Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza

Hungarian, born Germany, 1875 - 1947

Explore Selected Works

German 15th/16th Century, The Rule of Mars [right panel], c. 1535, oil on hardboard transferred from panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.31.c

The Rule of Mars [right panel]

German 15th/16th Century · c. 1535 · oil on hardboard transferred from panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.31.c

German 15th/16th Century, The Fall of Man [middle panel], c. 1535, oil on hardboard transferred from panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.31.b

The Fall of Man [middle panel]

German 15th/16th Century · c. 1535 · oil on hardboard transferred from panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.31.b

German 15th/16th Century, The Rule of Bacchus [left panel], c. 1535, oil on hardboard transferred from panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.31.a

The Rule of Bacchus [left panel]

German 15th/16th Century · c. 1535 · oil on hardboard transferred from panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.31.a

A woman sitting close to us in front of a deep landscape holds up a white cloth with the image of a man’s face on it in this vertical painting. The woman and the image on the cloth both have pale skin, hooded eyes, and long, straight noses. The woman’s shoulders are squared toward us, and her legs are tucked under her. Her head tips slightly to our right. Her eyes are downcast, and her bow-shaped lips are parted. She wears a white, turban-like headdress with a white veil covering her neck and upper chest. Her rose-pink dress is mostly covered by a voluminous, lapis-blue robe falling from the back of the headdress to the ground, where it puddles in angular folds. On the white cloth she holds up, the man’s head has chin-length blond hair and a beard. He looks out at us with light brown eyes. The woman sits on a grassy field. A dirt path cuts through a shallow valley across the picture, not far behind the woman. More harvest-yellow and moss-green hills roll back to a town with gray stone buildings with blue roofs along the horizon, which comes three-quarters of the way up the composition. The sky above deepens from white at the horizon to azure blue across the top of the painting.
Hans Memling, Saint Veronica [obverse], c. 1470/1475, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.46.a

Saint Veronica [obverse]

Hans Memling · c. 1470/1475 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.46.a

A gold chalice holding a thin, green serpent sits in an arched niche in this vertical painting. Light falls across the chalice from our right so it casts a shadow in the shallow gray stone niche. The chalice has a flaring, six-lobed foot, and a knob on the stem is set with red and green, diamond-shaped stones. The slender green snake drapes inside the cup’s round bowl. The serpent’s mouth is open and tongue flicks out to our right, and the tail hangs out of the chalice to our left.
Hans Memling, Chalice of Saint John the Evangelist [reverse], c. 1470/1475, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.46.b

Chalice of Saint John the Evangelist [reverse]

Hans Memling · c. 1470/1475 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.46.b

A man and two women walk on a dirt path through a verdant landscape, carrying packs, walking sticks, and other provisions, while in the distance fiery explosions spew flames and plumes of smoke sky-high in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale skin, and the women’s blond hair is bound up. Close to us and at the bottom center of the composition, the man and women walk to our right with their eyes cast down. The man walks at the front of the line, holding a stick with a canteen dangling from a cord over his right shoulder. In other left hand, he carries a basket filled with shiny silver disks. The man has wrinkled skin and a long gray beard. He wears a royal-blue coat lined with white fur over a brown tunic, black tights, and gray shoes. His head is wrapped in a turban with yellow coils beneath a purple and green split crown. The two women walk side-by-side behind the man. The woman farther from us holds two sticks in her left hand. A sack is looped over one stick that rests back across her shoulder. The other staff is vertical and is topped a skein of yarn with a spool. She holds a small saffron-orange chest with a silver handle and lock by her side with her right hand. She wears a long, voluminous, amethyst-purple dress bunched up in front to show a forest-green skirt underneath and three silver keys hanging at her knees. The second woman balances a lapis-blue, bulbous pack on her head with one hand. She wears a red dress with a high, white collar. She lifts the red skirt with her other hand to show a royal-blue skirt underneath. The path is lined with plants and a few rocks to each side. The land rises to steep, rocky outcroppings lined with trees. The shadowy form of a person walks away from us on the path where it winds back to the cliffs. The land dips down to a body of water in the near distance beyond the path. Lemon-yellow and crimson-red flames rise out of a town along the water’s edge in the distance. Streaks of black, rose-pink, and slate-blue smoke billow into the air. Another town burns along the horizon, which comes two-thirds of the way up the composition. The artist signed the work with his initials as if he had painted a rock face next to the path to our left, “AD” in a monogram.
Albrecht Dürer, Lot and His Daughters [reverse], c. 1496/1499, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.16.b

Lot and His Daughters [reverse]

