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Gallery

Art from the community, hung with care

A curated collection of work from Organized Chaos artists. Scroll slowly, look closely, and follow the pieces back to the people who made them.

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On the wall this month

Every piece belongs to someone in the directory. Follow it back to the maker.

  • Hunting Dogs Plate (Assiette chasse chiens)

    René Lalique · glass · 1913

    Entitled Chasse, Chiens, meaning hunt, dogs, this glass plate's gilded decoration of dogs and birds is intended to evoke the hunt. Six hunting dogs encircle the center of the plate, while game birds trim the perimeter. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Violette Heymann

    Odilon Redon · pastel on gray wove paper · 1910

    Although he was known early in his career for works primarily in black and white, such as charcoal drawings and lithographs, Odilon Redon turned to more colorful media, including pastel, later on. In particular, he focused on commissioned pastel portraits of women with flowers, such as this one. Here, the young niece of the Parisian collector Marcel Kapferer appears alongside colorful blossoms as she looks forward, focused as if in the dreamlike state evoked by her surroundings. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Frogs and Lily Pads (Grenouilles et Nénuphars) Vase

    René Lalique · glass · 1909

    This vase is an early example of French designer René Lalique's experimentation with producing artistic glass. Lalique combines applied, cast, and molded glass techniques to achieve an ethereal effect of a murky swamp, a typical Art Nouveau motif. Lily pads adorn the surface with green frogs perched on top. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Fishmarket

    Camille Pissarro · oil on canvas · 1902

    This impressive view of a bustling fish market belongs to a series of paintings that Pissarro made during the summer of 1902 depicting the harbor at Dieppe. Borrowing from the Impressionist method of portraying a modern city from a high vantage point, he enlivened the scene with rich, vibrant colors applied with energetic, broken brushstrokes. Ever concerned with the fleeting effects of atmosphere, Pissarro painted the interpenetration of industrial steam with the clouds in the brilliant, sunlit sky. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Orpheus

    Odilon Redon · pastel on brown paper · 1898

    Drawn in vivid layers of pastel crayon, this work depicts the head of the poet and musician Orpheus. The story of the god of music, whose music carried on after his death through his lyre and head, fascinated Redon, who related to Orpheus's dedication to his art. The subject also aligned with Redon's broader interest in dreams and spirituality around this time and he represented Orpheus several times throughout his career, in various media. Here, the god's head floats as if in stasis while Mount Parnassus—the home of Apollo and the Muses—soars from behind. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Princess Maleine (The Little Madonna)

    Odilon Redon · etching and drypoint on wove paper · 1892

    Although Odilon Redon was best known for his lithographs, he created nearly 30 prints using etching throughout his career. Here, he depicted Princess Maleine, the protagonist of a tragic drama by avant-garde playwright Maurice Maeterlinck, himself a collector of Redon’s prints. The young woman is represented in feathery black lines and tonal areas created using drypoint, a technique that wears down as impressions are printed. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Dock of Deauville

    Eugène Boudin · oil on wood panel · 1891

    This painting treats a common theme in Eugène Boudin's mature art: ships at harbor. Boudin typically did not depict the busy commercial life or human tasks related to ships; rather, he seemed always to strive for an overall mood of calm, harmony, and light. Although Boudin's brushwork was quite sketchy at this time, he was still able to suggest the complex sails and structures of large vessels. Here he rubbed light tones around the ships' masts, often overlapping the darker lines of the wood and rigging with white or gray tones as if to evoke the passing wind and shifting positions common to nautical life. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Self-Portrait

    Camille Pissarro · zinc etching with aquatint on light tan wove paper · 1885

    This print is one of Camille Pissarro’s few self-portraits and his only etched one. Made when he was around 60 years old, Pissarro presents himself as an aged and bearded artist wearing a soft hat and peering out of the picture frame through his half-moon spectacles. Pissarro made only 28 impressions of the print during his lifetime, most of which he gave to friends and family members. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Edge of the Woods Near L'Hermitage, Pontoise

    Camille Pissarro · oil on fabric · 1879

    Born to a French-Jewish family on St. Thomas island in the Caribbean, Pissarro painted this monumental landscape when he was desperately poor and struggling to sell his paintings. It depicts a man slumbering in the sun-dappled backwoods of the Hermitage, a rural village near Pontoise, where the artist had been living since 1872. Restricting his palette to pure hues, Pissarro applied brushstrokes in systematic diagonal patterns, producing an effect that he likened to knitting. This canvas was included in the fourth Impressionist exhibition of 1879. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery

    Edgar Degas · softground etching, drypoint, aquatint, and etching · 1879

    This print is one of two in which Edgar Degas depicted Mary Cassatt and her sister Lydia at the Musée du Louvre. In this iteration of the subject, Casatt gazes intently at an Etruscan tomb, about 500 BC, excavated at Cerveteri, the largest ancient necropolis in the Mediterranean. Cassatt is viewed from behind while the enigmatically smiling couple, lying on top of a sarcophagus and enclosed in a glass case, face the viewer. Cassatt confronts the sculpture directly while Lydia reads about it in a guidebook. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Paintings Gallery

    Edgar Degas · etching, softground etching, aquatint, and drypoint · 1879

    Degas and his friends Mary Cassatt and Camille Pissarro were all experimental printmakers who combined traditional printmaking techniques to create a black and white equivalent for the tonality and varied textures of paintings. They were all so involved in printmaking that in 1879–80 they planned to publish a journal, Le Jour et la nuit (Day and Night), that would contain original etchings. As a printmaker, Degas was ambivalent about when a plate was considered finished. What attracted him to printmaking was the variability. He thoroughly enjoyed reworking, retouching, and transforming plates, often progressing toward more subtle painterly effects. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Bellman

    Samuel Palmer · etching · 1879

    In a highly personal style, Palmer combined minute study of natural details with Gothic features from early Northern art and figure types borrowed from William Blake (also in this gallery). His moonlit landscapes of Kent appear as a fruitful, mysterious paradise, populated by a race of rustic heroes, personifications of pastoral contentment. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Claire Campbell

    Édouard Manet · Pastel with oil on fine-weave canvas · 1876

    During the late 1870s, Edouard Manet began to experience health problems that made it difficult for him to work in oil painting. Instead, he began to draw using pastel, a powdery medium that allowed him to render line and color with each stroke. This work is one of numerous portraits that Manet created around this time with the medium. It depicts Claire Campbell, a fashionable young British woman whose father published The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. Manet used the velvety texture of pastel to render the subject's skin and hair, limiting his palette to mostly neutral tones such as white, gray, and black. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Shepherd and the Shepherdess

