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Old Masters

Gentile da Fabriano: Coronation of the Virgin

Gentile da Fabriano: Coronation of the Virgin

Located at The Getty Museum in Malibu, California, this work by Gentile painted for his native town, Fabriano in the Marches, probably for a confraternity associated with the church of San Francesco. Originally the panel was double-sided and served as a processional standard held aloft in parades that honored the Virgin Mary. Sometime prior to 1827, the panel was sawn down the middle to create two paintings; the reverse, depicting the Stigmatization of Saint Francis is now in the collection of the Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, Parma, Italy.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Angelo Bronzino: A Young Woman and Her Little Boy

Angelo Bronzino: A Young Woman and Her Little Boy

This beautiful painting by Italian artist Bronzino can be found at the National Art Gallery in London. Born in Florence, Bronzino was the principal portraitist to the court, and one wonders how much his own coldly idealized, polished style of painting may, itself, have contributed to the taste for the marble-hard perfection and chilly hauteur of his models.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Fra Angelico: The Annunciation

Fra Angelico: The Annunciation

A masterpiece of Renaissance art, the Annunciation that Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro) painted for the north corridor of the San Marco convent is arguably his finest version of this traditional theme. Painted in fresco, it formed part of the decorative scheme at the Dominican convent in Florence - one of the most important sets of murals from the Renaissance in Florence. Financed by the Florentine Medici family, the commission was awarded around 1440 and included the convent’s altarpiece together with more than fifty other frescoes.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Pietro Perugino: The Marriage of the Virgin

Pietro Perugino: The Marriage of the Virgin

The Marriage of the Virgin, a painting by Perugino, the Italian Renaissance master, depicts the marriage between Mary and Joseph. It is now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Caen, France. Perugino finished the work initially commissioned to Pinturicchio around 1500-1504. Credits: The Marriage of the Virgin, Perugino, c.1800-1876, Lithograph, 23.4 x 18.3 cm (sheet of paper)

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Michelangelo: Doni Tondo

Michelangelo: Doni Tondo

Michelangelo di Ludovico Buonarroti Simoni, best known as Michelangelo,was an Italian painter, architect and sculptor of the High Renaissance; Michelangelo painted this Holy Family for a Florentine merchant, Agnolo Doni. The ‘tondo’ by Michelangelo, which is the only finished panel painting by the artist to survive. Tis masterpiece can be found today at Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Theodore Gericault: Le Radeau de la Méduse

Theodore Gericault: Le Radeau de la Méduse

Theodore Géricault was a French Romantic painter and lithographer. The Raft of the Medusa is an oil on painting of 1818 and has become an icon of French Romanticism. This work shows the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today’s Mauritania. Most of the people on the Méduse died and those who survived endured starvation and dehydration and practiced cannibalism. This event became an international scandal because was attributed to the incompetence of the French captain.

Duration : 7m
Maturity Level : all

Georges de la Tour: The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds

Georges de la Tour: The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds

The only diurnal painting by Georges de La Tour in the Louvre along with the Saint Thomas, the Cheat illustrates a theme that was frequently taken up in the wake of Caravaggio. The young man is subjected here to three major temptations according to 17th-century moral standards: gambling, wine, and lust.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Jan Vermeer: The Astronomer

Jan Vermeer: The Astronomer

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter. The Astronomer is an oil on canvas and is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The masterpiece shows a man touching the celestial globe. The astronomer’s profession is shown also by the book on the table, the Adriaan Metius’s Institutions Astronomicae Geographicae.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Lucas Van Valckenborch: The Tower of Babel

Lucas Van Valckenborch: The Tower of Babel

Lucas van Valckenborch the Elder was a Flemish painter, famous for his landscapes. For this painting, The Tower of Babel, the artist took inspiration from the Rotterdam Tower of Babel by his contemporary artist Pieter Bruegel. To draw the tower, van Valckenborch used the model of the Colosseum in Rome. This masterpiece is now in Louvre Museum in Paris, France.

