This free-standing, white marble sculpture shows the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a balding, bearded man. In this photograph, his body faces us and he looks straight ahead. Bushy eyebrows arch low over deeply set eyes, and his forehead hollows inward at his temples. He has high cheekbones and the skin of his cheeks draws slightly in. His thin lips are set in a straight line within a full beard. His high-necked robe falls slightly open over his chest and is cut also away over the shoulders to show the crinkled fabric of the garment beneath. The bottom edge of the sculpture curves upward in a very shallow U across the bottom, and is supported by a square pedestal foot decorated with scroll designs. The background behind the bust lightens from charcoal gray along the top edge to pale gray across the bottom, and the sculpture casts a shadow behind its base.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Monsignor Francesco Barberini, c. 1623, marble, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.102

Baroque

In the 1600s, following the Renaissance, an expressive style took hold of European art, architecture, and music. Baroque art often features dramatic contrasts in elements such as shapes or lighting. This creates a sense of movement and intense emotion.

  • Shown from the thighs up, a light-skinned man and woman gesture dramatically, partially covered only by colorful lengths of loosely draped fabric in this horizontal painting. To our left, the man stands with his lean, muscled body facing us but he turns his face to our right in profile to look at the woman with his chin dropped. His thick, dark hair is brushed back. He has a long, straight nose and his lips are parted. His left arm, on our right, is raised to shoulder height, elbow pointed out at the woman, and that hand is clenched in a fist in front of his chest. His other arm is slightly bent at his side, that hand also balled into a fist. A narrow, vivid cobalt-blue cloth winds and flutters around his body from behind him to our left, over the raised arm, and across his hips. To our right, the woman stands with her back to the man, and she looks back over her right shoulder. Her copper-red hair blows back from her face, lifting off her shoulders. She has light brown eyes under lowered brows, and the corners of her pink lips are pulled slightly down. She wears a teardrop-shaped pearl earring from the ear we can see and a headdress wrapped with more pearls at the back of her head. Her body is pale, soft, and rounded. Her arms bend at the elbows to cross in an X-shape in front of her bare breasts. With her left hand, closer to the man, she points an index finger at him. Around her body swirl two layers of satiny draperies, the outer one a honey orange, and an inner layer in dusty pink. Both people are lit from our right brightly enough to create deep shadows. Behind them, a bed at hip height has ivory-colored linens and a dark green drapery hanging to each side. The space recedes into darkness beyond the bed, contrasting with the brightness of the people.
  • A man and woman are surrounded by six pudgy children, some with wings, against a deep landscape in this square painting. At the center of the composition, the man, Bacchus, sits astride a wine barrel, which is about half his height. Bacchus has tanned, peachy skin, and is nude except for a claret-purple cloth draped across his groin. He wears a crown of grapevines with gold and purple fruit and palm-sized leaves. A staff topped with grapevines leans across one splayed leg, and he holds a shallow bowl in his left hand, to our right. With his other hand, he lifts a delicate gold circlet lined with tiny, bright stars over the woman, Ariadne. He smiles down at her as she reclines next to the barrel, to our left. Ariadne has ash-white, pale skin with flushed cheeks. She looks away from Bacchus, up and to our left, with large brown eyes and her full lips closed. She leans on one elbow near the barrel so her legs extend to our left. A few stems of wheat are tucked into her blond hair. She is nude except for a gold-colored cloth over her groin and a cameo on a gold band around her upper arm. She holds flowers and more wheat in the crook of her elbow, which rests near a tall urn, and touches a grapevine and bunch of grapes that drape over the urn with the other hand. Two putto, one with wings visible, hover behind her right shoulder, to our left. Another child-like putto drinks wine from a rope-wrapped bottle behind Bacchus’s barrel, to our right. A putto holds a round tray and another stands astride a cheetah, who lies in front of the barrel. This final putto holds up a vine with golden grapes and more grapevines are next to the tray. We are separated from the scene by painted architectural features meant to resemble carved white stone. The cheetah’s backside dips over a step that parallels the bottom edge of the canvas. Imaginary creatures in the lower corners have the bodies of large cats, chests with women’s breasts, long necks, curling ears, and long-snouted dog’s faces. Tall, brown, leaf-like forms rising along each side of the painting are wrapped with gold ribbons. Stone molding curls into the scene from the upper corners like parentheses, and the innermost scrolling ends meet at the top center. One more putto, also with wings, leans against the volute to our left, holding up flowers with both hands. Most of the putti have pale or rosy skin and dark blond hair, except for the one standing over the cheetah, who has brown skin and dark brown hair. Tucked into the scene in the lower left, just past the imaginary creature there, another pale-skinned person with a long nose, pointed chin, and the suggestion of jowls is shown from the waist up, looking toward Ariadne. This person has short dark hair and wears a black garment and a square hat in the shape of a white stone castle. A dark green hill rises behind this person, and a satyr, a man with goat’s legs and horns, walks alongside a donkey on which another pale-skinned child rides. There are white buildings with brown roofs in the distance in front of rocky, powder-blue mountains along the horizon. Puffy white clouds tower against the ice-blue sky above.