    Charles François Daubigny · etching · 1874

    Although etching had fallen into disfavor in France, Daubigny began to produce original etchings in the 1840s. The revival of this technique began to accelerate, and in 1862 the Société des Aquafortistes (Society of Etchers) was organized by Alfred Cadart, who was instrumental in publishing many albums of prints. In addition, periodicals such as L'Artiste (The Artist) included original etchings, which also helped to generate interest in the medium. The countryside around Barbizon (a village about 30 miles southeast of Paris) provided a refuge from the urbanization and industrialization of modern life and offered landscape etchers a vast array of scenery—from wild forest to rocky gorges. Daubigny, who wanted to retain the immediacy of the direct observation of nature, used a flat-bottomed boat as a floating studio on the rivers of France in order to capture the momentary effects of light and atmosphere. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • View of Bordeaux, from the Quai des Chartrons

    Eugène Boudin · oil on fabric · 1874

    In 1873, Boudin made his first visit to the important port city of Bordeaux as a guest of the resident art collector Arthur Bourges. Between 1874 and 1876, Boudin made paintings of the city's harbor and docks. This was an especially stimulating time in Boudin's career, as he was invited to exhibit in 1874 with the newly-founded Société anonyme des artistes, soon to be known as the Impressionists. As in many of his views, Boudin concentrated here on the quais or working docks where goods were loaded and unloaded and sailors left in small dinghies for the larger vessels on which they worked. The low horizon line relegates much of the canvas to pure sky, but the soaring vertical and diagonal forms of the masts complement this horizontal thrust and open space. Many contemporaries greatly admired Boudin's ability to paint skies. Here, one can see the way in which he brushed on a tan color, then went over it, probably while it was still wet, with a thin but opaque application of white, to create a fresh, airy quality. For the darker areas representing water, Boudin laid in an olive-green tone. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Paul Lafond and Alphonse Cherfils Examining a Painting

    Edgar Degas · oil on wood panel · 1873

    The upper left corner of this painting bears a dedication by Degas "to his dear friends." The double portrait depicts Paul Lafond (left), future curator of the art museum at Pau, in southwestern France, and Alphonse Cherfils (right), an art collector and defender of the Impressionists. Through the influence of these friends, Degas's works were selected for the annual exhibitions of the Société des Amis des Arts (Society of Friends of the Arts), and his painting, A Cotton Office (1873), was the first by the artist to be purchased by a museum. Since the painting held by the two men is probably by Degas, this intimate image commemorates both personal and business relationships. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Lock at Pontoise

    Camille Pissarro · oil on fabric · 1872

    Pissarro was instrumental in developing the radically new Impressionist technique of painting quickly outdoors to capture fleeting effects of light and atmosphere. The rushing water and overcast sky in this view of a river lock near the artist’s home at Pontoise, a rural commune about 17 miles northwest of Paris, are rendered with rapid, broken brushstrokes of pure color. Painting directly on canvas without preliminary drawing, Pissarro may have executed this work in a single session. The shimmering surface of broken color conveys the sensation of natural, outdoor light. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Berthe Morisot with a Muff

    Édouard Manet · oil on canvas · 1871

    This is one of two portraits Manet painted of Morisot dressed for winter in a heavy coat and feathered hat. (See Berthe Morisot with a Half Veil, also in this gallery.) Manet’s wide brushstrokes and crosshatchings, which describe areas of shadow, evoke the sketchy quality of Morisot’s own paintings, likely Manet’s nod to his subject’s identity as an artist. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Oak Tree and the Reed

    Charles François Daubigny · blue, gray, and black wash, and graphite · 1868

    The Oak Tree and the Reed illustrates the fable of the same name by the 17th-century French writer Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695). Having disdainfully pitied the reed for bending before the wind, the oak is shown torn from the earth by a terrific north wind. Focusing upon the uprooted oak, Daubigny created a violently expressive treatment of the subject. The bold dappling of lights and darks below is set off by the intense blue of the clouds encroaching upon the land from the left. The diagonal streaks of thin-ly applied gray wash above suggest driving rain. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Olympia

    Édouard Manet · etching · 1867

    When Edouard Manet’s painting Olympia was exhibited in Paris in 1865, it was met by the critics and general public with jeers, laughter, criticism, and distain. Manet had depicted his model, Victorine Meurent, as a modern day courtesan, confrontational rather than seductive. Manet’s depiction of a prostitute’s body in a contemporary setting was a radical rejection of the idealized beauty of the traditional female nude. Olympia forced recognition of troubled and contradictory attitudes toward prostitution in the mid-19th century, much to the discomfort of contemporary audiences. The artist made this etching to reproduce his controversial painting. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Fear

    Odilon Redon · etching · 1866

    Odilon Redon used parallel lines of varying density throughout this etching to enhance its tonal and emotional darkness. The subject was inspired by Johann Wolfgang Goethe's 1782 poem describing a father who discovered his child's death after a cold and windy nighttime journey. The figures and the man's white cape contrast dramatically with the scale and tone of their surroundings. Redon made few etchings during his career. This one was a gift to his friend, French art critic and novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans, and features a personalized dedication at the bottom of the sheet. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • La Roche-Guyon

    Camille Pissarro · etching · 1866

    A very early etching by the Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, this view of the massive rocks at La Roche-Guyon reveals the artist’s painterly attitude toward printmaking. Using only the etched line and a layer of ink left on his printing plate's surface, Pissarro created a dramatic landscape filled with brilliant sunlight and soft shadows. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Boat in Conflans

    Charles François Daubigny · etching on chine collé · 1866

    Closely associated with the Barbizon school artists, Daubigny began his career painting landscapes in the Forest of Fontainebleau. His love of water scenes led him to portray innumerable sites along the rivers of France. In 1857, Daubigny launched his "botin," the studio boat that fostered the development of his plein-air aesthetic by enabling him to paint while traveling the French waterways, such as the Oise, the Marne, and the Seine rivers. This etching of the artist in his "floating studio" is from Voyage en Bateau, an album of etchings recording Daubigny’s river travels with his friend Camille Corot. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Dead Christ with Angels

