1000 Paintings of Genius. Victoria Charles

Venetian School, Italian, Portrait of a Woman, Oil on panel, 43.5 × 34.3 cm, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt

      174. Luca Signorelli, c. 1445–1523, High Renaissance, Tuscan School, Italian, Crucifixion, c. 1500, Oil on canvas, 247 × 117.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

      Luca Signorelli

      (c. 1445–1523 Cortona)

      Signorelli was a painter from Cortona but was active in various cities of central Italy like Florence, Orvieto and Rome. Probably a pupil of Piero della Francesca, he added solidity to his figures and a unique use of light, as well as having an interest in the representation of actions like contemporary artists, the Pollaiuolo brothers.

      In 1483, he was called to complete the cycle of frescos in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, which means he must have had a solid reputation at that time. He painted a magnificent series of six frescos illustrating the end of the world and The Last Judgment for the Orvieto Cathedral. There can be seen a wide variety of nudes displayed in multiple poses, which were surpassed at that time only by Michelangelo, who knew of them. By the end of his career, he had a large workshop in Cortona where he produced conservative paintings, including numerous altarpieces.

      175. Bernardino Pinturicchio, 1454–1513, Early Renaissance, Italian, Annunciation, 1501, Fresco, Santa Maria Maggiore, Spello

      176. Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1472–1553, Northern Renaissance, German, The Crucifixion, 1503, Oil on pine panel, 138 × 99 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

      The Crucifixion is a subject derived from an incident described only by St John. When Christ was hanging on the Cross, he saw John and Mary standing near, “He said to his mother, ‘Woman, behold your son!’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’” (John 19: 26f). The compositional scheme of the crucifixion, which was established some 500 years before Cranach, was symmetrical: Christ on the Cross in the centre, Mary to the right of him and John to the left, both turned to face the viewer. This arrangement began to strike Cranach’s contemporaries as too stylised. Cranach moved the Cross from the centre, presented it side-on, and has the two looking up to Christ in such a way that the faces of all the figures are visible. The first hesitant attempt of this kind was made by Albrecht Dürer in a Crucifixion painted in Nuremberg in 1496 for the chapel of the Wittenberg castle. It is believed that Cranach adopted the device from that work.

      177. Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1450–1516, Northern Renaissance, Dutch, The Garden of Earthly Delights (central panel of the triptych), c. 1504, Oil on panel, 220 × 195 cm, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

      178. Albrecht Dürer, 1471–1528, Northern Renaissance, German, Adoration of the Magi, 1504, Oil on panel, 98 × 112 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

      179. Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1472–1553, Northern Renaissance, German, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, 1504. Tempera on panel, 69 × 51 cm, Stiftung Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

      The charming little scene is inscribed in a circle, at the centre of which is the offering of the strawberry. But this cosy little circle is not at all the centre of the painting. Above, on the left and below, it is surrounded by wild nature, and nature in its own way is involved in the concerns of the Holy Family. The clear sky greets them with the smile of the new day. The rising sun imparts a silvery hue to the clumps of grey moss on the branches of a mighty fir-tree which extends protectively towards a melancholy birch that waves its springy branches. The hills, repeating one another, draw the gaze in to the sunny distance, telling Joseph, “Egypt lies there.” The earth is glad to offer Mary a soft carpet of grass sprinkled with flowers. The clear stream bending around the meadow becomes a boundary to protect the fugitives from their pursuers. Nobody before Cranach had painted nature so straightforwardly, as if directly from life. Nobody before him had been able to form such an intimate link between nature and scriptural figures. Nobody managed to animate every little detail so that all of them together breathe in unison. It was not pantheistic rationalisation that expressed itself here, but the primitive instinct aroused in Lucas’s spirit through contact with his native land.

      180. Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475–1564, High Renaissance, Florence, Italian, The Holy Family with the Young St. John the Baptist (The Tondo Doni), c. 1506, Oil on panel, dia. 120 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

      The Holy Family with the Young St. John the Baptist, also called the Tondo Doni, was painted by Michelangelo, a commission to celebrate the marriage of Agnolo Doni and Maddalena Strozzi. The fact that this work was not created for a church might explain Michelangelo’s apparent freedom to place several young male nudes in the background, behind the little figure of St. John. The young, strong and elegantly poised figure of Mary, holding her infant up on her shoulder, is contrasted with the figure of Joseph, who is depicted – as was also customary during medieval times in order to de-emphasise his importance as a father – subject to the ravages of old age. The child, like the mother, is active and full of life. This is another work in which Mary and Jesus appear to be fully human.

      181. Master of the Saint Bartholomew Altar, active c. 1475–1510, Northern Renaissance, German, St. Bartholomew Altarpiece, 1505, Oil on panel, 129 × 161 cm (central panel), 129 × 74 cm (side panels), Alte Pinakothek, Munich

      182. Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio), 1483–1520, High Renaissance, Florentine School, Italian, The Madonna of the Goldfinch, 1506, Oil on panel, 107 × 77.2 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

      The patron who commissioned the Madonna of the Goldfinch – a man called Lorenzo Nasi – was a wealthy merchant, and the painting commemorated his wedding to Sandra Canigiani. Raphael painted the figure of the Madonna in the centre, using the standard pyramidal design for the composition. In her left hand Mary holds a book, while her right arm encloses the child Jesus, whose small hands enfold the goldfinch. The infant St John endeavours to caress the bird. The figures are idealised, and both Mary and Jesus have barely visible haloes over their heads, rendered in perspective, in order not to disturb the realism of the style employed. A panoramic landscape opens up the background to a considerable depth.