Julius II belonged to the della Rovere family. He was a forceful ruler, who reasserted his power over the Papal States by military action. He patronised the arts & ordered the rebuilding of St Peter's in Rome. The painter & biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511
- 1574) wrote of Raphael's early years in Rome: ' And at this time... he also made a portrait of Pope Julius in a picture in oils, so true & so lifelike, that the portrait caused all who saw it to tremble as if it had been the living man himself.' The painting seems to have been displayed in the Roman Church of Santa Maria del Popolo which had been redecorated at the expense of the della Rovere family. The format was to be exceedingly influential on subsequent papal portraiture.
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The sitter has been identified as Richard Milles of Nackington, (about 1735
- 1820), Member of Parliament for nearby Canterbury
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The identification of the sitter, Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick (1587
- 1658), has been confirmed by comparison with engraved
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The Dominican friar Savonarola was a preacher & a leader in the populist revolution in Florence during the 1490s. His political enemies secured his execution by burning on 23 May 1498, in the Piazza della Signoria. After this he was regarded by some followers as a martyr. This work seem to have been painted somewhat later, about 1500-40. The reverse of this panel depicts the execution of Savonarola & his two companions, Domenico da Pescia & Silvestro Maruffi. ...

The figure '17' in the inscription presumably refers to the sitter's age. The inscription also seems to indicate that he came from Auro in the province of Brescia. He is later recorded as a senior civil servant in Venice & held the posts of ' Scrivan delle Rason vecchie' in 1542 & he was also ' Scrivan of the Scuola della Trinità' in Venice. The pensive mood & assurance of pose are derived from Titian's portraits & perhaps from Giorgione. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Peter Paul Rubens’s Portrait of Susanna Lunden from our collection. About this painting Portrait of Susanna Lunden, 1622-5 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1871 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. ...

Van Dyck's portrait of Cesare Alessandro Scaglia (1592
- 1641) is a stately & enduring image of a man who was familiar with the
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The Archduke Albert of Austria (1559
- 1621) was appointed Governor of the Netherlands in 1595, & from 1598 became joint sovereign
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Van Dyck made a number of self-portraits, & this painting is thought to be a late 18th or early 19th-century copy after a self-portrait design of about 1620, of which the prime version is in Munich (Alte Pinakothek). ...

This is the only known portrait in which Gainsborough included himself with his family. With him are his wife, Margaret Burr, whom he married in July 1746, & their daughter. Gainsborough holds in his hand a paper, perhaps once showing a sketch, but now transparent with age, as is the figure of the child. It has been presumed that she must be the Gainsborough's eldest surviving daughter Mary, born shortly before February 1750. However, both the style of the background & the evident difficulties Gainsborough had with the proportions of the rather stiff-limbed figures suggest a date closer to 1747-8, when Gainsborough was still working in London. The child may, therefore, be the Gainsborough's first-born but short-lived daughter, also named Mary, who died in 1748. Her date of birth is so far untraced, but the child in the picture would seem to be around eighteen months old. ...