C O L L E C T I O N

B O O K
PREHISTORIC ART
European cave art
30,000 BCE-10,000 BCE

Some of the finest European cave art was produced

in south-western France and northern Spain during

the final phase of the lce Age, from 15,000-10,000

Bison
BCE, The paintings at Altamira in Spain, which were Most cave paintings

discovered in 1879, are so wwell preserved that for show live animals, but

many years archaeologists doubted their this bisot appears to

authernticity, Most of the images depict bison, have been depicted

although there are also a number of horses and red after its death, with

deer. The paintings at Lascaux in France were its legs trussed up

discovered accidentally, by four boys playing in the The striking image

ywoods The cave, which contains more than 600 was created with just

paintings boasts some of the most spectacular three Colors-Ochre,

prehistoric artworks ever found, most notably in the red, and black:

celebrated "Hall of Bullis" This is dominated by c13,000 BCE, TOCK

pictures of four black bulls, each measuring up to painting , Altamira,

4.9m long The cave complex at Chauvet in France near Santillana del

also includes aremarkable array of animal paintings Mar, Spain

and is much older, dating back to around 30,000

BCE.

Lions
The animal paintings

at Chauvet include

bears, lions, panthers,

rhinos, and owls,

These lions are an

extinct variety, with

males that have no

manes c30,000 CE,

TOck painting,

Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc

Apeche Department

France

The shaft of dead man

Discovered in 1940, the

cave paintings at Lascaux

are often cited as the

finest examples of

prehistoric rock art in the

worid. This enigmatic

scene shows a man with

a bird-ike head along

with a bison that seems

to be disembowelied.

C17,000 BCE, FDCK

painting, Lascaux,

Dordogne, France
Australian cave art
c40,000 BCE-1780 CE

Australian art has a very long pedigree Rock engravings at Wharton Hill and Panaramitee North in South Australia are thought to be more

than 40,000 years old, while traces of pigment at Cape York in Queensland appear to date back to c25 , 000 BCE. Many Australian

Aboriginal paintings are more difficult to date, however, as they have often been retouched on several occasions. Australian Aboriginals

believed that the original designs had been formed by creation spirits during the Dreamtime -the ancestral past-when their shadows

passed over the landscape The most important concentrations of rock painting can be found at Arnhem Land and Kimberiey, near the

northern coast, and Victoria in the south-east. The images usually consist of slender, anthropomorphic figures or "X-ray" paintings of

animals.

Wandjina Paintings

The Wandjina are

ancestral figures- the

spinits of clouds, who

govern the weather.

These paintings. were

discovered in

1837.Main figure

100x78cm, Kimberley

Distriet Western

Australia

The lightning Brothers

These images come from a

rock shelter in the

ancestral territory of the

Wardaman people. The

Lightning Brothers were

two Creation heroes -

Jabaringi and Yagjagbula-

who brought lightning and

the monsoon fains Rock

painting, Ingalari

Waterhole Willero0 Station

Victoria River, Australia

African Cave and rock art
c4000 BCE-C1500 BCE

The finest surviving examples of prehistoric African art

are located in remote, mountainous regions In many

cases, the sites were occupied for centuries and

contain thousands of paintings and engravings At Tassili

NAjer in Aigeria paintings are so numerous that different

periods can be detected. The earliest feature hunters

pursuing animals that are now extinet Following this

there are scenes of herdsmen tending cattle and, finally,

The White Lady
images of more recent animais, such as horses and

camels The most intriguing paintings perhaps were

When it was first
produced by San bushmen in the Drakensberg area.
discovered, this painting
Some prehistorians believe these depict shamans and
was interpreted as a white
therianthropes (composite human and animal foms,
woman, Some now believe
involved in trance ceremonies with elands (large
however that the figure is
antelopes) The elands were thought to possess spiritual
a mnale shaman wearing
power which shamans tried to harness through ritual
white body paint c1st
dances and trances
century 8CE, rock painting.

height 40cm Tsibab

Ravine, Brandberg

Mountain, Namibia

Shamanistic Image with Eland

This prehistoric masterpiece, from the

mountainous Drakensberg region.

has been interpreted as a trance

picture. The animal is accompanied

by humans with hooves Rock painting

Game Pass, Kamberg Nature Reserve

South Africa

Hunters with Bowmen

Thousands of paintings and

engravings were produced at Tassili

N'Ajjer, a rocky plateau in the Sahara,

in a period when the climate was

more favourable than today, Early

scenes of hunters were followed by

paintings of herdsmen. c4000 BCE

rock painting, Tassili N'Ajer, near

Djanet, Algeria
Portable Figurines
The Kostionki Venus
c30,000 BCE-c10,000 BCE
The earliest surviving non-functional

obects come from the Paleolithic

Alongside their rock art, early humans also produced
period. This female fure is from the
a variety of portable objects. Weapons were often
Voronezh region in south-western
decorated with images of prey presumably as a fom
Russia c23,000 BCE, stone, height
of hunting magic There wwas also an intriguing group
10cm, Hermitage, St Petersburg,
of very ancient European sculptures known
Russia
collectively as "Venus" figurines Dating from the

Palaeolithic era (c35,000-B000 BCE most of the

statuettes represent) naked, wel-rounded women

Their purpose is unknown, although their obvious

voluptuousness has led Some archaeologists to

regard them as fertility tigures. More than a hundred

of the figures have been found at sites randing from

France to Russia. They generally have tiny legs and

arms-indeed, the arms on the Willendorf fiqure,

folded across her breasts are barely discernible Most

of the statuettes could not have stood independently,

and it is possible that they were designed to be held

in the hand,

Bison Carving

This delighttul carving was

made from a reindeer antler

and sed as a spear-thrower

It was found at La The Venus of Willendorf

Madeleine, in

France.c12,000 BCE vory The most famous of all the

length 10cm, private Venus figurines, this carving

collection takes its ame fram the

Austrian village where it was

discovered, during

construction work on a

railway. It was made from a

small stone and tinted witth

red ochre. c24,000 BCE,

limestone, height 11 cm,

Neolithic Pottery Naturhistorisches Museum,

Vienna Austria

c9000 BCE-c24000 BCE

The earliest known ceramic vessels are frorn c11,000

BCE in Eastern Sibera and Japan. Ceramic objects,

including a Venus figure and numerous animal

figurines, have been found at Dolni Vestonice in the

Olmec Baby
Chez Republic. These dat from c2400BCE. However,

the craft became much more common in Neolithic

This cerarmic baby was made
period, as nomadic hunter-gatherers were gradually
by the Olmec Culture of
suspended by farming communities, who kept
Mexico. The purpose of this
livestock and grew crops. Their settled lifestyle
and similar crying babies is
enabled them to acquire more belongings, without
unknown, but some
the worry of transporting them.
archaeologists have suggested
Initiaily, most pottery was ether modelled or built up
that the Olmec performed
in coils. In many communities, women made the pots
infant sacrifice, and the
for their own househols. However the invention of the
ceramic babies may have been
potter's wheel stimulated the growthe a specialist
connected to this practice
"industry" The wheel was introduced in Western Asia
c800BCE, earthenware with
in c3400 BCE, and reached Europe in the following
bichrome slip. 31 x 24x18cm,
millennium.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Texas, US
 Pot with Whorl Design

This comes from the Middle

J āmon period in Japan.

Characteristically, the

vessel is decorated with an

elaborate, curvilinear

design. c7500-300 BE, low-

fired ceramic clay 38x33cm

Skarpsalling Bowl
Museum of Fine Arts.

Houston, US
The decoration on some

Neolithic pots mimics other

materials. Parts of this vessel

resemble the stitching that

might have been found on

leathenork c3000 E terracotta,

height 17cm, National Museum,

Copenhagen, Denmark

Crouching Male Figure

Popularly known as The

Thinker. This famous piece is a

product of the Hamangia

Culture. C3500-3000 BCE,

pottery height 113cm, National

Museum of Art Bucharest.

Romania.

Stylized Head

This is a typical

example of the
Nok Bird-man Figure
distinctive figures

produced by the Vinta Nok figures take their name from a village

culture, which near the Niger River, where the first finds

flourished ata large from this culture were made. These consist

farming settlement on almost exclusively of ceramic sculptures,

the banks of the depicting an imaginative range of human

Danube, a few miles and animal forms. Their original purpose can

from modem-day only be guessed at. It has been suggested,

Belgrade C4500-4000 for example, that they may represent

BCE, terracotta. ancestor figures or deities, or that they were

18x15cm, Musej Kosova, used in funerary rites. c500 BCE-200 CE,

Pristina, Serbia terracotta, 47x20x22cm, private coliection

Assyrian
c1500 BCE-612 BCE

The Assyrian heartlands were in

northern Mesopotamia (modern-day

Iraq) The Assyrians took their name A King Shalmaneser III

from the land they came from around

Ashur, their religious capital, but soon This shows the king in an
built the far greater cities of Nineveh, important ritual role, as
Nimrud, and Khorsabad .. At the the protector of the Tree
height of their power (from 883 to 612 of Life. 9th century BCE,
BCE), the Assyrians commanded an ivory, Iraq Museum,
empire that stretched from Persia to Baghdad, Iraq
the Mediterranean. Assyrian art is

most notable for its relief carving and

SCulpture. The most important

theme was the lion hunt-an event

that had both royal and religious

significance Depictions of the hunt

frequently adorned royal palaces.