    Édouard Manet · etching and aquatint · 1866

    Edouard Manet often reinterpreted his own paintings as prints, using various techniques to bring his work to a broader audience. Here, he relied on a combination of aquatint and repeating marks to realistically suggest Christ’s lifeless body in the tomb where he was placed following his crucifixion. The figure’s vacant gaze and the deep shadows behind him led critics to deride the work as grotesque in its realism. The etching was the largest Manet made and, perhaps as a result, only a few impressions—including the one seen here—were made from the plate. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Beach Scene

    Eugène Boudin · oil on wood panel · 1865

    On a beach where a strong breeze moves off the water from left to right, figures of French women, men, and children in chic Parisian dress stroll, sit, chat, or take donkey rides. The activities depicted (promenades, socializing, riding, sandbox playing) are the same as those enjoyed by residents of London or Paris. At the right, the dog suggests that these are vacationers rather than tourists seeking to recreate their urban pastimes at the seashore. Painted outdoors, this composition is typical of Boudin's beach scenes in the 1860s in its low-lying horizon, cloud-filled sky, and figures ranged across the middle ground. By scattering the figures over the surface and not closing off the scene with framing elements, the artist created the impression of a partial view of a much larger scene. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Golden Hour

    Samuel Palmer · watercolor and gouache with graphite and scraping · 1865

    Samuel Palmer developed a personal and emotionally charged style of landscape painting that celebrated nature as the product of divine creation. This watercolor of a spectacularly colorful sunset over the hills of Surrey was painted by Palmer toward the end of his life. An autumn sky heavy with rows of cumulus clouds shimmers in a pattern of pink and amethyst, as slivers of golden light emanate from the setting sun. The idyllic landscape is an elegy not only to a passing day, but to the brevity of life itself. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Beach at Deauville

    Eugène Boudin · oil on wood panel · 1864

    During the 1860s, Boudin executed many paintings and watercolors representing well-to-do tourists and vacationers enjoying seaside resorts in Normandy, principally Trouville and Deauville. In this scene, the informally posed figures suggest a sense of relaxation and intimacy. The overturned chair in the foreground underscores the impression of a casually observed moment, as though a sea breeze or a quick departure by its former occupant has upended it. The majority of Boudin's small oil paintings of beach scenes of the 1860s were executed on wood panel. After laying down a thin white ground, Boudin seems to have begun painting directly, not drawing or laying in guidelines for the forms. The result is a freshness and airiness appropriate to a windy day at the beach. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Guitarist

    Édouard Manet · etching · 1861

    Manet’s painting The Spanish Singer won popular and critical success when it was exhibited in Paris at the annual Salon of 1860. The artist capitalized on the recognition of the painting and produced an etched version of the composition the following year that proved equally successful. Manet’s subject was inspired by Jaime Bosch, a virtuoso guitarist who was wildly popular in Paris in the mid-19th century. The Catalonian guitarist took part in the musical soirées organized by Madame Manet, the artist’s mother, at her home in Paris. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Melancholy

    Odilon Redon · graphite on beige wove paper · 1860

    Odilon Redon grew up near the massive Pyrénées mountains in southern France and their image recurred throughout his work. In a series of drawings made during the 1870s, Redon used the craggy surface and infinite reach of his native landscape to evoke a sense of solitude and isolation. The woman seen here, for example, leans forward and casts her eyes downward as if in resignation. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Seascape with Open Sky

    Eugène Boudin · pastel on gray wove paper mounted on thin paperboard · 1860

    Eugène Boudin is best known for inspiring Impressionist artists, especially a young Claude Monet, to paint outdoors. This drawing belongs to a series that Boudin made throughout much of his career depicting seascapes with dramatic skylines onsite. He favored pastel, the powdery medium used here, for its portability and directness, allowing him to capture the dramatic effects of nature as they shifted. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Self-Portrait

    Edgar Degas · etching and drypoint · 1857

    In the 1850s Degas frequently used himself as a model, but he made only one printed self-portrait. Through successive stages of biting the plate and layers of crosshatching, Degas gradually built areas of dark tone. In this impression, Degas added etched lines on the face, hat, and coat and carefully wiped his copper plate to create atmospheric effects. His clearly drawn eyes directly engage the viewer, resulting in a psychologically powerful and intense portrait of the young artist at age 23. This impression was dedicated to his friend, the painter and sculptor Paul Albert Bartholomé. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Villerville Seen from Le Ratier

    Charles François Daubigny · oil on fabric · 1855

    The town of Villerville on the Normandy coast appears just to the right of center in this expansive landscape by Daubigny, a pioneer of outdoor painting and a major influence on Claude Monet and the Impressionists. Daubigny introduced a new kind of natural landscape based on outdoor studies of light, water, and atmospheric conditions. Here, streaks of bright light along the horizon set off the dark masses of the rocky shore in the foreground. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Vine

    Samuel Palmer · etching · 1852

    This early proof (an impression created while the artist is still working on the design) by Samuel Palmer features his illustrations before the accompanying text for Songs and Ballads of Shakespeare was printed. Both images relate to a drinking song featured in act 2 of William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, praising Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, and his products. Palmer’s handwritten notes describe modifications he was planning to make. Palmer started to work in prints late in his career but quickly became accomplished in the medium. His imagery is characterized by juxtaposing delicate textures and dramatic lights and shadows, as seen here in the contrast between the radiant Bacchus and those making and enjoying the drink. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Skylark

    Samuel Palmer · etching · 1850

    Palmer came to printmaking relatively late in his career in 1850 when he was elected to the Etching Club in London. He created a significant number of landscape etchings, intricate in detail and sonorous in chiaroscuro. In The Skylark, one of Palmer’s earliest compositions, a solitary figure in a rural landscape contemplates the flight of a songbird. Palmer has been compared to the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich (also in this exhibition), who produced images infused with a similarly indefinable atmosphere of calm, mystery, and breathless silence. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Liber Studiorum: Devil's Bridge, Cardiganshire

    John Sell Cotman · Soft ground etching · 1838

    Cotman followed in the footsteps of Thomas Gainsborough and also worked in soft-ground etching (see Gainsborough’s Wooded Landscape with Cows in this gallery). Thirty-nine of Cotman’s landscape etchings were published as the Liber Studiorum in 1838. This composition was based on sketches the artist made on the site during his journey through Wales in 1800. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Portrait of Don Juan Antonio Cuervo

    Francisco de Goya · oil on canvas · 1819

    This portrait both testifies to Goya’s friendship with Cuervo and presents the sitter as a cutting-edge intellectual. Director of the Royal Academy of San Fernando, the official academy for artists and architects in Spain, Cuervo appears with his plan for the recent renovation of Madrid’s Church of Santiago. The jacket with red and gold brocade identifies him as a member of the academy. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Rievaulx Abbey, Yorkshire

