Miniature landscape views embedded in more conventional paintings were not uncommon during the Renaissance, before landscape was established as a genre.
Bartolomeo
In Florence, stories told in paintings became increasingly secular, and ingeniously integrated multiple scenes from the single story into one painting.
From mythology, Mercury’s caduceus and the Aesculapian Staff, walking sticks as a device indicating age, and those carried by travellers.
Paintings from 1263 to 1504 show how the traditional Nativity developed. Examples by Duccio, Campin, Botticelli and Fra Bartolomeo.
Sketches and studies are the richest evidence for the artistic in craft-dominated processes required to turn those into a painting.
Claude Lorrain’s view of Delos, Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks, several versions of the Flight to Egypt, including one by William Blake, and more.
At the time, Raphael was recognised as one of the most important artists in the whole Renaissance. Here’s his starting point, set by Giorgione, Perugino and others.
Fra Bartolomeo, Tintoretto, Blake, Merson, Tanner, and a very special nocturne by Adam Elsheimer show this popular story.
Myrrh makes its appearance as one of the 3 gifts of the Magi, then as an attribute of Mary Magdalene. A history in paintings by Bosch and others.
It’s sometimes hard to read a painting without understanding an inscription. Masaccio, Rossetti, Moreau, Corinth and Botticelli gives us some clues.
