Create your own bespoke print of Georges Seurat’s The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe from our collection. About this painting The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe, 1890 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1995 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 story depicted in the panel is that of the 4th-century saint, Nicholas of Myra. Under cover of darkness, Saint Nicholas throws three purses of gold through the window of the house of an impoverished nobleman who was faced with the prospect of selling ...

The donor, Tommaso Raimondi (died 1510), was a jurist & a poet. He is seen on the right of the painting, opposite his wife, Doralice Cambiago, on whose clothing the letter 'D' is embroidered. The kneeling boy may be their son Marco. Two other figures ma ...

The picture was probably completed in 1491 as the altarpiece for the Chapel of the Circumcision belonging to the Confraternity of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in the Church of San Francesco, Volterra. The Virgin, Saint Joseph (with a staff) & Saint Simeon are distinguished by haloes. Simeon is depicted raising his hands in which he has just held Christ & thanking God for letting him see the Redeemer. The Naming of Jesus, his Presentation & Circumcision occur together in the Gospel of Saint Luke (2: 21-36)
- hence the choice of this subject by the Confraternity. The circular reliefs in the spandrels of the arch represent a prophet & a sibyl who foretold Christ's coming. Vasari mentions that the painting was damaged by damp & that the Child was repainted by Sodoma. The explicit representation of the circumcision may have also been the real reason for Sodoma's revision.
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The New Testament relates how after his birth, Jesus was circumcised according to Jewish tradition (Luke 2: 21). The black background seems to be original. Paintings of this subject were highly popular in Venice in the late 15th & early 16th century; this composition was extremely popular & was much copied & adapted. ...

The painting seems to have been part of a series illustrating the ' Triumphs' by the poet Petrarch (1304
- 1374). Love's arrows
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Create your own bespoke print of Gerrit Lundens’s The Company of Captain Banning Cocq & Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch (' The Nightwatch') from our collection. About this painting The Company of Captain Banning Cocq & Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch (' The Nightwatch'), after 1642 © The National Gallery, London This painting joined our collection in 1857 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 painting has a strong claim to be ter Brugghen's finest treatment of a secular subject. He has taken a scene favoured by Caravaggio & his Roman followers
- a group of flamboyantly dressed musicians seen by candlelight
- & treated it in his own distinctive manner, placing the dramatically lit half-length figures against a light background. Paintings of the same subject by Caravaggio (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) & Bartolommeo Manfredi (Florence, Uffizi) are among the prototypes for this composition. Their large-scale, half-length figures, their crowding together within the composition & their closeness to the edge of the canvas, as well as the bright, colourful palette can all be found in this painting. Ter Brugghen brings to this existing format an individual fluency in modelling the soft edges of his forms & a remarkable subtlety of palette.

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On the eve of the election of the archbishop of Myra in Lycia (Asia Minor) in the 4th century AD, it was revealed to one of the bishops that a young man called Nicholas had been divinely chosen. When Saint Nicholas presented himself at the cathedral the following day he was elected & immediately installed as archbishop. The story is told in The Golden Legend. Veronese has shown the moment of Nicholas's recognition
- or subsequent consecration
- with an angel above bringing his bishop's stole, crozier & mitre. The saint humbly obeys. In 1087 Saint Nicholas's remains were translated to Bari. This work was painted for the altar of Saint Nicholas in S. Benedetto Po, near Mantua, where it was probably installed in 1562.

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These four pictures are from a series illustrating stories from ancient Roman history. They show (top to bottom): ' The Attack on Cartagena', ' The Continence of Scipio', ' The Rape of the Sabines' & ' The Intervention of the Sabine Women'. Two other pictures from the same series are known: a ' Coriolanus' & a ' Scipio rewarding the Soldiers'. ' The Continence of Scipio' & ' Rape of the Sabines' were popular topics for illustration. The format of the pictures suggests they were made for the decoration of a room. The series is now thought to be the work of a minor Italian painter of the third quarter of the 16th century who was familiar with the work of Giulio Romano & Raphael, on whose styles they depend. ...