Léon Cogniet | The massacre of the Innocents, 1824

The Massacre of the Innocents (Location: Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes.) is the biblical account of infanticide by Herod the Great, the Roman-appointed King of the Jews.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Herod ordered the execution of all young male children in the vicinity of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth had been announced to him by the Magi.

In typical Matthean style, it is understood as the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy.

Bernard Buffet | Expressionist painter

Bernard Buffet (1928-1999) was a French painter of Expressionism and a member of the anti-abstract art group L'homme Témoin (the Witness-Man).

Bernard Buffet represents a typical demonstration of the divorce between the French and Contemporary Art.

Popular artist by excellence, Bernard Buffet loved by the public is however detested by elitists whom hold against him his prolixity: 8,000 paintings, water colors,drawings, lithographs and engravings.

Premio Nobel per la Letteratura

Il premio Nobel per la Letteratura è uno dei cinque premi istituiti dal testamento di Alfred Nobel nel 1895 ed è attribuito all'autore nel campo della letteratura mondiale che "si sia maggiormente distinto per le sue opere in una direzione ideale"; è stato assegnato per la prima volta nel 1901, come gli altri premi istituiti da Nobel stesso.

Un premio considerato il più prestigioso e il più mediatico del mondo, il Premio Nobel mette in evidenza un autore ed il suo lavoro.

Emanuel Baschny (Austrian, 1876-1932)

Emanuel Baschny was an Austrian painter, draftsman, graphic artist, etcher.

Born: Sternberg - Czech Republic, Europe in October 3, 1876.

Death: Vienna, Vienna, Austria, Europe in November 1, 1932.

From 1893 studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under Franz Rumpler and William Unger.

Giorgos Seferis | A word for Summer / Una parola sull'Estate, 1936

We’ve returned to autumn again; summer,

like an exercise book we’re tired of writing in, remains

full of deletions, abstract designs,

question marks in the margin; we’ve returned

to the season of eyes gazing

into the mirror under the electric light

closed lips and people strangers

in rooms in streets under the pepper-trees

while the headlights of cars massacre

thousands of pale masks.

Isaac Levitan (Russian landscape painter, 1860-1900) | Spring in Italy

Atsushi Koyama, 1978 | Humans and Machines

Born in Tokyo, Atsushi Koyama / 小山 篤 is a visual artist from Japan. He holds both a BFA in art from Tama Art University and a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Tokyo University of Science in 2008.

Koyama’s work clearly uses the backgrounds of his tutelage as he beautifully blends anatomical illustration with mechanical diagrams.

METAMACHINE is his collaborative project at the border of visual art and electronic music.

Although the meaning behind these oil paintings by Atsushi Koyama is somewhat ambiguous, it’s easy to appreciate the exactness of his paintbrush that colorfully and elegantly depicts mechanical diagrams mixed with anatomical illustrations.

Ulpiano Checa y Sanz | Orientalist painter

Ulpiano Checa y Sanz (1860-1916) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, poster designer and illustrator, known in the art world as Ulpiano Fernández-Checa y Saiz.

He used both impressionistic and academic techniques, and painted mainly historical subjects.

Checa participated in numerous Salons of Paris and in many of them was awarded.

He studied at the Academy of fine arts of San Fernando in Madrid, where he was student of Federico de Madrazo, Alejandro Ferrant, Manuel Domínguez and Pablo Gonzalvo.

King Charles III, 1948 | Watercolorist and Patron of the Arts

King Charles III of the United Kingdom (born Charles Philip Arthur George; 14 November 1948) is an artist, a master watercolour artist of landscapes.

King Charles III's interest began during the 1970s and 1980s when he was inspired by Robert Waddell, who had been his art master at Gordonstoun in Scotland.

In time, King Charles met leading artists such as Edward Seago, with whom he discussed watercolour technique, and received further tuition from John Ward, Bryan Organ and Derek Hill.

Jean-François Portaels | A Sicilian bride, 1861

Jean-François Portaels | A Sicilian bride, 1861 | Royal Collection of the United Kingdom

Three-quarter length, facing half left, her head turned to the viewer; seated on a stone bench; she wears a white dress with red trim and flower petals embroidered on the lower sleeves, and a black sleevless garment; with loosely arranged lace headgear; holding a rosary.

Eugène Laermans | Genre painter

Eugène Jules Joseph Baron Laermans (1864-1940) was a Belgian painter.

