polytechnic of Central (now known as Westminster University).

I discovered painting late, in 2006, after a career of almost 25 years in computers in a humanitarian organization".

James Carroll Beckwith | Academic painter

James Carroll Beckwith (September 23, 1852 - October 24, 1917) was an American landscape, portrait and genre painter whose Naturalist style led to his recognition in the late nineteenth and very early twentieth century as a respected figure in American art.

Carroll Beckwith, as he preferred to be known, was born in Hannibal, Missouri on September 23, 1852, the son of Charles and Melissa Beckwith. However, he grew up in Chicago where his father started a wholesale grocery business.

Botticelli | Venus and Mars, c. 1483

From: The National Gallery, London

Mars, God of War, was one of the lovers of Venus, Goddess of Love. Here Mars is asleep and unarmed, while Venus is awake and alert. The meaning of the picture is that love conquers war, or love conquers all.

This work was probably a piece of bedroom furniture, perhaps a bedhead or piece of wainscoting, most probably the 'spalliera' or backboard from a chest or day bed. The wasps ('vespe' in Italian) at the top right suggest a link with the Vespucci family, though they may be no more than a symbol of the stings of love.

Paul Corfield, 1970 | Naïf Style Landscape painter

Born in Bournemouth, Dorset Paul Corfield has lived within 10 miles of his birthplace all his life. He worked at an engineering firm and painted in the evenings believing that painting would only ever be a hobby and not a career. But in 2002 an opportunity arose for Paul to take voluntary redundancy and hatched a plan was to use the redundancy money to live off that for a year while he painted and painted - he has never looked back!

Rembrandt | Saul and David, 1655-1660

According to the Hebrew Bible, Saul was the first king of a united Kingdom of Israel and Judah. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, would have marked a switch from a tribal society to statehood.

After Samuel tells Saul that God has rejected him as king, David, a son of Jesse, from the tribe of Judah, enters the story: from this point on Saul's story is largely the account of his increasingly troubled relationship with David.

Wyndham Lewis | Vorticism Art Movement (1912-1915)

Wyndham Lewis, in full Percy Wyndham Lewis (born November 18, 1882, on a yacht near Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada - died March 7, 1957, London, England), English artist and writer who founded the Vorticist movement, which sought to relate art and literature to the industrial process.

About 1893 Lewis moved to London with his mother after his parents separated. At age 16 he won a scholarship to London’s Slade School of Fine Art, but he left three years later without completing his course. Instead, he went to Paris, where he practiced painting and attended lectures at the Sorbonne. While in Paris, Lewis became interested in Cubist and Expressionist art; he was one of the first British artists to do so.

John Melhuish Strudwick | Pre-Raphaelite painter

John Melhuish Strudwick (1849-1935) studied at the Royal Academy Schools, where he was not a successful student. Following this, he worked as a studio assistant to Burne-Jones and Stanhope. The influence of Burne-Jones is clearly visible in his work. Stanhope was a highly talented individual in his own right, however, and his paintings may be judged on their own considerable merits.

Pier Augusto Breccia, 1943 | Hermeneutic painting

So far Pier Augusto Breccia held around 60 one-man-shows, produced 1150 works and about 700 of his works have been purchased by Collectors all over the world.

Because of his very personal style and his original philosophy, he is actually considered and recognized as the "father" of "Hermeneutic Painting".

Pier Augusto Breccia was born in Trento (Italy), the son of Elsa Faini of Trento and Angelo Breccia of Porano (Orvieto).

Since 1948 he has been living in Rome, where he has pursued the full curriculum of studies.

Rett Ashby, 1961 | Plein Air painter

“As I paint, I recall memories from my youth, visiting relatives and playing in barns and old houses. I enjoy the history of old houses in the rural west and researching the history of those who lived there. My oil paintings represent this history, both my own and that of others, as I strive to capture the fundamental beauty that is inherent in these rural lands and structures” - Rett Ashby.

