History painting
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History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than artistic style. History paintings usually depict a moment in a story, rather than a specific and static subject. The term is derived from the senses of the word historia in Latin and Italian, meaning story or narrative. Most history paintings are not of scenes from history, especially paintings from before about 1850, History paintings almost always contain a number of figures, often a large number, and normally show some type of action that is a moment in a narrative. The genre includes depictions of moments in religious narratives, above all the Life of Christ, as well as scenes from mythology. These groups were for long the most frequently painted, works such as Michelangelos Sistine Chapel ceiling are therefore history paintings, History painting may be used interchangeably with historical painting, and was especially so used before the 20th century. Where a distinction is made historical painting is
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Judas Returning the Thirty Silver Pieces by
Rembrandt, 1629
Painting
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Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, gesture, composition, narration, or abstraction, among other aesthetic modes, may serve to manifest the expressive, Paintings can be naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic, emotive, or political in nature. A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by motifs and ideas. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action, the term painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity, every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shad
Augustus II the Strong
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Augustus II the Strong of the Albertine line of the House of Wettin was Elector of Saxony, Imperial Vicar and became King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Augustus great physical strength earned him the nicknames the Strong, the Saxon Hercules, in order to be elected King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Augustus converted to Roman Catholicism. As a Catholic, he received the Order of the Golden Fleece from the Holy Roman Emperor, as Elector of Saxony, he is perhaps best remembered as a patron of the arts and architecture. He established the Saxon capital of Dresden as a cultural centre. Augustus also amassed an art collection and built lavish baroque palaces in Dresden. His reigns brought Poland some troubled times and he led the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Great Northern War, which led to the Russian Empire strengthening its influence in Europe, especially within Poland. His main pursuit was bolstering royal power in the Commonwealth, characterized by broad decen
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Augustus II the Strong
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King Augustus II on horseback
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
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The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. Apart from this magnificent building, the Academy owns the building for sculpture in Pfotenhauerstrasse, in 1764, the “Allgemeine Kunst-Academie der Malerey, Bildhauer-Kunst, Kupferstecher- und Baukunst” was founded by order of the Prince-Elector Frederick Christian. From 1768 to 1786 it was located in the Fürstenberg Palace and its first director was the Frenchmen Charles Hutin. After the death of Hutin in 1776, Johann Eleazar Zeissig, referred to as Schenau, the Academy was the successor institution of the first “Zeichen- und Malerschule” founded in 1680. It was one of the oldest academies of art in the German-speaking area, today it is one of the academies of art in Germany that are especially attractive for a degree in art due to their unmistakable profile and optimum general conditions. The students are provided with spacious studi
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Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
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The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts on
Brühl's Terrace, view of the front side
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The glass dome of the main building - colloquially referred to as "Lemon Squeezer"
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Pheme or Fama on top of the dome of the main building
Dresden
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Dresden is the capital city and, after Leipzig, the second-largest city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the border with the Czech Republic, Dresden has a long history as the capital and royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony, who for centuries furnished the city with cultural and artistic splendour. The city was known as the Jewel Box, because of its baroque, the controversial American and British bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed approximately 25,000, many of whom were civilians, and destroyed the entire city centre. After the war restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the inner city, including the Katholische Hofkirche, the Zwinger. Since German reunification in 1990 Dresden is again a cultural, educational and political centre of Germany, the Dresden University of Technology is one of the 10 largest universities in Germany and part of the German Universities Excel
Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine
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Sceaux is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 9.7 km from the center of Paris, Sceaux is famous for the Château de Sceaux, set in its large park, designed by André Le Nôtre, measuring 2 km2. The original château was transformed into a School of Agriculture during the Revolution and it was demolished at the beginning of the 19th century following its sale by the then French government. Sceaux castle was built by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the minister of finance to Louis XIV and purchased by Louis illegitimate son. His duchesse held court in a salon at Sceaux in the first decades of the eighteenth century. The present château, rebuilt between 1856 and 62 in a Louis XIII style, is now the museum of Île-de-France open for visits, housing costs are extremely high, higher than in many districts of Paris, especially with streets facing the Parc de Sceaux. Sceaux is one of the richest cities of France, according to the INSEE, Sceaux is served by three stations on Par
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Château in the Parc de Sceaux
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions i
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In the 1860s Paris streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, making it literally "The City of Light."
