Why Mongols Featured in Italian’s Martyrdom of the Franciscans Fresco

This frescoed was done by Ambrogio Lorenzetti ca. 1330 for a monastery in Siena dedicated to St. Francis. It was one of several scenes in and near the chapter house that narrated Franciscan history, including events that occurred far from Italy: the Franciscans’ missionary activities took them to Central Asia, China, India, and elsewhere. In […]

The Last Caravaggio

By The National Gallery May 1610. Caravaggio is in Naples working on the last picture he would paint. Two months later, he dies under mysterious circumstances. But it was during his last, tumultuous years that Caravaggio produced some of his most striking works. His signature style included tightly cropped scenes and dramatic lighting. He used […]

Raphael and His Main Works

Por centuries Raphael has been recognised as the supreme High Renaissance painter, more versatile than Michelangelo and more prolific than their older contemporary Leonardo. Though he died at 37, Raphael’s example as a paragon of classicism dominated the academic tradition of European painting until the mid-19th century. Raphael (Raffaello Santi) was born in Urbino where […]

Caravaggio and His Followers

By Keith Christiansen Trained in Milan and active in Rome (1592–1606), Naples (1606–7; 1609–10), Malta (1607–8), and Sicily (1608–9), Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610) was one of the most revolutionary figures of European art. His practice of painting directly from posed models violated the idealizing premise of Renaissance theory and promoted a new relationship between […]

Rediscovered Caravaggio Masterpiece “Ecce Homo” Debuts at Prado Museum

Caravaggio, a towering figure of the Italian Baroque, is renowned for his revolutionary use of chiaroscuro—an interplay of light and shadow that imbues his subjects with a visceral realism. Born Michelangelo Merisi in 1571 or 1573, Caravaggio led a tumultuous life marked by brawls, imprisonment, and even murder, culminating in his mysterious death at the […]

Mona Lisa, The World’s Most Famous Painting (video)

  Arguably the most famous painting the modern world has ever known, yet it’s not how it’s always been. Let alone the possible price of the painting itself, its valued so much that the room in the Louvre that houses and protects this painting cost over $7.5 million. The Mona Lisa is a portrait of […]

Luca Giordano, The “Presto”

Luca Giordano (1634-1705) was an Italian late Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Born in Naples, Giordano was the son of the painter Antonio Giordano. In around 1650 he was apprenticed to Ribera on the recommendation […]

Simone Martini influential in Gothic style

Simone Martini (1284-1344) was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style. It is thought that Martini was a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna, the leading Sienese painter of his time. According to late Renaissance […]

Pietro Lorenzetti

Lorenzetti, two 14th-century Italian painters who were brothers. Pietro and Ambrogio, born in Siena, belonged to the Sienese school dominated by the stylized Byzantine tradition developed by Duccio di Buoninsegna and Simone Martini. Pietro trained under Duccio di Buoninsegna and participated in the decoration of the lower Basilica at Assisi. He then returned to Tuscany […]

Gold in Renaissance Painting (Video)

Journey through the Gallery’s collection to learn how artists such as Andrea Mantegna and Duccio applied gold to their paintings and explore the different gilding techniques used in works such as ‘The Wilton Diptych’ and ‘The San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece’, with our Curatorial, Scientific and Conservation departments. Gold shines bright throughout the National Gallery’s collection, […]