    John Sell Cotman · etching · 1810

    Rievaulx Abbey belongs to Cotman’s first series of etchings, published in 1811. The thirteen images depict the landscape of Yorkshire and picturesque architectural views such as rural cottages, ancient stone walls, and overgrown, ruined abbeys. The crumbling Gothic church was a quintessentially Romantic theme, intended to allude to a lost past. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Traveler in a Woodland Landscape

    John Sell Cotman · graphite and gray wash · 1806

    John Sell Cotman left his native Norfolk at the young age of 16 and traveled to London with the aspiration to be an artist. His work evolved at a rapid pace as he developed a highly original style remarkable for its simple elegance and schematic treatment of the natural world. This landscape was made soon after a trip to Yorkshire. Cotman largely ignored the noteworthy landmarks of the area, preferring obscure views—trees, crumbling stone walls, and dilapidated fences. Inspired by the Greta woods, the straining bows of the trees form a beautifully balanced structure of geometric and amorphous shapes. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • They Have Flown, Plate 61

    Francisco de Goya · etching and aquatint · 1799

    In the print series Los Caprichos, which translates as “caprices” or “artistic fantasies,” Francisco de Goya drew on his expansive imagination to comment on Spanish society. The artist’s critiques are not always clear, and many of the prints are intentionally ambiguous. Here, three witches support a young woman taking flight. Caught in the wind, her dress and veil transform her into a human butterfly, perhaps reflecting views at the time that characterized women as flighty. However, both the association of butterflies with life’s fragility and the presence of witches—often used by the artist to symbolize immorality and sex work—may instead invite a more sinister interpretation. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • When Day Breaks We Will Be Off, Plate 71

    Francisco de Goya · etching and aquatint · 1799

    Francisco de Goya used printmaking to explore subjects that stirred controversy when represented in more public media, such as oil painting. This print belongs to Los Caprichos, a series of enigmatic images that critique the hypocrisy and irrationality the artist observed throughout contemporary Spanish society. Here, a group of witches prepares to fly without broomsticks or sight, suggesting ignorance and obliviousness. The dense and starry sky behind them was created using layers of aquatint—a technique that Goya was among the earliest and most expert artists to adopt. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Saint Ambrose

    Francisco de Goya · oil on canvas · 1796

    This work belongs to a series depicting Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory, key figures of early Catholicism. Saint Ambrose (about AD 340–391), the bishop of Milan, resolved important theological conflicts within the church and worked effectively with advocates of Roman paganism. The low viewpoint and large scale suggest that this painting hung high on the wall of a religious institution, but its original location remains unknown. In the late 1700s, Spain expelled all the Jesuits and sparked a transformation of the church. Many of these reformers turned back to early church history for inspiration, and this painting was probably commissioned by one of these new organizations. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Young Woman (possibly a Sex Worker) with a Man (recto); Young Woman Wringing Her Hands over a Man's Naked Body (verso)

    Francisco de Goya · brush and gray and black washes on laid paper · 1796

    Among the great figures of the pictorial arts in the West, Francisco de Goya is one of the very few whose work as a graphic artist is arguably even more important than his paintings. Alongside a prodigious output of prints, he created eight sketchbooks of drawings over the course of 30 years. This double-sided sheet comes from the so-called Album B, or Madrid Album, which, like all of them, was scattered throughout the world in public and private collections after his death. The drawings reveal Goya’s powers of invention and observation, and his biting satire. On the recto side of the sheet, a vulgar encounter between a prostitute and a pot-bellied lecher reveals the bluntness of the Goya’s social criticism. The verso drawing is less easily pinned down, though it follows traditional iconography for representations of Saint Margaret of Cortona, a nobleman’s mistress who repented and entered a convent after her lover’s dog led her to his murdered corpse. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • A Boy in a Red-lined Cloak

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard · oil on wood · 1780

    In the course of his long career, Fragonard produced more than 550 paintings. In this particular painting, the seventeenth-century costume, the brown palette, and his technique suggest that Fragonard is reflecting upon the work of Peter Paul Rubens and Rembrandt rather than his teacher François Boucher. While there is considerable evidence that the sitter is Alexander Evariste Fragonard, the artist's son, this identity has never been confirmed. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Candle Stand (torchère) (1 of 2)

    Thomas Chippendale · Gilt-wood, gesso · 1768

    This gilded candle stand was made by Thomas Chippendale, the most renowned cabinetmaker in eighteenth-century London, for the grand drawing room of Brocket Hall, a large country house in Hertfordshire, England. With finely carved acanthus leaves, swags, fluting, and oval masks depicting the Roman goddess Diana, this candle stand exhibits Chippendale’s masterful understanding of neoclassical proportion, scale, and ornament. His landmark book of furniture designs, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (first published in 1754), was highly admired as a source of inspiration by cabinetmakers and architects around England as well as in Europe and America. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Candle Stand (torchère) (2 of 2)

    Thomas Chippendale · Gilt-wood, gesso · 1768

    This gilded candle stand was made by Thomas Chippendale, the most renowned cabinetmaker in eighteenth-century London, for the grand drawing room of Brocket Hall, a large country house in Hertfordshire, England. With finely carved acanthus leaves, swags, fluting, and oval masks depicting the Roman goddess Diana, this candle stand exhibits Chippendale’s masterful understanding of neoclassical proportion, scale, and ornament. His landmark book of furniture designs, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (first published in 1754), was highly admired as a source of inspiration by cabinetmakers and architects around England as well as in Europe and America. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Pair of Candle Stands (torchères)

    Thomas Chippendale · Gilt-wood, gesso · 1768

    This pair of gilded candle stands was made by Thomas Chippendale, the most renowned cabinetmaker in eighteenth-century London, for the grand drawing room of Brocket Hall, a large country house in Hertfordshire, England. With finely carved acanthus leaves, swags, fluting, and oval masks depicting the Roman goddess Diana, these candle stands exhibit Chippendale’s masterful understanding of neoclassical proportion, scale, and ornament. His landmark book of furniture designs, The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director (first published in 1754), was highly admired as a source of inspiration by cabinetmakers and architects around England as well as in Europe and America. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Les Soirées de Rome: Le Buste

