Smarthistory Logo
Smarthistory Logo
  • About
      • ABOUT SMARTHISTORY
      • What is Smarthistory?
      • Who is Smarthistory?
      • Is Smarthistory reliable?
      • Museum and institutional partners
      • Major donors
      • Press coverage
      • Our blog
      • Give us feedback
      • Contact us

      • At Smarthistory, the Center for Public Art History, we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background.

        With 503 contributors from 201 colleges, universities, museums, and research centers, Smarthistory is the most-visited art history resource in the world.

  • For Learning
      • ART HISTORIES
      • Start here
      • Prehistoric
      • Africa
      • Americas
      • Asia
      • Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
      • Medieval Europe + Byzantine
      • The Islamic World
      • Europe 1300–1800
      • Europe 1800–1900
      • Pacific Islands
      • Modernisms 1900–1980
      • Art since 1980
      • TOPICS & COURSES
      • Art Appreciation
      • AP® Art History
      • A-Level Art History
      • History of photography
      • Creating and conserving
      • SPECIAL PROJECTS
      • The U.S. Civil War in Art
      • Seeing America
      • Not your grandfather’s art history: a BIPOC Reader
      • ARCHES: At-risk Cultural Heritage
      • Expanding the Renaissance
      • Across Cultures
      • Virtual Visits
  • Books
      • SMARTHISTORY BOOKS
      • Reframing Art History, a new kind of textbook
      • Guide to Byzantine Art
      • Guide to Ancient Roman Art
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 1 (#1–47)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 2 (#48–98)
      • Guide to AP® Art History vol. 3 (#99–152)
      • See complete collection of titles
      • NEW TITLES
        • reframing art history cover smReframing Art History
          a new kind of textbook
        • Byzantine cover jpgGuide to Byzantine art
  • For Teaching
      • TOOLS FOR TEACHING
      • All content for teaching
      • Webinars past & present
      • Teaching with images: K-12
      • Syllabi
      • Do-it-yourself tools
        • UPCOMING EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Check back for upcoming events

        • PAST EVENT
          • Dr. Elena FitzPatrick Sifford on casta paintings

            Dec.06.2023

            Black Pharaohs: Nubia, Egypt, and Historical Racism…

  • Support
      • SUPPORT SMARTHISTORY
      • Donate
      • Contribute an essay

      • We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free.