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Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)
Israel Silvestre
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Orphaned at an early age, he was taken in by his uncle in Paris, Israel Henriet, an etcher and print-seller, and friend of Jacques Callot. Between 1630 and 1650 Silvestre travelled widely in France, Spain and Italy and his work, especially of Venetian subjects published in the 1660s, influenced eighteenth-century painters of vedute such as Luca Carlevaris and Canaletto, who adapted his compositions. In 1661 he inherited the stock of plates of his uncle, the printseller Israel Henriet, among which was a part of the works of Callot. In 1662 he was appointed dessinateur et graveur du Roi and in 1673 he was appointed drawing-master to Louis, le Grand Dauphin. From 1668 he was granted space in the galleries of the Louvre. Silvestres atelier was large, he had at least two pupils who had careers as engravers, François Noblesse and Meunier. In 1670 Charles Le Brun recommended him for membership in the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, in 1675 his son, the artist Louis de Silvestre,
Louis, Grand Dauphin
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Louis of France was the eldest son and heir of Louis XIV, King of France, and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. As the heir apparent to the French throne, he was styled Dauphin and he became known as Le Grand Dauphin after the birth of his own son, Le Petit Dauphin. As he died before his father, he never became king, as a Fils de France he was entitled to the style of Royal Highness. He was baptised on 24 March 1662 at the chapel of the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, at the ceremony, Cardinal de Vendôme and the Princess of Conti acted as proxies for the godparents, Pope Clement IX and Queen Henrietta Maria of England. For this ceremony, Jean-Baptiste Lully composed the motet Plaude Laetare Gallia, when Louis reached the age of seven, he was removed from the care of women and placed in the society of men. No prince could have been deserving of such feelings. Monseigneur, as the heir to the throne was now known, had inherited his mothers docility, all his life he remained petrified
Charles Le Brun
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Charles Le Brun was a French painter and art theorist. Declared by Louis XIV the greatest French artist of all time, he was a dominant figure in 17th-century French art, born in Paris, he attracted the notice of Chancellor Séguier, who placed him at the age of eleven in the studio of Simon Vouet. He was also a pupil of François Perrier, in Rome he remained four years in the receipt of a pension due to the liberality of the chancellor. There he worked under Poussin, adapting the latters theories of art, on his return to Paris in 1646, Le Brun found numerous patrons, of whom Superintendent Fouquet was the most important, for whom he painted a large portrait of Anne of Austria. Employed at Vaux-le-Vicomte, Le Brun ingratiated himself with Mazarin, then secretly pitting Colbert against Fouquet, Colbert also promptly recognized Le Bruns powers of organization, and attached him to his interests. Together they took control of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and the Academy of France at
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Portrait of Nicolas Le Brun by Charles Le Brun, ca. 1635,
Residenzgalerie, Salzburg
Bon Boullogne
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Bon Boullogne was a French painter. Boullogne was born in Paris, a son of the painter Louis Boullogne and he took his first lessons from his father, whom he is thought to have assisted in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre. In this capacity, he made copies of works, in particular some frescoes by Raphael in the Vatican Loggie. The period he spent in Lombardy helped to complete his training. He studied the work of Antonio da Correggio and the Annibale Carracci, as well as Guido Reni, Domenichino, bon’s painting, especially the mythological work, shows great affinities with the work of the Bolognese school, which was also to be found in the royal collections. Also of influence to Bon was Nordic art, as demonstrated in his female portraits framed by plant like motifs, a device taken up by his pupil Robert Tournières
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, du
Carlo Maratta
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Carlo Maratta or Maratti was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition stemming from Raphael, he was not exempt from the influence of Baroque painting and his contemporary and friend, Giovanni Bellori, wrote an early biography on Maratta. Born in Camerano, then part of the Papal States, he went to Rome in 1636, accompanied by, Don Corintio Benicampi and he became an apprentice in the studio of Andrea Sacchi. It was at time that the debate between Sacchi and Pietro da Cortona took place at the Accademia di San Luca, the artists academy in Rome. Sacchi argued that paintings should only have a few figures which should express the narrative whereas Cortona countered that a number of figures allowed for the development of sub themes. Marattas painting at this time was allied with the classicism of Sacchi and was far more restrained and composed th
