5 Masterpieces at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Woman with a Parasol in a Garden, 1875

In Woman with a Parasol in a Garden, Renoir’s language is wholly impressionistic: in a setting lacking a visible horizon, the flowers and shrubs are created with tiny dabs of colour, providing a constant interweaving of textures around the two small figures.

The woman, whose parasol shades her from the sun, stands close to the man as he leans down, perhaps to pick a flower, hinting at an intimate relationship.

Contrary to what one may think, this canvas was not painted in the countryside but in the garden of Renoir’s new studio in Montmartre.

His friend George Rivière recalled: "As soon as Renoir entered the house, he was charmed by the view of this garden, which looked like a beautiful abandoned park".

Pierre-Auguste Renoir | Woman with a Parasol in a Garden, 1875 | Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

10 masterpieces at the Museo Nacional del Prado

Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina | Santa Caterina, 1510 | Museo Nacional del Prado

This is one of the Spanish Renaissance’s most emblematic depictions of a female figure and the best known of Yáñez de la Almedina’s works.

Both considerations are due to the visibility this work has received at the Museo del Prado, where it has been one of the essential icons in its galleries of 16th-century Spanish painting ever since it arrived in 1946.

According to Jacopo de la Vorágine’s The Golden Legend, Saint Catherine of Alexandria was a young, wise and virtuous princess who loved the Lord.

Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina (1489-1536) | Santa Caterina, 1510 | Museo Nacional del Prado

Paolo Sala | Veduta painter

Paolo Sala (1859-1924) was an Italian painter, mainly of vedute and genre scenes.

He often painted dal vero, that is, en plein air.

He was also known for his ability to paint animals in rural scenes.

He founded the Lombard Association of Watercolor painters in 1911.

Margaret Mead | Remember me / Ricordati di me

Years ago, American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker Margaret Mead (1901-1978) was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture.

The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the "first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed".

Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die.

"You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food.

You are meat for prowling beasts.

No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery.

Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts", Mead said.

Margaret Mead | Remember me

To the living, I am gone,

To the sorrowful, I will never return,

To the angry, I was cheated,

But to the happy, I am at peace,

And to the faithful, I have never left.

Dame Laura Knight | The Dark Pool, 1908-1918

Vittore Carpaccio | Mannerist painter

Vittore Carpaccio (1460/1465-1525) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school who studied under Gentile Bellini.

Carpaccio was largely influenced by the style of the early Italian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina (1430-1479), as well as Early Netherlandish painting.

Although often compared to his mentor Gentile Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio's command of perspective, precise attention to architectural detail, themes of death, and use of bold color differentiated him from other Italian Renaissance artists.

Pascal Campion, 1973 | Conceptual illustrator / animator

Pascal Campion is a French American prolific illustrator and storyteller. He has worked decades in the field of animation, illustration and commercials.

Born in River Edge, New Jersey, Pascal began his art career at a very young age of seven when his older brother Sean, gave him the task of "copying" comic books covers in exchange for Pascal to read the comics!

At the age of three, his family relocated back to the south of France, where he spent hours sketching and drawing both comics and the beautiful landscapes of Provence.

In 1998 Pascal began his studying narrative illustration at Arts Decoratifs de Strasbourg, in France.

Igor Levashov [Игорь Левашов] 1964 | Flower painter

Born near Moscow, Russian painter Игорь Левашов entered the School for Young Painters in 1997 and the world-famed Sourykoff Institute in Moscow in 1984.

He finished his formal training at the Royal Academy of Modern Art in the Hague in 1996.

In this age he discovered his love and passion for flowers.

His detailed paintings are done in oil in a one-time-session.

Petrarca | Chiare fresche e dolci acque / Clear, sweet fresh water

Chiare, fresche et dolci acque è la canzone numero CXXVI (126) del Canzoniere di Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374).

Fu scritta tra il 1340-1341 ed il poeta fu ispirato, molto probabilmente, dal fiume Sorgue, che scorre nei pressi dell'attuale comune francese di Fontaine-de-Vaucluse (Fonte di Valchiusa).

Chiare, fresche et dolci acque,

ove le belle membra

pose colei che sola a me par donna;

gentil ramo ove piacque

(con sospir’ mi rimembra)

a lei di fare al bel fiancho colonna;

herba et fior’ che la gonna

leggiadra ricoverse

Marie Spartali Stillman | The First Meeting of Petrarch and Laura, 1889