Gualtiero Volterra

1901 - 1960/1970

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In this horizontal painting, a crowd of more than two dozen men and women gathered shoulder to shoulder at the foot of three men hanging from wooden crosses nearly fill the scene. All the people have pale or ruddy skin. To our left of center, each of the crucified men is tied and nailed to a cross. Blood pours from their hands and feet, and from a gash over the central man’s right ribs. The men’s heads slump and their bodies sag. They are nude except for a red cloth across the central man’s hips and a small white loincloth on the man to our right. Two of the men wear crowns of thorns. The spear piercing the central man’s side is held by a man riding a white horse in the crowd below. At least three additional men in the crowd are on horseback. Many of the men are armed with spears, creating a bristle of vertical and diagonal lines over the group. The men and women wear robes and uniforms in shades of golden yellow, pine green, crimson and rust red, black, and cream white. A few men wear metal helmets, and one wears armor. Near the lower left corner, a woman wearing a navy-blue robe has fainted and is supported by two kneeling women while another woman and cleanshaven man look on, their fingers interlaced and held low. The smooth ground is grass green. A spindly tree with dark green leaves grows up the right side of the composition. Off in the distance beyond the tree, two buildings hint at a city. Blue clouds billow in the blue sky above.
Luca Signorelli, The Crucifixion, c. 1504/1505, tempera, oil, and gilding on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.75

The Crucifixion

Luca Signorelli · c. 1504/1505 · tempera, oil, and gilding on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.75

Five men and two women gather around an infant in a landscape in this vertical painting. The people all have pale or peachy skin with delicate facial features. Halos, like gold rings, float behind each head. All the men but one have beards, and most of the people’s lips are parted. The pudgy baby, Jesus, lies nude on a white cloth on the grassy ground near the bottom center of the composition. Three people kneel around and look down at him. To our left, a man wearing a fur-lined, powder-blue tunic under a rose-pink robe crosses his arms to touch opposite shoulders. A tall staff with a gold cross at the top rests in one elbow. Just behind Jesus, a woman wearing a gold crown and sage-green and pink robes holds a palm frond in one hand and extends the other over the baby. To our right, Mary wears a gold diadem and an apple-red dress. The cloak billowing behind her shoulders and fluttering to our right is emerald green on one side and silvery blue on the other. She also crosses her hands over her shoulders. Four men stand behind the group. Starting behind Mary, to our right, a man faces our left in profile. He holds a tall staff in one hand and points at Mary with the index finger of the other. The next man looks at the first with his hand held by his own face, the first two fingers splayed over his beard near his mouth. Next, another man looks down at Jesus with his hands together in prayer by the shoulder farther from us. These three men wear robes in canary yellow, burnt orange, dark blue, vivid green, or raspberry pink. The fourth man, along the left edge of the painting, is nude except for a coral-orange and yellow cloth tied around his hips. He has short brown hair and is cleanshaven. The feathered ends of three arrows project from his torso and three more wounds on his neck, shoulder, and thigh trickle blood. He holds an arrow by his side with one hand and reaches out with this other to hold the first two fingers and thumb up over Jesus. A gray stone building rises along the right edge of the composition behind the group. A person wearing a white tunic, red robe, and a straw-colored hat climbs a set of stairs there. That person holds a long staff over one shoulder and carries a lamb by the animal’s four legs in the other. In the sky above the main group, a bearded man a triangular halo over gray hair floats among about a dozen winged, child-like angels on a cloud bank. The man holds up one hand in blessing and holds an orb topped with a cross in the other hand. A bank of winged baby heads clusters in the distance, farther along the cloud bank. A few people, tiny in scale, sit or walk through the landscape, which leads back to ice-blue, craggy mountains. Cream-white and muted blue clouds fill the sky above. The artist signed the work as if he had left an inscribed tablet near Jesus. It reads, “M.D.XXXIIII. PERINO BONAC CORSSI FLORENTIN OPVS FACEBA.” The letters of the artist’s name, PERINO, are then combined into two monograms.
Perino del Vaga, The Nativity, 1534, oil on panel transferred to canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.31

The Nativity

Perino del Vaga · 1534 · oil on panel transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.31

