The Mini Museum


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Portrait of Giovanni de’ Medici as a Child
Artist: Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano)
Date: 1545
Medium: Oil on wood
Dimensions: 58 × 48 cm (23 × 19 in)

This portrait uses oil paint on panel and portrays Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici. It was painted for his father, Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Bronzino was the official painter of the Medici Court from 1532 and did many portraits of Duke Cosimo I and his family. Cosimo had his portrait done by Bronzino around 1545, the Portrait of Cosimo I de’ Medici. Giovanni and his mother Eleonora of Toledo were the subjects of another portrait by Bronzino from around 1545 or 1546, the Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo and Her Son.

Portrait of Bia de’ Medici
Artist: Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano)
Date: 1542
Medium: Oil on wood
Dimensions: 64 x 48 cm (25 x 19 in)

Some art historians once identified the child as a young Cosimo I de' Medici, but it is now generally accepted to be Giulia. The child in the portrait appears to be a little girl, rather than a boy, and her expression is anxious. Maria Salviati, who is dressed soberly as befitted a widow, is seen sheltering the vulnerable child against her side. Art historian Gabrielle Langdon argues that the girl's demeanor in the portrait is different than would have been expected for the child Cosimo, whose family anticipated his role as a strong leader from his earliest days.

Deposition of Christ
Artist: Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano)
Date: 1540-1545
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 268 x 173 cm (106 x 68 in)

The work is signed OPERA DEL BRONZINO FIORENTINO. It was originally commissioned for the chapel of Eleonora of Toledo in Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Her husband, Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, however, presented the picture to the French Cardinal Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle, chancellor of Emperor Charles V, as a political move. At Granvelle's death (1551), the work was placed in his funerary chapel at his hometown of Besançon. Originally, there were two side panels: the left one, depicting St. John the Baptist, is now in J. Paul Getty Museum; the right one, depicting Saint Cosmas, no longer exists.

Portrait of a Young Man
Artist: Bronzino (Agnolo di Cosimo di Mariano)
Date: 1530
Medium: Oil on wood
Dimensions: 95.6 x 74.9 cm (37 5/8 x 29 1/2 in.)

This portrait—among Bronzino's most arresting—was painted in the 1530s. The sitter is not known, but he must have belonged to Bronzino's close circle of literary friends in Florence, a number of whom sat for the artist. Bronzino himself composed verses in the style of the great Florentine poet Petrarch (1304–74), and the fanciful and witty details in this picture—the carved grotesque heads on the table and chair and the masklike face suggested in the folds of the youth's breeches—would have been appreciated by writers as comments on masks and identity. The book is doubtless a collection of poems.

Madonna of the Red Cherubims
Artist: Giovanni Bellini
Date: 1485
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 77 cm x 60 cm (30 x 24 in)

The Virgin and Child are portrayed as a bust in the foreground, above a typical landscape with towers, castles and a fluvial inlet with a small boat. The bright sky features a series of red cherubims which give their name to the picture. Also typical of Bellini is the parapet in the lower part, although this time he did not ad the cartouche with the signature.

Sistine Madonna
Artist: Raphael Sanzio da Urbino
Date: 1512
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 265 x 196 cm (104 x 77 in)

The Sistine Madonna, also called the Madonna di San Sisto, is an oil painting by the Italian artist Raphael Sanzio. The altarpiece was commissioned in 1512 by Pope Julius II for the church of San Sisto, Piacenza. The canvas was one of the last Madonnaspainted by the artist. Giorgio Vasari called it "a truly rare and extraordinary work.”

La Velata
Artist: Raphael Sanzio da Urbino
Date: 1514-1515
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 82 x 60.5 cm (32 x 23.8 in)

La velata, or La donna velata ("The woman with the veil"), is one of the most famous portraits by the ItalianRenaissance painter Raphael. The subject of the painting appears in another portrait, La Fornarina, and is traditionally identified as the fornarina(bakeress) Margherita Luti, Raphael's Roman mistress. One of Raphael's distinctions is his attention to the clothing of the subjects of his portraits, this one depicting opulence.

Saint George and the Dragon
Artist: Raphael Sanzio da Urbino
Date: 1504-1506
Medium: Oil on wood
Dimensions: 28.5 x 21.5 cm (11.2 x 8.5 in)

The saint wears the blue garter of the English Order of the Garter, reflecting the award of this decoration in 1504 to Raphael's patron Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, by King Henry VII of England. The first word of the order's motto, "HONI" can be made out.

Self-portrait with a friend (Double Portrait)
Artist: Raphael Sanzio da Urbino
Date: 1518-1520
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 99 x 83 cm (39 x 33 in)

The Self-Portrait with a friend(also known as Double Portrait) is a painting by Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. It dates to 1518-1520,[1] and is in the Louvre Museum of Paris, France. Whether the figure on the left is actually a self-portrait by Raphael is uncertain, although it was already identified as such in a 16th-century.

Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan
Artist: Giovanni Bellini
Date: 1501
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 61.6 x 45.1 cm (24.3 x 17.8 in)

Leonardo Loredan was the Doge of Venice from 1501–21. In Bellini's painting he is shown wearing his robes of state. The hat and ornate buttons are part of his official wardrobe. The sitter can be identified as Doge Loredan by comparing his features with portrait medals of him. The shape of the hat comes from the hood of a doublet. It is called a corno ducale and was a type of ducal hat, worn over a linen cap.