On a much smaller scale, the

Assyrians also produced very fine

ivory carvings on plaques, which were

mostly used as veneers on their

furniture

Winged Guardian Figure

This is one of a pair of

monumental statues from the

palace of Sargon Il at

Khorsabad. It is a Lamassu a

winged bull with a human

head. 8th century BCE,

gypseous alabaster, height

420cm, Louvre, Paris, France

Ashurnasirpal II at a
LionHunt

Lion hunting was more

than a sport of Assyrian

kings: it had religious

Connotations. 7th

century BCE, Whole

panel length 224cm,

limestone, British

Museum, London, UK
Aegean
e3000-c1100 BCE

Before the heyday of Ancient Greek art, a group of different cultures fiourished in the area around the Aegean Sea. The earliest of these

developed in the Cyclades Islands, where settlers from Asia Minor arrived in around 3000 BCE.Their most distinctive artefacts are tiny. marble

figurines, with spare, minimalistic forms that have been greatly | admired by modern sculptors. Minoan culture emerged on Crete at a similar

period. The name was coined by the archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, because of the island's mythical association with King Minos and his

Minotaur. Minoan art was centerd around its palaces, which were adorned with spectacular wall- paintings The Cretans also produced fine

pottery and jewelery. Mycenaean culture developed on the Greek mainland. Its outstanding artworks were discovered in the "royal" graves at

the city of Mycenae itself. These yielded up a stunning array of gold masks, jewelry, weapons, and vessels.

Minoan Pottery Jar

Cretan artists were particularly fond of Funerary Mask

decorating their pots with extravagant octopus

designs that wound around the entire vessel. This

This piece is popularly known as the
type of jar was probably used for storing or
"Mask of Agamemnon" (the Greek
transporting olive oil. C1450-1400 BCE, painted
leader in the Trojan War), It is not a
earthenware, Ashmolean, Oxford, UK
death mask-the object was created

separately and then placed over the

dead man's face. 16th century BCE,

gold, height 26cm, National

Archaeological Museum, Athens,

Greece
Greek Archaic
c750-480 BCE

The Archaic Period covers the early development of Greek art, from

around 750 BCE until 480 BCE when the Persians sacked Athens.

In sculpture, Greek artists eagerly assimilated ideas from Egypt

and the East, gradually producing their own, highly individual style.

Progress was most apparent in depictions of the kouros hude male),

and the kore (draped female) Most of these statues were used as

grave markers, although some represented gods. In the earliest

phase, the figures had stereotyped features and a rigid stance,

with their arms barely leaving their sides. Over the course of this

period, the poses became more relaxed, and the treatment of

anatomy grew more convincing. The Archaic Period was also the

golden age of vase painting Initially, the Corinthians dominated this

Antefix of a Gorgon's Head
field but by the early 6th century BCE, the lead had been taken by
Plaques of this kind were very common in
Athens Its artists became masters of the "black-figure" technique,
early Greek architecture. They were used as
highlighted in the work of Exekias, and later of the more
ornaments to mask the end of a row of roof
sophisticated "red-figure" technique, which superseded it.
tiles. The designs often featured monsters,

as it was thought that these would ward off

evil spirits. Gorgons, with their projecting

fangs, tongues, and glaring eyes, were

popular choice. c6th century BCE,

terracotta, length 25cm private collection

Achilles Slaying the

Amazon Queen, Penthesilea

This moment of high drama

The Lady of Auxerre
Anavysos Kouros was painted by Exekias,

the most famous exponent

This remarkable statuette Owes its name to
Named after the village where it was of the black-figure style of
its first known owner, a theater manager in
found, this kouros was a warior's decoration. As he delivers
Auxerre, who Used it as a prop in an
grave-marker. c530 BCE, marble, the fatal blow, Achilles
operetta. It is the finest Surviving example
height 194cm, National falls in love with his enemy,
of the "Daedalic" style of sculpture, named
Archaeological Museum, Athens, 6th century BCE, pottery.
after the mythical figure Daedalus, who was
Greece height 42cm, British
said to have created the first Greek statues.
Museum, London, UK
It was made in Crete and was originally

painted.c640 BCE, limestone, height 65cm,

Louvre, Paris, France

Nudes
The nude was central to the art of the Relief of Eve from
ancient Greeks and in their statues of Autun Cathedral
naked heroes and goddesses they

created standards of beauty that have Gislebertus Thought to be

been a challenge and an inspiration to the first European nude

later ages Many artists, however, have since antiquity,

used the nude not only to create Gislebertus's relief

images of beauty, but also to explore sculpture shows a shapely

ideas and emotions Drawing directly Eve picking an apple.

from a naked model has formed a part c1130, stone, Cathedral of

of art education for centuries, although St. Lazare, Autun, France

in certain times and places the nude

has been subject to censorship

Cavalcade
Taken from the frieze that was on the Parthenon, these horsemen form

part of a procession, Even though the carving is in very shallow relief, the

overlapping horses provide a sense of depth and movement. 447-432

BCE, marble height 106cm, British Museum, London, UK

David
This monumental emobodiment of human beauty

stood at the entrance of Florences Palazzo Vecchio

for over 300 years. 1501-04, marble, 434cm, Galleria

dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy

Panathenaic Amphora
Depicting a Boxing Contest

Greek vase- painters contributed

significantly to advances in the

Cycladic Kouros Greek depiction of musculature. C336

Greek study and development of BCE, pottery, British Museum,

Egyptian statuary led to a more London, UK

realistic figuring of the body c550

BC, marble 214cm, National

Archaeological Museum, Athens,

Greece
Byzantine
EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, 330 CE-1453

Byzantine art flourished from 330 CE, when Constantinople was founded, until 1453, when the city

fell to the Turks. Within this huge time-span, the boundaries of the empire fluctuated considerably,

though this did not prevent Byzantine trends from affecting artistic developments as far afield as

Italy, Egypt, and Russia.

In 395, following the death of Theodosius the Great, the empire was divided and the artistic

traditions of its two halves rapidly began to diverge.In the West, constant warfare led to an era of

diminished artistic production, while in Byzantium a new order of art work emerged. Religious

icons and imperial images were venerated, and their appearance was strictly controlled. Their

forms were symbolic and stylized, and any artistic individuality was frowned upon.

In other fields, Byzantine craftsmen serviced a thriving market for luxury objects The quality of their

silks, jewelry, closure néenamels, and carved ivories was outstanding. The latter often took the

form of diptychs, adorned with religious or imperial subjects.

The Barberini Ivory

Emperor Justinian and
Attendants The central panel depicts the

Emperor Triumphant. Above, Christ

offers a blessing, flanked by winged

Justinian commissioned this
Victories; below, earthly powers pay
mosaic, shortly after his troops
homage Early 6th century ivory, 34.2x
had captured Ravenna from
26.8cm, Louvre Paris, France
the Ostrogoths. He never

visited the city, but this portrait

emphasized his official

presence in his westerm

capital. c547, mosaic, San

Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

Mosaic
7TH-13TH CENTURY

One of the distinguishing features of Islamic arhitecture is the intricate and extensive decoration

of both interior and exterior surfaces Alongside carved and painted decorations, tilework and

mosaic played a major role from the first Islamic buildings such as the Dome of the Rock in

Jerusalem (completed 691), using techniques of Byzantine mosaic but in non-"epresentational

geometric and arabesque patterns, and the Great Mosque of Damascus (715), which unusually

also has a mosaic reproducing buildings and an imaginary city. Through the 8th century, the use of

mosaic decoration spread as far afield as Spain, where it can be seen in the Great Mosque of

Córdoba and later in the Alhambra; specific styles such as zillij, using purpose-made tiles, were

developed in the Arabic Countries and North Africa; and in Eurasia in the 13th century Seljuq

mosques and palaces were decorated with richly colored glazed tiles:

The Dome of the Rock, Temple

Mount Mosaic above a doorway of
the Prayer Hall
This earliest extant example of

Islamic building is essentially Originally a Christian church, the

Byzantine in structure, but its mosaic Mezquita was rebuilt as a mosque by
decoration in repeating geometric a succession of Islamic rulers from
patterns is distinctly Islamic. The rich c785. Amang the alterations was the
blues and greens are typical of the addition of mosaics in the Prayer Hall
mosaics of early Islamic architecture. of the extension built by al-Hakam l1.
Completed 691 cE, Jerusalem Israel , 961-66 CE, Great Mosque of

Córdoba, Spain
The Aztecs
VALLEY OF MEXICO; 1325-1521
Feather mosaic Shield

The animal on this shield is an

Aztec art was almost all produced as a material
ahuizotI, a mythical "water- thorn
expression of Aztec cosmology-their vision of the
beast" that dwelt on riverbanks and
creation of the Universe. The Aztecs drew their beliefs
was said by the Aztecs to seize
from previous Mexican civilizations and believed that
people who came too close to the
their world had been created by the Sun god,
water. It gave its name to the Aztec
Huitzilopochtli, whose continuing appearance in the
emperor , Ahuizot, who reigned from
morning sky required a constant supply of hearts and
1486 to 1502, c1500, feathers, sheet-
blood from captured enemies. The Sun and other gods
gold, against paper, leather, reed
dominated everyday life, their images and the myths
70x70cm, Museum für Volkerkun de
associated with them represented in human form or as
Vienna Austria
flora or fauna. The Aztecs never carved actual portraits,

as those sculptures with a human appearance- whether

of gods, priests, or Common people-represent the

inhabitants of the sacred Universe. Repeated symbols-

often based on nature-reinforced the message of the

gods' spiritual powers. The main Aztec art form was

stone sculpture, often monumental in form, although

their craftsmen were also skilled in using wood, fired

clay, precious stones, feathers, and other materials.