He was born in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. At the age of eleven, he contracted meningitis, which left him deaf and nearly mute (although some sources say he was born deaf).

This concentrated his attention on his sense of sight, and led to his decision to become a painter.

He enrolled at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in 1887, where he studied with Jean-François Portaels and was a great admirer of the paintings of Félicien Rops.

Betsy Westendorp-Osieck | The Amsterdamse Joffers group

Betsy Westendorp-Osieck (1880-1968) was a Dutch painter, watercolorist, etcher, pastelist and draftsman who was part of the Amsterdamse Joffers painting group.

Johanna Elisabeth ("Betsy" or "Betsie") Osieck was born in Amsterdam 29 December 1880 to the merchant Philip Willem Osieck and Catharina Agnes Briel.

She was one of a family of five, but one of them died as a child. Westendorp-Osieck attended a French secondary school before going to a German boarding school.

She intended becoming a pianist but when that proved improbable she took up art.

William Brymner | Impressionist painter

William Brymner, CMG RCA (1855-1925) was a Canadian figure and landscape painter and educator.

In addition to playing a key role in the development of Impressionism in Canada, Brymner taught numerous artists who became leading figures in Canadian modern art.

José Luis Corella, 1959 | Classical realism painter

"A painting should be vivid, and not a mere composition of paint" - José Luis Corella.

Jose Luis Corella is a notable and prominent representative of Contemporary Spanish Realism.

The subtlety of the realism of his portraits encompasses the profound complexity of the human being, with everyday images transformed into wonderful works of art.

José Luis Corella was born in Valencia, Spain.

Bob Dylan, 1941 | Paintings by the Music Legend

Not only is Bob Dylan one of the most iconic musicians of the modern era, a filmmaker and a best-selling author, he is also a painter, a sculptor since the 1960s.

Dylan has been awarded America’s Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Arts, the Pulitzer Prize, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize and France’s Officer de la Legion d’honneur.

He has won an Oscar and eleven Grammy Awards.

Jacques-Eugène Feyen | Genre painter

Jacques-Eugène Feyen (1815-1908) was a French painter and photographer.

The elder brother of painter Auguste Feyen-Perrin, Jacques-Eugène enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts and studied under Paul Delaroche.

He had a notable career at the Paris Salon from 1841 to 1882, where won medals in 1866 and 1880.

In 1881 he was decorated with the Legion of Honor.

Jill Maytorena | Mixed media painter

Jill Maytorena's portraits reveal figures who emerge through a glow of pastels and vibrant patterns.

She has a unique style of capturing beauty through textural representations and forms.

This series of artworks discovers the presence of patterns that are introspective and exploratory.

Sewing patterns, patterned fabrics and papers, charcoals, and soft pastels blend in collaged layers to illuminate the topography of her figurative art.

Johan Tirén | Genre painter

Johan Tirén (1853-1911) was a Swedish painter who specialized in scenes of the rural life in Northern Sweden.

He was the older brother of the artist, Karl Tirén. At the age of seven, his family moved to Oviken in Jämtland, where his father served as the Vicar.

He originally attended the Tekniska skolan in Stockholm then spent the years 1877 to 1880 at the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts, where he won a Royal Medal in 1880 for his painting of Loki imprisoned by Æsir.

Albert de Belleroche | Painter of Belle Époque

Count Albert Gustavus de Belleroche (1864-1944), also known as Albert Belleroche, was a Welsh painter and lithographer, who lived most of his childhood and his adulthood in Paris and England.

He began as a painter, but at the turn of the century focused on lithography, for which he is most well-known. He was awarded the Chevalier de l’Ordre de Leopold by King Albert I of Belgium in 1933.

Jaroslav Seifert | Rondò di primavera

Tu devi credermi, io sarei felice

se sorrisi mandassero i tuoi occhi

quando stasera dovrai ricucire

ciò che le mie mani ti hanno strappato.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Alexis Le Borgne, 1995 | Watercolor painter

Alexis Le Borgne is an award-winning French-Vietnamese professional artist based in France.

He describes his art as evolving with time and being marked by continuous questioning and desire to learn in perpetuity.

From still lifes to interior scenes, as well as the animal world, imaginary landscapes and character settings, each of Le Borgne's subjects "brings its stone to the edifice", helping him to better understand and grasp the world around him.