The Art of Painting
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Date: 1665-1668
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 130 x 110 cm (51 x 43 in)

This illusionistic painting is one of Vermeer's most famous. In 1868 Thoré-Bürger, known today for his rediscovery of the work of painter Johannes Vermeer, regarded this painting as his most interesting. Svetlana Alpers describes it as unique and ambitious; Walter Liedtke "as a virtuoso display of the artist's power of invention and execution, staged in an imaginary version of his studio.”

Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione
Artist: Raphael Sanzio da Urbino
Date: 1514-1515
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 82 x 67 cm (32 x 26 in)

Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione is considered one of the great portraits of the Renaissance, it has an enduring influence. It depicts Raphael's friend, the diplomat and humanist Baldassare Castiglione, who is considered a quintessential example of the High Renaissance gentleman.

The Battle of Alexander at Issus
Artist: Albrecht Altdorfer
Date: 1529
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 158.4 x 120.3 cm (62.4 x 47.4 in)

The Battle of Alexander at Issus is an oil painting by the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer, a pioneer of landscape art and a founding member of the Danube school. It portrays the 333 BC Battle of Issus, in which Alexander the Greatsecured a decisive victory over Darius III of Persia and gained crucial leverage in his campaign against the Persian Empire. The painting is widely regarded as Altdorfer's masterpiece, and is one of the most famous examples of the type of Renaissance landscape painting known as the world landscape, which here reaches an unprecedented grandeur.

The Bellelli Family
Artist: Edgar Degas
Date: 1858-1867
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 200 x 253 cm (79 x 100 in)

The Bellelli Family, also known as Family Portrait, is an oil painting on canvas by Edgar Degas, and housed in the Musée d'Orsay. A masterwork of Degas' youth, the painting is a portrait of his aunt, her husband, and their two young daughters.

The Garden of Earthly Delights
Artist: Hieronymus Bosch
Date: 1490-1510
Medium: Oil on oak panels
Dimensions: 220 x 389 cm (87 x 153 in)

The Garden of Earthly Delights is the modern title[1] given to a triptych painted by the Early Netherlandish master Hieronymus Bosch, housed in the Museo del Prado in Madrid since 1939. It dates from between 1490 and 1510, when Bosch was between about 40 and 60 years old, and is his best-known and most ambitious surviving work.

Madonna and Child
Artist: Filippo Lippi
Date: 1450-1465
Medium: Tempera on panel
Dimensions: 92 x 63.5 cm (36 x 25.0 in)

The date in which Lippi’s Madonna and Child was executed is unknown, but most art historians agree that it was painted during the last part of Lippi’s career, between 1450 and 1465. It is one of the few works by Lippi which was not executed with the help of his workshop and was an influential model for later depictions of the Madonna and Child, including those by Sandro Botticelli.

The Milkmaid
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Date: 1657-1658
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 45.5 x 41 cm (17 7/8 x 16 1/8 in)

Sometimes called The Kitchen Maid, is an oil-on-canvas painting of a "milkmaid", in fact a domestic kitchen maid, by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. It is now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which regards it as "unquestionably one of the museum's finest attractions.”

The Calling of St Matthew
Artist: Caravaggio
Date: 1599-1600
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 322 x 340 cm (127 x 130 in)

The Calling of Saint Matthew is a masterpiece by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, depicting the moment at which Jesus Christ inspires Matthew to follow him. It was completed in 1599–1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where it remains today.

Supper at Emmaus
Artist: Caravaggio
Date: 1601
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 141 x 196.2 cm (56 x 77.2 in)

The Supper at Emmaus is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, executed in 1601, and now in the National Gallery in London. Originally this painting was commissioned and paid for by Ciriaco Mattei, brother of cardinal Girolamo Mattei. The painting depicts the moment when the resurrected but incognito Jesus, reveals himself to two of his disciples (presumed to be Luke and Cleopas) in the town of Emmaus, only to soon vanish from their sight.

The Ambassadors
Artist: Hans Holbein the Younger
Date: 1533
Medium: Oil on oak
Dimensions: 207 x 209.5 cm (81 x 82.5 in)

The Ambassadors is a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger. It was created in the Tudor Period in the same year Elizabeth I was born. As well as being a double portrait, the painting contains a still life of several meticulously rendered objects, the meaning of which is the cause of much debate. It also incorporates a much-cited example of anamorphosis in painting. It is part of the collection at the National Gallery in London.

The Night Watch
Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn
Date: 1642
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 363 x 437 cm (142.9 x 172 in)

The Night Watch (Dutch: De Nachtwacht), is a 1642 painting by Rembrandt van Rijn. It is in the collection of the Amsterdam Museum but is prominently displayed in the Rijksmuseum as the best known painting in its collection. The Night Watch is one of the most famous Dutch Golden Age paintings and is window 16 in the Canon of Amsterdam.

A Woman Peeling Apples
Artist: Pieter de Hooch
Date: 1663
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 67 x 55 cm (26 x 22 in)

A Woman Peeling Apples is a genre painting showing a quiet domestic scene from the time, like most of de Hooch's works. The elaborate fireplace and fur and embroidery in the mother's clothes show a prosperous household, and the cupid between the two figures implies a happy one. Its sensitive handling of light—in particular, natural light filtered into an otherwise unlit interior space—led 19th century art historians to attribute it to Johannes Vermeer, with whose work the painting does bear strong similarities.