Giorgione | Judith, 1504

Giorgione's work largely determined the development of 16th-century Venetian painting.

There are but a few generally accepted, non-controversial works from his hand and one of these is the Hermitage's Judith.

This biblical heroine, who saved her native city of Bethulia from attack by the Assyrians, was extremely popular during the Renaissance. Despite the historical subject, the painting is in fact what is known as a poesie, a type of work created by Giorgione himself and soon widespread in early 16th-century Venetian painting.

Jinnie May | Abstract Watercolour painter

Jinnie May has always had an appreciation for art, but it wasn’t until she retired in 2000 that she began to seriously pursue art. Currently Jinnie is interested in the use of watercolor for its spontaneity, portability and indecisiveness. Her initial inspiration comes from studying California Watercolor artists from the 1940’s and 50’s, who painted genre paintings on large paper using big brushes and bold colors.

Correggio | Mannerist painter

Correggio, byname of Antonio Allegri (born August 1494, Correggio [now in Emilia-Romagna, Italy]-died March 5, 1534, Correggio), most important Renaissance painter of the school of Parma, whose late works influenced the style of many Baroque and Rococo artists.

His first important works are the convent ceiling of San Paolo (c. 1519), Parma, depicting allegories on humanist themes, and the frescoes in San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma (1520-23), and the cathedral of Parma (1526-30).

The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (c. 1526) is among the finest of his poetic late oil paintings.

Paolo Veronese | Assessment

An artist's biography of Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) was included in the second edition of the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (1568), by Giorgio Vasari, with improved coverage of the painters of the Venetian school.

A fuller biography of Veronese had to await Le maraviglie dell'Arte ovvero, Le vite degli Illustri Pittori Veneti and dello Stato (1648), by Carlo Ridolfi, a compilation of the Venetian School painters.

Ridolfi said that Veronese's painting of The Feast in the House of Levi (1573) is "by far, the most important source for our knowledge of his art", because "it gave rein to joy, made beauty majestic, made laughter, itself, more festive".

Bartholomeus Spranger (1546-1611)

Bartholomaeus Spranger, also spelled Bartholomeus Sprangers, or Sprangerson (March 21, 1546, Antwerp, Hapsburg Netherlands-August 1611, Prague), Antwerp painter noted for his paintings of nudes executed in the late Mannerist style.

In his efforts to develop a Northern artistic canon of the human figure, Spranger employed mannered poses, slender, elongated bodies, and a gleaming, brittle texture in his work.

The figures smile invitingly, and the influence of Parmigianino and Correggio is evident in their voluptuous contours.

Jacob Ferdinand Saeys | Architectural Fantasies painter

Jacobus Ferdinandus Saey or Jacob Ferdinand Saeys (1658 - after 1726) was a Flemish painter who specialized in architectural paintings depicting gallant companies amidst imaginary Renaissance and Baroque palaces and buildings. After starting his career in Flanders, he moved to Vienna, where he stayed for the rest of his life.

Salvador Dali and the Science

Dalí was a versatile artist. Some of his more popular works are sculptures and other objects, and he is also noted for his contributions to theater, fashion, and photography, among other areas.

Dalí's life-long interest in science and mathematics was often reflected in his work.

His soft watches have been interpreted as references to Einstein's theory of the relativity of time and space.

Images of atomic particles appeared in his work soon after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and strands of D.N.A. appeared from the mid-1950s.

Rafael Espitia, 1967 | Surrealist painter

Born in Cartagena, a port city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the artist began his career at an early age during the late 60’s and 70’s.

At age 17 he was already studying at the Art Students League of New York.

Additionally, he studied art and history of arts in Bogotá and Madrid, receiving many awards and recognition.

Rafael Espitia is a renowned Columbian contemporary artist who has spent last thirty years honing his unique style of colorful surrealism.

His art ranges from cartoonish pop-art and black and white images of celebrities to bikini models painted in some mythical, cosmic atmospheres.

Karin Broos, 1950 | Photorealism Figurative painter

Swedish artist Karin Broos trained at the Royal Academy St. Joost in S’Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, but has lived and worked as an artist in Värmland since 1975.

Karin Broos painting is formulated placid and with no excess. Rust red water, curls around, rests inaudibly reflective, pours slowly over a floating female body, inviting, releasing, unsafe.

There is a psychological intesity in Broos paintings, a state that grips and never letting go.