    Hubert Robert · etching · 1764

    Derived from his own pen-and-ink drawings, this suite of etchings features fictional characters situated near recognizable buildings and statues in Rome. On the title page, Robert dedicated the suite to Marguerite Le Compte, who visited Rome in 1764 in the company of the wealthy author and art enthusiast Claude Henri Watelet. Both Le Compte and Watelet were amateur etchers, and they socialized with a group that included artists and printmakers centered at the academies in Italy. Robert’s dedication was likely motivated by the hope of future patronage from Le Compte. She may be the generous woman with a hand muff depicted in The Ancient Temple, the fifth scene in this series. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Bacchanales: Nymph Astride a Satyr

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard · etching · 1763

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard made these four etchings shortly after returning to Paris from Italy, where he studied antique subjects and sculpture. He may have also looked at other sources for inspiration, such as Jacques François Joseph Saly’s suite of vase designs. Though the prints feature the followers of Bacchus, the wine god does not make an appearance. Instead, Fragonard highlighted the playfully erotic frolics, conflicts, and even family life of a group of bacchants, conceiving them as low-relief sculptures on stone fragments within abundant foliage. Fragonard’s creations helped to popularize revelries in nature in French art, architecture, and garden design during the later 1700s. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Bacchanales: Nymph Supported by Two Satyrs

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard · etching · 1763

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard made these four etchings shortly after returning to Paris from Italy, where he studied antique subjects and sculpture. He may have also looked at other sources for inspiration, such as Jacques François Joseph Saly’s suite of vase designs. Though the prints feature the followers of Bacchus, the wine god does not make an appearance. Instead, Fragonard highlighted the playfully erotic frolics, conflicts, and even family life of a group of bacchants, conceiving them as low-relief sculptures on stone fragments within abundant foliage. Fragonard’s creations helped to popularize revelries in nature in French art, architecture, and garden design during the later 1700s. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Bacchanales: The Satyr's Dance

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard · etching · 1763

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard made these four etchings shortly after returning to Paris from Italy, where he studied antique subjects and sculpture. He may have also looked at other sources for inspiration, such as Jacques François Joseph Saly’s suite of vase designs. Though the prints feature the followers of Bacchus, the wine god does not make an appearance. Instead, Fragonard highlighted the playfully erotic frolics, conflicts, and even family life of a group of bacchants, conceiving them as low-relief sculptures on stone fragments within abundant foliage. Fragonard’s creations helped to popularize revelries in nature in French art, architecture, and garden design during the later 1700s. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Bacchanales: The Satyr's Family

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard · etching · 1763

    Jean-Honoré Fragonard made these four etchings shortly after returning to Paris from Italy, where he studied antique subjects and sculpture. He may have also looked at other sources for inspiration, such as Jacques François Joseph Saly’s suite of vase designs. Though the prints feature the followers of Bacchus, the wine god does not make an appearance. Instead, Fragonard highlighted the playfully erotic frolics, conflicts, and even family life of a group of bacchants, conceiving them as low-relief sculptures on stone fragments within abundant foliage. Fragonard’s creations helped to popularize revelries in nature in French art, architecture, and garden design during the later 1700s. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Le Puits

    Hubert Robert · etching · 1763

    Derived from his own pen-and-ink drawings, this suite of etchings features fictional characters situated near recognizable buildings and statues in Rome. On the title page, Robert dedicated the suite to Marguerite Le Compte, who visited Rome in 1764 in the company of the wealthy author and art enthusiast Claude Henri Watelet. Both Le Compte and Watelet were amateur etchers, and they socialized with a group that included artists and printmakers centered at the academies in Italy. Robert’s dedication was likely motivated by the hope of future patronage from Le Compte. She may be the generous woman with a hand muff depicted in The Ancient Temple, the fifth scene in this series. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Le Sarcophage

    Hubert Robert · etching · 1763

    Derived from his own pen-and-ink drawings, this suite of etchings features fictional characters situated near recognizable buildings and statues in Rome. On the title page, Robert dedicated the suite to Marguerite Le Compte, who visited Rome in 1764 in the company of the wealthy author and art enthusiast Claude Henri Watelet. Both Le Compte and Watelet were amateur etchers, and they socialized with a group that included artists and printmakers centered at the academies in Italy. Robert’s dedication was likely motivated by the hope of future patronage from Le Compte. She may be the generous woman with a hand muff depicted in The Ancient Temple, the fifth scene in this series. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Antique Gallery

    Hubert Robert · etching · 1763

    Derived from his own pen-and-ink drawings, this suite of etchings features fictional characters situated near recognizable buildings and statues in Rome. On the title page, Robert dedicated the suite to Marguerite Le Compte, who visited Rome in 1764 in the company of the wealthy author and art enthusiast Claude Henri Watelet. Both Le Compte and Watelet were amateur etchers, and they socialized with a group that included artists and printmakers centered at the academies in Italy. Robert’s dedication was likely motivated by the hope of future patronage from Le Compte. She may be the generous woman with a hand muff depicted in The Ancient Temple, the fifth scene in this series. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Statue in Front of Ruins

    Hubert Robert · etching · 1763

    Derived from his own pen-and-ink drawings, this suite of etchings features fictional characters situated near recognizable buildings and statues in Rome. On the title page, Robert dedicated the suite to Marguerite Le Compte, who visited Rome in 1764 in the company of the wealthy author and art enthusiast Claude Henri Watelet. Both Le Compte and Watelet were amateur etchers, and they socialized with a group that included artists and printmakers centered at the academies in Italy. Robert’s dedication was likely motivated by the hope of future patronage from Le Compte. She may be the generous woman with a hand muff depicted in The Ancient Temple, the fifth scene in this series. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Old Man and Woman

    David Teniers · oil on wood · 1700

    Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Diogenes and His Cup

    Salvator Rosa · etching · 1662

    Diogenes was an ancient Greek philosopher who valued poverty and shunned worldly goods, to the extent that he discarded his drinking bowl when he observed a youth drinking water from cupped hands, as depicted here. The print was made by the eccentric Neapolitan artist Salvator Rosa, who rejected conventional patronage in order to focus on themes that interested him. The placement of the narrative within a lush landscape is typical of Rosa’s approach, as is the emphasis on the unconventional principles of his subject, with which he identified. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Jason and the Dragon