  • Search

Europe 1300-1800

  • Browse this content
  • Beginner’s guide to the Early Modern period
    • Classic, classical, and classicism explained
    • Printmaking in Europe, c. 1400−1800
  • A beginner’s guide to the Renaissance
    • Browse this topic
    • Expanding the Renaissance: a Smarthistory initiative
    • Tiny timeline: global Europe
    • The Medieval and Renaissance Altarpiece
    • Patrons and patronage
      • Why commission artwork during the renaissance?
      • Types of renaissance patronage
    • Artists and workshops
      • The Italian renaissance court artist
      • The status of the artist in renaissance Italy
      • Female artists in the renaissance
      • The role of the workshop in Italian renaissance art 
    • Images of African Kingship, Real and Imagined
    • A primer for Italian renaissance art
    • Humanism in renaissance Italy
    • Humanism in Italian renaissance art
    • Introduction to gender in renaissance Italy
    • An introduction to the renaissance nude
      • Sex, Power, and Violence in the Renaissance Nude
      • Confronting power and violence in the renaissance nude
    • Materials and Techniques
      • Gold-ground panel painting
      • Quarrying and carving marble
      • Carving marble with traditional tools
      • Renaissance Watercolours: materials and techniques
  • Italy and Spain in the 14th century:
    Late Gothic
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Browse this content
      • Introduction to Late Gothic art
      • Distorting the Madonna in Medieval art
      • The Black Death
      • The conservator’s eye: Taddeo Gaddi, Saint Julian
      • Remaking a fourteenth-century triptych
    • Florence
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide
        • Florence in the Late Gothic period, an introduction
        • Dante’s Divine Comedy in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance art
      • Cimabue
        • Virgin and Child Enthroned, and Prophets (Santa Trinità Maestà)
        • Santa Trinita Madonna and Child Enthroned
        • Cimabue and Giotto compared
      • Giotto
        • The Ognissanti Madonna and Child Enthroned
        • St. Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata
        • Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel
        • The Arena Chapel (and Giotto’s frescos) in virtual reality
        • Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 1 of 4)
        • Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 2 of 4)
        • Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 3 of 4)
        • Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 4 of 4)
        • The Entombment of Mary
      • A rare embroidery made for an altar at Santa Maria Novella
      • Laudario of Sant’Agnese
      • Andrea Pisano, Reliefs for the Florence Campanile
      • The Ponte Vecchio (“Old Bridge”) in Florence
    • Siena
      • Browse this content
      • Siena in the Late Gothic, an introduction
      • Duccio
        • Maestà
        • Heaven on earth— The Rucellai Madonna
        • The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea
      • Ambrogio Lorenzetti
        • Palazzo Pubblico frescos: Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government
        • Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
      • Pietro Lorenzetti, Birth of the Virgin
      • Simone Martini
        • Annunciation
        • Maestà
        • Saint Louis of Toulouse
    • Pisa, Pistoia and Rome
      • Browse this content
      • Nicola Pisano, Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery, and Giovanni Pisano, Slaughter of the Innocents, Pulpit, Sant’Andrea church, Pistoia (Italy)
      • Giovanni Pisano, Pisa Pulpit
      • Pietro Cavallini, The Last Judgment
    • Spain
      • Browse this content
      • Joshua ibn Gaon, a decorated Hebrew Bible (MS. Kennicott 2)
      • Ferrer Bassa and the murals of Pedralbes
      • The Prato Haggadah
      • Hebrew Bible
      • Elisha ben Abraham Cresques and the Farhi Bible
      • Catalan Atlas
  • Italy in the 15th century:
    Early Renaissance
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Browse this content
      • How to recognize Italian Renaissance art
      • Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Italian Altarpiece
      • The study of anatomy
      • Contrapposto explained
      • Alberti’s revolution in painting
      • Linear perspective
        • Linear Perspective: Brunelleschi’s Experiment
        • How one-point linear perspective works
        • Early applications of linear perspective
      • Retro style in the Renaissance
    • Central Italy
      • Browse this content
      • Florence in the Early Renaissance
      • Painting
        • Gentile da Fabriano
          • Adoration of the Magi
          • Adoration of the Magi (reframed)
        • Masaccio
          • Virgin and Child Enthroned
          • The Holy Trinity
          • Tribute Money and Expulsion, Brancacci Chapel
          • Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden in the Brancacci Chapel
        • Fra Angelico
          • The Annunciation and Life of the Virgin (c. 1426)
          • The Annunciation (c. 1438-47)
        • Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano
        • Fra Filippo Lippi
          • Madonna and Child with Two Angels
          • Portrait of a Man and Woman at a Casement
          • Fra Filippo Lippi, The Adoration
        • Benozzo Gozzoli, The Medici Palace Chapel frescoes
        • Filippino Lippi’s Madonna and Child, an early image of enslaved people in renaissance Florence
        • Domenico Veneziano, Saint Lucy Altarpiece
        • Antonio Pollaiuolo, Battle of Ten Nudes or (Battle of Nude Men)
        • Ghirlandaio, Life of the Virgin
        • Cassone with the Conquest of Trebizond
        • Sandro Botticelli
          • La Primavera (Spring)
          • The Birth of Venus
          • Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici
          • Fashion and a Portrait of a Young Woman
          • Dissecting Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi
          • Mariko Mori on Botticelli’s The Annunciation
        • Perugino
          • Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter
          • Perugino, Decemviri Altarpiece
          • Perugino & Napoleon’s appropriation of Italian cultural treasures
        • Piero della Francesca
          • The Baptism of Christ
          • Flagellation of Christ
          • Resurrection
          • Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino
        • Luca Signorelli, The Damned Cast into Hell
      • Sculpture and architecture
        • Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac
        • Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, East Doors of the Florence Baptistry
        • Filippo Brunelleschi
          • Old Sacristy, San Lorenzo
          • Dome of the Cathedral of Florence
          • Pazzi Chapel
          • Santo Spirito
        • Orsanmichele and Donatello’s Saint Mark, Florence
        • Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints
        • Donatello
          • St. Mark
          • Saint George
          • Feast of Herod
          • Madonna of the Clouds
          • David
          • The Miracle of the Mule
          • Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata
          • Mary Magdalene
        • Andrea della Robbia’s bambini at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence
        • Leon Battista Alberti
          • Palazzo Rucellai
          • Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
          • Sant’Andrea, Mantua
        • Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici
    • Northern Italy: Venice, Ferrara, and the Marches
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide
        • Browse this content
        • Venetian art, an introduction
        • Oil paint in Venice
        • Devotional confraternities (scuole) in Renaissance Venice
        • Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius): inventor of the modern book
        • Venetian glass, an introduction
        • Saving Venice
      • Venetian architecture
        • Ca’ d’Oro
        • Palazzo Ducale
      • Carlo Crivelli
        • Do you speak Renaissance? Carlo Crivelli, Madonna and Child
        • The Annunciation with Saint Emidius
      • Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II
      • Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini, Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria
      • Giovanni Bellini
        • St. Francis in the Desert (or St. Francis in Ecstasy)
        • Brera Pietà
        • San Giobbe Altarpiece
        • San Zaccaria Altarpiece
        • Giovanni Bellini and Titian,The Feast of the Gods
      • Vittore Carpaccio, Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Rialto Bridge, and Black gondoliers
      • Andrea Mantegna
        • St. James Led to his Execution
        • San Zeno Altarpiece
        • Saint Sebastian
        • Dormition (or Death) of the Virgin
        • Camera Picta (Camera degli Sposi)
        • Dead Christ
      • Pisanello, Leonello d’Este
      • Sala dei Mesi (Hall of the Months) at Palazzo Schifanoia
      • Cosmè Tura, Roverella Altarpiece
      • Guido Mazzoni
        • Mazzoni and Renaissance Emotions
        • Lamentation in Ferrara
        • Head of a Man
      • Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara
  • Italy in the 16th century:
    High Renaissance and Mannerism
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Toward the High Renaissance, an introduction
      • The Sack of Rome in 1527
      • Mannerism, an introduction
      • Renaissance woman: Isabella d’Este
      • The Medici collect the Americas
      • Medici porcelain, a failed experiment
      • Preparatory drawing during the Italian renaissance, an introduction
      • Galileo Galilei
      • Galileo and the science of nature
    • Central and Northern Italy
      • Browse this content
      • Nicola da Urbino, a dinner service for a duchess
      • Verrocchio, David with the Head of Goliath
      • Leonardo da Vinci
        • About Leonardo
        • Leonardo’s Letter to the Duke of Milan
        • Leonardo: Anatomist
        • Leonardo and his drawings
        • Adoration of the Magi
        • “Vitruvian Man”
        • The Virgin of the Rocks
        • The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist (Burlington House Cartoon)