However, it is mainly the sculptures that have survived,

as more vulnerable works of art, as well as any

decorative items in palaces and houses, were almost all

destroyed during the Spanish conquest

Coatlicue

The goddess of the Chacmool

Earth and patron of life

and death, Coaticue is The carved figure of Chacmool strikes a characteristic

shown here pose. He wears a feather headdress, necklaces,

decapitated and with bangles, and bracelets with bells attached. A Chacmool

Serpents entwining her figure wearsa mask, which identifies him as Tlaloc, the

body. They represent rain god. c1500, stone 74x108x45cm Museo Nacional de

the blood gushing her Antropologia Mexico City, Mexico

from her her neck her

She is wearing a

necklace of human

hands and hearts.c1500,

stone, height 257cm

Museo Nacional de

Antropologia Mexico

City, Mexico

Coyolxauhqui
The name of the moon

goddess, Coyolxauhqui

means "the one with bells on

her face", As usual, she is Grasshopper

shown decapitated and with

closed eyelids, as she was When the Aztecs first arrived in the Valley of Mexico, they

beheaded by her brother, attempted to found their capital at Chapultepec, the

Huitzilopochtli the sun "hill of the grasshopper". Pictograms always show the

warrior. c1500, diorite, hill with a grasshopper on its summit This grasshopper

80x80x65cm, Museo from Chapultepec is made from comelian quartz.c1500,

Nacional de Antropologia, cornelian, 19.5x16x47cm, Museo Nacional de

Mexico City, Mexico Antropologia, Maximo City, Mexico

The Incas
PERUVIAN ANDES%; B 1220s-1533

Inca art is more functional and less elaborate than

earlier Andean civilizations, although evidence is patchy

as much was destroyed, lost, or melted down after the

Spanish Conquest. The Inca's main skill was in

stonemasonry, using perfectly cut, massive stones fitted

without the use of mortar to create walls and buildings.

Some of these stones, as well as living rocks, were

carved with religious symbols drawn from nature. Inca

artists developed considerable skill and sophistication in

gold and other metalwork, developing a copper-arsenic

bronze into which they inlaid gold and silver. Their

textiles were finely woven using vicuna, alpaca, or llama

wool. Repeating geometrical patterns feature regularly

in this work, perhaps having a heraldic significance

Llama Figurine

This Inca llama is made

of several pieces of

sheet silver. The

blanket in cinnibar,

and the diamond

design may have been

originally inlaid with

turquoise, the blanket

trim is gold. After

1438, silver American

Museum of Natural

History, New York, US

Inca Poncho

Ponchos were worm

by all classes of

Incas, the poor

wearing alpaca

wool, the rich a

silkier vicuna wool.

The elaborate

decoration on this

poncho Suggests it

was not for everyday

use. c1500, wool

American Museum

of Natural History,

New York, US
Ancient
Egypt
A world of Symbols
For the ancient Egyptian the whole

world, as they saw it, was

represented symbolically. From the

sun and the Nile, which gave them

food and sustenance, to the animal

kingdom, wild animal kingdom, wild

and domestic, everything was imbued

with hidden meaning, Even their

architecture, and especially that

associated with funerary rites, was

full of complex meaning and

significance. As its deepest level,

symbolism was the means by which

the Egyptians expressed their

speculations about the nature of life

itself - the creation, the afterlife and

the struggle between good and evil.

Tefnut
Tefnut was the ancient
Egyptian goddess of water and
fertility. She and her brother
and husband, Shu, were
created by Atum, Ra or Amun.
Tefnut was the mother of Nut
and Geb also she is associated
with the lion. In art she is
represent as a woman with
head of the lion with Sun disc.

In this papyrus (opposite) of

the Nineteenth Dynasty, Tefnut
is represented with an ankh
symbol in the role of one of the
judges of the Underworld. She
is depicted with a ram's head
although often she had the
head of a lion.
Apis Bull
As one of the strongest procreative

symbols of ancient Egypt, the bull

could represent the composite god of

creation, the primeval waters or even

the inundation of the Nile. This

identification with the creative life

force also meant that the bull was

identified with the Egyptian king and

a number of New Kingdom monarchs

were described as 'mighty bull' or 'bull

of Horus'.
Osiris
The eternally good king'or the perfect one' under his received name of

Wennefer, Osiris was at the center of the most extensive symbolism of ancient

Egypt. He began as a fertility god with a special association with corn and

with the life-giving waters of the Nile, called the ‘efflux of Osiris’. After

receiving the rulership of the earth from his father his Geb, Osiris introduced

viticulture and agriculture to the country. All this inspired the envy of his

brother his Seth, who caused him to be drowned in the Nile, symbolizing the

flooding of the land and the new harvest. After death his god was thought to

have been dismembered, although this myth may only have arisen because so

many places claimed his remains his.

Divine mourners, and sister goddesses, Isis and Nephthys protect the djed pillar, symbol of Osiris, with their wings.

Osiris and Horus

The falcon, king of the air, was the

creature of Horus and symbol of

divine kingship. Here, this expression

of domination and triumph surmounts

the djed pillar, ancient fetish and

feature of rustic fertility rites. Given

its architectural character, the pillar

took on associations of stability and,

most interesting, become a symbol

for Osiris at the beginning of the New

Kingdom, when it was seen to

represent the god's backbone. The

raising of the pillar represented the

victory of Osiris over Seth.

Maat

Without this goddess, the whole process of

creation and constant renewal would have

been meaningless. She symbolized the

laws of existence-law, truth and the world

order- and judge were thought of as the

priests of Maat The cyclical nature of life

would have been impossible without her:

she was food and drink to Re, her her father

Of the sun god. She was represented

wearing an ostrich feather, which came to

be a symbol of truth.
Crown
The crown of the Egyptian king was looked

upon as a source of nourishment marked its

power was transferred to the ruler. Since

Egypt was a country of two lands the kings

wore the Double Crown', the pschent,

combining the symbolic flowering lotus of the

White Crown of Upper Egypt with the papyrus

plant, which represented the Red Crown of

Lower Egypt. According to the period the

crowns took different forms, from the ‘double

feathers’ crown of two upright Ostrich plumes

to the kbepresh or Blue Crown with gold

ornamentation. The royal crowns were also

seen as the eye of the sun god or as a flame

around the king.

Headdress
The close association of Egyptian deities and
animals was Constantly expressed in the
animal-headed figures in Egyptian art.
Power is Conferred by the headdress and its
form indicates the status of the wearer. A
symbol of evil among the dwellers of the
Nile Delta was Seth, a human figure with a
headdress of an indeterminate species, part
antelope, part anteater.
Vulture Headdress
When the Egyptian king went into
battle he was protected by a
vulture with a white hc address.
His own head cloth was a symbol
of the Upper Egyptian national
goddess Nekhbet, who was also
characterized by her wearing of a
vulture he address. The vulture
was, surprisingly, thought to play a
protective role in the land of the
dead. In the Late Period the bird
came to embody the female
principle, as opposed to the beete,
which was the embodiment of the
male principle. As the heraldic
animal of Upper Egypt and of the
goddess Nekhbet, the vulture
became an especially potent royal
symbol and was often represented
in royal graves. It was also the
sacred animal of the goddess Mut,
worshipped at Thebes.
 Ankh
The original water, the ankwas
significance of this given by the gods to
mysterious Egyptian the king and is
symbol is not clear. usually shown in the
It has been hands of a deity or
suggested that its its associated
shape has sexual animal. This was
Connotations, one of the most
although there is powerful of all
Support for the Egyptian amulets
theory that it and retained its
represents a simple influence
sandal strap Symbol throughout ancient
of life and irresistible Egyptian history,
strength, eventually entering
representative of the Christian
life-giving attributes iconography during
of air and the Coptic period.
 THE EYES OF HORUS
The right eye of the falcon god
Horus was known as the'Eye of
Re', the eye of the sun god; the
left eye, the'Eye of Horus', was
regarded as the symbol of the
moon. Of Horus it was written,
cyes he fills the universe with
light but when he shuts When he
opens his them darkness comes
into being'The leye symbol was
undoubtedly a sign of protection;
it appeared in countless articles
of jewelry, specially sacred
amulets, and two eyes were often
painted on the left side of coffins
to enable the deceased to see the
way ahead.
Cat
The image of the cat in the carliest Egyptian
symbolism was probably derived from the jungle
cat, which lived in the Nile Delta. In the New
Kingdom the male cat was seen as an incarnation of
the sun god and the she-cat as the solar eye. The
domestic cat was the sacred animal of the goddess
Bastet, usually depicted as a woman with the head
of a cat.
Scarab
Symbol of self-creation, the scarab

was believed to come directly into

being from the balls of animal dung

that it used to and larva. It was s38.

protect its associated with the sun

and therefore with life-giving warmth

and light, and pottery models of the

scarab were often placed in tombs as

a symbol of the renewal of life. In its

solar role, the scarab represented the

morning sun in its god form of Khepri.

In his beetle form, the god rose as the

morning sun from the eastern horizon.

A strong life god, Khepri also

symbolized resurrection.
FALCON

So many Egyptian
deities were associated
with the falcon that the
image of the bird came
to be virtually
synonymous with ‘god’.
Its regal flight and
aggressive qualities
made it a natural
symbol for Horus, king
of the gods, and for
divine kingship in
general. Other falcon
gods included Month,
the god of war, Re, the
sun god, and Sokar, the
god of mortuaries. The
original image of Horus
was of a falcon
protecting the heavens
and carth with
outstretched wings.
Right Bronze figure of
the falcon god Horus,
Twenty-sixth Dynasty.
Ibis

The Ibis bird was sacred to and

associated with Thoth the God of
wisdom and writing. Thoth was often
represented in the form of a man's
body with the head of the Ibis and was
the patron of the educated scribes who
were responsible for the administration
of Egypt.
Vulture
Nekhbet, in Egyptian religion, vulture

goddess who was the protector of Upper

Egypt and especially its rulers.

Nekhbet was frequently portrayed as

spreading her wings over the pharaoh while

grasping in her claw the cartouche symbol

or other emblems. She also appeared as a

woman, often with a vulture’s head,

wearing a white crown, and was sometimes

depicted suckling the pharaoh. The centre

of Nekhbet’s cult was El-K āb, but her

principal epithet made her the goddess of

Hierakonpolis (or Nekhen), the ancient town

opposite El-K āb, on the west bank of the

Nile River.

