Bayerisches Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek

Explore Selected Works

A pale-skinned, balding man with a fringe of white hair and a long, wispy gray beard kneels with his fingers intertwined in prayer in a shadowy grotto-like space in this vertical painting. He faces our right in profile, and his eyes look up at a crucifix propped against several woven baskets leaning against a moss-covered, gnarled tree. His hands rest on the open pages of a large book at the base of the crucifix. He wears a dark tawny-brown robe with a voluminous hood, and a string of thick rosary beads hanging from his waist ends with a tiny skull and a cross. A brick archway frames him, and another archway is seen through the opening. An unlit lantern hangs from the tree over the crucifix. The book, baskets, and crucifix along with a skull and hourglass sit on a rock covered by a cloth. An overturned pottery jug, a water jug, and a horse’s skull rest among a tall thistle plant and grass at the foot of the rock, in the lower right corner of the panel.
Gerrit Dou, The Hermit, 1670, oil on oak panel, Timken Collection, 1960.6.8

The Hermit

Gerrit Dou · 1670 · oil on oak panel ·  Accession ID  1960.6.8

Shown from about the knees up, a pale-skinned young woman stands within a stone niche, with a parrot perched on her finger as she gazes out at us in this vertical painting. The woman’s hands are raised to chest height, and she balances the spruce-blue parrot on the index finger of her far hand while her other hand holds an indistinct, white object. Her body is angled to our left, and she looks at us from the corner of her green eyes under faint brows. Her round face has a small nose, flushed cheeks, and her coral-red mouth curls up in a slight smile, her lips parted. Her honey-blond hair is gathered at the back of her head with curly tendrils framing her face and falling to her shoulders. She wears a golden-brown gown trimmed with a narrow ruffle of white fabric along the low neckline that reveals her décolletage. The bird faces the woman and lifts something, presumably a bit of food, up with one dark claw. The underside of its tail is crimson red. A light-skinned boy stands in deep shadow just to the right of the woman. He looks up at her and holds a silver tray in both hands. They stand within a light brown, arched, stone opening beyond a ledge, which comes up to about the woman’s knees. A carpet patterned with stylized flowers in ruby red, burnt orange, teal blue, white, and black is bunched up and draped over the parapet, to our right. A tall, iron-gray cage sits to our left. The rug partly covers an inscription on the front face of the niche that reads, “M. DO,” with the O cut off. A copper-colored, fringe-lined drapery hangs from the upper right of the arch and is fastened to the inner edge of the opening to create a swag. The woman is brightly lit from the upper left, and the space behind her and the boy is ink black. The artist signed and dated the lower left corner as if he had carved into the front face of the arch. It reads, “CNetscher .Ao. 16.66,” with the C and N overlapping to make a monogram.
Caspar Netscher, A Woman Feeding a Parrot, with a Page, 1666, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2016.118.1

A Woman Feeding a Parrot, with a Page

Caspar Netscher · 1666 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2016.118.1

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Wooded Landscape with Travelers, 1610, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2020.26.1

Wooded Landscape with Travelers

Jan Brueghel the Elder · 1610 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2020.26.1

A young man with smooth, pale peachy skin and long blond hair looks over his right shoulder at us in this vertical portrait painting. He has light green eyes, a straight nose, full pink lips, and a narrow chin. His hair falls over his shoulders, and a long sideburn reaches to his jawline on the side facing us. Shown against a background of emerald green, he wears a black floppy cap and a blue garment that splits over his shoulder. A ruffle of white is visible at the wide neckline, and the sleeve of his right arm, which faces us, is black. He holds his left hand, farther away from us, to his chest, and he wears a gold ring with a green stone on his pointer finger.
Raphael, Bindo Altoviti, c. 1515, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1943.4.33

Bindo Altoviti

Raphael · c. 1515 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1943.4.33