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Self-portrait
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Pope Clement IX
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Doctors of the Church discuss Assumption of the Virgin (1686)
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Francesca Gommi Maratta (circa 1690)
Augustus III of Poland
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The only legitimate son of Augustus II of Poland, he followed his father’s example by joining the Roman Catholic Church in 1712. In 1719 he married Maria Josepha, daughter of the Holy Roman emperor Joseph I, chosen king by a small minority of electors on 5 October 1733, he drove his rival, the former Polish king Stanisław I, into exile. He was crowned in Kraków on 17 January 1734, and was recognised as king in Warsaw in June 1736. Augustus gave Saxon support to Austria against Prussia in the War of the Austrian Succession and his last years were marked by the increasing influence of the Czartoryski and Poniatowski families, and by the intervention of Catherine the Great in Polish affairs. His rule deepened the anarchy in Poland and increased the dependence on its neighbours. The reign of Augustus witnessed one of the greatest periods of disorder in Polish history, Augustus was the only legitimate son of Augustus II the Strong, Prince-Elector of Saxony and king of the Polish-Lithuanian
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Signature
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Portrait of Crown Prince Augustus
List of rulers of Saxony
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This article lists Dukes, Electors, and Kings ruling over different territories named Saxony from the beginning of the Saxon Duchy in the 9th century to the end of the Saxon Kingdom in 1918. See Counts Palatine of Saxony In the 10th century the Emperor Otto I created the County Palatine of Saxony in the Saale-Unstrut area of southern Saxony. Hadugato Berthoald Theoderic Widukind Abo Banzleibs With the final removal of the Welfs in 1180, westphalia fell to the Archbishop of Cologne, while the Duchies of Brunswick and Lüneburg remained with the Welfs. The Ascanian Dukes had their base further east, near the Elbe, the post carve-up Saxony is therefore sometimes called the younger Duchy of Saxony. Also the counting of its dukes is discontinued, the second post carve-up duke Albert I is already usually counted as the first, although before 1180 he had one predecessor of the same name, being even his grandfather Albert the Bear. The new dukes replaced the Saxon horse emblem and introduced th
Saxony
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Its capital is Dresden, and its largest city is Leipzig. Saxony is the tenth largest of Germanys sixteen states, with an area of 18,413 square kilometres, located in the middle of a large, formerly all German-speaking part of Europe, the history of the state of Saxony spans more than a millennium. It has been a medieval duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, a kingdom, the area of the modern state of Saxony should not be confused with Old Saxony, the area inhabited by Saxons. Old Saxony corresponds approximately to the modern German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony is divided into 10 districts,1. After a reform in 2008, these regions - with some alterations of their respective areas - were called Direktionsbezirke, in 2012, the authorities of these regions were merged into one central authority, the Landesdirektion Sachsen. The Erzgebirgskreis district includes the Ore Mountains, and the Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district includes Saxon Switzerland, the largest cities
Louis XV
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Louis XV, known as Louis the Beloved, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France and Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five, Cardinal Fleury was his chief minister from 1726 until the Cardinals death in 1743, at which time the young king took sole control of the kingdom. During his reign, Louis returned the Austrian Netherlands, territory won at the Battle of Fontenoy of 1745, Louis also ceded New France in North America to Spain and Great Britain at the conclusion of the Seven Years War in 1763. He incorporated the territories of Lorraine and Corsica into the kingdom of France and he was succeeded by his grandson Louis XVI in 1774. French culture and influence were at their height in the first half of the eighteenth century, however, many scholars believe that Louis XVs decisions damaged the power of France, weakened the treasury, discredited the absolute monarchy, and made it more vulnerabl
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Signature
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The duke of Brittany with his father Louis, Duke of Burgundy, his grandfather Louis, Le Grand Dauphin and his great-grandfather King Louis XIV in 1709. The future Louis XV, not yet born, is not on the painting.