Cobra
The cobra was seen

principally as a solar

symbol, with close

connections to many

deities. One of the most

notable was the goddess

Wadjet of the city of Buto

and, through her, the cobra

came to be an emblem of

Lower Egypt.
 Crocodile
The crocodile was seen as an

agent of disorder and was

associated with the evil god Seth.

So strong was crocodile imagery in

Egyptian symbolic thought that

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

contains a number of recipes for

repelling the reptiles. Yet, since it

had emerged from the waters like

the sun god, the crocodile also

had more positive Connotations as

a force for life and renewal.

In this papyrus of the Twenty-first Dynasty, a priestess drinks river water while faced with a crocodile representing the god Geb.
 Lotus

As the sun rises in the morning in

the East, the water lily, the lotus,

opens itself to greet the renewal

of light. So the flower became

the symbol of the sun re-

emerging after the night and

therefore associated with the

sun god Re who is portrayed in

The Egyptian Book of the Dead

as a golden youth rising from the

lotus. Thus the flower, specially

the blue lotus, also came to

symbolize rebirth.

The portrait head

of Tutankhamun is

shown rising from

a blue lotus,

signifying his

resurrection, while

lotus inlays were a

common

decorative motif

in burial tombs.
Anubis
Usually represented in canine form-dog or jackal- Anubis

was the principal god of the dead before Osiris. He was

closely associated with the necropolis and known as ‘God

of the Hallowed Land’. Representations of Anubis were

placed in the tomb to guard the munmmification chamber

and frighten away evil.

Ba
Often inadequately translated

as 'soul', the word ba should

really be more properly thought

of as referring to a psychic

force. First ascribed to gods,

then later applied to all people,

the ba was the spiritual aspect

of the human being, which

survived death.
 Artists
and their
Artwork
Giotto
b COLLE DI VESPIGNANO ?, NEAR FLORENCE, c1270; d FLORENCE, 1337

The Florentine painter and architect. Giotto di Bondone, trained under

Cimabue but, going further than his master, he replaced the Byzantine art Scrovegni Chapel
tradition with a degree of naturalism Giotto rediscovered how to make a

flat surface look three-dimensional, using artistic devices that had been
This chapel was
forgotten since the classical Greek world, however, achieving the illusion
Commissioned by a
of space, through perspective and light and shade was not an end in itself
local banker, Enrico
for Giotto. Realism was merely the tool he used for his greatest innovation
Scrovegni, and stands
his-telling a story with all its human pathos and drama. Giotto's realism
next to his palace in
was appreciated in his own lifetime, and he was famous and sought-after
Padua. Giotto's
throughout Italy. Despite the plague ravaging 14th-century Florence and
frescoes fill the
much of Europe, Italian art never looked the same after Giotto, and his
interior. 1305-06,
influence his was carried all over Europe by Simone Martini and others
Padua, Italy

The Lamentation of Christ

Giotto uses the composition to bring

out the poignancy of this scene, in

which Christ's mother and followers

mourn over his dead body. The ridge

swoops down from rght to left, and

John the Baptist's arms swept back

contribue to the downward thrust

towards the prostrate figure of

Christ. The single tree is a medieval

symbol of death and may also

represent the Tree of Knowledge in

the Garden of Eden. c1305, fresco,

Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy

The Nativity

Giotto uses vivid color to make the

story of the birth of Christ come alive

The robe of Joseph, who is seated in

the foreground, is intense yellow in its

shadows and lightened with white for

highlights. c1305, frasco, Scrovegni

Chapel, Padua, Italy

 Lorenzo Ghiberti

Self-portrait

b FLORENCE, c1380; d FLORENCE, 1455

North doors
Lorenzo Ghiberti's breakthrough came in 1401, when as a young and little-
Surrounded by a frieze of
known goldsmith he defeated Brunelleschi (opposite) and five others in a
foliage, the 28 relief panels
competition set by the Cloth Importers' Guild of Florence. The prize was a
illustrates a cycle of New
commission to decorate the North doors of the city's Baptistery, situationd
Testament subjects.

in front of the cathedral The reliefs for the pair of bronze doors took him 23 Ghiberti's panels were

years to complete. The result- closer to International Gothic than modelled on Andrea

Pisano's earlier doors for

Renaissance in its elegant lines, rhythmic drapery, and detailed landscape-
the Baptistery. Each panel
was so successful that the guild commissioned a further pair of doors for
is in the Gothic shape of a
the East entrance. Dubbed the "Gates of Paradise" by Michelangelo, they
quatrefoil. Consisting of
were ahead of their time for their clever spacing of figures within varying
four lobes and points -a

depths of relief. Ghiberti moved on from his Gothic roots in his designs for tricky space to fill. The

the second pair of doors. His later reliefs put him in the vanguard of the decoration surrounding the

panels incorporates the

Renaissance use of perspective. While the doors took up most of Ghiberti's
heads of prophets and
career, he claimed that "few works of importance were made in our city
sibyls and Ghibertis self-
that were not designed or devised by my hand" Indeed, some of the best
portrait. 1424, part-gilded
artists of the day trained in his workshop.
bronze, Baptistery,

Florence, Italy

Andrea del Verrocchio

b FLORENCE, c1435; d VENICE, 1488

Considered the finest sculptor of the Italian Renaissance between Donatello and Michelangelo, Andrea di Cioni adopted the nickname

Verrocchio (true eye) from the goldsmith he was originally apprenticed with. Little is known of his early life his, and few of his paintings his have

survived, although his studio his was well known at the time and attracted such distinguished students as Perugino and Leonardo da Vinci. After

Donatello's death in 1466, Verrocchio came under the patronage of the Medici. He died in Venice while working on his masterpiece, a huge

equestrian statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni. It was unveiled in 1496, eight years after his death.

Lorenzo de' Medici Equestrian monument

to Bartolomeo
Colleoni
Though some scholars

doubt Verrocchio's own

hand, the Sculptor Verrocchio's finest work,

captures his patron's this bronze statue of a

nobility. 1480, terra-cotta, Venetian general was

Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, completed by assistants

Florence, Italy after the sculptor's death.

It has a powerful sense of

movement, with the rider

standing in his stirups and

the horse turning. one hoof

raised. 1483-90, gilded

bronze, height 395cm,

Campo S. Giovanni e

Paolo, Venice, Italy

Sandro Botticelli
b FLORENCE, c1445; d FLORENCE, 1510

Portrait from Vasari's Lives

Although Sandro Botticelli was highly successful at the peak of his career, he spent the last decade of his life in obscurity, considered

outmoded compared to the new generation of artists such as Leonardo. Botticelli's work was eventually rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites

(pp.332-333) almost 500 years later, and he is now one of the best-loved painters of 15th-century Italy. Botticelli developed his graceful and

ornamental linear style, harming back to elements of the Gothic period and ignoring anatomical realism, during his apprenticeship with Filippo

Lippi. In his large-scale paintings, including the famous Primavera and Birth of Venus, he treated mythological subjects with as much

seriousness as religious themes. Although Botticellis most famous for his secular subjects, his late years were almost entirely devoted to

religious themes, influenced by the Dominican friar and preacher Savonarola.Other than the two years in Rome spent on the frescoes of the

Sistine Chapel, Botticelli remained in Florence all his life.

The Birth of Venus

Perhaps Botticelli's best-known

painting, it shows Venus's arrival

on the shores of Cythera, driven

by Zephyr and Aura. The

statuesque goddess of Love

stands demurely on a scallop

shell, her hair blown by the wind,

as she is welcomed by the

dancing Hora of Spring. The

painting was probably designed

to hang with Primavera (see

pp.108-111) c1485, tempera on

canvas, 180x280cm, Uffizi,

Florence, Italy

Leonardo da Vinci
b VINCI, 1452; d CLOUX, NEAR AMBOISE, 1519

Leonardo is now famous for the range and variety of his talents,

embracing science as well as art. However, most of his scientific

Work his retained hidden in his notebooks for centuries, and his

Contemporaries his knew him primarily as a painter. His output of

paintings was small (and he left several works unfinished), partly

because his mind his was constantly roaming to new interests, but

in spite of this he was immensely influential. He is regarded as the

main creator of the majestic High Renaissance style, which moved

away from the emphasis on line and decorative detail

characteristic of so much 15th-century Italian painting. Although

no-one painted detail more exquisitely than Leonardo, he combined

this with grandeur of form and unity of atmosphere, in part

achieved through his wonderfully subtle handling of light and

shade. At times Leonardo led an unsettled existence, but his career

his was divided mainly between Florence and Milan. He spent his

final years in France as an honoured guest of Francois I. By the time

of his death he had already acquired a legendary aura.

Head of a Young Woman with Tousled Hair (La

Scapigliata)

The subject of this beautifully executed study is unclear. It has

some similarities with Leonardo's portrayals of Leda. but could

also bea study for the head of the Madonna. c1508, gouache

on panel, 27x21cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma, Italy

 The Annunciation

Nothing is known of the circumstances

in which this work was created, but it is

generally regarded as Leonardo's

earliest surviving independent painting.