        • Last Supper
        • Mona Lisa
        • Mona Lisa (from HENI Talks)
      • Michelangelo
        • Tiny timelines: Michelangelo in context
        • About Michelangelo
        • Who was Michelangelo?
        • Pietà
        • David
        • The many meanings of Michelangelo’s David
        • The Tomb of Pope Julius II
          • Unfinished business—Michelangelo and the Pope
          • Slaves
          • Moses
        • Taddei Tondo
        • The Sistine Chapel & Michelangelo
          • Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
          • Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
          • Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel
        • Medici Chapel (New Sacristy)
        • Laurentian Library
        • Replicating Michelangelo
      • Raphael
        • Raphael, an introduction
        • Marriage of the Virgin
        • Madonna of the Goldfinch
        • La belle jardinière (Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist)
        • School of Athens
        • The Alba Madonna
        • Portrait of Pope Julius II
        • Galatea
        • Pope Leo X
      • Donato Bramante
        • Tempietto, Rome
        • Saint Peter’s Basilica
      • Jacopo Pontormo, Entombment (or Deposition from the Cross)
      • Parmigianino
        • Madonna of the Long Neck
        • Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
      • Rosso Fiorentino, The Dead Christ with Angels
      • Benvenuto Cellini
        • Salt Cellar
        • Perseus with the Head of Medusa
      • Sofonisba Anguissola
        • Self-Portraits
        • Infanta Catalina Micaela with a Marmoset
      • Plautilla Nelli, The Last Supper
      • Bronzino
        • An Allegory with Venus and Cupid
        • Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo with her son Giovanni
        • A chapel for Eleonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence 
      • Giambologna, Abduction of a Sabine Woman
    • Venice
      • Browse this content
      • Beginner’s guide
        • Greek painters in renaissance Venice
      • Synagogues in the Venetian Ghetto
      • Giorgione
        • The Tempest
        • Three Philosophers
        • The Adoration of the Shepherds
      • Titian
        • Pastoral Concert
        • Noli me Tangere
        • Assumption of the Virgin
        • Madonna of the Pesaro Family
        • Bacchus and Ariadne
        • Titian, Isabella d’Este (Isabella in Black)
        • Two portraits of Pietro Aretino
        • Venus of Urbino
        • Christ Crowned with Thorns
        • Diana and Actaeon
        • Titian and Jacopo Palma il Giovane, Pietà
      • Correggio
        • Jupiter and Io
        • Assumption of the Virgin
      • Paolo Veronese
        • The Family of Darius before Alexander
        •  The Dream of Saint Helena
        • Feast in the House of Levi
        • Transcript of the trial of Veronese
      • Jacopo Tintoretto
        • The Miracle of the Slave
        • The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark
        • The Origin of the Milky Way
        • Last Supper
      • Andrea Palladio
        • La Rotonda
        • Teatro Olimpico
  • Northern Europe in the 15th century:
    Northern Renaissance
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Browse this content
      • The Medieval and Renaissance Altarpiece
      • An introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the fifteenth century
      • Introduction to Fifteenth-century Flanders
      • Introduction to Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century
      • Northern Renaissance art under Burgundian rule
      • The role of the workshop in late medieval and early modern northern Europe
      • Biblical Storytelling: Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Altarpiece
      • The Norfolk Triptych and how it was made
    • Burgundian and adjacent territories
      • Browse this content
      • Fit for a duke: Broederlam’s Crucifixion Altarpiece
      • Claus Sluter and Claus de Werve
        • The Well of Moses
        • Mourners
      • Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg
        • Limbourg brothers, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
        • The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry
      • Campin and his workshop
        • Robert Campin, Christ and the Virgin
        • Workshop of Robert Campin, Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)
      • Jan van Eyck
        • The Ghent Altarpiece
        • Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (Self-Portrait?)
        • The Madonna in the Church
        • The Arnolfini Portrait
        • The question of pregnancy in Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait
      • Petrus Christus
        • A Goldsmith in his Shop
        • Portrait of a Young Woman
      • Rogier van der Weyden
        • Deposition
        • Crucifixion Triptych
        • The Last Judgment
        • The Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist Mourning
        • Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin
      • Hugo van der Goes
        • Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece
        • Hugo van der Goes, The Adoration of the Kings (Monforte Altar)
      • Stefan Lochner, Madonna of the Rose Bower
      • Hans Memling, Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove
      • The Holy Thorn Reliquary of Jean, duc de Berry
    • England, France, and Tyrol
      • Browse this content
      • England
        • The Harrowing of Hell
      • France
        • Portraits of Christine de Pizan in The Queen’s Manuscript
        • Christine de Pizan and a City of Ladies
        • Enguerrand Quarton(?), Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
        • Martin Schongauer, Madonna of the Rose Bower
        • The Unicorn Tapestries
      • Tyrol
        • Michael Pacher, St. Wolfgang Altarpiece
    • Baltic region
      • Hermen Rode, Saints Nicholas and Victor Altarpiece
      • St. George and the Dragon, Storkyrkan Stockholm
  • Northern Europe in the 16th century:
    Renaissance and Mannerism
    • Browse this content
    • An introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the sixteenth century
    • Inventing “America” for Europe: Theodore de Bry
    • Theodor de Bry, “Their sitting at meate”
    • Johannes Stradanus and Theodoor Galle, “The Discovery of America”
    • Netherlands
      • Browse this content
      • Hieronymus Bosch
        • The Garden of Earthly Delights
        • Last Judgment Triptych
      • Gerard David, The Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor
      • Jan Gossaert, Saint Luke Painting the Madonna
      • Pieter Bruegel the Elder
        • The Dutch Proverbs
        • The Tower of Babel
        • Hunters in the Snow (Winter)
        • Peasant Wedding
      • Pieter Aertsen, Meat Stall
      • Bernard van Orley and Pieter de Pannemaker, The Last Supper
      • Boxwood pendant miniature in wood and feathers
    • Germany and England
      • Browse this content
      • Albrecht Dürer
        • Who was Albrecht Dürer?
        • The Triumphal Arch
        • Self-portrait, Study of a Hand and a Pillow (recto); Six Studies of Pillows (verso)
        • Self-Portrait (1498)
        • Self-portrait (1500)
        • The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
        • The Large Piece of Turf
        • Adam and Eve
        • Melencolia I
        • Decoding art: Dürer’s Melencolia I
        • What is Melencolia?
        • The Four Apostles
        • Dürer’s woodcuts and engravings
      • Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece
      • Hans Baldung Grien, Freiburg Altarpiece
      • Lucas Cranach the Elder
        • Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, Saint Maurice
        • Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
        • Adam and Eve
        • Cupid complaining to Venus
        • Judith with the Head of Holofernes
      • Hans Holbein the Younger
        • About Hans Holbein the Younger
        •  The Ambassadors
        • The Merchant Georg Gisze
        • Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan
      • Albrecht Altdorfer, The Battle of Issus
      • Gerhard Emmoser, Celestial globe with clockwork
      • Portraits of Elizabeth I: Fashioning the Virgin Queen
      • Hunters in a Landscape tapestry
      • The conservator’s eye: a stained glass Adoration of the Magi
      • Conservation: portrait miniatures
      • Conserving the Wolsey Angels
    • France
      • The Gallery of Francis I at Fontainebleau (and French Mannerism)
      • Follower of Bernard Palissy, rustic platter
  • Reformation & Counter-Reformation
    • Browse this content
    • The Protestant Reformation
    • Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 1 of 4): Setting the stage
    • Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 2 of 4): Martin Luther
    • Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 3 of 4): Varieties of Protestantism
    • Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 4 of 4): The Counter-Reformation
    • The Council of Trent and the call to reform art
    • Henry VIII and the Reformation
    • Lucas Cranach the Elder, Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
    • Iconoclasm in the Netherlands in the Sixteenth Century
  • Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries:
    Renaissance
    • Browse this content
    • Beginner’s guide
      • Renaissance in Spain, an introduction
      • The Rise and Fall of the Avis Dynasty in Portugal, an introduction
      • Spoons from West Africa in Renaissance Lisbon
    • 15th century
      • Fifteenth-century Spanish painting, an introduction
      • The Master of Belmonte, St. Michael Defeats the Devil
      • The Morata Master, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin
      • The Sopetrán Lamentation in wood
      • Bartolomé Bermejo, Piedad with Canon Lluís Desplà
      • Gil de Siloé
        • Saint James the Greater
        • Tomb of Juan II of Castile and Isabel of Portugal
        • Façade of San Gregorio, Valladolid
      • Treasure from Spain, lusterware as luxury
      • Royal monastery of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
    • 16th century
      • Juan de Flandes
        • A miraculous appearance for a queen: Christ Appearing to His Mother
        • Marriage at Cana
      • The Cantino Planisphere
      • Alonso Berruguete