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Two
Louis d'or, 1717, depicting a very young Louis XV
Fresco
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Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly-laid, or wet lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting. Buon fresco pigment mixed with water of temperature on a thin layer of wet, fresh plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster. Because of the makeup of the plaster, a binder is not required, as the pigment mixed solely with the water will sink into the intonaco. The pigment is absorbed by the wet plaster, after a number of hours, many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia, a name also used to refer to these under-paintings. Later, new techniques for transferring paper drawings to the wall were developed. The main lines of a drawing made on paper were pricked over with a point, the paper held agains
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Fresco in the church Mariä Verkündigung in Fuchstal,
Bavaria, Germany from Thomas Springer
Warsaw
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Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It stands on the Vistula River in east-central Poland, roughly 260 kilometres from the Baltic Sea and 300 kilometres from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population is estimated at 1.750 million residents within a metropolitan area of 3.101 million residents. The city limits cover 516.9 square kilometres, while the area covers 6,100.43 square kilometres. In 2012 the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked Warsaw as the 32nd most liveable city in the world and it was also ranked as one of the most liveable cities in Central Europe. Today Warsaw is considered an Alpha– global city, an international tourist destination. Warsaws economy, by a variety of industries, is characterised by FMCG manufacturing, metal processing, steel and electronic manufacturing. The city is a significant centre of research and development, BPO, ITO, the Warsaw Stock Exchange is one of the largest and most important in Central and Eastern Europe. Frontex, the European U
Metamorphoses
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The Metamorphoses is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Although meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple classification by its use of varying themes and tones. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture, painting, and music. The work has been the subject of numerous translations into English, Ovids decision to make myth the dominant subject of the Metamorphoses was influenced by the predisposition of Alexandrian poetry. However, whereas it served in that tradition as the cause for reflection or insight, he made it instead the object of play. There are three
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Title page of 1556 edition published by Joannes Gryphius (decorative border added subsequently). Hayden White Rare Book Collection, University of California, Santa Cruz.
Palais du Louvre
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The Louvre Palace is a former royal palace located on the Right Bank of the Seine in Paris, between the Tuileries Gardens and the church of Saint-Germain lAuxerrois. Its present structure has evolved in stages since the 16th century, in 1793 part of the Louvre became a public museum, now the Musée du Louvre, which has expanded to occupy most of the building. The Palace is situated in the right-bank of the River Seine between Rue de Rivoli to the north and the Quai François Mitterrand to the south. To the west is the Jardin des Tuileries and, to the east, the Rue de lAmiral de Coligny, where its most architecturally famous façade, the Louvre Colonnade, the Cour Napoléon and Cour du Carrousel are separated by the street known as the Place du Carrousel. Some 51,615 sq m in the complex are devoted to public exhibition floor space. The Old Louvre occupies the site of the 12th-century fortress of King Philip Augustus and its foundations are viewable in the basement level as the Medieval Louv
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Night view of the
Louvre Pyramid in the centre of the Napoleon Courtyard of the Palais du Louvre
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Aerial view of the Louvre Palace
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The Cour Carrée of the "Old Louvre" looking west (Left to right: Aile Lescot, Pavillon Sully (de l'Horloge), Aile Lemercier)
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The Louvre Palace looking west across the Cour Napoleon and the
Louvre Pyramid
Pierre-Jean Mariette