Probably dating from soon after he

Completed his apprenticeship with

Verrocchio. The angel's wings (which

look as if they are based on those of a

bird) and the closely observed

botanical detail indicate his scientific

curiosity. c1472-75, tempera on W0od,

98 x 217cm, Uffizi, Florence

Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)

This painting is now so famous that it is difficult to imagine how fresh and

innovative it must have looked to Leonardo's Contemporaries. The relaxed

naturalism of the pose, with the hands casualy overlapping, and the intriguing

subtlety of the expression would have made most earlier portraits look stiff. The

mysterious landscape, too, differs greatly from the plain background

characteristic of "15th century portraits. C1503-05 oil on panel, 77 x 53cm,

Louvre, Paris, France

The Mona Lisa bears a strong resemblance to many Renaissance depictions of

the Virgin Mary, who was at that time seen as an ideal for womanhood. The

woman sits markedly upright in a "pozzetto" armchair with her arms folded, a

sign of her reserved posture. Her gaze is fixed on the observer. The woman

appears alive to an unusual extent, which Leonardo achieved by his method of

not drawing outlines (sfumato). The soft blending creates an ambiguous mood

"mainly in two features: the corners of the mouth, and the corners of the eyes".

The depiction of the sitter in three-quarter profile is similar to late 15th-century

works by Lorenzo di Credi and Agnolo di Domenico del Mazziere. Zöllner notes

that the sitter's general position can be traced back to Flemish models and that

"in particular the vertical slices of columns at both sides of the panel had

precedents in Flemish portraiture." Woods-Marsden cites Hans Memling's

portrait of Benedetto Portinari (1487) or Italian imitations such as Sebastiano

Mainardi's pendant portraits for the use of a loggia, which has the effect of

mediating between the sitter and the distant landscape, a feature missing from

Leonardo's earlier portrait of Ginevra de' Benci.

The painting was one of the first portraits to depict the sitter in front of an

imaginary landscape, and Leonardo was one of the first painters to use aerial

perspective. The enigmatic woman is portrayed seated in what appears to be

an open loggia with dark pillar bases on either side. Behind her, a vast

landscape recedes to icy mountains. Winding paths and a distant bridge give

only the slightest indications of human presence. Leonardo has chosen to place

the horizon line not at the neck, as he did with Ginevra de' Benci, but on a level

with the eyes, thus linking the figure with the landscape and emphasizing the

mysterious nature of the painting.

The Last Supper

The work is assumed to have been started

around 1495–96 and was commissioned as

part of a plan of renovations to the church

and its convent buildings by Leonardo's

patron Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan.

The Last Supper portrays the reaction given

by each apostle when Jesus said one of

them would betray him. All twelve apostles

have different reactions to the news, with

various degrees of anger and shock. The

apostles were identified by their names,

using an unsigned, mid-sixteenth-century

fresco copy of Leonardo's Cenacolo.[12]

Before this, only Judas, Peter, John and Jesus

had been positively identified.

 The Lady with the
Ermine (Cecilia
Gallerani)
Madonna of the Rocks

The mistress of Ludovico

The Virgin Jesus, the infant St
Sforza is innovatively
John, and an angel are arranged
depicted in three-quarter
in a pyramid-a stable
view. She turns as if
Composition. The unusual grotto
Someone, perhaps Sforza
setting Indulges Leonardo's
himself, has just entered
fascination with rocks and water,
the room. The ermine was
which stemmed from his
a symbol of purity. c1490,
birthplace of Vinci, a town built
oil on wood, 55x40cm,
above a river gorge, c1483-85,
Czartoryski Museum,
oil on panel transferred to
Krakow, Poland
canvas, 199x122cm, Louvre, Paris,

France

Michelangelo Buonarroti
b CAPRESE, NEAR AREZZ0, 1475; d ROME, 1564

Michelangelo's titanic career lasted virtually three- quarters of a century

and for most of that time he was unchallenged as the greatest artist in

Europe, his contemporaries looking on him with awe. He regarded himself

primarily as a sculptor, but he was equally outstanding as a painter,

draughtsman, and architect. His career was divided mainly between

Florence, where he was much employed by the Medici family, and Rome,

where he produced most of his greatest works in the service of the

papacy, particularly the decoration of the Sistine Chapel and the

rebuilding of St Peter's In both painting and sculpture Michelangelo

showed an unequalled mastery in portraying the nude human figure and

also an intense spirituality that reflected his own devout way of life. He

concentrated almost entirely on deeply serious subjects, treated with

superhuman beauty and grandeur, and he was unconcerned with the

anecdotal or the ornamental. In spite of his huge success and fame, he

lived modestly, completely devoted to religion and art and working

tirelessly (a contemporary biographer said that to save time he sometimes

went to bed with his boots on). His work his was immensely influential not

only on his contemporaries but also on generations of later artists.

Holy Family
(Doni Tondo)
Moses
This is Michelangelo's only known

completed panel painting. It was

This imposing figure is part of
commissioned by Agnolo Doni, a
the tomb of Pope Julius II. The
wealthy Florentine weaver,
tomb was Commissioned in
heence its name "Doni Tondo"
1505 and was conceived on an
tondo is Italian for "" round "and
immense scale, but when finally
the word is applied to circular
erected in 1545 it was in much
paintings such as this). sheer
reduced form. c1513-15,
polish of his technique is masterly.
marble, height 235 cm. S.
The frame is original and was
Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy
perhaps designed by the artist.

C1503-04, oil on panel, diameter

120cm, Uffizi, Florence, Italy

 David

This gigantic figure of the

biblical character David

came to symbolize the

new Republic of Florence

in its strength and

potential for powerful

action. 1501-04, marble,

height 5.18m, Galleria

dell'Accademia, Florence

Pietà

Michelangelo made his name with this work. When

critics said the Virgin looked too young to have a fully

grown Son, he said that sin was what aged people.

1498-99, marble, height 174cm, St Peter's, Vatican City

Raphael
b URBINO, 1483; B d ROME, 1520

Whereas Leonardo and Michelangelo are regarded as the great innovators of the High Renaissance, Raphael- the third member of the

triumvirate that dominated the period-was the great synthesizer, building on the ideas of others and blending they into a supremely graceful

unity. The balanced character of his art his reflected his personality for unlike Leonardo and Michelangelo-both of whom tended to be Solitary

and obsessive-Raphael was renowned for his charm and social poise. Still, he was extremely hardworking, producing a large and varied output

in his short life From an early age Raphael enjoyed a career of continual success: he was working independently when he was only 17 and was

summoned to Rome by Pope Julius || when he was 25. For the rest of his life he was employed mainly on major projects for the papacy. Most of

his work his was on religious subjects, but he was also an outstanding portraitist and a leading architect His work his become a model and

inspiration to other artists for centuries.

The School of Athens

It was painted between 1509 and

1511 as a part of Raphael's

commission to decorate the rooms

now known as the Stanze di

Raffaello, in the Apostolic Palace in

the Vatican.

The School of Athens represents all

the greatest mathematicians,

philosophers and scientists from

classical antiquity gathered

together sharing their ideas and

learning from each other. These

figures all lived at different times,

but here they are gathered

together under one roof.

Jean Goujon
b NORMANDY ?, c1510; d BOLOGNA, c1565

Very little is known of the early life of Jean Goujon, who ranks as one of the finest and most distinctive sculptors of 16th-century Framce. His

earliest known work was in Rouen, France, in 1540, but it is possible that he had travelled to Italy before then.

As a Huguenot Protestant, Goujon was at a disadvantage in Catholic France. However, he gained highly prestigious commissions in Paris,

particularly working with the architect Pierre Lescot on the sculptural decoration of the Louvre in 1546. In 1562, Goujon fled from the anti-

Protestant atmosphere of Paris, and is believed to have died in Bologna a few years later.

Reliefs from the Fountain of the Innocence

The relief panels from the Fountain

des innocence depict nymphs who

personify the rivers of France, they

are considered to be Goujon's

masterpieces. 1547-49, marble,

Louvre, Paris, France

Andrea Pozzo
b TRENTO, 1642; d VIENNA, 1709

Andrea Pozzo is a perfect example of religious faith wedded to art.

A painter and architect, he became a lay brother in the Roman

Catholic Jesuit order in his twenties After this, he completed

numerous projects for Jesuit churches, specially in and around Rome, Glory of
His masterpiece is the Glory of St Ignatius Loyola and the Missionary St.Ignatius
Work of the Jesuits in the church of S. Ignazio, Rome-one of the most Loyola and
breathtaking ceiling paintings ever created. It shows the formidable the
skill with perspective that lay at the heart of Pozzo's work In 1703 Missionary
Pozzo moved to Vienna, where he spent the rest of his life, mainly
work of
engaged on Jesuit projects. He wrote a major treatise on
the Jesuits
perspective, which was published in Latin and Italian in two volumes
Here, the
in 1693 and 1700 and was soon translated into other languages.
perspective

scheme sweeps

the viewers eye

up to the single

vanishing paint

at the central

figure of Christ.
Guardian Angel 1688-94, fresco,

vault of nave,

Even in this relatively small work, S. Ignazio,

Pozzo manages to convey a vigorous Rome, Italy

sense of movement typical of

Baroque art c1685-94, oil on canvas,

173x122cm. Musée des Beaux-Arts.

Caen, France
Pietro da Cortona
b CORTONA, 1596; d ROME, 1669

Painter, architect, and designer, Cortona ranks second only to Bernini as the most versatile genius of Italian Baroque art. Like Bernini, he spent

most of his career in Rome, but he also carried out major works in Florence. As a painter he specialized in grandiose fresco decoration in

palatial interiors: his most famous works in this vein were produced for the Barberini family in Rome (its members included Pope Urban VIlI)

and for the ruling Medici family in Florence. He often combined his frescoes with elaborate stucco ornamentation, creating a highly

sumptuous effect. Such treatment was much imitated, for example at Louis XIV's palace at Versailles. In addition to his large-scale

decorative schemes Cortona produced many smaller paintings (mainly on religious and mythological subjects) and designed tapestries and

festival decorations. He was also one of the greatest architects of his time, even though he claimed that architecture was merely a

recreation for him.