Rembrandt | Danaë, 1636

Danaë is Rembrandt's painting from the collection of Pierre Crozat which since the 18th century has resided in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

It is a life-sized depiction of the character Danaë from Greek mythology, the mother of Perseus.

She is presumably depicted as welcoming Zeus, who impregnated her in the form of a shower of gold.

Given that this is one of Rembrandt's most magnificent paintings, it is not out of the question that he cherished it, but it also may have been difficult to sell because of its eight-by-ten-foot size.

Davide Cambrìa, 1986 | Abstract Portrait painter

Italian born, London based artist Davide Cambria is an painter, who originally started his career in architecture. After deciding to venture into painting, Cambria taught himself to do what is now his full-time job. His work has become part of private collections across Europe, United States, Asia and Australia.

Victor Nizovtsev /Виктор Низовцев, 1965 | Fantasy painter

Russian-American artist Victor Nizovtsev /Виктор Низовцев is a masterful oil painter of theatrical figurative composition, fantasy, landscapes, and still life. While his professional art training occurred in Russia, as an artist Victor is a student of rich and diverse experiences. Inspiration for Victor’s art comes from all he sees and touches. It can be Greek mythology, Russian folklore, childhood memories, great Masters of the past, or routine daily life.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Victor see Victor Nizovtsev, 1965 ~ Siren song.

Titti Garelli,1948 | Pop Surrealism /Gothic style painter

Titti Garelli was born in Turin, Italy. She studied art at the Turin artistic lyceum, under realist painter Sergio Saroni, and at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts.

An exceptional watercolorist, Garelli exhibits her work at prestigious Italian and international art galleries. Her illustrations are also sought after by publishing houses and leading international marketing firms. An outstanding portrait artist, Garelli employs in her work also the oil, acrylic and pastel techniques.

Denis Sarazhin, 1982 | Realist painter

Денис Саражин was born in Nikopol, Ukraine.

He attended the Kharkov Art and Design Academy, graduating in 2008.

He specialized in painting and was a pupil of Ganozkiy V. L., Chaus V. N., and Vintayev V. N.

Sarazhin was awarded with the 1st Degree Diploma Award for Excellence in Painting from the Ukrainian Art Academy.

Giuliana Lazzerini | Tuscan landscape

Giuliana Lazzerini was born in Seravezza near Pietrasanta in Tuscany. Between 1962 and 1968 she was a student at the Istituto D'Arte Stagio Stagi in Pietrasanta, gaining a Master of Arts Diploma. This was followed by a further four years studying painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara.

Giuliana moved to Yorkshire, England in 1987 and now lives in York.

William Oxer | Classical style painter

William Oxer is a British artist of portraits, portrait commissions, abstracts, landscapes and seascapes, using gold leaf and classical techniques to produce contemporary artwork.

His primary work is in figurative art; portraiture, classical studies of figures and landscape painting, although commissioned work has included large scale abstracts. He paints mainly with acrylic or oil paints on canvas and his style can be immediately recognised as romantic and classical.

Vu Cao Dam | Modern Figurative painter

Vũ Cao Đàm (1908-2000) was a Vietnamese painter.

He was one of the alumni of Victor Tardieu's École des Beaux-Arts de l’Indochine in Hanoi in the 1930s, along with Mai Trung Thứ, Lê Phổ and woman painter Lê Thị Lựu to emigrate to France and make a career in Paris.

Childhood

Vũ Cao Đàm was born on January 8, 1908 in Hanoi, Vietnam.

A member of a large Catholic family, the artist was the fifth of fourteen children.

His father, Vu Ding Thi, was an intellectual and talented artist who excelled in Chinese calligraphy at an early age.

Natasha Foucault | Silk painter /Pittura su seta

Originally from Moscow, Russia, Natasha Foucault /Наташа Фуко traveled extensively before she made her home in California.

Natasha received her artistic training at the Moscow Art Academy. Studying with famous Russian and French silk artists, she soon created her own unique technique of painting on silk.

Natasha’s works on silk have been exhibited and sold in both non-profit museums and commercial galleries throughout the world.