    Salvator Rosa · etching · 1658

    Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece required him to bypass a fearsome dragon, which he was able to do with a sleeping potion given to him by the witch Medea. Salvatore Rosa selected classical narratives to prove he was a great and learned painter of histories, and he showcased the novelty of being among the first 16th- or 17th-century artists to portray this particular story. Rosa turned the ancient epic into a moody struggle by transmitting the mystery and magic of his earlier witchcraft imagery. Utilizing the energetic and spontaneous qualities of his draftsmanship, the violence of Jason's feat is emphasized by a claustrophobic and savage environment of crags and "blasted" trees that frames the dynamic diagonals of the hero and recoiling dragon. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Glaucus and Scylla

    Salvator Rosa · etching · 1656

    Salvatore Rosa was a prolific and skilled printmaker, producing more than 100 etchings throughout his career. Derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Glaucus and Scylla tells a story associated with magic and witchcraft. After drinking a magical herb, the fisherman Glaucus was immortalized and transformed into a sea god with fins and a fish tail. Rosa depicts the moment in which the amorous Glaucus declares his love to the beautiful water nymph, Scylla, who flees. Later, Glacus implored the witch Circe to help him win the heart of Scylla, but attracted to the sea god herself, the jealous witch poisoned the waters where Scylla lived, turning the nymph into the infamous rock that troubled Ulysses and countless sea travelers. The ominous, rolling clouds and Glaucus's thrashing form project the drama of Scylla's escape and foreshadow her own metamorphosis to come. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Cave

    Herman van Swanevelt · etching and engraving · 1652

    This series by Herman Swanevelt, The Flight into Egypt, illustrates an event from the New Testament of the Bible. Joseph, Mary, and Christ fled into Egypt to escape King Herod's persecution. Traditionally represented as a single image, Swanevelt enlarged the story into four scenes. The Holy family is first shown traveling with three angels behind them, then Joseph helps Mary off the donkey, next Joseph leads the donkey to water as Mary changes the child, and finally the family is at rest. However, the main focus of each of these prints is the depiction of landscape, a genre that reached unprecedented levels of popularity during the 1600s. The scenery, looking much more like the Italian countryside than Egypt, was inspired by Swanevelt's paintings. Although he was Dutch, he spent most of his career in Paris and Rome. As a painter, he was known for his ability to convey warm, glowing sunlight, a quality also found in his etchings. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Donkey Led to the River

    Herman van Swanevelt · etching and engraving · 1652

    This series by Herman Swanevelt, The Flight into Egypt, illustrates an event from the New Testament of the Bible. Joseph, Mary, and Christ fled into Egypt to escape King Herod's persecution. Traditionally represented as a single image, Swanevelt enlarged the story into four scenes. The Holy family is first shown traveling with three angels behind them, then Joseph helps Mary off the donkey, next Joseph leads the donkey to water as Mary changes the child, and finally the family is at rest. However, the main focus of each of these prints is the depiction of landscape, a genre that reached unprecedented levels of popularity during the 1600s. The scenery, looking much more like the Italian countryside than Egypt, was inspired by Swanevelt's paintings. Although he was Dutch, he spent most of his career in Paris and Rome. As a painter, he was known for his ability to convey warm, glowing sunlight, a quality also found in his etchings. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Flight into Egypt

    Herman van Swanevelt · etching and engraving · 1652

    This series by Herman Swanevelt, The Flight into Egypt, illustrates an event from the New Testament of the Bible. Joseph, Mary, and Christ fled into Egypt to escape King Herod's persecution. Traditionally represented as a single image, Swanevelt enlarged the story into four scenes. The Holy family is first shown traveling with three angels behind them, then Joseph helps Mary off the donkey, next Joseph leads the donkey to water as Mary changes the child, and finally the family is at rest. However, the main focus of each of these prints is the depiction of landscape, a genre that reached unprecedented levels of popularity during the 1600s. The scenery, looking much more like the Italian countryside than Egypt, was inspired by Swanevelt's paintings. Although he was Dutch, he spent most of his career in Paris and Rome. As a painter, he was known for his ability to convey warm, glowing sunlight, a quality also found in his etchings. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Little Angels on the Hill

    Herman van Swanevelt · etching and engraving · 1652

    This series by Herman Swanevelt, The Flight into Egypt, illustrates an event from the New Testament of the Bible. Joseph, Mary, and Christ fled into Egypt to escape King Herod's persecution. Traditionally represented as a single image, Swanevelt enlarged the story into four scenes. The Holy family is first shown traveling with three angels behind them, then Joseph helps Mary off the donkey, next Joseph leads the donkey to water as Mary changes the child, and finally the family is at rest. However, the main focus of each of these prints is the depiction of landscape, a genre that reached unprecedented levels of popularity during the 1600s. The scenery, looking much more like the Italian countryside than Egypt, was inspired by Swanevelt's paintings. Although he was Dutch, he spent most of his career in Paris and Rome. As a painter, he was known for his ability to convey warm, glowing sunlight, a quality also found in his etchings. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Village Festival

    David Teniers · oil on canvas · 1646

    Depictions of peasant festivals, such as weddings, harvests, and village holidays became an extremely popular subject for Flemish artists during the 1600s. In his paintings of these festive occasions David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690), portrayed peasants dancing and playing music, focusing on the cheerful elements of peasant life. His images often feature close-knit family groups taking part in the celebration. Contrary to his predecessors, who often depicted broken and disorderly still life objects in their paintings, Teniers emphasized household objects in brass, ceramic, and glass in a perfect state to demonstrate the growing prosperity of the peasants. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Game of Backgammon

    David Teniers · oil on wood, transferred to canvas · 1640

    The game of backgammon has a long and popular history which can be traced back many centuries. The version of the game as it is played in modern times first appeared in the 1400s under various names. Its current appellation was coined around the same time as the date of this painting. Backgammon was exceptionally popular in the 1600s, and was often played for money or other wagers. The two men on the left side of this painting are clearly involved in a high stakes game of backgammon. A three-man cluster has gathered to watch them lay their bets, while another tallies their points on a scoreboard. The young lady in the right corner of the room otherwise surrounded by men and the older women who looks down on the game of backgammon from a window, both indicate that the interior presented in this painting is probably the gaming room of a brothel. Courtesans often worked out of such game rooms, providing further entertainment for men. Depictions of games, like procurement scenes, often symbolized moralizing virtues. Games were considered at best folly and at worst immoral. Backgammon was often used to represent the foolishness or wickedness of betting and wasting one's time. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Landscape with Peasants Dancing

