The shepherd Endymion, renowned for his beauty, was sent to sleep by the moon goddess Selene so that she might embrace him unobserved. Selene later became identified with the goddess Diana. Subleyras trained in France, but in 1728 he went to Rome where he ...

The presence of the hounds suggest that the woman may be the goddess & huntress Diana. One would, therefore, expect the figure behind the tree to be Actaeon but it looks more like a satyr. This painting was once thought to be by Rembrandt himself but it ...

Create your own bespoke print of Joseph Mallord William Turner’s Dido building Carthage from our collection. About this painting Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire, 1815 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1856 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. ...

Aeneas' mother Venus, wishing to protect her son from Juno, sent Cupid, disguised as Aeneas' son Ascanius, to cause Dido to fall in love with Aeneas (Virgil, ' Aeneid', Book 1). The head in profile with a helmet on the extreme right is considered a self po ...

Dido, having been abandoned by Aeneas, commits suicide on a pyre composed of his armour & his gifts to her, in her palace in Carthage. The details in this painting do not follow exactly the story as told in Virgil's ' Aeneid' (IV: 504ff). Some figures come from a Dürer print (' Five Lansquenets & an Oriental on Horseback') which probably dates from the mid-1490s, & the influence of Mantegna is also evident. This painting was probably a panel from a 'cassone'. This is usually accepted as a work by Liberale da Verona. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Francisco de Goya’s Doña Isabel de Porcel from our collection. About this painting Doña Isabel de Porcel, before 1805 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1896 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. ...

This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini & his wife, but is not intended as a record of their wedding. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporary fashion. Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca living in Bruges. The couple are shown in a well-appointed interior. The ornate Latin signature translates as ' Jan van Eyck was here 1434'. The similarity to modern graffiti is not accidental. Van Eyck often inscribed his pictures in a witty way. The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself. Arnolfini raises his right hand as he faces them, perhaps as a greeting. Van Eyck was intensely interested in the effects of light: oil paint allowed him to depict it with great subtlety in this picture, notably on the gleaming brass chandelier. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Giovanni Bellini's Doge Leonardo Loredan from our collection. About this painting Doge Leonardo Loredan, about 1501-2 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1844 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. ...

The portrait appears to be a copy of a lost portrait. It looks quite like another in the Vatican Gallery. These seem to be identified as Niccolo Marcello on the basis of its resemblence, not actually very close, to a medal in which he is named on the in ...

This portrait was formerly attributed to Velázquez, who is named in the inscription as painter to King Philip IV of Spain. However, it is close in style to Mazo & may either be a copy by him after a lost original by Velázquez, or, more probably, an independent work bearing a misleading signature. It is likely the portrait was executed shortly after 1647 since it shows the sitter wearing the Knight's badge of the Order of Santiago, which he was awarded that year. ...