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).

Di Li-Feng ( 邸立丰),1958 | Figurative painter

Di Li-Feng (邸立丰) is a Chinese🎨 contemporary artist, now working as Professor in the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, in China.

Born in a small Chinese town, he graduated from the Chinese Central Academy of Fine Arts, the highest artistic institution in China, from where he took a postgraduate degree in 1990.

However, his paintings rapidly brought him to the attention of art collectors outside China.

Di Li-Feng's oils have now been exhibited extensively in America, and particularly in Los Angeles and New York.

Professor Di has also lectured at a number of American universities.

In his work, Professor Di aims to combine the reality of a concrete object with the atmosphere created by an abstract texture and background.

Evgeny Mukovnin, 1976 | Figurative painter

Муковнин Евгений Владимирович, Russian painter, was born in the city of Voronezh, Russia. Graduated from the Voronezh Arts School, Voronezh State Institute of Arts and in 2003, the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture headed by I.S. Glazunov [Landscape workshop].

He was awarded by a Diploma of the Russian Higher Education Institutions' Association for the best diploma project for 2003.

His works can be found in the collections of "Stroytransgaz and Rosenergoatom" companies, as well as in private collections in the USA, Japan and France.

Jan Gossaert | Renaissance painter

Jan Gossart, also called Jan Gossaert or Jan Mabuse, (born c. 1478, Maubeuge?, France - died October 1, 1532, Antwerp?), Netherlandish painter who was one of the first artists to introduce the style of the Italian Renaissance🎨 into the Low Countries.

Gossart is most likely to be identified with Jennyn van Hennegouwe, who is registered as a master in the Guild of St. Luke at Antwerp in 1503.

His most important early work extant is the Adoration of the Kings, which is painted in the ornate style of the Antwerp school. Other early works, such as Jesus, the Virgin, and the Baptist, reflect his interest in the works of Jan van Eyck and Albrecht Dürer🎨. Another early work, famous for its sense of mood, is the Agony in the Garden.

Ivana Kobilca | Realist / Genre painter

Ivana Kobilca (1861-1926) is the most prominent Slovene female painter and a key figure of Slovene cultural identity.

She was a realist painter who studied and worked in Vienna, Munich, Paris, Sarajevo, Berlin and Ljubljana.

She mostly painted oil paintings and pastels, whereas her drawings are few.

The themes include still life, portraits, genre works, allegories and religious scenes.

She was a controversial person, criticised for following movements that had not developed further in later periods.

Leonard Cohen / Fatima Tomaeva | You do not have to love me / Non devi amarmi

Fatima Tomaeva / Фатима Томаева, 1967

You do not have to love me

just becouse

you are all the women

I have ever wanted

I was born to follow you

every night

while I'm still

the many men who love you

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | La Loge (The Theatre Box), 1874

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La Loge (The Theatre Box), 1874, is one of the masterpieces of Impressionism and a major highlight of The Courtauld Gallery’s collection.

Its depiction of an elegant couple on display in a loge, or box at the theatre, epitomises the Impressionists’ interest in the spectacle of modern life.

In celebration of The Courtauld Institute of Art’s 75th anniversary the exhibition Renoir At the Theatre: Looking at ‘La Loge’, on view from 21 February to 25 May 2008, unites La Loge for the first time with Renoir’s other treatments of the subject and logepaintings by contemporaries, including Mary Cassatt and Edgar Degas.

Eugène Buland | Genre | Naturalist painter

Jean-Eugène Buland is a French painter🎨, born on October 26, 1852, in Paris, and died in 1926 in Charly-sur-Marne in the Aisne.

The son of an engraver, Buland entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts under the tutelage of Alexandre Cabanel🎨. His earliest works were Symbolist paintings🎨 of antique scenes, but he quickly turned towards depicting scenes of everyday life.

He used photographs in order to paint with realism. He received the Second Grand Prix🎨 de Rome two years in a row, in 1878 and 1879.