    David Teniers · oil on wood · 1640

    Before a rustic inn, a group of villagers converse, embrace, and dance to a bagpiper’s tune. Teniers was one of many Netherlandish artists whose paintings celebrate the joys of country life. These delicately painted works were created primarily for an elite urban audience nostalgic for a simpler existence. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Scenes of Witchcraft: Evening

    Salvator Rosa · oil on canvas · 1640

    At dusk, Rosa's hags gather around a cauldron. Above their incantations soars a conjured skeleton holding an hourglass symbolizing the brevity of life. In its left hand, the demonic creature holds a capital letter A from which extends a plumb line; as ancient signs of the moon and judgment, this strange combination of symbols embodies the nocturnal judgment the witches are doling out below. Though more rare in paint, the detailed portrayal of witches at their spells enjoyed a long literary tradition. The wax effigy alludes to classical literature by Virgil and Horace that described love magic. Poets in the 1500s and 1600s continued the tradition, writing verse about witches concocting potions and performing love spells. In Rosa's own poem "La Strega (The Witch)," the jilted Phyllis vows to take revenge on her feeble lover, listing the ingredients for her black magic: "ground powders, mystic gems, snakes and owls, stinking blood. . . ." Painting was considered "mute poetry" in the 1600s, and Rosa often explored the same themes in his written and painted art—a clever way to gain fame as a unique intellect. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Scenes of Witchcraft: Night

    Salvator Rosa · oil on canvas · 1640

    In the pitch black of night, two groups of men are gathered in a forest. To the left, travelers apprehensively pause to watch a magician conjure terrifying apparitions. Since the Middle Ages, necromancy, the act of communing with the dead, was associated with male sorcerers. In Rosa's painting, the wizened necromancer who stands tall and resolute directly below a classical column is reminiscent of Moses, a predecessor to Renaissance depictions of sorcerers. Rosa's learned magicians not only invoke associations with philosophers and intellects, but they would have also referred to the artist himself and the intellectual elite with whom he associated in Florence. Just as a powerful magician could conjure strange creatures with his wand, so too could Rosa shape a strange world with his originality, intelligence, and the skillful use of paint and brush. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Saint Jerome

    Jusepe de Ribera · oil on canvas · 1638

    Saint Jerome (about ad 347–420) translated biblical texts into Latin. Although he sometimes appears as a scholar in his study, Ribera represents him here as a penitent who withdrew to the desert, beating his chest with a stone to emulate Christ’s suffering and contemplating a skull symbolizing human vanity. Working in Naples, Ribera enthusiastically adapted Caravaggio’s characteristic use of light and dark and naturalistic models. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)

    Peter Paul Rubens · pen and brown ink, with black and red chalk, touched with white gouache · 1637

    Peter Paul Rubens had a large studio in Antwerp and used drawing to prepare for large paintings as well as to direct the many pupils who assisted him. Striking in its immediacy, the drawing on the recto of this sheet of paper is a preparatory study for the Feast of Herod painting now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Herod, wearing a large cap and wrapped in a mantle, shrinks back in horror as Salome uncovers a charger that holds the head of Saint John the Baptist. Smiling, Herodias grabs the platter with her left hand and, in a chilling detail, gestures toward the charger with a fork. Rubens wrote what is usually interpreted as “Herodias somewhat higher” at the top of the sheet. The verso of the sheet depicts a sketch for another story featuring a change of fortune at the hands of a vengeful woman, Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus. Rubens made two paintings of the subject (now in Paris and Boston). A rare theme, the story tells of Queen Tomyris who, avenging the death of her son in battle, collects the head of his murderer Cyrus in a bag of human blood. Tomyris is shown seated under a canopy holding a scepter, while the servants before her handle Cyrus’s head. Rubens wrote “plus spatij” (more space) in the center of the sheet. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Peasants Smoking in an Inn

    David Teniers · oil on wood · 1635

    David Teniers the Younger was a popular artist who specialized in small paintings of rustic Flemish life in the 1600s. In works such as Peasants Smoking in an Inn, an older man and a younger man in the foreground smoke tobacco. The younger man rests limply against the wall and his head lolls back, a gesture that symbolized that he had overindulged in smoke. Another standing man prepares his pipe and watches the younger man with amusement. Tobacco was a novelty in the 1600s, introduced from the Americas and East Indies with other new imports such as sugar cane and rice, and was believed to be a medicinal product. It was particularly recommended for people who lived in "waterish places" such as Antwerp, the capital of Flanders, where Teniers painted this scene. Although many medical practitioners believed tobacco to be a cure for numerous ailments, moral opponents to smoking criticized it as a danger to health and morals. The mixed reputation and widespread popularity of tobacco smoking thus made it a marketable and amusing subject for Flemish artists such as Teniers. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Study for "The Bear Hunt" (for the Alcázar, Madrid)

    Peter Paul Rubens · oil on wood · 1634

    On June 22, 1639, King Philip IV of Spain received a letter from his younger brother Ferdinand (1609–1641). The letter explained that the artist Peter Paul Rubens had recently completed all of the sketches for a series of paintings that were to hang in the halls of the Alcázar Palace in Madrid. Bear Hunt is one of seven surviving studies out of the original eighteen. In this scene, a bear attacks a hunter and a companion comes to his aide The others work to stave off a second angry bear. The sketch was completed in the last year Rubens's life, and the paintings for the series were never completed. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Landscape with Travelers

    Herman van Swanevelt · oil on canvas · 1630

    Swanevelt played an important role in the development of 17th-century landscape painting in Rome. Often regarded as a follower of Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), with whom he briefly shared a home, most scholars now believe that the influence was mutual. Swanevelt's landscapes are distinguished by the use of Roman peasants, rather than the classical figures preferred by his contemporaries. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Silenus

    Jusepe de Ribera · etching · 1628

    Before a large wine barrel, Silenus (Bacchus’s teacher) lies inebriated on the ground as he raises his cup to receive wine from a satyr in this print. Jusepe de Ribera included these and other details indicating that the scene was intended to be humorous. Two infants mimic Silenus, and a braying donkey adds to the chaotic setting. Pan, patron of shepherds, with his pipe and staff at his feet, crowns Silenus with grapevines. A satyr and a maenad, at upper left, contribute music as well as sexual innuendo (implied by the placement of the satyr’s flute). Ribera drew inspiration from Andrea Mantegna’s bacchanalia image but he introduced more texture and sensuality to the subject matter through his rich etching technique. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Triumph of the Church

