Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, rapes Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris.
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio, known in English as Titian, was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, 'from Cadore', taken from his native region.
Lorenzo Lotto was an Italian painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school, though much of his career was spent in other north Italian cities. He painted mainly altarpieces, religious subjects and portraits. He was active during the High Renaissance and the first half of the Mannerist period, but his work maintained a generally similar High Renaissance style throughout his career, although his nervous and eccentric posings and distortions represented a transitional stage to the Florentine and Roman Mannerists.
Anthonis Mor, also known as Anthonis Mor van Dashorst and Antonio Moro, was a Netherlandish portrait painter, much in demand by the courts of Europe. He has also been referred to as Antoon, Anthonius, Anthonis or Mor van Dashorst, and as Antonio Moro, António Mouro, Anthony More, etc., but signed most of his portraits as Anthonis Mor.
Agnolo di Cosimo, usually known as Bronzino or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, Bronzino, may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddish hair.
Medusa is either of two paintings described in Giorgio Vasari's Life of Leonardo da Vinci as being among Leonardo's earliest works. Neither painting survived.
The Venetian painter Titian and his workshop made at least six versions of the same composition showing Danaë, painted between about 1544 and the 1560s. The scene is based on the mythological princess Danaë, as – very briefly – recounted by the Roman poet Ovid, and at greater length by Boccaccio. She was isolated in a bronze tower following a prophecy that her firstborn would eventually kill her father. Although aware of the consequences, Danaë was seduced and became pregnant by Zeus, who, inflamed by lust, descended from Mount Olympus to seduce her in the form of a shower of gold.
A composition of Venus and Adonis by the Venetian Renaissance artist Titian has been painted a number of times, by Titian himself, by his studio assistants and by others. In all there are some thirty versions that may date from the 16th century, the nudity of Venus undoubtedly accounting for this popularity. It is unclear which of the surviving versions, if any, is the original or prime version, and a matter of debate how much involvement Titian himself had with surviving versions. There is a precise date for only one version, that in the Prado in Madrid, which is documented in correspondence between Titian and Philip II of Spain in 1554. However, this appears to be a later repetition of a composition first painted a considerable time earlier, possibly as early as the 1520s.
The Prado Annunciation is an altarpiece painted by Giovanni da Fiesole, known now as Fra Angelico, in the 1420s. Originally intended for the Observant Dominican convent of Fiesole, the painting is currently in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid.The work is one of three altarpieces by Fra Angelico representing the Annunciation; the other two being the Cortona Annunciation and the Annunciation of San Giovanni Valdarno. The sequence in which the three works were painted is not certain, but the general art historical consensus places the Prado version first.
Christ Carrying the Cross is an oil painting attributed to either Titian or Giorgione. It is dated to about 1505. The painting is housed in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco in Venice, Italy. There are several later versions of the subject by Titian.
The Entombment is a 1559 oil-on-canvas painting by the Venetian painter Titian, commissioned by Philip II of Spain. It depicts the burial of Jesus in a stone sarcophagus, which is decorated with depictions of Cain and Abel and the binding of Isaac. The painting measures 137 cm × 175 cm and is now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Titian made several other paintings depicting the same subject, including a similar version of 1572 given as a gift to Antonio Pérez and now also in the Prado, and an earlier version of c.1520 made for the Duke of Mantua and now in the Louvre.
Venus and Musician refers to a series of paintings by the Venetian Renaissance painter Titian.
Adam and Eve is a pair of paintings by German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder, dating from 1528, housed in the Uffizi, Florence, Italy. There are other paintings by the same artist with the same title, depicting the subjects either together in a double portrait or separately in a pair of portraits, for instance at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Courtauld Gallery in London, the Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Fall of Man is a painting of the Fall of Man or story of Adam and Eve by the Venetian artist Titian, dating to around 1550 and now in the Prado in Madrid. It is influenced by Raphael's fresco of the same subject in the Stanza della Signatura in the Vatican, which also had a seated Adam and standing Eve, as well as Albrecht Dürer's engraving Adam and Eve for smaller details. Owned at one point by Philip II of Spain's secretary, Antonio Pérez, and perhaps first commissioned by his father, in 1585 it entered the Spanish royal collection, where it was copied by Rubens between 1628 and 1629 for his own version of the subject.
Perseus and Andromeda is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian, now in the Wallace Collection in London. It was painted in 1554–1556 as part of a series of mythological paintings called "poesie" ("poetry") intended for King Philip II of Spain. The paintings took subjects from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses, in this case Book IV, lines 663–752, and all featured female nudes.
Self-Portrait on an Easel is a 1603-1604 oil on panel painting by Annibale Carracci, now displayed in Room 231 of the New Hermitage Building of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The portrait from the work was repeated for an autograph self-portrait now in the Uffizi, whilst a 1595 version of the Hermitage work is also in the Uffizi.
Bacchus is a 1638-1640 oil painting of Bacchus by Peter Paul Rubens, now in the Hermitage Museum, in Saint Petersburg, for which it was purchased in 1772. It was originally on a panel support but was transferred to canvas in 1891 by A. Sidorov. An autograph copy of the work is now in the Uffizi in Florence.
Madonna and Child with Saint Zechariah is a c.1530–1533 oil on panel painting by Parmigianino, now in the Uffizi. It shows the Madonna and Child with Zechariah, father of John the Baptist.
Salome, also known as Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, is an oil painting by the Venetian painter Titian, made in about 1550, and currently in the collection of the Museo del Prado in Madrid. It is not to be confused with other compositions of Salome and Judith by Titian.