Duration : 4m
Maturity Level : all

Jean-Baptiste Chardin: Still Life with Soup

Jean-Baptiste Chardin: Still Life with Soup

Jean-Baptiste Chardin was a French painter of the 18th-century. He is considered a master of still life and his work is characterized by soft diffusion of light and carefully balanced composition. He was one of the most admired painters of Henri Matisse. This painting, Still Life with Soup shows really well the particularity of his way to paint and play with the light.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: Annunciazione

Leonardo da Vinci: Annunciazione

Attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, this painting is dating from circa 1472-1475. It represents the angel Gabriel, sent by God to announce to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and give birth to a son named Jesus. This masterpiece is housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: Flying Machines

Leonardo da Vinci: Flying Machines

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian artist of the High Renaissance and he is considered one of the greatest painters of all time. One of his favorite areas of study was the area of aviation. He seemed truly excited by the possibility of people flying through the skies like birds.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo da Vinci: Virgin of the Rocks

Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian renaissance artist, painted two different versions with the same subject. The two versions are almost identical except for several significant details. This one is generally considered the prime version, the earlier of the two and his placed in the Louvre, in Paris.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Venus of Milo

Venus of Milo

The Venus of Milo, displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, is an ancient Greek statue created between 130 and 100 BC. The artist is unknown, the statue is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Bust of Nefertiti

Bust of Nefertiti

The Egyptian Museum of Berlin (Aegyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung) is home to one of the world’s most important collections of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including the iconic Nefertiti Bust. Since 1855, the collection is a part of the Neues Museum on Berlin’s Museum Island.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Head of Medusa

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio: Head of Medusa

Created by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio in the 16th Century, this painting represents the exact moment Medusa was executed by Perseus. The artist replaced Medusa’s face with his own to underline his immunity to her dreadful gaze. Located in the Uffizi Museum in Florence, this masterpiece was commissioned as a present for the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all

Giotto: Madonna Enthroned

Giotto: Madonna Enthroned

Madonna Enthroned is one of the most famous painting by Giotto, the italian late medieval artist. Housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, in Italy, this painting represents the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child seated on her lap. This masterpiece is dated around 1310 and is often celebrated as the first painting of the Renaissance.

Duration : 6m
Maturity Level : all

Johannes Vermeer: View of Delft

Johannes Vermeer: View of Delft

Johannes Vermeer painted the View of Delft around 1660. It represents the hometown of the Dutch artist. This masterpiece is among his most popular works and is placed in the Museum Mauritshuis The Hague in Netherlands.

Duration : 5m
Maturity Level : all

Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas

Diego Velazquez: Las Meninas

Diego Velázquez was the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. He painted Las Meninas in 1656. This masterpiece is located in the Museo del Prado, in Madrid. It is an enigmatic composition that raises questions about illusion and reality, that is the reason why this work creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Edvard Munch: The Scream

Edvard Munch: The Scream

Edward Munch was a Norwegian Expressionist artist, he painted The Scream in 1893. This painting has become one of the most iconic images of art. The agonized face is seen as a symbol of the anxiety of the human condition. This masterpiece is now in the National Gallery and Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Andrea Mantegna: Crucifixion

Andrea Mantegna: Crucifixion

Andrea Mantegna was an Italian painter and created The Crucifixion around 1458. This work is a panel in the central part of the predella of a large altarpiece. It is located in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.

Duration : 9m
Maturity Level : all

Hubert Robert: The Louvre Project

Hubert Robert: The Louvre Project

Hubert Robert was one of the greatest creators of poetic images. In the 18th Century he produced some of the most spectacular decors in the decade that preceded the French Revolution.

Duration : 9m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mona Lisa

Also Known as La Gioconda, The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, this artwork was painted around 1504 and is located in the Louvre Museum, in Paris.

Duration : 2m
Maturity Level : all

Leonardo da Vinci: Ginevra de’ Benci

Leonardo da Vinci: Ginevra de’ Benci

Leonardo da Vinci painted this portrait of the Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de’ Benci in the 15th Century. This masterpiece is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. and it’s the only one by Leonardo on public view in the Americas.

Duration : 3m
Maturity Level : all