X-ray photographs reveal that the dog & dead game have been painted over the figure of a wounded man lying on the ground. These alterations must have been made after 1825, when it was included in a sale in its original state. The painting is an early wor ...

The sitter holds a paper with an inscription from the Old Testament in his right h&. On the forefinger of his left hand he wears two rings, the upper one of which appears to show the arms of the Strauss family (the other ring seems to have shown another ...

The painting perhaps shows a mathematician; it is likely that the inscription has been incorrectly repainted & should read ' Elementum' or ' Elementa'
- a book of the elements of mathematics. The paper beneath the book (now rubbed) suggests an astronomica
...

The brothel scene or 'bordeeltje' was a popular theme in Dutch genre painting. Here, an elderly woman supervises the proceedings & wine & oysters are offered
- both of which are known for their aphrodisiac qualities. Her age & ugliness is contrasted with the youth & beauty of the young women. This comparison has the moralising overtones of a Vanitas (Latin for vanity) & underlines the transience of earthly beauty & possessions & the inevitability of age, decay & death. Pot, a native of Haarlem who became eventually a citizen of Amsterdam, painted small portraits, guardroom & festive scenes.
...

This painting was traditionally thought to be by Rembrandt, & then until 1960 was attributed to Segers. It is now considered to be the work of an imitator of Segers's etchings. There are two or three other paintings by the same hand as this work, for ex ...

Tura became the favoured court artist of the Este family in the late 1450s. He was paid a monthly salary to paint anything from heraldry to fresco cycles. He also designed silverware & tapestries. He was the foremost painter of a series of pictures of the Muses for a 'studiolo' or study at the Este castle of Belfiore near Ferrara. This picture is thought to be one of the series. It would have been displayed high up in a room, hence the low vanishing-point. There are a number of pictures by Tura & associated artists which are thought to be part of the set. Underneath the figure, which is painted in oils, is an earlier painting in tempera, of a figure on a throne of organ pipes. This was probably Euterpe 'discoverer of pipes'. Identifications can be difficult because Tura did not stick closely to his brief. The theme of fertility suggests that the final figure may be Polyhymnia, the muse who discovered the cultivation of the fields. ...

The depiction of elegantly dressed people singing & playing music often refers to courtship & the harmony of love. The pleasures of music are set against those of food, wine & tobacco. With the exception of one portrait, van Velsen painted only genr ...

The woman is playing a viola da gamba; the man with his back to the viewer, a lute; the man on the right, a flute; & the standing man, a violin. A figure of a boy in the background was painted out when the painting was cleaned in 1969-70, because it was ...

The woman on the left is playing a viola da gamba. The houses seen across the canal are similar to those on the Keizersgracht, Amsterdam. The left-hand one bears a tablet with the date 1620 & is in the style of Hendrick de Keyser (1565
- 1621). The pain
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The young man seated on the left is playing a theorbo; in front of him on the floor is its case. In the centre of the wall behind the figures is a landscape with a carved gilt frame &, on the left, a wall-sconce. This painting is a copy of a composition by Caspar Netscher, the original (or best version) of which is signed & dated 1665 (Munich, Alte Pinakothek). There are a number of other replicas or copies of this design. ...