Italian, Florentine

We do not know this man’s identity. He wears a black pleated silk doublet with pleated sleeves, and a soft black cap, possibly made of felted wool, with black knotted braids at the edges. His white chemise with ruffled collar and cuffs is tied at the neck with a black ribbon. The costume suggests...

Propped up on a pink cushion, this young, fair-haired woman – the ideal of beauty in Renaissance Florence – gazes directly at us. She seems oblivious to the three chubby little boys around her, clutching at handfuls of pink roses.This idealised beauty may represent fertility, with which the pome...

Painted chests like this are called cassone (literally ‘a large chest’). They were made to celebrate a marriage and were often used to store a new bride’s dresses and linens. Cassone were in such high demand in Florence that painters like Apollonio di Giovanni had workshops specialising in their...

God the Father makes a blessing gesture with one hand and holds an orb, representing the earth, in the other. The small size and round shape tell us that this panel probably once decorated part of the frame of an altarpiece.Whoever painted this picture was interested in making sure that the figur...

We do not know the identity of the elegant young woman portrayed here, but her costume suggests a date of about 1540. She sits before a green curtain and meets our eye with a direct, confident gaze. The green curtain and the woman’s appearance and headdress are very similar to Bronzino’s Portrait...

We do not know this young woman’s identity. She wears an elaborate black velvet gown, the bodice of which is decorated with embroidery in white and gold thread and rows of vertical slashes through which the white fabric of her chemise can be seen. She stands before a green silk curtain and a tabl...

This portrait was probably commissioned at the time of this woman’s marriage, probably by the family of her future husband. She is presented in the finest jewel-encrusted accessories: her headdress is sewn with pearls and gems in a fan pattern, and the pearl adornments of her transparent veil tic...

We don‘t know the identity of the young man who gazes directly at us. His elegant costume, fastened so as to almost entirely conceal his white undershirt, and the cloak laid over his left shoulder suggest that he came from a wealthy background. The National Gallery acquired this portrait from the...

The identity of the tonsured friar portrayed here is made clear by the scene painted on the reverse of the panel, which records the execution of Girolamo Savonarola and his two companions. This took place in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence on 23 May 1498.Savonarola (1452–1498) was a Dominic...

This is a fragment of a painting made in the fresco technique, which involves applying paint to wet plaster. Once dried, the painting becomes part of the wall. It shows a bearded saint – identifiable by his halo – shown in profile, and comes from the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence....

The glowing Christ Child lies in a manger in a dark and dilapidated stable. The Virgin Mary kneels on the right beside Saint Joseph. Two angels hover in the darkness behind and three shepherds peer at the baby; the one in the foreground carries a lamb by its feet.The night sky above has opened to...

The Christ Child lies on a bundle of straw before his mother, the Virgin Mary, on a grassy patch in the foreground of this picture, his head supported by a kneeling angel. Making direct eye contact with the viewer, he suckles his index finger in a gesture that may have been understood as a kiss o...

The Christ Child sits on the lap of his mother, the Virgin Mary, and looks directly at us. He holds a little bird in his left hand. In many religious paintings Christ is shown with a goldfinch, a symbol of the Passion (Christ’s torture and crucifixion). The bird here is missing the typical red pl...

At the centre of this painting is the Virgin Mary, seated in a narrow space, a wall behind her and a ledge before her. She holds the infant Christ, who seems unsteady on his feet as he leans to the right. He makes direct eye contact with the viewer. The young Saint John the Baptist, identified by...

This porphyry sculpture represents the head of a young beardless man who turns to the left and looks upwards as though he is suffering mental or physical anguish. It is a copy of a famous antique marble head (now in the Uffizi, Florence) which was long known as ‘The Dying Alexander’ due to a late...