    Peter Paul Rubens · oil on wood · 1628

    This work is likely a copy after Rubens’s oil sketch for the Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series. Isabella, daughter of King Phillip II of Spain, commissioned the tapestries for a royal monastery in Madrid. The finished tapestries still hang there today, and the original oil sketch is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • St. Sebastian

    Jusepe de Ribera · red chalk with pen and brown ink · 1626

    This subtly drawn study in red chalk with ink accents depicts the moment just before the Roman soldier Sebastian was shot through with arrows for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The young martyr turns hopefully toward heaven as if comforted by divine light. Ribera favored the subject because it allowed him to study the expressive possibilities of the bound human figure. A number of related drawings by the artist from the same period treat similar themes of saints bound in punishment. Although Spanish by birth, Jusepe de Ribera spent most of his life in Naples, where he became the dominant artistic figure until his death in 1652. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Portrait of Isabella Brant

    Peter Paul Rubens · oil on wood · 1620

    Isabella Brant was Rubens’s first wife. He painted her many times in many different ways before she died at the age of 35 (she is a model for a nymph in the other work by Rubens in this room). This intimate portrait, painted at least five years before her death, suggests the close relationship between the painter and sitter through the warm palette, the luscious brushstrokes, and her lively expression. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Plate with Arms of the Vitelleschi Family

    Maestro Giorgio Andreoli · tin-glazed earthenware with gold luster (maiolica) · 1527

    Italian nobles of the 1500s often expressed their wealth, social status, and sophistication by ordering large sets of maiolica that sometimes carried their coats of arms or even likenesses, usually in profile as in portraits of the period. Reserved for use at festival events such as a wedding or commissioned to mark a special occasion or an important visit, elaborately decorated utilitarian vessels in maiolica were prized as works of art by their owners and displayed as such in their residences. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Plate Depicting the Myth of Cadmus

    Maestro Giorgio Andreoli · tin-glazed earthenware with gold lustre (maiolica) · 1526

    Obeying the command of an oracle, Cadmus followed a cow to Boeotia, or “oxen-land.” There he slayed a dragon and buried its teeth in the ground. From the teeth grew a crop of warriors who fought each other until only the strongest five remained. Cadmus invited the victors to join him, and together they built the city of Thebes, where the mythological hero, Hercules (or Herakles) was later born. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Charger with Arms of the Vigeri Family

    Maestro Giorgio Andreoli · tin-glazed earthenware with gold and red lustre (maiolica) · 1524

    Italian nobles of the 1500s often expressed their wealth, social status, and sophistication by ordering large sets of maiolica that sometimes carried their coats of arms or even likenesses, usually in profile similar to portrait paintings of the period. Reserved for use at festival events such as a wedding or commissioned to mark a special occasion or an important visit, elaborately decorated utilitarian vessels in maiolica were prized as works of art by their owners and displayed as such in their residences. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Plate: Diana and Acteon

    Maestro Giorgio Andreoli · tin-glazed earthenware with gold and red lustre (maiolica) · 1522

    Alfred Pringsheim was a German Jewish collector. During Kristallnacht, in November 1938, the SS seized Pringsheim's maiolica collection from his home in Munich. It was stored in the annex to the Bayerishches National Museum, Munich. In March 1939, the German Ministry of Trade authorized export of Pringsheim's maiolica collection to London for auction at Sotheby's, provided that 80% of the proceeds up to £20,000 and 70% of the remainder be paid to the German Gold Discount Bank in foreign currency. Pringsheim was to receive the remaining proceeds. In exchange, Pringsheim and his wife were allowed to emigrate to Switzerland. After the war, the Pringsheim heirs received restitution of the sale proceeds paid to the Reichsbank. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Charger Depicting the Three Graces

    Maestro Giorgio Andreoli · tin-glazed earthenware with gold lustre (maiolica) · 1520

    During the Renaissance, an understanding of classical antiquity was perceived to be a sign of social, intellectual, and economic distinction. Scenes from Greco-Roman mythology were prominently featured on maiolica, covering the surface in a style called istoriato (decorated with stories). This depiction of the three graces was likely based on an engraving by the Renaissance printmaker, Marcantonio Raimondi. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Christ in a Mandorla, with the instruments of the Passion, with St. Stephen and St. Lawrence below

    Berlinghiero · tempera and gold on wood · 1225

    This small altarpiece, intended for a domestic interior or private chapel, consists of three panels, allowing it to be folded and easily transported. Surrounding the Virgin and Child in the center are various saints. On the left is Saint Andrew crucified, with St. Francis and St. Paul below; on the right, Christ with the instruments of the Passion, and St. Stephen and St. Lawrence below. The long expressive lines that define the clothing and hands of the figures are typical of Byzantine painting, which spread from Constantinople to Italy in the Middle Ages. Berlinghiero is one of the earliest Italian painters known by name. He lived in Lucca, the most important artistic center in Tuscany before the rise of Siena and Florence. Berlinghiero headed a large, influential workshop that included his sons. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • The Crucifixion of St. Andrew, with St. Francis and St. Paul below

    Berlinghiero · tempera and gold on wood · 1225

    This small altarpiece, intended for a domestic interior or private chapel, consists of three panels, allowing it to be folded and easily transported. Surrounding the Virgin and Child in the center are various saints. On the left is Saint Andrew crucified, with St. Francis and St. Paul below; on the right, Christ with the instruments of the Passion, and St. Stephen and St. Lawrence below. The long expressive lines that define the clothing and hands of the figures are typical of Byzantine painting, which spread from Constantinople to Italy in the Middle Ages. Berlinghiero is one of the earliest Italian painters known by name. He lived in Lucca, the most important artistic center in Tuscany before the rise of Siena and Florence. Berlinghiero headed a large, influential workshop that included his sons. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

  • Virgin and Child with Saints

    Berlinghiero · triptych (tabernacle); tempera and gold on poplar panel · 1225

    This small altarpiece, intended for a domestic interior or private chapel, consists of three panels, allowing it to be folded and easily transported. Surrounding the Virgin and Child in the center are various saints. On the left is Saint Andrew crucified, with St. Francis and St. Paul below; on the right, Christ with the instruments of the Passion, and St. Stephen and St. Lawrence below. The long expressive lines that define the clothing and hands of the figures are typical of Byzantine painting, which spread from Constantinople to Italy in the Middle Ages. Berlinghiero is one of the earliest Italian painters known by name. He lived in Lucca, the most important artistic center in Tuscany before the rise of Siena and Florence. Berlinghiero headed a large, influential workshop that included his sons. Image and data from the Cleveland Museum of Art, released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0).

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