Romulus and Remus Given

Shelter by Faustulus

Expressive gestures, rich colors, and

majestic figures are characteristic

elements of Cortona's painting.

c1643, oil on Canvas, 2.5x2.6m,

Louvre, Paris, France

Sala di Apollo (detail)

The combination of painted image and

elaborate stuccowork in ceilings such as this

was highly influential.1640s, fresco PalazZo

Pitti Florence, Italy

Allegory of Divine
Providence and Barberini's
Power

Cortona's most famous work as a

painter glorifies Pope Urban VIll and

his aristocratic Barberini family.

1633-39, fresco, approx 25x15m,

Gran Salone Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Italy
Peter Paul Rubens
b SIEGEN, WESTPHALIA, 1577; d ANTWERP, 1640

"Prince of painters and painter of princes" as he was described in his lifetime, Rubens was the greatest and most influential Baroque artist in

northern Europe. The huge demand for his work could be satisfied only with the help of a workshop of pupils and assistants. Cultured,

cosmopolitan, and a gifted linguist, Rubens was employed by some of the greatest patrons in Europe. He was botha famous international

figure and a devoted family man, and his touching portraits of family members are as celebrated as his spectacular religious, mythological,

and historical paintings.

Rubens was born in Germany (where his father was a refugee from religious strife), but he returned to the family home in Antwerp when he

was 10 and spent most of his life there. However, his powerful style was shaped largely in Italy, where he was based from 1600 to 1608.

Although his artistic Output was vast and varied, Rubens also worked as a diplomat, and he was justly proud of helping to negotiate peace

between England and Spain. The kings of both countries knighted him.

An Autumn Landscape with a View of Het Steen in the

Early Morning

This magnificent panoramic landscape shows the artists country estate

at Steen, south of Antwerp, which he bought in 1635 and where he

enjoyed private times away from official duties The picture was painted

for pleasure and remained in Rubens's possession until he died. c1636,

oil on panel. 131x229cm, National Gallery, London, UK

The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus

The Greek myth of the abduction of Helaera and Phoebe,

daughters of King Leucippus, by the demi-god twins Castor

and Pollux has been seen as an allegory for the soul's

transport into heaven. The winged cupids holding the

horses'reins may signify that lust is reined in by love. c1618,

0il on canvas, 224 × 211cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich,

Germany

Marie de Médicis
Arriving at
Marseilles

The ex-Queen of France

commissioned Rubens to

glorify her in a vast cycle of

24 paintings. The artist used

poetic licence and

mythological figures to lend

her her life her heroic

grandeur 1622-25, oil on

Le Chapeau de Paille
canvas, 394x295cm, Louvre,
This chaming, informal portrait may depict the sister of
Paris, France
the woman who later became Rubens's second wife Her

rosy, translucent skin tones reflect the red of the silk

sleeves. Reynolds said that Rubens's figures "look as

though they fed on roses". c1622-25, oil on panel,

79x54cm, National Gallery London, UK

Jan Vermeer
b DELFT, 1632; d DELFT, 1675

After centuries of obscurity, Vermeer is now celebrated as one of the areatest of all Dutch artists. He is renowned for his serene, beautifully

composed and lit, and uncannily realistic paintings. His subject matter his is usually a woman at home in a Dutch interior, writing, reading,

playing a musical instrument -or simply posing - or a servant engaged in a domestic activity such as pouring milk. He was "discovered" in 1866

by the French writer Théophile Thoré, who called him "the Sphinx of Delft" because so little was known about him. There are few documented

facts about Vermeer's life, and only about 35 paintings are known to be by him. Vermeer was the son of an innkeeper and art dealer in Delft,

and he seems to have lived all his life in the city. Nothing is known of his youth or training his until he became a member of the painters'guild

in 1653- the same year that he married Catharina Bolnes, a Catholic. The couple had 15 children In his later years, Vermeer suffered dire

financial hardship, and he died in debt in Delft at the age of only 43 a servant engaged in

View of Delft
One of only two exterior views by Vermeer, this picture of his

hame town is a celebrated masterpiece of lighting, atmosphere,

and almost photographic realism. As townsfolk chat an the

quayside in the foraground, the busy skyline and clouids are

reflected in the gilistening water. c1660-61, oil on canvas. 96 x

117cm Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

The Milkmaid

The painting is strikingly illusionistic,

conveying not just details but a

sense of the weight of the woman

and the table. "The light, though

Girl with a Pearl Earring bright, doesn't wash out the rough

texture of the bread crusts or

Against a dark background, a girl
flatten the volumes of the maid's
turns to look, most questioningly,
thick waist and rounded shoulders",
towards the viewr. This exquisite
wrote Karen Rosenberg, an art critic
painting gains its effect through
for The New York Times. Yet with
strikingly simple composition, pearly
half of the woman's face in shadow,
lighting, and the muted harmony of
it is "impossible to tell whether her
yellow and blue. c1665-66, oil on
downcast eyes and pursed lips
canvas, 44x39cm Mauritshuis, The
express wistfulness or
Hague, Netherlands
concentration," she wrote.
The Art of Painting

Vermeer painted this picture (also known as The Artist's Studio) in his 30s, and, destroy dire financial problems, he never sold this masterpiece-

perhaps keeping it as a showpiece for prospective clients. It is larger than most of his paintings his and uses symbolism and allegory to comment

on the status of art and artists in the 17th century.

This illusionistic painting is one of Vermeer's most famous. In 1868 Thoré-Bürger, known today for his rediscovery of the work of painter Johannes

Vermeer, regarded this painting as his most interesting. Svetlana Alpers describes it as unique and ambitious; Walter Liedtke "as a virtuoso display

of the artist's power of invention and execution, staged in an imaginary version of his studio. According to Albert Blankert "No other painting so

flawlessly integrates naturalistic technique, brightly illuminated space, and a complexly integrated composition."

The painting depicts an artist painting a woman dressed in blue posing as a model in his studio. The subject is standing by a window and a large

map of the Low Countries hangs on the wall behind.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi
b MOGLIANO, NEAR VENICE, 1720; d ROME, 1778

The son of a stonemason and master builder, Piranesi trained as an architect in the workshop of his uncle, Matteo Lucchesi, in Venice He also

studied with Carlo Zucchi, learning the techniques of printmaking and perspective, Armed with these skills, Piranesi moved to Rome in 1740,

where he was employed by the Venetian ambassador. Shortly after his arrival his, he also worked for the Valeriani brothers, who were known

for their stage designs and paintings of ruins. This very varied training would stand Piranesi in good stead in his later career. In Rome, his

principal source of income his came from his prints of the city's splendours, aimed at connoisseurs on the Grand Tour. With his architect's

eye, he portrayed the antiquities with precision and a captivating sense of grandeur. Piranesi also tackled the popular theme of the

capriccio (fantasy), in his Imaginary Prisons series. These extraordinary etchings, part stage set and part grotesque fantasy, have proved to

be one of his most lasting achievements.

The Well

This is one of the

nightmarish visions

from Piranesi's

famous Imaginary

Prisons. 1761, etching,

40 x 55cm,

Calcographia dello

Stato, Rome, Italy

The Colosseum

From Piranesi's Antiquities of Rome. 1756, etching, 13x27cm, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, UK
Antonio Canova
b POSSAGN0, 1757; d VENICE, 1822

The greatest and most successful sculptor of the Neoclassical era, Canova worked initially in Venice, but he made his breakthrough in Rome.

His His Theseus and the Minotaur (1781-83) brought him to the public's attention, helping him to win prestigious commissions to design two

papal tombs. After this, Canova's reputation was made He was emploved by many of the crowned heads of Europe, as well as the Church,

although his most spectacular pieces his were probably the nude statues of Napoleon and his sister. Canova was both versatile and original.

He took an unusual interest in the display of his sculptures. His Cupid and Psyche, for example, was designed to be rotated and viewed in

subdued, coloured lighting. Similarly, he preferred to show his work his to clients by candlelight.

Pauline Borghese as Venus

This daring sculpture of Napoleon's

sister was never put on public display,

t was only viewed by candlelight, by

friends of the family 1805-07, marble,

length 201cm, Galleria Borghese,

Rome, Italy

Cupid and Psyche

In one of Canova's most tender sculptures, Cupid revives his

Swooning lover with a kiss. 1787-93, marble, height 155cm,

Louvre, Paris, France

Hercules and Lichas

Mortally wounded, Hercules takes revenge on the youth who

has unwittingly poisoned him. 1795-1802, marble, height

350cm, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy

Benjamin West
b SPRINGFIELD, PENNSYLVANIA 1738; d LONDON, 1820

Described as the "Father of American painting" Benjamin West was the

most celebrated historical painter of his day, and the first American

painter to Win an international reputation. West enjoyed early success

as a portrait painter in his home country. He then studied in Europe,

The
absorbing influences from Renaissance, Baroque, and Contemporary Woma
n
artists before settling in London, where he remained for the rest of his
Clothed
life. His colonial charm His introduced patrons and he quickly gained with
the Sun
both popular acclaim and the friendship of Joshua Reynolds, the most
Fleeth
influential of the 18th-century English painters. Royal patronage from
the
followed, enabling West to give up portraits and concentrate on the Persec
historical, religious, and mythological subjects that became his forte.
ution
of the
Although West never returned to the United States, he was a popular Dragon
mentor to visiting American artists, and his work his profoundly

influenced the development of American art in the early 19th century.

