Also available in Hardback Author Elizabeth Cowling is Professor Emeritus of History of Art at Edinburgh University. Neil Cox is Professor of Art & Theory at the University of Essex. Simonetta Fraquelli is an independent art historian. Susan Grace Galassi is Curator at the Frick Collection, New York. Christopher Riopelle is Curator of Post-1800 Paintings at the National Gallery, London, & author/collaborator on several National Gallery titles such as Painting History: Delaroche & Lady Jane Grey, An American Experiment: George Bellows & the Ashcan Painters & Manet to Picasso. Anne Robbins is Assistant Curator of Post-1800 Paintings at the National Gallery, London, & collaborator on Painting History: Delaroche & Lady Jane Grey Published to accompany the exhibition Picasso: Challenging the Past at the National Gallery, London 25 February – 7 June 2009. From his earliest years Pablo Picasso was a passionate student of the European painting tradition. His memory for images was voracious, & he amassed an art collection of his own. Naturally he was drawn to the Spanish masters Velazquez & Goya, but also important to him were figures such as Rembrandt, Delacroix, Ingres, Manet & Cézanne. Picasso repeatedly pitted himself against these masters, taking up their signature themes, techniques & artistic concerns in audacious paintings of his own. Sometimes his ‘quotations' were direct, other times highly allusive. Always, Picasso made the implicit case that it was he in the twentieth century who most forcefully reinvigorated the European tradition. Picasso: Challenging the Past showcases the technical dexterity, independence & vitality of Picasso's creative processes, for here we witness the daring transformation of the art of the past into, in Picasso's own words, ‘something else entirely’. Reviews ‘ See the past afresh through Picasso’s eye in this well-illustrated & thought-provoking compendium of his fiercely competitive ‘collaborations’ with Old Masters.’ The Times, 15 April 2009. ...

The Virgin holds the dead body of Christ. On the left is Saint Jerome, the protector of the unidentified donor, & on the right is probably Saint Dominic. The painting is one of several versions of the centre panel of Rogier van der Weyden's ' Miraflores ...

The lyric poet Pindar (518
- 438 BC) raises his lyre. Ictinus, the fifth-century BC architect of the Parthenon in Athens, holds
...

The sitter is identified as the Mantuan poet & writer on medicine Battista Fiera (about 1465
- 1538) by an old tradition; this
...

A depiction of Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino (1422
- 1482), with two of his children. This is a forgery of the early
...

This bust-length portrait of an unidentified sitter is probably cut down at the right. The inscription, which is truncated, may be a part of a couplet of unknown origin, & presumably refers to the subject. This painting has in the past been attributed t ...

The subject has formerly been called a ' Spanish General', & then a ' Military Commander'. The dress & background have been left unfinished. This is possibly a study for a sitter in a group. The costume suggests a date of about 1570-80. ...

The artist worked in Venice. Many of his paintings are miniatures. His style is close to that of Antonello but with a crisp linearity which owes much to followers of Mantegna, such as Zoppo. The mid-16th century, North Italian, carved, tabernacle frame was ...

This portrait was once wrongly attributed to Jacques-Louis David but it may be by his assistant Georges Rouget or by a follower of Baron Gros (1771
- 1835). The costume & especially the hairstyle suggest the approximate date for this painting
- the info

...

The youthful sitter has not been identified. The dress suggests a date in the mid-1540s & is plainly that of a wealthy family; the full-length format also suggests an aristocratic sitter. This portrait was formerly attributed to Pontormo, Bronzino & Fr ...