Pointing and gesturing in a selection of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, Corot, Poussin, Gérôme, John Singer Sargent and others.
da Vinci
He painted a succession of fine works after his return from Venice, including superb portraits, Christ at the Column, and finally Saint Sebastian.
His time in Venice brought a succession of masterpieces, including the large San Cassiano altarpiece, a Salvator Mundi, and Virgin Annunciate which were highly influential.
Vasari claimed that he was trained by Jan van Eyck, but he probably learnt under an Italian artist in Milan before becoming the first Master in oils.
Never shown to the public in traditional paintings, a vital layer which goes between paint and the support. White, colour, chalk or oil.
From the funerary portraits of Fayum, through the work of Jan van Eyck, to Leonardo, Rubens and Botticelli, many of the greatest paintings are on wood panels.
The final canto of the Inferno takes Dante to see Lucifer himself, after which Virgil guides him back to the surface of earth.
Count Ugolino was a leading and treacherous politician, who could only be trusted to betray others. He was left to die in prison of starvation.
Born near Florence in 1452, the Renaissance Man and polymath died 500 years ago when retired in France. A summary of his great artistic achievements.
Developed in the mid 1600s, pastels are often considered to be the ‘purest’ form of painting, in which pure pigment is applied to the ground.