  • This carved ivory statue shows a mostly nude man standing on a square base with his hands bound to one side as he looks over the other shoulder. In this photograph, his wrists are tied together to our right, and he looks off to our left with his face tucked close to that shoulder. He has a curly beard and long wavy hair, which is pushed back over his shoulders. His lips are parted and his brows gathered. Both feet are planted on the base but most of his weight rests on his straight right leg, on our left, and the other knee is bent. This makes his right hip, on our left, jut out as his torso angles to our right. A loincloth drapes around his hips and ties at his right hip, on our left. His torso, arms, and legs are muscled, and veins stand out on his hands and arms. Some cracks are visible along the surface.
  • This free-standing, white marble sculpture shows the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a balding, bearded man. In this photograph, his body faces us and he looks straight ahead. Bushy eyebrows arch low over deeply set eyes, and his forehead hollows inward at his temples. He has high cheekbones and the skin of his cheeks draws slightly in. His thin lips are set in a straight line within a full beard. His high-necked robe falls slightly open over his chest and is cut also away over the shoulders to show the crinkled fabric of the garment beneath. The bottom edge of the sculpture curves upward in a very shallow U across the bottom, and is supported by a square pedestal foot decorated with scroll designs. The background behind the bust lightens from charcoal gray along the top edge to pale gray across the bottom, and the sculpture casts a shadow behind its base.
  • A woman wearing a breastplate and helmet over a toga stands to our left on a platform, gesturing with one arm extended to a group of about a dozen soldiers gathered around her in this horizontal painting. The woman has pale white skin and most of the soldiers have ruddy complexions. The woman stands with her body facing us but she turns her head to our right, looking toward but not at the knot of soldiers clustered there. She leans on her right elbow, on our left, resting on the flat top of a broken column, and she holds a scepter in that hand. Her other arm is raised and her fingers are extended except for the index finger and thumb, which touch to make a circle. Her gold helmet is encrusted with gems and a white plume issues from the top. Her red and gold cloak is fastened around her neck and falls open to reveal her armor and sandal-clad feet. A shield rests on the platform near her feet, and other pieces of armor are scattered on the dirt ground near the platform. A young boy with chestnut-brown curls holds her cloak behind her and to our right. In the lower left corner of the painting, one soldier sits on the edge of the platform, and he twists and looks up at the woman. Several soldiers standing in a group to our right carry shields, banners, and halberds, which are tall, ax-like weapons. The men wear helmets and breastplates, and cloaks in canary yellow, crimson red, and ivory white. The man closest to us stands with his back to us, and he looks over his shoulder at the woman. An animal skin wraps around his shoulders and the head of the animal drapes over his head. More soldiers and tents in the middle distance are painted in almost monochromatic tones of peanut brown and taupe. The sky above is blue with a few white clouds, except for a band of soft yellow along the horizon.
  • We look through shadowed trees at a river winding into the distance in this horizontal landscape painting. Close to us, a cluster of three thin trees and a larger central tree are deep in shadow, which contrasts with the light-filled scene beyond. The topaz-blue river curves from the lower right corner, across the canvas, and into the distance at the center. A few spindly trees grow along the riverbank in front of a hut with a thatched roof to our right. The bank to our left is lined with reeds and tall grasses. Behind the central shadowed tree, a long, low, narrow boat is occupied by four people with pale skin. To our left, a person with a dark garment and white collar reclines near a seated man wearing yellow and a feathered cap. To our right, another person reclines near the boatman who pushes the boat through the water using a long pole. The harvest yellow and sage green of the riverbanks and vegetation beyond the boats fades to hazy, pale blue mountains along the horizon line, which comes just over halfway up the composition. White clouds float across a blue sky above.
  • A young woman plays a small pipe organ while a winged angel holds up a piece of sheet music in this horizontal painting. A strong light source illuminates the scene from our right, creating deep shadows in the dark background. Both the woman and angel have pale skin, flushed cheeks, and light brown hair. Shown from the knees up and taking up the left half of the painting, the woman’s body is angled to our right as she sits at the organ, which is near the right edge of the composition. Her hair is pulled back into a braid, and wisps fall on her forehead. Her skin is smooth, and her head tilts down toward the organ. Her cherry-red dress has a squared neckline and olive-green sleeves over a white shirt. The voluminous sleeves are pushed back over her forearms as she rests her fingertips on the keys of the organ. Gazing toward the woman, the angel has short, curly hair, silvery gray wings, and wears a topaz-blue garment. Two lines of music on the paper the angel holds have notes written in and one staff is empty. The small organ is angled away from us so we see one narrow end and the row of low pipes along its back. The dark brown background lightens behind the young woman’s head.
