Must-see paintings and sculptures

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Simon Vouet’s Buona Ventura – the lamentable effects of palm reading

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s Young Sick Bacchus – an artist in the guise or perhaps something much more?

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Raphael’s Woman with a Unicorn - an image of a virgin marked by virtue

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s David with the Head of Goliath – a victor filled with sorrow

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Simon Vouet’s Herodias with the Head of St. John the Baptist – femme fatale of the Baroque

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Bronzino’s John the Baptist – between cold eroticism and refined devotion

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s St. John the Baptist – a work of art, sacrilege, or child pornography?

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Van Honthorst’s The Concert – singing together or perhaps a peregrination of the prodigal son?

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Raphael’s Fornarina – a mysterious love interest or perhaps…

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Domenichino’s The Hunt of Diana – a painting about spying and its unfortunate results

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s Madonna of Loreto - the sanctity of dirty, coarse feet

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Carlo Saraceni’s Madonna and Child with St. Anne – an everyday life scene and… a dove

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Giovanni Lanfranco’s Apparition of the Virgin to St. Lawrence – a thematic painting yet not bereft of artistry

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Bronzino’s Madonna with Child, St. John the Baptist and St. Anne – meaning a song of love sentenced to suffering

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s Madonna and Child with St. Anne – a work despite and against itself

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s The Martyrdom of St. Matthew – death among onlookers and terrified passersby

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s The Crucifixion of St. Peter – a painting on the banality of evil

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Giovanni Baglioni’s Heavenly Love and Earthly Love – a virtue in the struggle against sin

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s Narcissus at the Source – a tragedy of unfulfilled love, or perhaps a story about the essence of art

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s Conversion of St. Paul – meaning how Saul became Paul

Must-see paintings and sculptures

The Incredulity of St. Thomas– and how strong is your faith?

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Domenichino’s The Last Communion of St. Jerome – a work about the superiority of communion under one kind

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Guercino’s The Funeral of St. Petronilla – a difficult topic, masterfully solved

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X – a real, perceptive and effective portrait

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Portrait of Pope Clement IX – a subtle image of a delicate pontifex

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Bronzino’s Portrait of Stefano Colonna – a picture-perfect condottiero

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Pietro da Cortona’s Rape of the Sabine Women – all is well that ends well

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s The Calling of St. Matthew – how a sinner becomes the chosen of God

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Carlo Saraceni’s Transitus Mariae – meaning how the Discalced Carmelites co-created the image of the Most Holy Virgin

Must-see paintings and sculptures

The Transfiguration – the most divine of all Raphael’s works

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Van Honthorst’s The Beheading of St. John the Baptist – a work immersed in darkness

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Artemisia Gentileschi’s Saint Cecilia Playing the Lute – an autoportrait in the guise of a saint

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Carlo Saraceni’s St. Cecilia with an Angel - two musicians

Must-see paintings and sculptures

The Holy Family with St. Elizabeth, the Young St. John the Baptist, and an Angel – a family meeting with an angel in the background

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s Saint Jerome – the Doctor of the Church as a weapon in the struggle against heretics

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Guido Reni’s Crucifixion of St. Peter – meaning a reason for a duel

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Giovanni Lanfranco’s Venus Playing the Harp – a tribute to music or perhaps to love?

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Bronzino’s Venus, Cupid, and Satyr – a sublime allegory or a courtly jest?

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s Fortune Teller – a painting about the dangers of life and the illusion of art

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Caravaggio’s The Entombment of Christ – a perfect work

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Dirck van Baburen’s The Entombment of Christ – catching up with Caravaggio

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Raphael’s The Deposition – a painting of suffering, the fragility of life and an unforgettable loss

Must-see paintings and sculptures

Antoniazzo Romano’s Annunciation – meaning, how the Virgin Mary can miss the most important moment of her life

Sleeping Hermaphrodite – the ever-present third gender

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Sleeping Hermaphrodite – the ever-present third gender

The figure of the Hermaphrodite stimulated the imagination of the people of Antiquity in a particular way. A being of two genders – both female and male – seemed privileged exceptional, and completely ideal, however, it also aroused ambivalent feelings and suspicion. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that a figure with male genitalia and female breasts garnered a lot of attention both in literature as well as in the visual arts. When it comes to the latter, the favored topic (although not the only one), was a sleeping Hermaphrodite. This is how he is depicted, stretched on b...

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Simon Vouet’s Herodias with the Head of St. John the Baptist – femme fatale of the Baroque

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Simon Vouet’s Herodias with the Head of St. John the Baptist – femme fatale of the Baroque

Femme fatale is associated with painting and literature of the XIX century – with women who devoured the hearts of men, cold-blooded demons of sex who with premeditation led men to their downfall. However, beautiful, erotic, attractive, but at the same time ruthless and sophisticated women have always fascinated artists. We can find them in ancient literature and mythology, as well as in the Old and New Testaments. We can also see them in the painting creations of Caravaggio and his successors because it was exactly in the XVII century when Salome, Judith, and Herodias became fashionable...

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Spada Chapel – ancestors, meaning capital which cannot be underestimated

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Spada Chapel – ancestors, meaning capital which cannot be underestimated

Numerous posthumous chapels, which we can see during a pilgrimage through Roman churches are generally filled with decorations and works of art. They arouse our respect, and approval, and let our thoughts linger on the grandeur and significance of the family, but above all their sense of art. It is quite seldom that we think about them in purely practical categories, not to say mercantile. It is a rare situation indeed that we can say that the main motive of their creation was not only the desire to immortalize one’s fame, but also the prestige of future, yet unborn successors of the fam...

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