The Roman Soldiers have come to arrest Christ. At the centre Judas betrays Christ with a kiss as described in the New Testament (Matthew 26: 47-52). On the left Saint Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus. The scene takes place at night; illumination is provided by the torches held aloft. This panel formed the second scene after the ' Last Supper' (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lehman Collection) in the predella of the high altarpiece of S. Croce, Florence. The altarpiece was probably paid for by the Alamanni family, whose coat of arms was originally on it. ...

The picture is a studio replica of a design often repeated, with minor variations. It shows the arrival or despatch of a love letter (French: billet doux) carried by a dove. The principal figure, barefoot on the right, has a basket of flowers, symbols of ...

Saint Elizabeth, the mother of Saint John the Baptist, lies in a bed decorated with paintings. A midwife holds the infant saint in the foreground, while another dries a towel by the fire. At the right Saint Zacharias is seated; Elizabeth insisted that the ...

The central panel of the triptych shows the newly born Virgin Mary being washed by midwives in the foreground, with her mother Saint Anne in the bed. In the left wing Saint Joachim is told the news of the birth; in the right wing two women are seen in a d ...

The main scene shows the birth of the Virgin Mary. On the left can be seen Noah with the dove in the ark (Old Testament, Genesis 8: 7-8) & on the right: the vision of Balaam (Old Testament, Numbers 24: 17). Inscriptions give the precise Biblical refere ...

The story of Venus' birth is described in Hesiod's ' Theogony' & in the ' Homeric Hymns'. In the centre, Venus steps from her shell on to the island of Cyprus (or Cythera). In the rim around the central group are Neptune & Amphitrite at the top & Cupid & Psyche at the bottom. This design was probably a modello for a silver basin. Such prestigous objects were displayed on a side table to signal the wealth of the owner. ...

A blind man accompanied by a young girl sits outside a church. Through the doorway can be seen a crucifix lit by a lamp. An old woman comes out, clutching her prayer book & the old man himself is fingering the beads of a rosary. The subject has echoes o ...

In this early work by Bellini, Christ is shown as the Redeemer. The panel may have served as the door of a tabernacle, in which the wine & bread of the Mass were kept. Christ is shown after the Crucifixion, as the Man of Sorrows, whose blood saves the world from sin. He holds his cross, with the crown of thorns. An angel catches his blood in a chalice like the ones used in the Mass. The parapet reliefs illustrating antique & pagan rituals may have a significance for the meaning of the painting, but no convincing theory about this has yet been advanced. Before cleaning in 1978 there was an unbroken tiled floor, including some oil-paint over Bellini's original egg tempera. Cleaning removed these additions. The bare patches of gesso, or ground, were originally painted as clouds with red & blue angels with much gold. We do not know why or when the angels were removed, but it was certainly done after Bellini finished the work. ...

A group of hunters, some on horseback & others on foot, attack a wild boar. The hunters' dogs join in the attack, whilst two horsewomen look on approvingly. In the background a man blows a bugle. This & its companion, ' Return from the Hunt', are not a ...

Jongkind produced a number of views of this newly constructed boulevard near his studio in Paris, & a related watercolour of 1874

Includes:: detailed notes about the subject.A late work, this is an important example of the roughly handled paint surface an

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