Albrecht Dürer · c. 1496/1499 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.2.16.b

Shown from the hips up in a room on the far side of a ledge, a young woman props up a naked baby so he stands on a cushion in this vertical painting. The woman’s left hand, to our right, supports the baby’s neck, and her other hand holds him upright. Both have pale skin tinged with pink and shaded with cool gray, and they face us at the center of the composition. The woman wears a royal-blue hooded garment that comes low over her forehead. Light blond curls catch the light under her hood, near her left cheek, to our right. She looks into the distance, as if over our right shoulder, with unfocused, pale brown eyes. She has a straight yet soft nose, flushed cheeks, closed pink lips, and a slight double chin. The nude baby has blond hair and blue eyes. His torso and limbs have the rolls and dimples of a toddler, and the woman’s hands press gently into the flesh. One of his elbows hooks up over the woman’s shoulder, next to his head. He points at the woman with his middle finger near her high neckline. The other arm, to our right, hangs by his side and he holds a piece of green and red fruit, possibly an apple. The child stands on one foot on the green cushion, which has red tassels. The pine-green pillow has sea glass-green highlights, suggesting a sheen or texture. His other foot rests against that standing calf, toes splayed. The wall behind the pair is marbled with green or red against tan, and a bright, scarlet-red cloth hangs behind the woman. A window on the back wall opens onto a landscape to our left. There, a plain of green grass is interrupted by a winding pathway, which leads to a walled fortification and gate. Beyond the gate are trees and mountains, hazy green and blue in the deep distance. Thick white clouds drift across the bright blue sky above. A sliver of a window in the upper right corner next to the baby has round, bull’s eye glass. In the lower corners of the painting are two heraldic coats of arms. The shield-shaped symbol to our left is of a knight’s helmet with red and white scrolls and vines. In the lower right corner a miniature man kneels behind a shield and holds a long cylindrical object.
Albrecht Dürer, Madonna and Child [obverse], c. 1496/1499, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.16.a

Madonna and Child [obverse]

Albrecht Dürer · c. 1496/1499 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.2.16.a

In almost complete darkness, we look across reeds and grasses lining a river spanned by narrow, arched, stone bridge ahead of us in this moonlit, horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes about a third of the way up the painting, just over the footbridge, and the sky is filled with clouds that glow blush pink, flint gray, and lavender purple. The small, porcelain-white moon casts an opalescent gleam on the water under the arch of the bridge. Barely visible in the gloom, a walking path lined by a fence in the lower right corner leads to a copse of tall trees to our right. Closer inspection reveals a man wearing crimson red and a woman wearing pine green standing together near the gate of a walled enclosure beyond the trees. Moonlight glints on their white collars and cuffs, and on the gold buttons and embroidery on their clothing. Spires and buildings with stepped rooflines along the riverbank are outlined against the illuminated sky, though most of the details of the structures are swallowed in shadow.
Aert van der Neer, Moonlit Landscape with Bridge, probably 1648/1650, oil on panel, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 1990.6.1

Moonlit Landscape with Bridge

Aert van der Neer · probably 1648/1650 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1990.6.1

Shown from the thighs up, a man with pale, peachy skin looks at us in front of a dark gray background in this vertical portrait painting. His body and head angle to our right so he looks out of the corners of his brown eyes under dark, cocked brows. He has a rounded nose, flushed cheeks, the suggestion of a goatee, and his full, pale pink lips are closed. His face is nestled in a narrow froth of lace that lines the top of the high collar of his pale yellow jerkin. Eight iron-gray buttons line the front of the collar and continue down onto the chest. The jerkin is slashed vertically down the front and both short, cap sleeves. A black belt fits tightly around his narrow waist and a sword hangs from the far hip. The long sleeves under the jerkin are charcoal gray, as are the puffy tops of his pants, His right elbow, to our left, is slightly bent as his arm rests by his side. The backs of his other fingers rest in a loose fist against his far hip. A dark triangular form in the lower left corner of the painting could be the corner of a dark table. An inscription to the left of the man’s head reads “AE.S.20 Ao. 1558.”
Anonymous Artist, Portrait of a Young Man, 1558, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.79

Portrait of a Young Man

Anonymous Artist · 1558 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.79

Swiss 16th Century, Portrait of a Man in a Broad-Brimmed Hat, c. 1526, black chalk and wetted red chalk with brown wash on laid paper, Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner, 2006.11.71

Portrait of a Man in a Broad-Brimmed Hat

Swiss 16th Century · c. 1526 · black chalk and wetted red chalk with brown wash on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2006.11.71