This work was formerly attributed to a follower of Giorgione but is more probably by Bonifazio or his studio. It has been suggested that this work may derive from a series representing the ' Labours of the Months'. ...

In the foreground the huntsman is disembowelling the deer; his gun lies on the ground beside him. In the background, left of centre, a stag hunt is taking place. At this period pictures with hunting subjects were usually painted for the aristocracy, as hunting was an aristocratic privilege in the Dutch Republic of the 17th century. After his return from Italy in 1647, Jan Baptist Weenix always signed his name in its Italian form. ...

In the Middle Ages, the Old Testament prophecy that the Messiah would spring from the family of Jesse, the father of David, was interpreted visually as a genealogical tree. Here, typically, Jesse reclines at the base of the tree which issues from his loins ...

The sitter wears the cross of the military order of S. Stefano, founded in Pisa in 1561 by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I de' Medici. The letters & inkstand on the table, & the books & statue above, allude to his status & learned interests. Independent life-size & full-length portraits are very rare in Tuscan 16th-century art. The painting has been attributed to Alessandro Allori, successor to Bronzino as painter to the Medici Court, but it is closer in style to the work of Maso da San Friano (Tommaso Manzuoli, 1531
- 1571).
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This portrait of a knight of Saint John, identifiable by the eight-pointed cross around his neck, has been newly attributed to Polidoro. It was probably painted when the Order of Saint John was temporarily resident in Messina, Sicily, having been expelled from Rhodes. Polidoro trained with Raphael in Rome but moved to Messina in 1528. Franciabigio also depicted a member of the Order in his Portrait of a Knight of Rhodes. ...

Before he devoted himself exclusively to portraiture, Netscher painted a number of genre scenes. His indebtedness to his master, Gerard ter Borch, can be seen in the careful depiction of texture, in this case of the fur & satin of the woman's rich cloth ...

This painting, one of Lancret's most ambitious of the works & often considered his masterpiece, was exhibited at the Salon of 1742. The subject is a pastoral idyll in contemporary dress. It may have been intended as a portrait of a particular family taking its ease in the kind of idealised park setting popularised by prints after the paintings of Watteau (1684
- 1721). Informality is the keynote of both the landscape & the figures, who occupy the left part of the composition. A woman, presumably the mother, offers a spoonful of coffee to the younger child, observed by a man (presumably the father) who holds out a tray to a servant holding a silver coffee pot. The traditional title of the painting, ' The Cup of Chocolate' is, therefore, a misnomer. Behind the mother is the focal point of the setting, a stone vase filled with roses on an elaborate pedestal, which forms the left pier of the fountain basin to the right. The informality of the scene is underlined by the doll lying on the ground beside the fountain & the dog on the right rooting among the hollyhocks.
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This is an inferior version of a picture attributed to Botticelli (formerly Berlin, Noak collection). Other rather similar profiles exist from the circle of Botticelli, but it is uncertain whether they are portraits; they may be no more than celebrations of some female ideal. On the reverse is a painting including a winged figure, presumably an angel, standing on a rock before a wood, in what may be an allegorical scene. The angel holds a sphere & a scroll (which is inscribed: CHI B / I / N). The object in this figure's right hand has alternatively been described as moss or a handkerchief. ...

On the left two maids work at an embroidery frame. The painting on the wall shows the goddess Diana with cupids, two of whom decorate a term of a god, probably Pan. This possibly alludes to the chaste character of the lady & the more amorous intentions o ...

Netscher intends a deliberate contrast between the industry of the girl who is being taught to read & the idleness of the boy, who prefers to play with the dog & knucklebone. On the wall behind is a small copy of Rubens's ' The Brazen Serpent', the ori ...