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He was born and died in Paris, and was a central figure in the artistic culture of the city for decades. In 1722 he first met the immensely rich patron of the arts Pierre Crozat, after he attended the Jesuit college in Paris, his father, Jean Mariette, sent him on tour in 1717, to sharpen his connoisseurship and further family connections. First he went to Amsterdam, which was the center of the art trade, in Vienna Mariette catalogued the art collection of Prince Eugene of Savoy. Everywhere the affable, curious and sociable Mariette made acquaintances and formed contacts with the scholarly and artistic community in Europe, through his artistic connections, Mariette was named a member of the prestigious Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, Florence, in 1733. His knowledge of prints and his friendship with Caylus and the artist Charles-Antoine Coypel secured him a position reorganizing the old master print collection of the Bibliothèque Royale. In 1741 Mariette was asked to write the sale c
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Pierre-Jean Mariette, 1735
Johann Eleazar Zeissig
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Johann Eleazar Zeissig, also known as Schenau, was a German genre, portrait and porcelain painter, and engraver, director of the Royal Academy of Arts in Dresden. Schenau was born in 1737, the son of Elias Zeissig and Anna Elisabeth, poor Damask weavers, of Großschönau, together with his five sisters, he was tutored by his father in arithmetic, writing, reading and also learnt the trade of Damask weaving. He showed a talent for painting and drawing, and was sent away at the age of twelve to study art in Dresden. Through the help of a pupil of Anton Raphael Mengs, he was accepted at the Dresden art school, here, Schenau was taught by Charles-François de Silvestre, the son of the director of the school, Louis de Silvestre. Schenau copied the works of the old masters such as Antonio da Correggio, Guido Reni and Titian and he also became a china painter, working at the porcelain factory in Sèvres, taking on, in addition, the roles of goldsmith, engraver and sculptor. He painted portraits o
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Portrait of Schenau by Christian Friedrich Stölzel (1787)
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The origin of painting: A family making "chinese shadows"
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Schenau’s grave in Großschönau
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The kurfürstlich-sächsische family (1772)
Meissen porcelain
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Meissen porcelain or Meissen china is the first European hard-paste porcelain. It was developed starting in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, after his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhauss work and brought porcelain to the market. Its signature logo, the swords, was introduced in 1720 to protect its production. It dominated the style of European porcelain until 1756, at the beginning of the eighteenth century Johann Friedrich Böttger pretended he had solved the dream of the alchemists, to produce gold from worthless materials. When King Augustus II of Poland heard of it, he kept him in protective custody, for years Johann Friedrich Böttger was unsuccessful in this effort. At the same time, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, a mathematician and scientist, experimented with the manufacture of glass, Tschirnhaus supervised Böttger and by 1707 Böttger reluctantly started to help in the experiments by Tschirnhaus. When Tschirnhaus suddenly died,
Maria Amalia of Saxony
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She was the mother of thirteen children, many of whom died in childhood. A popular consort, she oversaw the construction of the Caserta Palace outside Naples as well as other projects in her husbands domains. Moving to Spain in 1759, she set about the improvements to the Royal Palace of Madrid. Maria Amalia was politically active and openly participated in affairs in both Naples and Spain. She was born at Dresden Castle in Dresden, the daughter of Augustus III of Poland, Elector of Saxony and Maria Josepha of Austria, herself daughter of Joseph I and her mother was the first cousin of Empress Maria Theresa. The infant was baptised with the names Maria Amalia Christina Franziska Xaveria Flora Walburga and her youngest sister, Princess Kunigunde was a possible wife for the future Philippe Égalité. She grew up at the court of Dresden and was educated in French, dance and she was also an accomplished musician and sang and played the keyboard from an early age. In 1738 Maria Amalia became e
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Maria Amalia of Saxony depicted in Polish attire in 1738,
Museo del Prado
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Portrait of Maria Amalia overlooking the Neapolitan crown, by
Giuseppe Bonito, c. 1745.
