Baroque Paintings

Madonna and Child late 1600s, oil painting on canvas from northern Italy, in good condition, within walnut frame, from a private collection in Milan. The work depicts the Virgin hol...

A very important painting by the great artist of the Florentine school, Onorio Marinari. Dr. Silvia Benassai has confirmed Marinari’s authorship of the Saint Margaret of Antioch; available on demand, a historical-artistic fact sheet prepared by Dr. Silvia Benassai Onorio Marinari (1627 – 5 January 1715) was a very important Italian painter and printmaker of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence. His father, Sigismondo di Pietro Marinari, was also a painter, and he trained with his cousin, Carlo Dolci, later being also influenced by Simone Pignoni and Francesco Furini. His fresco in the Palazzo Capponi, Florence, is dated 1707. He worked mainly in Florence for Florentine and Tuscan clients, but he did not devote himself only to painting. In fact, in 1674, he published an essay on astronomy entitled Fabbrica ed uso dell' Annulo Astronomico. Bartolomeo Bimbi was one of his pupils. St. Margaret of Antioch July 20, Martyr Margaret, known as Margaret of Antioch in the West, and as Saint Marina...

This is a delightful antique Spanish oil on canvas painting after Bartolome' Esteban Murillo, depicting two peasant boys eating grapes and melon, Circa 1780 in date.  It features a ...

17th Century Large Old Master Battle Scene Painting. Flemish School, circa 1610 - 1680. Oil on canvas painting depicts a dynamic battle scene fi...

Remarkable Spanish colonial late 18th/early 19th-century Cuzco school painting of Madonna and Child, or Virgin Mary. Oil on canvas Cuzco school painting with a desirable aged patina ...

Pieter Van Lint (Antwerp, 1609-1690) Allegory of industriousness leading to peace and abundance Oil on copper; frame measures cm H 132 x W 159 x D 8, copper measures cm H 104 x W 130 Artwork signed (bottom center) "P.V. Lint F./ en A.B" The important and valuable painting, made of oil on copper, depicts the Allegory of industriousness that leads to peace and abundance. The work is signed in the bottom and center "P V Lint", or Pieter Van Lint (Antwerp, 28 June 1609 - Antwerp, 25 September 1690), famous Flemish painter and designer active in Antwerp in the second half of the seventeenth century. Van Lint elaborates a complex and articulated composition in which he inserts several figures also drawn from mythology to propose the allegorical message of industriousness that leads to peace and abundance. The artistic style of the author is characterized by meticulous realism and by the careful attention to detail and the rendering of the materials that make up the objects described. As we will see later, every detail represented within the work contains a symbolic and allegorical meaning that reinforces the message that already the same figures express. The remarkable dimensions of the copper support, not so infrequent in the artistic production of the artist, contribute to make the work of great value: Unfortunately, many of these artifacts have been lost because copper was often recovered in times of war and famine, and reused to obtain weapons and common tools. The copper foil proved to be ideal for oil painting because it constituted a non-absorbent support, rigid, smooth and characterized by the same reddish coloring that was used for the preparation of funds. The major production centers were Antwerp, Hamburg and Amsterdam, although the technique was widely used in Italy. The considerable cost of the material indicates a wealthy client, interested in possessing a valuable and durable work over time, this characteristic that the metal foil has more than the canvas. The painting is known to scholars. It is recorded in the catalog of the artist of the RKD Netherlands Institute for Art History (with measures 104 x 129 cm). He also appeared on the French antiques market...

A Religious oil painting on canvas of Jesus Christ carrying the cross on the way to his crucifixion. This European piece of art is probably 17th-18th Century. This art piece was disc...

Peruvian Cuzco School Oil on Canvas of the Archangel Michael defeating Satan 18th Century. Later Frame. Wear commensurate with age. The Cuzco or Cusco school was a Roman Catho...

18th century Giacomo Guardi old master painting of Venetian Lagoon. Provenance. Old master painting in oil on canvas by the artist Giacomo Guardi (1764...

Italy, 18th century. This magnificent 18th-century Italian planter is a captivating example of Rococo Baroque craftsmanship, featuring an elegant French blue painted background that...

This large, old master still life painting is a perfectly balanced composition of fruit and game birds. In the foreground a rabbit is stretched out. A copper kettle and a basket are ...