Death on the Pale Horse

This apocalyptic vision marked a departure from Neoclassicism and heralded the emotional style of the Romantics. 1796, oil on canvas, 59x129cm,

Detroit Institute of Arts, US

William Penn's Treaty with the Indians

Depicting the foundation of Pennsylvania in 1681,

this painting became part of American mass

culture, appearing on everything from Curtains to

cards.1771-72, oil on canvas, 192x274cm

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,

Philadelphia, US
Francisco de Goya
b FUENDETODOS, 1746; B d BORDEAUX, 1828

The Spanish painter and printnmaker Goya was one of the

outstanding Tigures of the Romantic movement. His talent his

talent was slow in showing itself, however, and it wasn't until well

into his thirties that he began to produce work that set him apart

from his contemporaries. By the 1780s, his skills his as a portraitist

were gradually in demand. The results were both spectacular and

daring-the artist made little attempt to flatter his distinguished

sitters-but they were well received, as a succession of honors was

heaped upon him. Alongside these commercial efforts, Goya

worked privately on more ambitious themes, in which he gave full

rein to his imagination Beginning with Los Caprichos, his first great

series of prints, and Culminating in the magnificent Black Paintings

of his final years, he portrayed his own dark vision of the human

soul, with its petty obsessions, its cruelty, and its folly. Goya was

an exceptionally versatile artist whose output was vast, leaving

The Parasol
about 700 surviving paintings, 300 prints, and some 1,000 drawings.

Goya produced a series of ten decorative Scenes designed as

models for the royal tapestry workshop. The finished articles were

destined for a palace dining-room. 1777, oil on canvas, 104x152cm,

Prado, Madrid Spain

The Naked Maja

Female nudes were very rare in Spain and with good reason. The

Inquisition denounced this famous example as "obscene" and

summoned the artist to appear before a tribunal, to disclose the

identity of the patron and explain the painting's purpose. c1800, oil

on canvas, 98 × 191 cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain

Saturn Devouring One of His Children The Clothed Maja

This is the most gruesome of Goya's Black Paintings. The Together with its nude companion piece, this painting was

Roman god Saturn ate his children because of a prophecy that commissioned by Manuel Godoy, a royal minister. The maja

they would usurp him. Goya placed the picture in his own ("fashionable young woman") is thought to be the Duchess of Alba.

dining room as a macabre joke. 1821-23, oil on canvas, c1800, oil on canvas, 95x 190cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain

146x83cm, Prado, Madrid, Spain

Georges Seurat
b PARIS, 1859; d PARIS, 1891

Georges Seurat had a brief but astonishing career, devoting his main efforts to a few very large paintings. While studying at the Ecole des

BeauxArts in Paris, he attempted to develop a theoretical system for painting that could take Impressionism to a new level and create a template

for future artists. Seurat's technique, which he called Divisionism (more commonly known as Pointillism), was based on scientific principles of

Color complenmentarity. It involved applying small dots of primary color directly to the canvas, so that their exaggerated contrast would merge

more vividly in the viewer's eye. All Seurat's paintings were based on formal ideas of composition, and were prepared meticulously from

numerous studies. He completed around 60 studies for his masterpiece Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (see pp.364-67).

Study for "The Channel at Gravelines, Evening"

Seurat's use of mosaic-like blobs of color is typical of his oil sketches

Bathers at Asnières
and contrasts with the smaller dots used in the final work. The

shimmering surface and calming influence of horizontal lines convey

Bathers at Asnières is an 1884 oil on canvas painting by the French a strong sense of atmosphere. 1890, oil on panel, Musée de

artist Georges Pierre Seurat, the first of his two masterpieces on the l'Annonciade, St Tropez, France

monumental scale. The canvas is of a suburban, placid Parisian

riverside scene. Isolated figures, with their clothes piled sculpturally on

the riverbank, together with trees, austere boundary walls and

buildings, and the River Seine are presented in a formal layout. A

combination of complex brushstroke techniques, and a meticulous

application of contemporary colour theory bring to the composition a

sense of gentle vibrancy and timelessness.

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

“Bedlam,” “scandal,” and “hilarity” were among the epithets used to

describe what is now considered Georges Seurat’s greatest work, and one

of the most remarkable paintings of the nineteenth century, when it was first

exhibited in Paris. Seurat labored extensively over A Sunday on La Grande

Jatte—1884, reworking the original as well as completing numerous

preliminary drawings and oil sketches (the Art Institute has one such sketch

and two drawings). With what resembles scientific precision, the artist

tackled the issues of color, light, and form. Inspired by research in optical

and color theory, he juxtaposed tiny dabs of colors that, through optical

blending, form a single and, he believed, more brilliantly luminous hue. To

The Channel at Gravelines, Evening make the experience of the painting even more intense, he surrounded the

canvas with a frame of painted dashes and dots, which he, in turn, enclosed

The Channel at Gravelines, Evening is a Post-Impressionist Oil on with a pure white wood frame, similar to the one with which the painting is

Canvas Painting created by Georges Seurat in 1890. It lives at the exhibited today. The very immobility of the figures and the shadows they

cast makes them forever silent and enigmatic. Like all great masterpieces,
MOMA, Museum of Modern Art in New York. The image is in the Public
La Grande Jatte continues to fascinate and elude.
Domain, and tagged Boats, Divisionism and Pointillism.
Vincent van Gogh
bZUNDERT, BRABANT, 1853; d AUVERS-sUR-OISE, 1890

The son of a Dutch pastor, van Gogh worked for an art dealer, as a teacher, and as an evangelical preacher before devoting himself to art

with the same zealous intensity that he had brought to his preaching. Ina brief career lasting only about a decade, he created some 1,000

paintings. He evolved a strikingly original style, in which bold colors and forceful brushstrokes express intense emotions. One of the key figures

of Postimpressionism, he had a huge influence on modern art. Vincent's arrival in Paris in 1886 triggered a turning point in his painting. Under

the influence of Impressionism and Japanese prints, his dark pictures of peasants were replaced by the colorful paintings for which he is

remembered. Van Gogh suffered severely from mental instability, and committed suicide at the age of 37

The Bedroom at Arles

This painting shows van Gogh's bedroom at

the Yellow House, which he rented in Arles.

It was one of his favorite Compositions his

and he hoped it expresSsed "absolute

restfulness". He painted three versions of it:

the first was made in 1888 as he awaited

Gauguin's arrival, while this is one of two

Copies made in St Rémy asylum. 1889, oil on

canvas, 73x91cm, Art Institute of Chicago, US

Sunflowers

During the summer of 1888, while he eagerly awaited

Gauguin's arrival in Arles, van Gogh painted five

canvases of sunflowers as decorations for the Yellow

House. The paintings are created almost entirely of

yellow, a color that signified happiness for him and

embodied the sunshine and heat of Provence. 1888, oil

on canvas, 92 x 73 cm. National Gallery, London, UK

Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear

Painted just two weeks after he had mutilated his

ear, this dignified self-portrait shows the artist

resolved to get back to work, wrapped up against

the cold, flooded by his easel and a Japanese print.

1889, oil on canvas, 60x49cm, Courtauld Gallery,

London, UK
The Starry Night

Stars explode like fireworks in a night sky that pulsates with wave-like energy, while the twisted silhouette of a cypress tree flames upwards from

the landscape below. A mixture of observation, memory, and imagination, The Starry Night expresses van Gogh's intense response to nature. The

painting Contains elements of the actual French Provencal landscape, but the village scene is an invention, with the church spire inspired by

memories of van Gogh's native Holland. It is one of several "starry night" pictures that van Gogh painted.

In creating this image of the night sky—dominated by the bright moon at right and Venus at center left—van Gogh heralded modern painting’s

new embrace of mood, expression, symbol, and sentiment. Inspired by the view from his window at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-

Rémy, in southern France, where the artist spent twelve months in 1889–90 seeking reprieve from his mental illnesses, The Starry Night (made in

mid-June) is both an exercise in observation and a clear departure from it. The vision took place at night, yet the painting, among hundreds of

artworks van Gogh made that year, was created in several sessions during the day, under entirely different atmospheric conditions. The

picturesque village nestled below the hills was based on other views—it could not be seen from his window—and the cypress at left appears much

closer than it was. And although certain features of the sky have been reconstructed as observed, the artist altered celestial shapes and added a

sense of glow.

The Church at Auvers

After leaving St Rémyasylum,

van Gogh moved to Auvers, a

village north of Paris, in May

1890. He worked furiously

averaging one painting a day,

before shooting himself two

months later. This painting,

with its intense colors and

twisted shapes, was one of his

final works. 1890, oil on

canvas, 94 x 74cm, Musée

d'Orsay, Paris, France

Edvard Munch
b LOTEN, 186; d OSLO, 1944

The Norwegian painter and printmaker is

regarded as one of modern art's most

influential and electrifying protagonists. The Sick Child

Munch suffered from depression and

mental illness but used them to produce

Munch described this
extraordinary, often frenzied, work. His
haunting painting as "the
pessimistic view of life was Conveyed in
breakthrough in my art"
bold colors and strong lines, anticipating
and painted six versions of
Expressionism and opening up exciting
it. Inspired by his sister's
new avenues for art. He covered
death, it Conveys the grief
existential themes such as life, death, and
and stillness of the
despair ina self-described attempt to
sickroom. Munch
"dissect souls" Munch began painting in
engraved the layers of
Oslo, but his sojourns in Paris exposed him
paint with a spatula to
to Post-Impressionist and Symbolist
create the effect of
influences, specifically the work of
gazing through a film of
Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, and
tears. 1885-6, oil on
he began using Swirling brushwork,
canvas, 120x119cm,
simplified forms, and non-naturalistic
Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo,
color to Convey emotion. Although
Norway
Munch realized that his genius his owed

much to his turbulent mind his, a

breakdown in 1908 inspired a change of

style, as he determined to lead a calmer

life. His output his, however, retained

prodigious. Also an acclaimed

printmaker, Munch's woodcuts-often

executed in color-helped to revive the

technique in the 20th century.