Charles III of Spain
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Charles III was the King of Spain and the Spanish Indies from 1759 to 1788. While he was the son of Philip V of Spain, he was the eldest son of Philips second wife. In 1731, the 15-year-old Charles became the Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I, following the death of his childless granduncle Antonio Farnese. In 1734, as Duke of Parma, he conquered the kingdoms of Naples and of Sicily, and was crowned king on 3 July 1735, reigning as Charles VII of Naples and Charles V of Sicily until 1759. In 1738 he married Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, daughter of Polish king Augustus III, Charles and Maria Amalia resided in Naples for 19 years. Charles succeeded to the Spanish throne on 10 August 1759, after the death of his half-brother King Ferdinand VI of Spain who left no heirs. As King of Spain Charles III made far-reaching reforms such as promoting science and university research, facilitating trade and commerce and he also tried to reduce the influence of the Church and avoided costl
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Charles III
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Portrait of Charles, 9 years old.
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Charles, 11 years old.
Museo del Prado
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The Prado Museum is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. Founded as a museum of paintings and sculpture in 1819, it contains important collections of other types of works. El Prado is one of the most visited sites in the world, and it is considered one of the greatest art museums in the world. The collection currently comprises around 8,200 drawings,7,600 paintings,4,800 prints, and 1,000 sculptures, in addition to a large number of other works of art and historic documents. As of 2012, the museum displayed about 1,300 works in the buildings, while around 3,100 works were on temporary loan to various museums. The museum received 2.8 million visitors in 2012 and it is one of the largest museums in Spain. The best-known work on display at the museum is Las Meninas by Velázquez, Velázquez and his keen eye and sensibility were also responsible for bringing much of the museums fine collection of Italian masters to Spain, now the largest outside of Italy. The muse
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Museo del Prado (Main wing)
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Museo Nacional del Prado
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In the main exhibition hall, first floor
Palace of Versailles
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The Palace of Versailles, Château de Versailles, or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. Versailles is therefore not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancien Régime. First built by Louis XIII in 1623, as a lodge of brick and stone. The first phase of the expansion was designed and supervised by the architect Louis Le Vau and it culminated in the addition of three new wings of stone, which surrounded Louis XIIIs original building on the north, south, and west. After Le Vaus death in 1670, the work was taken over and completed by his assistant, charles Le Brun designed and supervised the elaborate interior decoration, and André Le Nôtre landscaped the extensive Gardens of Versailles. Le Brun and Le Nôtre collaborated on the fountains, and Le Brun supervised the design. During the second phase of expansion, two enormous wings north and south of the wings flanking the Cour Royale were added by
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View of the Palace from the garden
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Marble Court
Francesco Zucchi
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Francesco Zucchi, was an Italian engraver, active mainly in Northern Italy. He was the brother of Andrea Zucchi, and was instructed by him in Pordenone and he is also described as close to Pietro Scalvini. He was invited to Dresden to engrave some plates from the pictures in the Gallery, according to Henry Fuseli, Zucchi never actually went to Dresden but he was sending his works from Venice instead. Franceso Zucchi - List of works, il website cartografico e grafico della Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana di Venezia. Il ritratto inciso in alcune settecentine della Biblioteca Provinciale di Foggia La Magna Capitana
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Self-portrait by Francesco Zucchi, 1733
Dresden Gallery
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The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings, outstanding works by German, French and Spanish painters of the period are also among the gallerys attractions. The Old Masters are part of the Dresden State Art Collections, the collection is located in the Semper Gallery, the gallery wing of the Zwinger. It was not until the beginning of the 18th century that Augustus II the Strong, over a period of less than 60 years, these two art-loving Electors of Saxony, who were also Kings of Poland, expanded the collections significantly. In 1745, the 100 best pieces of the collection belonging to the Duke of Modena were purchased, as the fast-growing painting collection soon required more space for storage and presentation, it was moved from Dresden Castle to the adjacent Stallgebäude in 1747. In the meantime the collection had achieved Europ
