Dante Gabriel Rossetti | The Sonnet / Il sonetto

The Sonnet

A Sonnet is a moment's monument,-

Memorial from the Soul's eternity

To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,

Mary Cassatt | Impressionist painter

Mary Cassatt (born May 22, 1844, Allegheny City [now part of Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania, U.S. - died June 14, 1926, Château de Beaufresne, near Paris, France), American painter and printmaker who was part of the group of Impressionists working in and around Paris. She took as her subjects almost exclusively women and children.

Cassatt was the daughter of a banker and lived in Europe for five years as a young girl. She was tutored privately in art in Philadelphia and attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1861-65, but she preferred a less academic approach and in 1866 traveled to Europe to study with such European painters as Jean-Léon Gérôme and Thomas Couture.

Her first major showing was at the Paris Salon of 1872; four more annual Salon exhibitions followed.

Riccardo Benvenuti (1939-2018)

Riccardo Benvenuti è stato uno dei più noti ed apprezzati pittori contemporanei lucchesi.

Si è diplomato all'Istituto Passaglia dove tornerà anni dopo come insegnante di Pittura, Storia dell'Arte e Figurino.

Continuerà ad insegnare in diverse scuole della provincia di Lucca fino al 1985, ed è proprio durante questi anni che la sua attività di artista diventa prolifica e riconosciuta in diverse parti del mondo.

Nel 1958 organizza la sua prima personale mostra d'arte al Circolo Ufficiali di Lucca.

Jusepe de Ribera | Baroque painter

José de Ribera, José also spelled Jusepe, Josef, or Giuseppe, byname Lo Spagnoletto (Italian: “The Little Spaniard”), (baptized February 17, 1591, Játiva, Spain - died September 2, 1652, Naples [Italy]), Spanish painter and printmaker, noted for his Baroque dramatic realism and his depictions of religious and mythological subjects.

He was born in Spain but spent most of his life in Italy. Little is known of his life in Spain, though he is said by the painter and biographer Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco to have received his first training there under Francisco Ribalta.

Orazio Gentileschi | Baroque painter

Orazio Gentileschi, original name Orazio Lomi(born 1562, Pisa [Italy] - died February 7, 1639, London, England), Italian painter, one of the more important painters who came under the influence of Caravaggio and who was one of the more successful interpreters of his style.

His daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi, who was trained in his studio, also became a noteworthy Baroque artist.

Charles Lenoir | Pittore accademico

Charles Amable Lenoir (Châtelaillon, 22 ottobre 1860 - Parigi, 1º agosto 1926) è stato un pittore Francese.

Lenoir nacque a Châtellaillon, cittadina nei pressi di La Rochelle, da una famiglia di assai modesta condizione: il padre era doganiere e la madre faceva la sarta. Quando il padre fu trasferito a Fouras tutta la famiglia lo seguì.

Consapevole che non sarebbe mai stato aiutato economicamente dai suoi per diventare un pittore, Lenoir decise di intraprendere, almeno provvisoriamente, la carriera di insegnante.

Renata Brzozowska, 1977 | Flamenco dancers

Renata Brzozowska🎨 was born in the city of Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland. Brzozowska is a restless choreographer, always striving to create a perfect sequence of her dancing painting brush, and the movement, frozen in her canvas.

Full of dynamism structures appear on her paintings as a result of her master, wide strokes, and courageously selected colors.

Artemisia Gentileschi | Mary Magdalene as Melancholy, 1622-1625

Mary Magdalene as Melancholy is a 1622-1625 painting by Artemisia Gentileschi🎨 - (Italian Baroque Era painter🎨, 1593-1652), showing Mary Magdalene as a personification of Melancholia. It is now in the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City.

It is an autograph copy of another work on the subject by the artist now in the Treasury of Seville Cathedral, although X-ray examination has shown that the fabric on the saint's shoulder is wider in the Seville version and was probably added later to fit with the canons of the Catholic Church.
This has also demonstrated that the two faces are different - the Mexico City version seems to be a self-portrait by comparison with Judith Slaying Holofernes and Cleopatra - and that there are corrections in the brushstrokes in the Seville version but not in the Mexico City variant. | © Wikipedia

Leonardo da Vinci | Adoration of the Magi, 1482

Current location: The Uffizi Gallery🎨

Collection: Painting

Location: Room 35

Technique: Drawing in charcoal, watercolour ink and oil on wood

Size: 244 x 240 cm

Inventory: Inv. 1890 n. 1594

A document from July 1481 states that Leonardo da Vinci🎨 had received a commission from the Augustinian monks to paint a panel for the high altar in the church of San Donato in Scopeto, outside Florence’s city walls.

The painting, which Leonardo undertook to finish within 30 months, had the Adoration of the Magi as its subject, i.e., the celebration of the feast of the Epiphany when, according to St Augustine, all people respond to the call of Christ.

For this subject, Leonardo studied an extremely complex composition, rich with figures, set out in a semi-circle, with the Virgin and Child as the focus. In the foreground, the kneeling Magi offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus.

Leonardo has painted a background with ruined buildings and clashes between knights on horseback, while on the left, we can see work on a building, perhaps a temple, with in the foreground, two flights of stairs, like the presbytery of several Mediaeval churches (San Miniato al Monte in Florence, for example).