A woman and child sit on a throne against a shiny gold background in this vertical panel painting. Two winged angels in the upper corners and two men in the lower corners are about half the size of the woman and child. They all have pale skin with pink cheeks and gold halos. The woman’s head tilts to our right, and she looks off over our right shoulder with hazel eyes. She has a narrow nose, and her lips are set in a line. Her brows angle downward and her chin pulls back, creating a slightly distorted triangular face. A marine-blue mantle covers her head and wraps around a blush-pink robe. The child sits upright with his body facing us and his head turned to look to our left. He has short, light brown hair with light brown eyes, and he wears a scarlet-red robe with a dusty rose-pink mantle draped over one shoulder and across his lap. He points to our left with one hand and holds a white scroll lined with black in the other. They sit on a wide, rust-red seat with a tomato-red cushion. The angels in the upper corners hold up a cloth patterned with garnet-red flowers and black and gold pinwheels behind the pair. The angel on the left wears a muted pink cloak over a sage-green robe, and the other angel wears a bone-white cloak over pink. The two men standing in the lower corners look up at the woman and child. The man on the left has long brown hair and beard and wears a muted pink robe over a long, furry garment. He holds a long scroll in his right hand, on our left. The abbreviated writing on the scroll reads, “ECE AGNU DEI: UI.” The man in the lower right is balding and has a gray beard. He wears an orange cloak wrapped around a dark blue robe. Two gold keys hang on red thread in his left hand, on our right. The panel has a wide, cranberry-red border decorated with black and gold stylized flowers and vines.
Tuscan 13th Century, Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter, and Two Angels, c. 1290, tempera on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.60

Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist, Saint Peter, and Two Angels

Tuscan 13th Century · c. 1290 · tempera on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.60

Men and women line up to either side of a man seated on a throne in this long, horizontal painting. The people are painted in shades of white and gray so they resemble marble statues against a background streaked with rust red and gray, resembling marble. About a third of the way into the composition from the left, the throne is atop a three-stepped platform. A cleanshaven man sits on the throne facing our right in profile. He has short, curly hair and wears a toga under a breastplate. He lifts one hand, the forefinger slightly extended, and his lips are parted. The side of the throne we see is in the shape of a creature with a person’s face, chest and front legs of a lion, tail of a serpent, and wings. A greyhound-like dog sits on the first of the three steps. Some of the dozen men lined up to the left of the throne wear armor and hold lances or daggers. One man stands with one hand across his chest and the other across his groin. Another man stands with his back to us, one ankle crossed in front of the other. Sixteen men and women and three horses stand in a line to the right of the throne. Two women are near the front of the line. The one closest to the throne holds an urn. A man just behind her holds a larger urn propped up on one shoulder. The other men wear armor or togas. One man is half again as tall as anyone else. A rectangular plaque just to the right of the throne appears to be carved with the words, “TVRPIVS IMPER VENERE Q AR MIS VINCI.”
Giovanni Bellini, An Episode from the Life of Publius Cornelius Scipio, after 1506, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.7

An Episode from the Life of Publius Cornelius Scipio

Giovanni Bellini · after 1506 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.2.7

Vincenzo Foppa, Saint Bernardino of Siena, c. 1495/1500, oil (?) on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.72

Saint Bernardino of Siena

Vincenzo Foppa · c. 1495/1500 · oil (?) on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.72

Nearly filling this vertical painting, a young, light-skinned child stands with a delicate scepter tucked into one elbow as he holds up his other hand with the first two fingers raised. The child is lit from our left, but the overall tone of the painting is shadowy and dark. His body faces us, and he looks off to our right with round, deeply shaded eyes. He has short blond hair and a tall forehead, chubby cheeks, and his bow lips are parted. Short, gold rays emanate from the sides and top of his head within a thin gold band to create a halo. He wears a thigh-length, white tunic, and more of that fabric is wrapped around his torso. His dark, burgundy-red cape falls open across his shoulders and down to his calves, and is edged with gold around the collar and down the front. A rectangular, jewel-encrusted gold clasp holds it closed at the throat. He stands with most of his weight on his left leg, to our right, on bare feet. His right hand, to our left, is raised to his chest with the first two fingers extended up. The delicate silver scepter he holds with his other hand is topped with a cross. Swirling patches of muted brick red, harvest yellow, pine green, and off white behind him could be a tapestry. A thin, dark band creates a border around the edges of the painting.
Andrea Mantegna, The Infant Savior, c. 1460, tempera on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.67

The Infant Savior

Andrea Mantegna · c. 1460 · tempera on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.67

In the left half of this horizontal painting, a bare-chested, seated woman, Venus, is tended by three nude women and several child-like, nude, winged putti. All the women and putti have pale, peachy skin. To our right, a statue of a man stands on an ornately carved pedestal on a veranda in front of a distant landscape. Venus sits facing our right and she looks into a rectangular, black-framed mirror she holds up with her left hand. Her blond hair is braided and she has delicate features. A sky-blue cloth wraps around her waist and lap, and covers her legs. One foot rests on the lap of a seated putto, who ties on a sandal. Another putto helps hold up the mirror. A third putto near us, in front of Venus, pulls strings of pearls from a gold box and the fourth, in the lower left corner, lifts a comb and long needle out of a gilded, rectangular box. Two of the women behind Venus tend to her hair and the third holds up and gazes at a teardrop-shaped pearl. A dusky rose-pink curtain falls behind the women and putti. The view opens onto a terrace on the right half of the painting. A gray stone sculpture of a nude man holding up a bunch of grapes with one hand and bracing a tall stick with the other stands facing our left on an ornately carved base. The base is made up of a wide, shallow bowl above a single pedestal foot. In the distance, two people sit against a tall balustrade. The person on the left wears gold-colored armor, a helmet, and holds a long spear. The bearded man to the right appears to be nude as he leans to the side toward his companion, resting his hand and chin along a staff propped on the bench's seat. Trees and mountains in the landscape beyond are painted with brown, deep gray, and forest and sage green. A sliver of white sky along the horizon brightens an otherwise steel-gray sky.
Annibale Carracci, Venus Adorned by the Graces, 1590/1595, oil on panel transferred to canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.9