        • Apostle or Saint, bringing the figure to life
        • Abraham and Isaac
      • Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina, Head of Christ
      • The Tower of Belém
      • Belém Monstrance
      • Gold S. Vincente of João III
      • Alejo Fernández, The Virgin of the Navigators
      • University of Alcalá de Henares
      • Sacred geometry in a mudéjar-style ceiling
      • El Escorial
      • El Greco
        • Burial of the Count Orgaz
        • View of Toledo
        • Adoration of the Shepherds
  • 17th century:
    Baroque
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Browse this content
      • Baroque art, an introduction
      • How to recognize Baroque art
      • Introduction to the Global Baroque
      • What is genre painting?
      • Francis Bacon and the Scientific Revolution
    • Italy
      • Restoring ancient sculpture in Baroque Rome
      • Gian Lorenzo Bernini
        • Pluto and Proserpina (or The Rape of Proserpina)
        • David
        • Apollo and Daphne
        • Baldacchino, Saint Peter’s
        • Bust of Medusa
        • Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
        • Cathedra Petri (Chair of St. Peter)
        • St. Peter’s Square
        • Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, Rome
      • Francesco Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome
      • Annibale Carracci
        • Christ Appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way
        • Landscape with the Flight into Egypt
      • Caravaggio
        • Narcissus at the Source
        • Calling of St. Matthew
        • The Conversion of St. Paul (or The Conversion of Saul)
        • Crucifixion of St. Peter
        • The Supper at Emmaus
        • Deposition (or Entombment)
        • Death of the Virgin
        • The Flagellation of Christ
        • Caravaggio and Caravaggisti in 17th-century Europe
      • Guido Reni, Aurora
      • Artemisia Gentileschi
        • Judith Slaying Holofernes
        • Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
        • Conversion of the Magdalene
      • Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding her Thigh
      • Guercino, St. Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin
      • Il Gesù, Rome
      • Andrea Pozzo
        • Glorification of Saint Ignatius
        • St. Ignatius Chapel, Il Gesù, Rome
      • The altar tabernacle, Pauline Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome
      • Pierre Le Gros the Younger, Stanislas Kostka on His Deathbed
    • Spain and Portugal
      • Browse this content
      • A Still Life of Global Dimensions: Antonio de Pereda’s Still Life with Ebony Chest
      • Juan Sanchez de Cotán, Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber
      • Diego Velázquez
        • The Waterseller of Seville
        • Los Borrachos (The Drunks), also known as The Triumph of Bacchus
        • Vulcan’s Forge
        • The Surrender of Breda
        • Juan de Pareja
        • Las Meninas
      • Francisco de Zurbarán, The Martyrdom of Saint Serapion
      • Jusepe de Ribera, The Martyrdom of Saint Philip
      • Juan Martínez Montañés and Francisco Pacheco, Christ of Clemency
      • Pedro de Mena, Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa
      • Juan Martínez Montañés, St. John the Baptist
      • The Abduction of Helen Tapestry
      • Juan de Pareja, The Calling of Saint Matthew
      • Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables
      • Josefa de Óbidos, Christ Child as Salvator Mundi
      • Jerónimo de Balbás, Altar of the Kings (Altar de los Reyes)
    • Flanders
      • Browse this content
      • Peter Paul Rubens
        • Mulay Ahmad
        • Elevation of the Cross
        • The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus
        • The Presentation of the Portrait of Marie de’ Medici
        • Arrival (or Disembarkation) of Marie de Medici at Marseilles
        • The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de’ Médici
        • Venus, Mars and Cupid
        • The Consequences of War
        • Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower
      • Anthony van Dyck
        • Charles I at the Hunt
        • Samson and Delilah
    • Dutch Republic
      • Browse this content
      • Model of the Dutch East India Company ship “Valkenisse”
      • The Dutch art market in the 17th century
      • Symbolism and meaning in Dutch still life painting
      • Why make a self-portrait?
      • Van Mander rewrites art history
      • Porcelain, gold, and the Dutch East India Company
      • Fashioning luxury from a coconut cup
      • Osias Beert, Still Life with Various Vessels on a Table
      • Anthony van Dyck, Self-Portrait as Icarus with Daedalus
      • Frans Hals
        • Singing Boy with Flute
        • Malle Babbe
        • The Women Regents
      • Rembrandt
        • The Artist in His Studio
        • The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
        • The Night Watch
        • Self-Portrait with Saskia
        • Girl at a Window
        • Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses
        • Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
        • Bathsheba at Her Bath
        • Abraham Francen
        • Self-Portrait (1659)
        • Self-Portrait with Two Circles
        • The Jewish Bride
        • Christ Preaching (Hundred Guilder Print)
      • Judith Leyster
        • The Proposition
        • Self-Portrait
      • Early Dutch Torah Finials
      • Michaelina Wautier, The Five Senses
      • Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Silver Ewer
      • Gerrit Dou, A Woman Playing a Clavichord
      • Johannes Vermeer
        • The Glass of Wine
        • Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
        • Woman Holding a Balance
        • Girl with a Pearl Earring
        • The Art of Painting
      • Saenredam, Interior of Saint Bavo, Haarlem
      • Jan Steen, Feast of St. Nicholas
      • Jacob van Ruisdael
        • View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
        • The Jewish Cemetery
      • Andries Beeckman, The Castle of Batavia and Dutch colonialism
      • Frans Post, Landscape with Ruins in Olinda
      • Rachel Ruysch
        • Fruit and Insects
        • Flower Still-Life
      • Jan van Huysum, Vase with Flowers
      • Conserving Jacob van Walscapelle’s Flowers in a Glass Vase
      • Huis ten Bosch (House in the Woods)
      • The Great Atlas, Dutch edition
      • The Town Hall of Amsterdam
      • Asia in Holland, 17th century Delftware
      • A Dutch doll house
    • France and England
      • Browse this content
      • France
        • Nicolas Poussin
          • Et in Arcadia Ego
          • Landscape with Saint John on Patmos
        • Antoine or Louis Le Nain, Peasant Family in an Interior
        • Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV
        • Louis le Vau, André le Nôtre, and Charles le Brun, Château de Versailles
        • Claude Perrault, East façade of the Louvre
      • England
        • Anthony van Dyck
          • Charles I with M. de St. Antoine
          • Equestrian Portrait of Charles I
        • Charles I as art collector
        • John Michael Wright, The Coronation Portrait of Charles II
        • The Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace
        • Different Places: Japanese porcelain with English gilt-bronze mounts
        • Wooldridge, Indians of Virginia
  • c. 1700 – 1775:
    Rococo
    • Browse this content
    • Rococo art, an introduction
    • The Formation of a French School: the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture
    • Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera
    • François Boucher, Madame de Pompadour
    • The Tiepolo Family
    • Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun
      • Self-Portrait
      • Self-Portrait with her Daughter
      • Madame Perregaux
    • Jean-Honoré Fragonard
      • The Swing
      • The Progress of Love: The Meeting
    • Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Village Bride
    • Bernard II van Risenburgh, Writing table
    • Architecture in 18th-century Germany
    • Joachim Michael Salecker, Cup with cover with Hebrew inscriptions
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
      • Maria Sibylla Merian, an introduction
      • Maria Sybilla Merian’s Metamorphosis of a Small Emperor Moth on a Damson Plum
        Getty Conversations
  • Central and Eastern Europe in the 17th–18th century
    • The Gwoździec Synagogue
    • Meissen Porcelain Animals
      Getty Conversations
  • Britain in the 18th century
    • Browse this content
    • Wren, Saint Paul’s Cathedral
    • William Hogarth
      • A Rake’s Progress
      • Marriage a-la-Mode
    • Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews
    • Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery
    • Sir Joshua Reynolds
      • Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse
      • Portrait of Syacust Ukah
    • William Hoare, A Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo
    • Josiah Wedgwood: Tycoon of Taste
    • Wedgwood factory, The Pegasus Vase
    • Mary Delany and cut flowers
    • A map of Kolkata in 1785
  • Late 18th century:
    Neoclassicism
    • Browse this content
    • Neoclassicism, an introduction
    • The Age of Enlightenment, an introduction
    • Jacques-Louis David
      • Oath of the Horatii
      • The Death of Socrates
      • The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons
      • Study for The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons
      • The Death of Marat
      • The Intervention of the Sabine Women
      • Napoleon Crossing the Alps
      • The Emperor Napoleon in His Study in the Tuileries
    • Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures
    • Anne-Louis Girodet, The Sleep of Endymion
    • Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine
    • Antonio Canova
      • Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorious
      • Penitent Magdalene
    • Pierre-Alexandre Barthélémy Vignon, Church of La Madeleine
    • Jacques-Germain Soufflot, The Panthéon (Church of Ste-Geneviève), Paris
    • J. Schul, Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom 
  • Spain and Portugal in the 18th century
    • Browse this content
    • Portraits of Francisca Ramírez de Laredo and Antonio de Ulloa
    • Carlos Julião, watercolor manuscript

