Georges de La Tour | The penitent Magdalene, 1640

With its extreme contrasts of candlelight and shadow, pared-down geometry, and meditative mood, this painting exemplifies La Tour’s painting at its most accomplished and characteristic.

These visual qualities were a powerful countertrend to Baroque painting’s typical pomp and showiness.

A native of the duchy of Lorraine in eastern present-day France, La Tour was indebted to Caravaggesque painting, but tended toward even more simplified forms.

The quiet atmosphere of this painting perfectly fits the subject, Mary Magdalen, who renounced the pleasures of the flesh for a life of penance and contemplation.

She is shown with a mirror, symbol of vanity; a skull, emblem of mortality; and a candle that probably references her spiritual enlightenment. | © The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Penitent Magdalene, 1640 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Camposanto Monumentale in Pisa

The Camposanto or Monumental Cemetery in Pisa is a historical edifice at the northern edge of the Cathedral Square in Pisa, Italy."Campo Santo" can be literally translated as "holy field", because it is said to have been built around a shipload of sacred soil from Golgotha, brought back to Pisa from the Fourth Crusade by Ubaldo de' Lanfranchi, archbishop of Pisa in the 12th century. A legend claims that bodies buried in that ground will rot in just 24 hours. The burial ground lies over the ruins of the old baptistery of the church of Santa Reparata, the church that once stood where the cathedral now stands.
The term "monumental" serves to differentiate it from the later-established urban cemetery in Pisa.

Odilon Redon: "True art lies in a reality that is felt"

• "Black is the most essential of all colors. Above all, if I may say so, it draws its excitement and vitality from deep and secret sources of health... One must admire black. Nothing can debauch it".

• "True art lies in a reality that is felt".

• "The fundamental grey which differentiates the masters, expresses them and is the soul of all colour. My originality consists in putting the logic of the visible to the service of the invisible".

Emma Ekwall [1838-1925]

Emma Ekwall-Scheutz was the first Swedish woman - painter, received the Royal Medal. She was born on January 18, 1838. After graduating from the Academy of Painting, where she studied from 1865-1870, lived for a time in Munich and Leipzig. She painted mostly portraits of their children, floral still lifes and genre scenes. She died in 1925 in Stockholm.

George Romney | Portrait painter

George Romney (1734-1802) was the most celebrated Portrait painters of his time, along with Reynolds and Gainsborough.

He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures - including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.

He was born in Dalton-in-Furness in 1734 and after learning his craft of cabinet-making there and in Lancaster, he was apprenticed to the portrait painter Christopher Steele in 1755.

In 1757 he broke his apprenticeship and set up on his own in a studio in Kendal.

Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898)

Ivan Ivanovič Šiškin è stato un pittore Russo associato al Movimento dei Peredvižniki - un gruppo di artisti realisti Russi che protestarono contro le restrizioni accademiche e che formarono una cooperativa che evolvette nella società per mostre itineranti nel 1870, chiamata anche "Compagnia delle esposizioni di arte itinerante".

Nato a Elabuga che all'epoca faceva parte del Gubernija di Vjatka (oggi repubblica di Tatarstan) si diplomò al liceo di Kazan; in seguito studiò alla Scuola di Mosca di pittura, scultura ed architettura per quattro anni e frequentò l'Accademia Imperiale d'Arte dal 1856-1860, laureandosi con le più alte onorificenze ed una medaglia d'oro.

Bruno Lucchesi, 1926 | Genre/Figurative sculptor

Bruno Lucchesi is an Italian-American sculptor, known for his contemplative female figures and Genre figure groups.

Lucchesi was born in Fibbiano Montanino in Lucca, Italy.

He studied at the Art Institute of Lucca, then moved to Florence, Italy, where he became Assistant Professor at Florence University in 1953.

In 1958 he moved to New York City, and has since taught there at the National Academy of Design and the New School of Social Research.

Hans Baluschek | The Berlin Secession

Hans Baluschek (1870-1935) was a German painter, graphic artist and writer. Baluschek was a prominent representative of German Critical Realism, and as such he sought to portray the life of the common people with vivid frankness.

His paintings centered on the working class of Berlin. He belonged to the Berlin Secession movement, a group of artists interested in modern developments in art. Yet during his lifetime he was most widely known for his fanciful illustrations of the popular children's book Little Peter's Journey to the Moon (German title: Peterchens Mondfahrt).

Hans Baluschek after 1920 was an active member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which at the time still professed a Marxist view of history.