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Interior view of the Royal Painting Collection around 1830
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Inside the gallery with the Sistine Madonna in the background
Dresden State Art Collections
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Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden is a cultural institution in Dresden, Germany, owned by the State of Saxony. It is one of the most renowned and oldest museum institutions in the world, today, the Dresden State Art Collections consists of twelve museums. Most of them are located in the Dresden Castle, the Zwinger, the museums belonging to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden originated from the collections of the Saxon electors, several of whom were also Kings of Poland. Historical sources show that August I, Elector of Saxony, founded the electoral Kunstkammer in 1560, August the Strong and his son, August III, Kings of Poland, were important patrons and remarkable connoisseurs of the arts. The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen has been a state-owned enterprise since January 1,2009, the association includes twelve museums which operate independently within the context of their own collection, but all share various institutions and facilities as well as a central administration. Twelve mu
Royal Castle, Warsaw
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The Royal Castle in Warsaw is a castle residency that formerly served throughout the centuries as the official residence of the Polish monarchs. It is located in the Castle Square, at the entrance to the Warsaw Old Town, the personal offices of the king and the administrative offices of the Royal Court of Poland were located there from the sixteenth century until the Partitions of Poland. Initially the complex served as the residence of the Dukes of Masovia, and since the century, the seat of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In its long history the Royal Castle was repeatedly plundered and devastated by the invading Swedish, Brandenburgian, Prussian and Tsarist armies. The Constitution of 3 May 1791, the first of its type in Europe, in the 19th century, after the collapse of the November Uprising, it was used as an administrative centre by the Tsar and was re-designed for the needs of the Imperial Russian administration. During the course of World War I it was the residence of the G
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Medieval wall of the Curia Maior.
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Plan of the Royal Castle in Warsaw at the beginning of the 17th century.
Hermitage Museum
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The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums in the world, it was founded in 1754 by Catherine the Great and has open to the public since 1852. Its collections, of only a small part is on permanent display. The collections occupy a complex of six historic buildings along Palace Embankment, including the Winter Palace. Apart from them, the Menshikov Palace, Museum of Porcelain, Storage Facility at Staraya Derevnya, the museum has several exhibition centers abroad. The Hermitage is a state property. Since July 1992, the director of the museum has been Mikhail Piotrovsky, of the six buildings in the main museum complex, five, namely the Winter Palace, Small Hermitage, Old Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre, are open to the public. The entrance ticket for foreign tourists more than the fee paid by citizens of Russia. However, entrance is free of charge the first Thursday of every month for all visit
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The Hermitage Museum complex. From left to right: Hermitage Theatre – Old Hermitage – Small Hermitage – Winter Palace (the "New Hermitage" is situated behind the Old Hermitage).
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Egyptian Hall
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The Pavilion Hall
Anna Karolina Orzelska
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Anna Karolina Orzelska was an adventuress and Polish szlachcianka, the illegitimate daughter of August II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, by Henriette Rénard. The King-Elector August II the Strong met Henriette Rénard in Warsaw on 1706, where her father André Rénard, most historians agree that at first, Henriette didnt know the true identity of her lover. As a result of the liaison, in November 1707 a daughter was born, August did not learn of her existence until a year and half later. Henriette married the Paris businessman François Drian shortly after Anna Karolinas birth and moved to France, for a long time, the girl lived in Paris with her mother in complete obscurity without the support of her father. However, in 1723, her half-brother, the later Count Frederick Augustus Rutowsky, Anna Karolina followed him on his return to the Dresden court, where the sixteen-year-old beauty was presented to the King. On 19 September 1724, August the Strong officially acknowledg
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Anna Orzelska in the gardens of the Blue Palace at Warsaw, by
Antoine Pesne, ca. 1728.