17th century painting J.Castano 17th century Spain

This is an absolutely incredible early 17th century oil on canvas painting representing Holy Family-Virgin Mary, St.Joseph, St. Elisabeth, John the Baptist and Baby Jesus. Sir Peter ...

This is a beautiful hand carved and gilded mirror frame. It is a dramatic wall hanging with a stunning depth of more than 3 inches. The circa 1880...

A very fine Italian 17th century oval oil on canvas "Head of Christ Crowned with Thorns" Circle of Pierre Mignard (French, 1612-1695) within...

A fine Italian 19th century oil painting on canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Ma...

Italian school table of the 16th century "Crucified Christ with the Virgin, Saint John and Mary Magdalene" Oil on board Period frame 16th century ( gold frame parts ) Measures: 41cm ...

Beautiful reproduction Vermeer painting in a gilt frame. This piece is oil on canvas. Canvas is secured to a wood frame with nails. Craquelure throug...

This magnificent Madonna and Child belongs to an Itlalian (Roman) school of painting and is a masterpiece of Carlo Maratta /Maratti (1625-1713). Maratta's style of Baroque painting ...

A Fine Italian 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved gilt wood and gesso frame, which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting. A retailer's label reads " Fred K/ Keer's Sons - Framers and Fine Art Dealers - 917 Broad St. Newark, N.J." - Another label from the gilder reads "Carlo Bartolini - Doratore e Verniciatori - Via Maggio 1924 - Firenze". Circa: 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Canvas diameter: 28 inches (71.1 cm) Frame height: 54 inches (137.2 cm) Frame width: 42 1/2 inches (108 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/2 inches (14 cm) Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...

One of a kind Pair of oils on linen “Paisajes”, French School of the XVIIIth Century – France Extraordinary pair of paintings made in oil on canvas, belonging to the French School o...

Baroque and Rococo Architecture and Decoration Book by Alastair Laing, Anthony Blunt, and Christopher Ernest Tadgell. A study of a period in art ...

Attributed to Giorgio Lucchesi (1855-1941) A large and impressive early 20th century oil on canvas "Madonna and Child" after Bartolomé Esteban Murillo...

Magnus Jørgensen (1683-1738), Denmark. Painting: "Two Gentlemen at a Well-Laid Table." Signed: Magnus Jørgens(en) Pinxit et invenit Ao 1724. Oil on canvas, mounted in later black fr...

17th century French School "Virgin and Child (Virgin of the Rosary)" Oil on canvas (Fragment, original canvas, tension bands, restorations) 47.3 x 37.9 cm This canvas was probably...

A fine and large 19th century oil on canvas after Bartolomé Esteban Murrillo's (Spanish, 1617-1682) "Beggar Boys Playing Dice" (The original work by Murillo was painted in 1675). The impressive artwork depicts two young boys playing dice while another eats a piece of fruit as his dog watches on., within an ornate gildwood and gesso frame bearing a label from the faming company Bigelow & Jordan. The original work by Murillo is currently at the Alte Pinakothek Museum in Munich, Germany. The present work is signed: L. Rüber. Circa: Munich, Late 19th Century. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. Murillo was born to Gaspar Esteban and María Pérez Murillo. He may have been born in Seville or in Pilas, a smaller Andalusian town. It is clear that he was baptized in Seville in 1618, the youngest son in a family of fourteen. His father was a barber and surgeon. His parents died when Murillo was still very young, and the artist was largely brought up by his aunt and uncle. Murillo began his art studies under Juan del Castillo in Seville. There he became familiar with Flemish painting and the "Treatise on Sacred Images" of Molanus (Ian van der Meulen or Molano). The great commercial importance of Seville at the time ensured that he was subject to influences from other regions. His first works were influenced by Zurbarán, Jusepe de Ribera and Alonzo Cano, and he shared their strongly realist approach. As his painting developed, his more important works evolved towards the polished style that suited the bourgeois and aristocratic tastes of the time, demonstrated especially in his Roman Catholic religious works. In 1642, at the age of 26, he moved to Madrid, where he most likely became familiar with the work of Velázquez, and would have seen the work of Venetian and Flemish masters in the royal collections; the rich colors and softly modeled forms of his subsequent work suggest these influences. In 1645 he returned to Seville and married Beatriz Cabrera y Villalobos, with whom he eventually had eleven children. In that year, he painted eleven canvases for the convent of St. Francisco el Grande in Seville. These works depicting the miracles of Franciscan saints vary between the Zurbaránesque tenebrism of the Ecstasy of St Francis and a softly luminous style (as in Death of St Clare...