Europe 1300-1800

  • Browse this content
  • Beginner’s guide to the Early Modern period
    • Classic, classical, and classicism explained
    • Printmaking in Europe, c. 1400−1800
  • A beginner’s guide to the Renaissance
    • Browse this topic
    • Expanding the Renaissance: a Smarthistory initiative
    • Tiny timeline: global Europe
    • The Medieval and Renaissance Altarpiece
    • Patrons and patronage
      • Why commission artwork during the renaissance?
      • Types of renaissance patronage
    • Artists and workshops
      • The Italian renaissance court artist
      • The status of the artist in renaissance Italy
      • Female artists in the renaissance
      • The role of the workshop in Italian renaissance art 
    • Images of African Kingship, Real and Imagined
    • A primer for Italian renaissance art
    • Humanism in renaissance Italy
    • Humanism in Italian renaissance art
    • Introduction to gender in renaissance Italy
    • An introduction to the renaissance nude
      • Sex, Power, and Violence in the Renaissance Nude
      • Confronting power and violence in the renaissance nude
    • Materials and Techniques
      • Gold-ground panel painting
      • Quarrying and carving marble
      • Carving marble with traditional tools
      • Renaissance Watercolours: materials and techniques
  • Italy and Spain in the 14th century:
    Late Gothic
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Browse this content
      • Introduction to Late Gothic art
      • Distorting the Madonna in Medieval art
      • The Black Death
      • The conservator’s eye: Taddeo Gaddi, Saint Julian
      • Remaking a fourteenth-century triptych
    • Florence
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide
        • Florence in the Late Gothic period, an introduction
        • Dante’s Divine Comedy in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance art
      • Cimabue
        • Virgin and Child Enthroned, and Prophets (Santa Trinità Maestà)
        • Santa Trinita Madonna and Child Enthroned
        • Cimabue and Giotto compared
      • Giotto
        • The Ognissanti Madonna and Child Enthroned
        • St. Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata
        • Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel
        • The Arena Chapel (and Giotto’s frescos) in virtual reality
        • Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 1 of 4)
        • Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 2 of 4)
        • Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 3 of 4)
        • Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 4 of 4)
        • The Entombment of Mary
      • A rare embroidery made for an altar at Santa Maria Novella
      • Laudario of Sant’Agnese
      • Andrea Pisano, Reliefs for the Florence Campanile
      • The Ponte Vecchio (“Old Bridge”) in Florence
    • Siena
      • Browse this content
      • Siena in the Late Gothic, an introduction
      • Duccio
        • Maestà
        • Heaven on earth— The Rucellai Madonna
        • The Virgin and Child with Saints Dominic and Aurea
      • Ambrogio Lorenzetti
        • Palazzo Pubblico frescos: Allegory and Effects of Good and Bad Government
        • Presentation of Jesus in the Temple
      • Pietro Lorenzetti, Birth of the Virgin
      • Simone Martini
        • Annunciation
        • Maestà
        • Saint Louis of Toulouse
    • Pisa, Pistoia and Rome
      • Browse this content
      • Nicola Pisano, Pulpit, Pisa Baptistery, and Giovanni Pisano, Slaughter of the Innocents, Pulpit, Sant’Andrea church, Pistoia (Italy)
      • Giovanni Pisano, Pisa Pulpit
      • Pietro Cavallini, The Last Judgment
    • Spain
      • Browse this content
      • Joshua ibn Gaon, a decorated Hebrew Bible (MS. Kennicott 2)
      • Ferrer Bassa and the murals of Pedralbes
      • The Prato Haggadah
      • Hebrew Bible
      • Elisha ben Abraham Cresques and the Farhi Bible
      • Catalan Atlas
  • Italy in the 15th century:
    Early Renaissance
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Browse this content
      • How to recognize Italian Renaissance art
      • Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Italian Altarpiece
      • The study of anatomy
      • Contrapposto explained
      • Alberti’s revolution in painting
      • Linear perspective
        • Linear Perspective: Brunelleschi’s Experiment
        • How one-point linear perspective works
        • Early applications of linear perspective
      • Retro style in the Renaissance
    • Central Italy
      • Browse this content
      • Florence in the Early Renaissance
      • Painting
        • Gentile da Fabriano
          • Adoration of the Magi
          • Adoration of the Magi (reframed)
        • Masaccio
          • Virgin and Child Enthroned
          • The Holy Trinity
          • Tribute Money and Expulsion, Brancacci Chapel
          • Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden in the Brancacci Chapel
        • Fra Angelico
          • The Annunciation and Life of the Virgin (c. 1426)
          • The Annunciation (c. 1438-47)
        • Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano
        • Fra Filippo Lippi
          • Madonna and Child with Two Angels
          • Portrait of a Man and Woman at a Casement
          • Fra Filippo Lippi, The Adoration
        • Benozzo Gozzoli, The Medici Palace Chapel frescoes
        • Filippino Lippi’s Madonna and Child, an early image of enslaved people in renaissance Florence
        • Domenico Veneziano, Saint Lucy Altarpiece
        • Antonio Pollaiuolo, Battle of Ten Nudes or (Battle of Nude Men)
        • Ghirlandaio, Life of the Virgin
        • Cassone with the Conquest of Trebizond
        • Sandro Botticelli
          • La Primavera (Spring)
          • The Birth of Venus
          • Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici
          • Fashion and a Portrait of a Young Woman
          • Dissecting Botticelli’s Adoration of the Magi
          • Mariko Mori on Botticelli’s The Annunciation
        • Perugino
          • Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom to St. Peter
          • Perugino, Decemviri Altarpiece
          • Perugino & Napoleon’s appropriation of Italian cultural treasures
        • Piero della Francesca
          • The Baptism of Christ
          • Flagellation of Christ
          • Resurrection
          • Portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino
        • Luca Signorelli, The Damned Cast into Hell
      • Sculpture and architecture
        • Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac
        • Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, East Doors of the Florence Baptistry
        • Filippo Brunelleschi
          • Old Sacristy, San Lorenzo
          • Dome of the Cathedral of Florence
          • Pazzi Chapel
          • Santo Spirito
        • Orsanmichele and Donatello’s Saint Mark, Florence
        • Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints
        • Donatello
          • St. Mark
          • Saint George
          • Feast of Herod
          • Madonna of the Clouds
          • David
          • The Miracle of the Mule
          • Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata
          • Mary Magdalene
        • Andrea della Robbia’s bambini at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence
        • Leon Battista Alberti
          • Palazzo Rucellai
          • Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
          • Sant’Andrea, Mantua
        • Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici
    • Northern Italy: Venice, Ferrara, and the Marches
      • Browse this content
      • A beginner’s guide
        • Browse this content
        • Venetian art, an introduction
        • Oil paint in Venice
        • Devotional confraternities (scuole) in Renaissance Venice
        • Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius): inventor of the modern book
        • Venetian glass, an introduction