The Scream
Munch's most famous

work is brilliantly

Composed to create

maximum tension. The

shrieking colors and

violent juxtap0sition of

curved and straight

lines all flow towards

the central, screaming

figure, as though the

environment itself is
Madonna
expressing emotion

through the distorted

A compelling image of sensual ecstasy and
death-head. The
transcendence, Munch's masterpiece
painting may have
straddles 19th- and 20th-century art. Part of
been inspired by the
his Frieze of Life series, it represents the
Krakatoa eruption of
miracle of life. Munch's aim was to portray
1883, which Munch
Woman from a lover's viewpoint, at the
likened to "a great,
moment of conception. 1894, oil on canvas,
infinite scream"
90 x 71 cm. Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
passing through

nature. 1893 oil

tempera, and pastel

on cardboard, 91

x74cm, National

Gallery, Oslo, Norway

Käthe Kollwitz

b KONIGSBERG, 1867; d MORITZBURG, 1945

Trained in Munich and Berlin, Ká the Kollwitz chose to devote herself to drawing and printmaking. Vehemently opposed to the social conditions

she witnessed in the poorest quarters of Berlin, where she lived and worked alongside her doctor husband, she placed the oppressed at the

center of her work. In numerous drawings and prints she portrayed both their personal tragedy and their suffering. She visited the Soviet

Union in 1927. Deeply concerned with women's rights, she Contributed drawings to a society protecting unmarried mothers. In 1913, she helped

found Berlin's Women's Art Union. Though she was opposed to Nazism, the regime did not declare her work her degenerate, but used it to

promote their own cause, having first removed her name.

Death Seizing a Woman

A mother clings to her child to

save it from death. Kollwitz

lost a son in World Warl and

often saw death and despair in

her husband's surgery. 1934,

lithograph print, private

collection

March of Weavers

This etching is the fourth of six

in a series entitled A Weavers'

Revolt and was based on the

social drama The Weavers

(1892), by German author

Gerhart Hauptmann. It

depicts an uprising of Silesian

workers during a famine in

1844.1897, etching, 27x36cm,

Stadtmuseum, Munich,

Germany
Pablo Picasso

b MALAGA, 1881; d MOUGINS, 1973

The prodigious career of painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso provides the backbone of 20th-century art His fame owed as much to his

constant innovation as to the critical and financial success he enjoyed. Picasso proveda precocious art student, winning academic

competitions by the age of 15. As a young artist he moved to Barcelona before settling in Paris. There, he mixed in bohemian circles and met

the artist Georges Braque. Between 1909 and 1914, the two of them were the leading figures in the development of Cubism- they took further

than any of their Contemporaries the fragmentation of form, the collapsing of perspective, and the playing with reality and illusion, which

were all aspects of this complex and enormously influential movement. For a while after World War I, Picasso took part in the widespread

revival of classicism, a tendency usually associated with political and artistic restraint. He surprised again in 1925 when he associated himself

with the Surrealists, then the most extreme wing of the Parisian avant-garde. After World War II he settled in Vallauris, where he took up

ceramics. Notorious for his womanizing His, Picasso made his wives and mistresses a frequent subject for his art. His work his went through

several recognizable phases, often triggered by his mood or environment. Never adopting a stvle or movement for long, Picasso cannibalized

ideas from everywhere-medieval and African art, bullfights, mythology, Old Masters- reprocessing them through his uniquely humorous and

original vision.

La Vie

This deeply personal and

symbolic painting

entitledLife is haunted by

the suicide of Picasso's

close friend, Casagemas,

over an unhappy affair. It

offers a commentary on

love, death, and relations

between the sexes. 1903,

oil on canvas, 196 x 129 cm,

Cleveland Museum of Art,

Ohio, US

Portrait of Dora Maar

Picasso met the

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon photographer Dora Maar in

1936. She soon appeared in a

This disturbing depiction of number of portraits, including

prostitutes in a brothel in Avignon, the Weeping Woman series.

Barcelona's red-light district, Dora's elegant pose Her

provided to be one of the most Contrasts strikingly with the

notorious pictures of the 20th century violent distortions of Some of

and was a precursor of Cubism and his other female portraits.

modern art. Its collapse of 1937, oil on canvas, 92 x

perspective and combination of 65cm, Musée Picasso, Paris,

geometric and primitivist styles- France

inspired by Iberian sculpture and

African art- were a reinvention of the

possibilities of art. 1906-07, oil on

canvas, 244 x 234cm, MOMA, New

York, US
 Guernica
Some critics consider Guernica to be

the greatest painting of the 20th

century. It is certainly the most

Figures at the famous anti-war painting, being
Seashore coming as much a symbol for the

misery of modern war in general as

Picasso endlessly
for atrocity in the Spanish Civil War.
transformed the human

body, fragmenting it In January 1937, Picasso was

into its bare commissioned by the Republican

components. This government to produce a mural for

aggressive image is
the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris
charged with sexual
World Fair. Initially he had planned a
friction, and pushes his
studio scene, but the bombing of
representation of the

human form to its limits. Guernica three months later changed

1931, oil on canvas, everything, providing Picasso with his

130x195cm, Musée theme. On first showing, it came

Picasso, Paris, France
under severe criticism from fascists

("degenerate") and communists

("anti-social") alike, besides baffling

many critics and viewers

The Three
Dancers

This painting heralded

a new freedom of

Woman with expression for

Picasso, transforming
Guitar the flat patterning of

late Cubism into a

more colorful,
The stencilled letters,
Surrealist style. The
Ma Jolie (My Pretty
distorted pose of the
One), at the bottom
crazed dancer on the

of this portrait are left marked the start

an affectionate of increasingly violent

reference to dissections of the

human form, provided

Picasso's lover, Eva
by Picass0s worsening
Gouel. 1911, oil on
relationship with his
canvas, 100x65cm,
wife his wife. 1925,

MOMA, New York, oil on canvas,

US 215x142cm, Tate,

London, UK
Piet Mondrian
b AMERSFOORT, 1872; d NEW YORK, 1944

An abstract artist whose instantly recognizable style emerged

only after years of searching, Mondrian trained at Amsterdam's

Academy of Fine Arts. He initially painted still lifes and rural

scenes in a naturalistic Dutch style, but became influenced by

Impressionism and van Gogh. Despite his upbringing his in a

strict Protestant honme, Mondrian's interest in eastern beliefs

and theosophy (the study of religious philosophy) came to play

a significant role in his art. Between 1906 and 1907, he painted

a series of "evening and night landscapes" in which all details

dissolve into contours and masses. An interest in Cubism

spurred him to move to Paris in 1912, where he painted

numerous "tree" pictures in which natural forms splinter into

rhythmic patterns of curved lines. His distinctive abstract style

his -which Combines areas of solid color with austere vertical

and horizontal lines -emerged around 1920. Although he

constantly adapted these forms, he remained faithful to them

until his death.

Broadway Boogie Woogie

1942-43 In Mondrian's last completed work, the asymmetry, pulsating

lines, and solid white squares create strong directional forces that

impress themselves on the viewer. An homage to New York, his home

during World War II, the painting pays tribute to the dance-hall jazz

Mondrian loved so much. Oil on canvas, 127×127cm, MoMA, New York,

US

Tableau 1/ Composition No 1/ Composite 7

1914 Mondrian is at the very edge of total abstraction here.

The painting is still, at some distance, derived from the

complex pattern of Parisian roots. Only with the aid of a

preliminary drawing it is possible to identify the church

facade in the lower right of the painting. Oil on canvas,

120.6x100.3cm, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, US

Composition with Red, Black, Blue, and Yellow

1928 Limiting his palette to black, white, gray, and the three

primary colours. Mondrian constantly explored the positions

of line, colour, and mass. Oil on canvas, 45x45cm, Wilhelm-

Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany

Paul Klee
b MUNCHENBUCHSEE, NEAR BERNE, 1879;

d MURALTO, NEAR LOCARNO, 1940

An accomplished violinist, Paul Klee decided to forego a musical career to study art. He moved to Munich in 1898 and enrolled at the academy.

It was there that he studied under the rigorously classical Franz von Stuck. But from the very beginning, Klee's work defied convention Between

1903 and 1905 he produced a series of bitterly satirical monochrome etchings called Inventions, which featured disturbingly distorted figures He

moved from a graphic to a painterly style in 1914 following a trip to Tunisia. Klee's child-like creations and whimsically titled pictures draw on

every conceivable influence from Cubism, ancient hieroglyphs, and Mozart operas to Baroque art. In 1920, Klee joined the Bauhaus School of

Art and Design where he established an enduring friendship with Kandinsky and created a vast number of works, each of which he carefully

annotated.

Red Balloon, (no 179)

The lightness of touch and

uncluttered composition of

Klee's Tunisian paintings

gradually took on a more

precise edge. The viewer can

tell this is a townscape even

though it is veering towards

abstraction Paradoxically, it is

the red balloon that acts as the

visual anchor and unites the

different elements. 1922, oil on

muslin on cardboard, 32x31cm,

Guggenheim Museum, New

York, US

Senecio

This brightly colored face,

Untitled (Signs of Growth)
made up of gentle

geometric shapes, is named Around 1937, Klee's line became much

after a genus of plants, heavier and his colors more basic. In 1935

perhaps because it he had been diagnosed with the fatal

resembles a seed head. The disease scleroderma, and it is probable that

quizzical head has a he simplified his approach his so he could

totemic quality a focus for work more rapidly, along that time was

adoration as much as for short. 1937, oil on paper, 63 x 48 cm,

amusement. 1922, oil on Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany

canvas, 41 x38cm,

Kunstmuseum, Basel,

Switzerland

Street Cafe in Tunis, (no 55)

Klee accompanied fellow artists

August Macke and Louis Maillot on a

painting trip to Tunisia, where he

produced 30 watercolor sketches.

1914, watercolor and pencil on card,

10x22cm, Sammlung Scharf-

Gerstenberg, Berlin, Germany