Sleeping Hermaphroditos / L'Ermafrodito dormiente

The ambivalence and voluptuous curves of this figure of Hermaphroditos, who lies asleep on a mattress sculpted by Bernini, are still a source of fascination today.

His body merged with that of the nymph Salmacis, whose advances he had rejected, Hermaphroditos, son of Hermes and Aphrodite, is represented as a bisexed figure.

The original that inspired this figure would have dated from the 2nd century BC, reflecting the late Hellenistic taste for the theatrical.

Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities: Hellenistic Art (3rd-1st centuries BC) Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities - Musée du Louvre.

Edward Portielje (1861-1949)

Edward Antoon Portielje (1861-1949) was born in Antwerp on 8 February 1861. He trained under Charles Verlat (1824-90), who had taught at the Antwerp Academy since 1877 and became director of it in 1885.

Like his father, Jan Frederik Pieter Portielje (1829-1908), a Dutchman, Edward Antoon Portielje devoted himself primarily to genre painting. His elder brother, Gerard Jozef Portielje, also made a name for himself as a painter.

Edward Antoon Portielje died in his native Antwerp in 1949.

Edward Portielje | Genre painter

Edward Antoon Portielje (1861-1949) was an Belgian🎨 genre painter.

Portielje was born in 1861 in Antwerp, the son and brother of artists. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Antwerp under Charles Verlat. Although Impressionist style🎨 was becoming increasingly fashionable throughout Europe in Portielje’s early years, he maintained the “academic” manner taught in the French🎨 and Belgian🎨 academies and characterized by a high degree of finish. Similarly, he chose genre scenes and anecdotal subject matter long familiar to Dutch audiences.

Bernardo Strozzi | Music players in the Baroque era

Baroque painter** Bernardo Strozzi, named il Cappuccino and il Prete Genovese (c. 1581 - 2 August 1644) was one of the most influential Italian painters of the early 17th century, especially in Genoa and Venice.

For biographical notes -in english and italian- and other works by Strozzi see:

• Bernardo Strozzi | Baroque painter ⏩
• Bernardo Strozzi | Portraits of composer Claudio Monteverdi ⏩

John Frederick Lewis | Pittore Romantico

John Frederick Lewis (Londra, 14 giugno 1805 - Walton-on-Thames, 15 agosto 1876) è stato un pittore inglese del periodo romantico, conosciuto per i suoi acquerelli orientaleggianti e le sue scene esotiche e dal sapore mediterraneo.

Vissuto in Spagna tra il 1832 e il 1834, si trasferì al Cairo nel 1841 rimanendoci fino al 1850 e producendovi alcuni tra i suoi dipinti più noti, tra cui The Harem of a Mameluke Bey, Cairo: The Introduction of an Abyssinian Slave, meglio noto come The Hhareem.

John Frederick Lewis (1805-1876)

John Frederick Lewis was an British Orientalist painter specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes. Lewis travelled in Spain and Morocco between 1832-1834.

His very careful and loving representation of Islamic architecture, furnishings, screens, and costumes set new standards of realism, which influenced other artists, including the leading French** Orientalist painter Jean-Léon Gérôme** in his later works.

Luca Signorelli | High Renaissance painter

Luca Signorelli, in full Luca d’Egidio di Ventura de’ Signorelli, also called Luca da Cortona (born 1445/50, Cortona, Republic of Florence - died Oct. 16, 1523, Cortona), Renaissance painter**, best known for his nudes and for his novel compositional device.

It is likely that Signorelli was a pupil of Piero della Francesca** in the 1460s.

The first certain surviving work by him, a fragmentary fresco (1474) now in the museum at Città di Castello, shows a strong influence from Piero**.

Anton Raphael Mengs | Neoclassical painter

Anton Raphael Mengs, Raphael also spelled Raffael (born March 22, 1728, Aussig, Bohemia [now Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic]-died June 29, 1779, Rome, Papal States [Italy]), Bohemian painter who was perhaps the leading artist of early Neoclassicism.

Il romanticismo vittoriano di Edmund Blair Leighton

Edmund Blair Leighton ROI (1852-1922) è stato un pittore Inglese di scene di genere storico, specializzato in soggetti Regency e medievali.

La sua arte è associata al movimento Preraffaellita tra la metà e la fine del XIX e l'inizio del XX secolo.

Leighton era un artigiano meticoloso, che produceva dipinti storici altamente rifiniti e decorativi.

Queste erano scene romanzate, spesso di cavalleria e donne in abiti medievali con un fascino popolare.

Sembrerebbe che non abbia lasciato diari e, sebbene abbia esposto alla Royal Academy per oltre quarant'anni, non è mai stato un accademico od un associato.