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. ...

The portrait is an early work by Moroni, probably of the later 1550s, & from the Avogadro collection in Brescia. The soldier represented is probably one of the sons of Gerolamo Avogadro, the likely sitter in Moretto's full-length portrait of 1526, which is in the National Gallery Collection (' Portrait of Man'). As in other early Moroni portraits the ruined setting may be intended to highlight the endurance of the virtues which the sitter represents. Moroni makes little outward attempt to idealise his subject, who is shown as a relatively frail figure against a background of crumbling architecture & with armour laid out at his feet. A helmet decorated with festive plumes is given prominence on the ledge to the right. A brace on the soldier's left leg, the 'piede ferito' (wounded foot) that gives the painting its popular title, may indicate a wound sustained in a battle or a joust, or a congenital deformity. ...

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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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 ...

Ferdinand Bol completed this commissioned painting after leaving Rembrandt’s studio when he was a young, up-&-coming painter. We do not know the identity of the sitter, but we know from her jewellery & clothing she must have been of a high social status. A very large teardrop pearl hangs from a gold brooch set with diamonds, & it looks like there are more diamonds in her elaborate earrings & necklace. The sitter is dressed modestly but with expensive detail like the gold thread of the bodice. This was how the wealthy elite dressed at the time in 1640s. We think the sitter sought out the artist due to his glamorous reputation & associations to Rembrandt. The pose of the sitter is like the pose Rembrandt used for his famous self portraits also in our collection at the National Gallery. About this painting A Lady with a Fan, 1643 © The National Gallery, London. This painting joined our collection in 1946. ...

The sitter has not been identified. The costume suggests the date of about 1550 & can be compared with ' Portrait of a Lady' by Hemessen in the collection. The attribution is not certain. The painting has sometimes been thought to be by Catharina van Hemessen's father, Jan, although this type of portrait is very similar to her work. It may be by another unidentified Antwerp artist. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Hans Holbein the Younger’s A Lady with a Squirrel & a Starling from our collection. About this painting A Lady with a Squirrel & a Starling, about 1526
- 1528 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1992 With our custom print service, you can order your own fully customised reproduction from the National Gallery Collection & exhibitions. Choose your own size, print material & frames & have your masterpiece delivered straight to your door.
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