        • Saving Venice
      • Venetian architecture
        • Ca’ d’Oro
        • Palazzo Ducale
      • Carlo Crivelli
        • Do you speak Renaissance? Carlo Crivelli, Madonna and Child
        • The Annunciation with Saint Emidius
      • Gentile Bellini, Portrait of Sultan Mehmed II
      • Gentile Bellini and Giovanni Bellini, Saint Mark Preaching in Alexandria
      • Giovanni Bellini
        • St. Francis in the Desert (or St. Francis in Ecstasy)
        • Brera Pietà
        • San Giobbe Altarpiece
        • San Zaccaria Altarpiece
        • Giovanni Bellini and Titian,The Feast of the Gods
      • Vittore Carpaccio, Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Rialto Bridge, and Black gondoliers
      • Andrea Mantegna
        • St. James Led to his Execution
        • San Zeno Altarpiece
        • Saint Sebastian
        • Dormition (or Death) of the Virgin
        • Camera Picta (Camera degli Sposi)
        • Dead Christ
      • Pisanello, Leonello d’Este
      • Sala dei Mesi (Hall of the Months) at Palazzo Schifanoia
      • Cosmè Tura, Roverella Altarpiece
      • Guido Mazzoni
        • Mazzoni and Renaissance Emotions
        • Lamentation in Ferrara
        • Head of a Man
      • Palazzo dei Diamanti, Ferrara
  • Italy in the 16th century:
    High Renaissance and Mannerism
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Toward the High Renaissance, an introduction
      • The Sack of Rome in 1527
      • Mannerism, an introduction
      • Renaissance woman: Isabella d’Este
      • The Medici collect the Americas
      • Medici porcelain, a failed experiment
      • Preparatory drawing during the Italian renaissance, an introduction
      • Galileo Galilei
      • Galileo and the science of nature
    • Central and Northern Italy
      • Browse this content
      • Nicola da Urbino, a dinner service for a duchess
      • Verrocchio, David with the Head of Goliath
      • Leonardo da Vinci
        • About Leonardo
        • Leonardo’s Letter to the Duke of Milan
        • Leonardo: Anatomist
        • Leonardo and his drawings
        • Adoration of the Magi
        • “Vitruvian Man”
        • The Virgin of the Rocks
        • The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist (Burlington House Cartoon)
        • Last Supper
        • Mona Lisa
        • Mona Lisa (from HENI Talks)
      • Michelangelo
        • Tiny timelines: Michelangelo in context
        • About Michelangelo
        • Who was Michelangelo?
        • Pietà
        • David
        • The many meanings of Michelangelo’s David
        • The Tomb of Pope Julius II
          • Unfinished business—Michelangelo and the Pope
          • Slaves
          • Moses
        • Taddei Tondo
        • The Sistine Chapel & Michelangelo
          • Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
          • Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
          • Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel
        • Medici Chapel (New Sacristy)
        • Laurentian Library
        • Replicating Michelangelo
      • Raphael
        • Raphael, an introduction
        • Marriage of the Virgin
        • Madonna of the Goldfinch
        • La belle jardinière (Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist)
        • School of Athens
        • The Alba Madonna
        • Portrait of Pope Julius II
        • Galatea
        • Pope Leo X
      • Donato Bramante
        • Tempietto, Rome
        • Saint Peter’s Basilica
      • Jacopo Pontormo, Entombment (or Deposition from the Cross)
      • Parmigianino
        • Madonna of the Long Neck
        • Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
      • Rosso Fiorentino, The Dead Christ with Angels
      • Benvenuto Cellini
        • Salt Cellar
        • Perseus with the Head of Medusa
      • Sofonisba Anguissola
        • Self-Portraits
        • Infanta Catalina Micaela with a Marmoset
      • Plautilla Nelli, The Last Supper
      • Bronzino
        • An Allegory with Venus and Cupid
        • Portrait of Eleonora di Toledo with her son Giovanni
        • A chapel for Eleonora di Toledo, Duchess of Florence 
      • Giambologna, Abduction of a Sabine Woman
    • Venice
      • Browse this content
      • Beginner’s guide
        • Greek painters in renaissance Venice
      • Synagogues in the Venetian Ghetto
      • Giorgione
        • The Tempest
        • Three Philosophers
        • The Adoration of the Shepherds
      • Titian
        • Pastoral Concert
        • Noli me Tangere
        • Assumption of the Virgin
        • Madonna of the Pesaro Family
        • Bacchus and Ariadne
        • Titian, Isabella d’Este (Isabella in Black)
        • Two portraits of Pietro Aretino
        • Venus of Urbino
        • Christ Crowned with Thorns
        • Diana and Actaeon
        • Titian and Jacopo Palma il Giovane, Pietà
      • Correggio
        • Jupiter and Io
        • Assumption of the Virgin
      • Paolo Veronese
        • The Family of Darius before Alexander
        •  The Dream of Saint Helena
        • Feast in the House of Levi
        • Transcript of the trial of Veronese
      • Jacopo Tintoretto
        • The Miracle of the Slave
        • The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark
        • The Origin of the Milky Way
        • Last Supper
      • Andrea Palladio
        • La Rotonda
        • Teatro Olimpico
  • Northern Europe in the 15th century:
    Northern Renaissance
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Browse this content
      • The Medieval and Renaissance Altarpiece
      • An introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the fifteenth century
      • Introduction to Fifteenth-century Flanders
      • Introduction to Burgundy in the Fifteenth Century
      • Northern Renaissance art under Burgundian rule
      • The role of the workshop in late medieval and early modern northern Europe
      • Biblical Storytelling: Illustrating a Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Altarpiece
      • The Norfolk Triptych and how it was made
    • Burgundian and adjacent territories
      • Browse this content
      • Fit for a duke: Broederlam’s Crucifixion Altarpiece
      • Claus Sluter and Claus de Werve
        • The Well of Moses
        • Mourners
      • Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg
        • Limbourg brothers, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
        • The Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry
      • Campin and his workshop
        • Robert Campin, Christ and the Virgin
        • Workshop of Robert Campin, Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)
      • Jan van Eyck
        • The Ghent Altarpiece
        • Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (Self-Portrait?)
        • The Madonna in the Church
        • The Arnolfini Portrait
        • The question of pregnancy in Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait
      • Petrus Christus
        • A Goldsmith in his Shop
        • Portrait of a Young Woman
      • Rogier van der Weyden
        • Deposition
        • Crucifixion Triptych
        • The Last Judgment
        • The Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist Mourning
        • Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin
      • Hugo van der Goes
        • Hugo van der Goes, Portinari Altarpiece
        • Hugo van der Goes, The Adoration of the Kings (Monforte Altar)
      • Stefan Lochner, Madonna of the Rose Bower
      • Hans Memling, Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove
      • The Holy Thorn Reliquary of Jean, duc de Berry
    • England, France, and Tyrol
      • Browse this content
      • England
        • The Harrowing of Hell
      • France
        • Portraits of Christine de Pizan in The Queen’s Manuscript
        • Christine de Pizan and a City of Ladies
        • Enguerrand Quarton(?), Pietà of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon
        • Martin Schongauer, Madonna of the Rose Bower