Oil Painting On Canvas Of 1700 Mater Dolorosa Religious painting of the Italian school in good condition, it is presented within a gilded pastille frame from the early 1900s. The pai...

17th Century Italian School Crucifixion Oil on Panel This exquisite 17th-century Italian School Crucifixion oil painting is a masterpiece of...

An Portrait of a Lady and her Dog, 18th Century, European School The oval painting within its original oak leaf and beaded gilt-wood frame, oil on canvas. Height: 101 cm Width: 85 ...

17th Century Italian Stucco plaster fresco This highly decorative and imposing Italian fresco most likely dates from the early part of the 17th Century although with some later resto...

Italian School, 18th century. A masterful example of 18th-century Italian School artistry, this Old Master landscape painting captures the sublime beauty of an idealized European co...

A Beautiful Italian Still Life oil painting on old canvas of a brass urn holding a bouquet of assorted flowers set on a ledge. 18th or ...

Portraits of the monarchs Louis XIII and Anne-Marie of Austria as hunters. Oil on canvas. Possibly Madrid school, 17th century. Pair of full-length portraits showing the characters against natural backgrounds, with landscapes with mountains in the distance and trees. The male character, who looks directly at the viewer, has dark hair and a fine moustache, and is dressed in a ruff, a doublet, leather gloves, a blued breastplate with gold details, breeches, white silk stockings and cavalier boots. The lady, who modestly lowers her gaze, has her head partially covered with a hat decorated with a brooch and white feathers; she is dressed in a ruff and a dress with a wide-skirted doublet and skirt, wide-mouthed gloves and a short cloak with a decorated edge gathered around the left arm and placed over the right side of the skirt. Alongside these “hunting” dresses, they appear carrying firearms and accompanied by large dogs. The king's dog is standing alertly, turning his head to one side. The queen's dog is sitting looking at her, with a collar and a rope that she holds in her left hand. The male subject is clearly the French King Louis XIII (Fontainebleau, 1601-Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1643), monarch of France and Navarre (1610-1643), son of Henry IV of France and Marie de Médicis and father of Louis XIV of France. Compare with other portraits: by Rubens, painted around 1622-1625 at the Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena, California, USA); by Philippe de Champaigne, painted in 1635 and kept at the Museo del Prado (Madrid, Spain); the painting by Frans Pourbus the Younger from the 1920s at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Chambéry (France); etc. Louis XIII married Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III of Spain, in 1615. This was brought about by the marriage agreement of Fountainebleau (1611), which stipulated the future wedding of the Prince of Asturias, Philip IV, with the French princess Isabella of Bourbon, and that of the French monarch with Anne. Anne Maria Mauricia of Austria and Austria-Styria (Valladolid, 1601-Paris, 1666) was an Infanta of Spain and Portugal as the daughter of Philip III of Spain and Margaret of...

A large antiqued reproduction oil painting after Anthony Van Dyck. Aptly titled "The Three Ages of Man" Features an antiqued canvas with unique craquelure and Baroque scalloped fra...

Adolf Constantin Baumgartner Stoiloff (Austrian/Russian, 1850-1924) a fine oil on board "Charging Cossack Warriors on Horseback" within an ornate giltwood frame, circa 1890 Born in 1850 in Linz (Austria) Stoiloff died in Vienna in 1924. According to a research of Russian literature, he studied in the 1880s at St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. He was very well known for his Russian horse...

20th century still life of leather books, a brass candlestick and an inkwell with quill pen painted in an impressionistic style. Oil on canvas and signed in the lower right corner.

Maximilian Pfeiler (active Rome, circa 1694-circa 1721 Budapest) Still life with peaches, grapes, figs and pomegranate Oil on canvas, Measures: cm H 63,5 x W 47. With frame cm ...

18th century, Italian oil on canvas still life by Pietro Navarra Oil on canvas, canvas measures: cm H 103 x W 164, framed measures...

Alberto Carlieri (Italy-Roma 1672-1720), "Christ and the adulteress", Oil on canvas, with frame cm H 115 x L 151 x 6.5, only canvas H 98.5 x L 135 cm...