Palace on the Water
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The Łazienki Palace is a Baroque palace in Warsaws Royal Baths Park. The Łazienki Palace is located in the largest park in Warsaw that occupies over 76 hectares of the city center, from 1674 the property and the nearby Ujazdów Castle belonged to Count Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, who built a Baroque Bath House named Łazienka. The building, erected on a plan, was richly decorated with stuccos, statues and paintings, some of the original decorations. In 1766 King Stanisław II Augustus purchased the estate and decided to convert the pavilion into his small, the building began as a bathhouse for Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, owner of adjacent Ujazdów Castle. After 1678 the Lubomirski palace complex in Ujazdów, was enriched with four pavilions, Arcadia, Hermitage, Frascati. The marble building was constructed before 1683 according to design by Tylman Gamerski, finished in 1689, it was intended to serve as a bathhouse, habitable pavilion and a garden grotto. Interiors of the built str
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Principal (southern)
façade of the palace
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Solomon Room, 1892
J. Paul Getty Museum
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The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in California housed on two campuses, the Getty Center and Getty Villa. The Getty Center is in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and is the location of the museum. The collection features Western art from the Middle Ages to the present and its estimated 1.3 million visitors annually make it one of the most visited museums in the United States. The museums second location, the Getty Villa, is in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood and displays art from ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. In 1974, J. Paul Getty opened a museum in a re-creation of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum on his property in Pacific Palisades, in 1982, the museum became the richest in the world when it inherited US$1.2 billion. In 1997, the moved to its current location in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Detailed information about the J. Paul Getty Museum’s collections is provided on GettyGuide, at the GettyGuide st
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J. Paul Getty Museum
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The Getty attracts approximately 1.8 million visitors a year.
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Architect
Richard Meier chose beige-colored Italian
travertine panels to cover the retaining walls and to serve as paving stones for the arrival plaza and Museum courtyard.
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Fra Bartolommeo, The Rest on the Flight Into Egypt with St. John the Baptist, about 1509
Virtual International Authority File
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The Virtual International Authority File is an international authority file. It is a joint project of national libraries and operated by the Online Computer Library Center. The project was initiated by the US Library of Congress, the German National Library, the National Library of France joined the project on October 5,2007. The project transitions to a service of the OCLC on April 4,2012, the aim is to link the national authority files to a single virtual authority file. In this file, identical records from the different data sets are linked together, a VIAF record receives a standard data number, contains the primary see and see also records from the original records, and refers to the original authority records. The data are available online and are available for research and data exchange. Reciprocal updating uses the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting protocol, the file numbers are also being added to Wikipedia biographical articles and are incorporated int
Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
Union List of Artist Names
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The Union List of Artist Names is an online database using a controlled vocabulary currently containing around 293,000 names and other information about artists. Names in ULAN may include names, pseudonyms, variant spellings, names in multiple languages. Among these names, one is flagged as the preferred name, the focus of each ULAN record is an artist. Currently there are around 120,000 artists in the ULAN, in the database, each artist record is identified by a unique numeric ID. Linked to each artist record are names, related artists, sources for the data, the temporal coverage of the ULAN ranges from Antiquity to the present and the scope is global. The ULAN includes proper names and associated information about artists, artists may be either individuals or groups of individuals working together. Artists in the ULAN generally represent creators involved in the conception or production of visual arts, repositories and some donors are included as well. Work on the ULAN began in 1984,
Netherlands Institute for Art History
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The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in documentation, archives, and books on Western art from the late Middle Ages until modern times, all of this is open to the public, and much of it has been digitized and is available on their website. The main goal of the bureau is to collect, categorize, via the available databases, the visitor can gain insight into archival evidence on the lives of many artists of past centuries. The library owns approximately 450,000 titles, of which ca.150,000 are auction catalogs, there are ca.3,000 magazines, of which 600 are currently running subscriptions. Though most of the text is in Dutch, the record format includes a link to library entries and images of known works. The RKD also manages the Dutch version of the Art and Architecture Thesaurus, the original version is an initiative of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, Califor
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