        • The Unicorn Tapestries
      • Tyrol
        • Michael Pacher, St. Wolfgang Altarpiece
    • Baltic region
      • Hermen Rode, Saints Nicholas and Victor Altarpiece
      • St. George and the Dragon, Storkyrkan Stockholm
  • Northern Europe in the 16th century:
    Renaissance and Mannerism
    • Browse this content
    • An introduction to the Northern Renaissance in the sixteenth century
    • Inventing “America” for Europe: Theodore de Bry
    • Theodor de Bry, “Their sitting at meate”
    • Johannes Stradanus and Theodoor Galle, “The Discovery of America”
    • Netherlands
      • Browse this content
      • Hieronymus Bosch
        • The Garden of Earthly Delights
        • Last Judgment Triptych
      • Gerard David, The Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor
      • Jan Gossaert, Saint Luke Painting the Madonna
      • Pieter Bruegel the Elder
        • The Dutch Proverbs
        • The Tower of Babel
        • Hunters in the Snow (Winter)
        • Peasant Wedding
      • Pieter Aertsen, Meat Stall
      • Bernard van Orley and Pieter de Pannemaker, The Last Supper
      • Boxwood pendant miniature in wood and feathers
    • Germany and England
      • Browse this content
      • Albrecht Dürer
        • Who was Albrecht Dürer?
        • The Triumphal Arch
        • Self-portrait, Study of a Hand and a Pillow (recto); Six Studies of Pillows (verso)
        • Self-Portrait (1498)
        • Self-portrait (1500)
        • The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
        • The Large Piece of Turf
        • Adam and Eve
        • Melencolia I
        • Decoding art: Dürer’s Melencolia I
        • What is Melencolia?
        • The Four Apostles
        • Dürer’s woodcuts and engravings
      • Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece
      • Hans Baldung Grien, Freiburg Altarpiece
      • Lucas Cranach the Elder
        • Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, Saint Maurice
        • Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
        • Adam and Eve
        • Cupid complaining to Venus
        • Judith with the Head of Holofernes
      • Hans Holbein the Younger
        • About Hans Holbein the Younger
        •  The Ambassadors
        • The Merchant Georg Gisze
        • Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan
      • Albrecht Altdorfer, The Battle of Issus
      • Gerhard Emmoser, Celestial globe with clockwork
      • Portraits of Elizabeth I: Fashioning the Virgin Queen
      • Hunters in a Landscape tapestry
      • The conservator’s eye: a stained glass Adoration of the Magi
      • Conservation: portrait miniatures
      • Conserving the Wolsey Angels
    • France
      • The Gallery of Francis I at Fontainebleau (and French Mannerism)
      • Follower of Bernard Palissy, rustic platter
  • Reformation & Counter-Reformation
    • Browse this content
    • The Protestant Reformation
    • Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 1 of 4): Setting the stage
    • Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 2 of 4): Martin Luther
    • Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 3 of 4): Varieties of Protestantism
    • Introduction to the Protestant Reformation (part 4 of 4): The Counter-Reformation
    • The Council of Trent and the call to reform art
    • Henry VIII and the Reformation
    • Lucas Cranach the Elder, Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
    • Iconoclasm in the Netherlands in the Sixteenth Century
  • Spain and Portugal in the 15th and 16th centuries:
    Renaissance
    • Browse this content
    • Beginner’s guide
      • Renaissance in Spain, an introduction
      • The Rise and Fall of the Avis Dynasty in Portugal, an introduction
      • Spoons from West Africa in Renaissance Lisbon
    • 15th century
      • Fifteenth-century Spanish painting, an introduction
      • The Master of Belmonte, St. Michael Defeats the Devil
      • The Morata Master, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin
      • The Sopetrán Lamentation in wood
      • Bartolomé Bermejo, Piedad with Canon Lluís Desplà
      • Gil de Siloé
        • Saint James the Greater
        • Tomb of Juan II of Castile and Isabel of Portugal
        • Façade of San Gregorio, Valladolid
      • Treasure from Spain, lusterware as luxury
      • Royal monastery of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
    • 16th century
      • Juan de Flandes
        • A miraculous appearance for a queen: Christ Appearing to His Mother
        • Marriage at Cana
      • The Cantino Planisphere
      • Alonso Berruguete
        • Apostle or Saint, bringing the figure to life
        • Abraham and Isaac
      • Fernando Yáñez de la Almedina, Head of Christ
      • The Tower of Belém
      • Belém Monstrance
      • Gold S. Vincente of João III
      • Alejo Fernández, The Virgin of the Navigators
      • University of Alcalá de Henares
      • Sacred geometry in a mudéjar-style ceiling
      • El Escorial
      • El Greco
        • Burial of the Count Orgaz
        • View of Toledo
        • Adoration of the Shepherds
  • 17th century:
    Baroque
    • Browse this content
    • A beginner’s guide
      • Browse this content
      • Baroque art, an introduction
      • How to recognize Baroque art
      • Introduction to the Global Baroque
      • What is genre painting?
      • Francis Bacon and the Scientific Revolution
    • Italy
      • Restoring ancient sculpture in Baroque Rome
      • Gian Lorenzo Bernini
        • Pluto and Proserpina (or The Rape of Proserpina)
        • David
        • Apollo and Daphne
        • Baldacchino, Saint Peter’s
        • Bust of Medusa
        • Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
        • Cathedra Petri (Chair of St. Peter)
        • St. Peter’s Square
        • Sant’Andrea al Quirinale, Rome
      • Francesco Borromini, San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, Rome
      • Annibale Carracci
        • Christ Appearing to Saint Peter on the Appian Way
        • Landscape with the Flight into Egypt
      • Caravaggio
        • Narcissus at the Source
        • Calling of St. Matthew
        • The Conversion of St. Paul (or The Conversion of Saul)
        • Crucifixion of St. Peter
        • The Supper at Emmaus
        • Deposition (or Entombment)
        • Death of the Virgin
        • The Flagellation of Christ
        • Caravaggio and Caravaggisti in 17th-century Europe
      • Guido Reni, Aurora
      • Artemisia Gentileschi
        • Judith Slaying Holofernes
        • Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
        • Conversion of the Magdalene
      • Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding her Thigh
      • Guercino, St. Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin
      • Il Gesù, Rome
      • Andrea Pozzo
        • Glorification of Saint Ignatius
        • St. Ignatius Chapel, Il Gesù, Rome
      • The altar tabernacle, Pauline Chapel, Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome
      • Pierre Le Gros the Younger, Stanislas Kostka on His Deathbed
    • Spain and Portugal
      • Browse this content
      • A Still Life of Global Dimensions: Antonio de Pereda’s Still Life with Ebony Chest
      • Juan Sanchez de Cotán, Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber
      • Diego Velázquez
        • The Waterseller of Seville
        • Los Borrachos (The Drunks), also known as The Triumph of Bacchus
        • Vulcan’s Forge
        • The Surrender of Breda
        • Juan de Pareja
        • Las Meninas
      • Francisco de Zurbarán, The Martyrdom of Saint Serapion
      • Jusepe de Ribera, The Martyrdom of Saint Philip
      • Juan Martínez Montañés and Francisco Pacheco, Christ of Clemency
      • Pedro de Mena, Ecce Homo and Mater Dolorosa
      • Juan Martínez Montañés, St. John the Baptist
      • The Abduction of Helen Tapestry
      • Juan de Pareja, The Calling of Saint Matthew
      • Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Immaculate Conception of Los Venerables