Venus Adorned by the Graces

Annibale Carracci · 1590/1595 · oil on panel transferred to canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.9

Two muscular men lean away, whips raised, from a third man tied to a freestanding column, in a courtyard-like space in front of a deep landscape in this vertical painting. At the center of the composition, the pale-skinned man bound to the column, Jesus, stands with his body facing us. He turns his head to our right, perhaps looking at the man to that side. Jesus is cleanshaven, and his long brown hair falls back behind his shoulders. A delicate gold ring creates a halo, with red spokes to the top and sides. Ropes wrap around his upper arms, and he is nude except for a blue cloth around his hips. The column is mottled with tan and pale pink, and is topped with a gold, leafy capital. To each side, the men with the whips have more tan skin than Jesus. They stand in the same pose as each other, with their weight mostly in their right legs, and right hands raised with the whips. But the man to our left stands with his body facing us, and the one to our right stands with his back to us, so they each lean away from Jesus. The man to our left wears a pink cloth tied around his waist but is otherwise nude. His mouth is wide open, and his free hand reaches across his chest. His royal-blue cap is decorated with lavender-purple and gold ribbons and plumes. The man to our right is nude except for a parrot-green cap wrapped with a band of orange, like a turban. The area in which they stand has a floor patterned with butter yellow and white. On the far side of the courtyard, a central arch is flanked by one to each side, which are cut off by the left and right edges of the composition. The entablature running across the top of the arches is parallel to the top edge of the painting. The landscape beyond has grassy, rolling hills dotted with trees, reaching back to hazy blue mountains along the horizon. The sky above deepens from pale blue over the mountains to azure blue across the top, seen through the arches. Several vertical cracks are visible on the surface of the panel.
Bachiacca, The Flagellation of Christ, c. 1512/1515, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.81

The Flagellation of Christ

Bachiacca · c. 1512/1515 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.81

Golden light from the upper left illuminates an assortment of vegetables, fish, and live and dead animals arranged among kitchen pots, pans, and bowls in this vertical still life painting. The animals and objects are displayed on three levels, each of which takes up about a third of the composition. Starting at the top: the body of a light brown hare lies over the front edge of a stone ledge, which is draped with a rumpled forest-green, gold-edged cloth. A large golden-brown fowl hangs upside down, its feet tied and the string looped over a nail on the dark brown wall behind the still life. The fowl’s cream-white wings are outstretched, and its head rests along the hare’s body. Five birds with feathers of golden yellow, white, black, and apple red lie in a pile to the left of the hare. A live peacock stands on the green cloth to the right, looking down at the other animals. Its long, caramel-brown tail is closed and is dotted with eyes that look like shiny black buttons. The next level down is made up of a short barrel next to a small wooden stool or table. A butterscotch-brown rooster is perched on the barrel among red onions. A copper bowl overflowing with dark green artichokes and leafy greens sits on the stool to our right. The bottom zone has objects and animals across the ginger-brown floor. To our left, a chicken or rooster stands facing away from us as it looks to our right toward a tall, sealed jug and two dark brown pots. Just behind the pots a gleaming copper bowl is propped up at an angle so we see coral-pink fish inside. The bowl leans against a lustrous brass basin and jug with a duck standing in front of it. A radish, lemon, a couple more fish, and two lobsters lie on the floor or are tucked between the pans and bowls. The space opens onto another dimly lit room beyond the still life, in the upper right corner of the painting. In that room, a woman wearing a long skirt and a white cap is backlit against a rectangular window opening filled with pale blue sky. A spark of orange to our left could be a fire on a raised hearth or stove.
Anton Maria Vassallo, The Larder, probably c. 1650/1660, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.91

The Larder

Anton Maria Vassallo · probably c. 1650/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.91

Vincenzo Foppa, Saint Anthony of Padua, c. 1495/1500, oil (?) on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.63

Saint Anthony of Padua

Vincenzo Foppa · c. 1495/1500 · oil (?) on panel ·  Accession ID  1952.5.63