An impressive and large scale painting on board of the Mother Mary holding the infant Jesus, each displayed wearing a crown with a golden sacred heart, probably Hungarian, the inscription underneath reads ‘Zdravas Kralovno’ in Slovak, which translates to the Latin Salve Regina or Hail, Queen, these are a reference to the Latin Hymn of the same name, which is traditionally thought to have originated in 11th century Germany, and specifically to the monk Hermann of Reichenau. Unlike the Icons of Catholicism, these Eastern Orthodox Icons...

Italian painting from 1600 Banquet with Figures Memento Mori by Giovanni Martinelli, titled Death Comes to the Banquet Table, vanitas circa 1635. The oil-on-canvas painting is inspi...

Matteo Lovatti (Italian, 1861-1909) A Fine 19th-Century Oil on Canvas Titled 'Church V. State - The Fencing Lesson'. The finely detailed artwork depicting an interior tavern scene, f...

A Fine Italian 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved two-tone gilt wood, gilt-patinated and gesso frame, which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting. Circa: 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Painting diameter: 28 inches (71.1 cm) Frame height: 55 1/8 inches (140 cm) Frame width: 46 inches (116.8 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/8 inches (13 cm) Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...

Magnificent Italian 17th century Portrait of Virgin Mary measures 52 x 68 cm without the frame. The colors are stunning and the paintin...

This antique stunning portrait of Madonna in Sorrow came out from a Palazzo in Florence and an absolute eye catcher. The colors and details are incredible and very typical for an Ita...

Important Spanish School of the 17th century "Christ Carrying the Cross" Oil on canvas 73 x 60 cm with frame: 78cm x 65cm The work is inspired by ancient models, in particular by t...

This magnificent painting presents a gallant scene, typical of the elegance and frivolity of the time. In the center, five young women, probably aristocrats, stand out for their refi...

Venetian School of the 18th century. "Saint John" oil painting on canvas 47cm x 37cm without frame 60cm x 50cm with frame good conditions

This is a classic Italian late 17th century floral still life. Although the painting is not signed, it has all of the hallmarks of being created by a master painter. The painting and...

1870 original religious painting. Cherubs Signed by S.Barber Interior measurements: 48.42in x 39.76in Frame: 2.75 in.

Alberto Carlieri (Rome 1672-1720) "Architectural capriccio with the preaching of Saint Paul in the Areopagus of Athens" Oil on canvas, measures with...

Pietro Bianchi (Rome 1694 - 1740) attributed Saint John the Baptist in the Desert Oil on canvas 98 x 75 cm The information on Bianchi's life comes to us thanks to two eighteenth-cen...

A biblical scene of the Adoration of the Magi of the baby Jesus, depicting the meeting between the mysterious travelers and the Family. An Italian painting of deep light contrast an...

Small oil signed David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp, December 15, 1610 – Brussels, April 25, 1690) David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp, December 15, 1610 – B...

English School 17th Century "Portrait of George Villiers Duke of Buckingham" Oil on canvas 66X53 cm size without frame George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (Brooksby, 28 August 1...

17th century Italian old master painting Madonna and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist. Important Tuscan School Old Master painting in oil on a hand shaved wood panel. ...

Flemish school 17th century "Our Lady with the Child Jesus, St. John, St. Elizabeth and Zacarias". Oil on canvas Relined. Dimensions: 74 x 84 cm good conditions.

An exceptional early Cuzco School painting, naive depiction of the Holy Family, presented in a contemporary wooden frame. The Cuzco or Cusco school was a Roman Catholic artistic tradition that began in the 1500's in Peru, following the Spanish conquest and subsequent attempts by the Spanish invaders and missionaries to implement the Catholic faith and associated customs upon the Peruvian people. The school was established in the ancient city of Cusco which had previously been the capital of the Incan empire. Bernardo Bitti arrived in Peru in 1583, and with his arrival the acceleration of Cuzqueno Art flourished. During his two stays in Cusco, Bitti was commissioned to make the main altarpiece of the church of his Order, replaced by another after the earthquake, and painted some masterpieces, such as The Coronation of the Virgin, currently in the museum of the church of La Merced, and the Virgen del pajarito, in the cathedral. Cuzco School paintings are marked by their baroque influenced imagery and the subjects of the paintings shown with light focused upon them. Cuzco art...