      • Josefa de Óbidos, Christ Child as Salvator Mundi
      • Jerónimo de Balbás, Altar of the Kings (Altar de los Reyes)
    • Flanders
      • Browse this content
      • Peter Paul Rubens
        • Mulay Ahmad
        • Elevation of the Cross
        • The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus
        • The Presentation of the Portrait of Marie de’ Medici
        • Arrival (or Disembarkation) of Marie de Medici at Marseilles
        • The Apotheosis of Henry IV and the Proclamation of the Regency of Marie de’ Médici
        • Venus, Mars and Cupid
        • The Consequences of War
        • Rubens and Isabella Brant in the Honeysuckle Bower
      • Anthony van Dyck
        • Charles I at the Hunt
        • Samson and Delilah
    • Dutch Republic
      • Browse this content
      • Model of the Dutch East India Company ship “Valkenisse”
      • The Dutch art market in the 17th century
      • Symbolism and meaning in Dutch still life painting
      • Why make a self-portrait?
      • Van Mander rewrites art history
      • Porcelain, gold, and the Dutch East India Company
      • Fashioning luxury from a coconut cup
      • Osias Beert, Still Life with Various Vessels on a Table
      • Anthony van Dyck, Self-Portrait as Icarus with Daedalus
      • Frans Hals
        • Singing Boy with Flute
        • Malle Babbe
        • The Women Regents
      • Rembrandt
        • The Artist in His Studio
        • The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
        • The Night Watch
        • Self-Portrait with Saskia
        • Girl at a Window
        • Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses
        • Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
        • Bathsheba at Her Bath
        • Abraham Francen
        • Self-Portrait (1659)
        • Self-Portrait with Two Circles
        • The Jewish Bride
        • Christ Preaching (Hundred Guilder Print)
      • Judith Leyster
        • The Proposition
        • Self-Portrait
      • Early Dutch Torah Finials
      • Michaelina Wautier, The Five Senses
      • Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Silver Ewer
      • Gerrit Dou, A Woman Playing a Clavichord
      • Johannes Vermeer
        • The Glass of Wine
        • Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
        • Woman Holding a Balance
        • Girl with a Pearl Earring
        • The Art of Painting
      • Saenredam, Interior of Saint Bavo, Haarlem
      • Jan Steen, Feast of St. Nicholas
      • Jacob van Ruisdael
        • View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
        • The Jewish Cemetery
      • Andries Beeckman, The Castle of Batavia and Dutch colonialism
      • Frans Post, Landscape with Ruins in Olinda
      • Rachel Ruysch
        • Fruit and Insects
        • Flower Still-Life
      • Jan van Huysum, Vase with Flowers
      • Conserving Jacob van Walscapelle’s Flowers in a Glass Vase
      • Huis ten Bosch (House in the Woods)
      • The Great Atlas, Dutch edition
      • The Town Hall of Amsterdam
      • Asia in Holland, 17th century Delftware
      • A Dutch doll house
    • France and England
      • Browse this content
      • France
        • Nicolas Poussin
          • Et in Arcadia Ego
          • Landscape with Saint John on Patmos
        • Antoine or Louis Le Nain, Peasant Family in an Interior
        • Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV
        • Louis le Vau, André le Nôtre, and Charles le Brun, Château de Versailles
        • Claude Perrault, East façade of the Louvre
      • England
        • Anthony van Dyck
          • Charles I with M. de St. Antoine
          • Equestrian Portrait of Charles I
        • Charles I as art collector
        • John Michael Wright, The Coronation Portrait of Charles II
        • The Banqueting House, Whitehall Palace
        • Different Places: Japanese porcelain with English gilt-bronze mounts
        • Wooldridge, Indians of Virginia
  • c. 1700 – 1775:
    Rococo
    • Browse this content
    • Rococo art, an introduction
    • The Formation of a French School: the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture
    • Antoine Watteau, Pilgrimage to Cythera
    • François Boucher, Madame de Pompadour
    • The Tiepolo Family
    • Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun
      • Self-Portrait
      • Self-Portrait with her Daughter
      • Madame Perregaux
    • Jean-Honoré Fragonard
      • The Swing
      • The Progress of Love: The Meeting
    • Jean-Baptiste Greuze, The Village Bride
    • Bernard II van Risenburgh, Writing table
    • Architecture in 18th-century Germany
    • Joachim Michael Salecker, Cup with cover with Hebrew inscriptions
    • Maria Sibylla Merian
      • Maria Sibylla Merian, an introduction
      • Maria Sybilla Merian’s Metamorphosis of a Small Emperor Moth on a Damson Plum
        Getty Conversations
  • Central and Eastern Europe in the 17th–18th century
    • The Gwoździec Synagogue
    • Meissen Porcelain Animals
      Getty Conversations
  • Britain in the 18th century
    • Browse this content
    • Wren, Saint Paul’s Cathedral
    • William Hogarth
      • A Rake’s Progress
      • Marriage a-la-Mode
    • Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Andrews
    • Joseph Wright of Derby, A Philosopher Giving a Lecture at the Orrery
    • Sir Joshua Reynolds
      • Mrs. Siddons as the Tragic Muse
      • Portrait of Syacust Ukah
    • William Hoare, A Portrait of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo
    • Josiah Wedgwood: Tycoon of Taste
    • Wedgwood factory, The Pegasus Vase
    • Mary Delany and cut flowers
    • A map of Kolkata in 1785
  • Late 18th century:
    Neoclassicism
    • Browse this content
    • Neoclassicism, an introduction
    • The Age of Enlightenment, an introduction
    • Jacques-Louis David
      • Oath of the Horatii
      • The Death of Socrates
      • The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons
      • Study for The Lictors Bringing Brutus the Bodies of his Sons
      • The Death of Marat
      • The Intervention of the Sabine Women
      • Napoleon Crossing the Alps
      • The Emperor Napoleon in His Study in the Tuileries
    • Angelica Kauffmann, Cornelia Pointing to her Children as Her Treasures
    • Anne-Louis Girodet, The Sleep of Endymion
    • Marie-Guillemine Benoist, Portrait of Madeleine
    • Antonio Canova
      • Paolina Borghese as Venus Victorious
      • Penitent Magdalene
    • Pierre-Alexandre Barthélémy Vignon, Church of La Madeleine
    • Jacques-Germain Soufflot, The Panthéon (Church of Ste-Geneviève), Paris
    • J. Schul, Portrait of a Lady Holding an Orange Blossom 
  • Spain and Portugal in the 18th century
    • Browse this content
    • Portraits of Francisca Ramírez de Laredo and Antonio de Ulloa
    • Carlos Julião, watercolor manuscript

Guercino, St. Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin

by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. David Drogin

Guercino, St. Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin, oil on canvas, 1652-53 (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City)

Cite this page as: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. David Drogin, "Guercino, St. Luke Displaying a Painting of the Virgin," in Smarthistory, November 13, 2015, accessed December 10, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/guercino-st-luke-displaying-a-painting-of-the-virgin/.
Flickr Icon

Browse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning!

Sign up for our newsletter!

Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content.

Smarthistory is a nonprofit organization

At Smarthistory we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.

  • Donate
  • Contact Us
facebook icon
twitter icon
instagram icon
youtube icon
flickr icon
  • About Smarthistory
  • Smarthistory’s blog
  • Contribute an essay
  • Content editors and contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License