The altarpiece is complete & was dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist. It came from the Camaldolese Nunnery of San Giovanni in Pratovecchio, Italy. In the pinnacles are the Archangel Gabriel, the Trinity & the Virgin Annunciate. On the left panel ar ...

The 12 main panels of the altarpiece, one of the largest to be commissioned in 14th-century Florence, are in the National Gallery Collection. The predella shows scenes from the life of Saint Peter & is dispersed in different collections. The painting was commissioned for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence, probably by the Albizzi family. The accounts of 1370 show that a certain Niccolò, probably Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, designed the altarpiece. It was probably painted by Jacopo di Cione & assistants. It was completed in 1371. In the centre of the composition are Christ & the Virgin, dressed in white & gold, & seated upon a canopied throne surrounded by angels. The panels to each side are densely crowded with saints; to the left a prominent Saint Peter carries a model of San Pier Maggiore. The middle tier of the altarpiece, which would have been supported by heavy buttresses, showed (from left to right) the Nativity, the Adoration of the Kings, the Resurrection, the Maries at the Sepulchre, the Ascension & Pentecost. In the three pinnacles above, the Trinity appeared in the centre with adoring angels on each side. A later, more fluent, Florentine version of the theme is ' The Coronation of the Virgin' by Lorenzo Monaco. ...

The story of Saint Peter Martyr, a Dominican friar & inquisitor, is told in the ' Golden Legend'. In 1252, he was ambushed on the road to Milan by assassins hired by local Cathar heretics. He was wounded in the head & stabbed repeatedly. His last actio ...

As the Virgin rises to heaven surrounded by angels music-making, her girdle falls from her waist. It is about to be caught by Saint Thomas, the disciple who doubted that Christ had risen from the dead & who was given this extra proof of the Virgin's Assumption. Christ, accompanied by prophets & ancestors, among them David & John the Baptist, welcomes his mother. The painting, said to have been dated 1474, formed the centre of an altarpiece in S. Agostino, Asciano, near Siena where Matteo di Giovanni worked. Side panels representing Saint Michael & Saint Augustine survive in Asciano. The Annunciation & perhaps other saints were represented on a higher tier of the polyptych. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Francesco Botticini’s The Assumption of the Virgin from our collection. About this painting The Assumption of the Virgin, probably about 1540 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1882 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. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Meindert Hobbema’s The Avenue at Middelharnis from our collection. About this painting The Avenue at Middelharnis, 1689 © 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. ...

Create your own bespoke print of Camille Pissarro’s The Avenue, Sydenham from our collection. About this painting The Avenue, Sydenham, 1871 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1984 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 used Genoa as his base during his six-year stay in Italy & spent most of 1625-7 in the city enjoying great success as a portraitist. This work, traditionally entitled ' The Balbi Children' because it belonged to the 18th-century collector, Costa ...

Fromentin was a prolific & popular painter of 'orientalist' scenes, set mostly in North Africa. He provided a European clientele with images of an exotic but reassuringly recognisable way of life, as in this placid scene of shipping along the River Nile ...

The subject is from the ' Natural History' of Pliny & shows Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt, about to dissolve one of her famous pearls in a cup of wine, thus expressing her contempt for wealth to Mark Anthony, who recoils in surprise. This small painting m ...