  • Shown from the waist up, an elderly, balding, light-skinned man with a bushy white beard sits behind a table, facing us, in front of a winged angel who looks on in this shadowy, horizontal painting. The man sits with his body angled slightly to our right, and he turns his head to look in the opposite direction. His eyes are sunk in shadow under deeply furrowed brows, set in his lined face. His sparse, gray and white hair is tousled. He wears only a scarlet-red cloth draped across his lap and over his sinewy left arm, on our right. His open left hand is raised, palm up, at shoulder height. In his other hand, he holds a pen, hovering over a partially unwound scroll. His forearm rests on an open book beneath the scroll. He looks over his right shoulder at the curly-haired angel with snow-white wings. The angel wears a flowing, light blue robe with a golden yellow cloth draped around the chest and over the shoulders. Softly smiling, the backlit angel leans toward the man, face deep in shadow. With arms lifted, one hand gestures with a slightly crooked finger, pointing beyond the picture’s border to our left. In the other hand, the angel holds a golden horn in the dusky background behind the man’s left shoulder. Behind the man and angel and to our right, a single candle sits on two books lying in an arched wall niche. On the desk closest to us are a crumpled cloth on a book, a shiny rust-brown ball, a pair of eyeglasses, an inkpot, an hourglass, and a second book, to our right. Light coming from our upper left starkly illuminates the two people against the shadowed, earth-brown background.
  • A pale-skinned man wearing voluminous robes under a monk’s hood is carved from wood and painted in this freestanding sculpture. In this photograph, the man’s body faces us as he tips his head to our left and back to look up in that direction. His lips are parted, and his square chin is shaded with a five o’clock shadow. His gray hair is curly over each ear, and the top of his head is bald. He holds his right hand, to our left, up with his thumb and first two fingers almost touching. He holds an open book in the flat of his other hand. A rocky formation on the pages, the edges of which curl up, could be a flame. The man’s hood is pushed back, and the ivory-white, knee-length cloak drapes heavily over his shoulders and parts over his spread arms. He wears a long robe painted earthy brown that reaches his sandaled feet. Both the cloak and robe are edged with gold along the hems and painted with gold, leafy designs. The sleeves of his robe hang wide around his wrists. He stands with his weight on his right foot and the other foot thrust a bit forward on a square, wood base. The sculpture is photographed against a white background.
  • Five pale-skinned men gather around a rectangular table playing cards and dice against a dark, smoke-gray background in this horizontal painting. Light illuminates the scene dramatically from the upper left, creating bright areas and deep shadows. The two men closest to us play cards. One sits on our side of the table and faces our left in profile, wearing a gleaming, dark, armored breastplate and sleeves over scarlet-red tights. He has a dark brown beard and short, dark hair. He holds his stacked playing cards close to his chest, and he pulls the front one up with a forefinger and thumb as he looks at the man across from him. The young man near the left edge of the composition faces our right, almost in profile, as he half-kneels on his seat. He leans over the table, propped on one elbow. His other hand, closer to us, brushes the underside of his chin as he looks down at his cards. His right cheek and ear are brightly lit and much of the rest of his face cast into dark shadow, though there is a faint suggestion of a goatee around his parted lips. He wears a floppy, feathered cap, a bronze-brown shirt with full sleeves, and dark breeches over gray stockings. A bearded man with a tanned complexion stands behind the young man to our left. He looks toward the other end of the table at the dice players, and holds up a hand with two fingers extended. He wears a pointed metal helmet and holds a tall wooden staff with his other hand, along the left side of the canvas. Wrinkles line his forehead and create creases around his open mouth. Opposite us, two men look down at two small dice on the table. One man stands at the short end of the table to our right, with his right fingertips resting on the table over the dice. He wears a floppy, feathered cap over dark hair, and his brown beard is trimmed. His dark eyebrows are lowered and he has a long, straight nose. His ivory-white shirt has vertical black stripes and shimmers in the light. A metal collar, a piece of armor, rests around his neck and his hips are wrapped in a charcoal-gray cloth before being lost in the shadows under the table. In front of him, seen between the two card players, the fifth man faces the other dice player, leaning with his right hand on the table and holding up his other hand, palm out and fingers outstretched. His shoulder is bare where his cream-colored shirt has slipped down, and he wears a ruby-red, slashed, floppy hat. The light illuminates the back of his shoulder and side of his face, and the rest of his face is shrouded in shadow but we can see his mouth is open.
  • Five people gathered around a woman holding a nude baby boy fill this square painting. The woman is at the center of the composition with her head almost touching the top edge. She has pale skin, blond hair, and a gold halo painted as a single line. She looks down at the child she supports on her left knee, to our right. She wears a marine-blue robe over a raspberry-red dress. The child also has pale skin and blond hair. His cheeks are flushed, and he reaches forward with one chubby arm. The balding, light-skinned man kneeling in front of him and to our left holds out a gold, orb-shaped vessel. That man is bearded with white hair, and he wears a canary-yellow cloak over a leaf-green robe and pale brown, calf-high boots. A smaller person, also kneeling, holds a crown just behind the older man. That person and the two men who stand on the far side have pale, peachy skin. One of the standing men wears honey orange and forest green and a gold crown over his long brown hair. He holds up another vessel, this one bronze brown with gold fittings, out to another bearded, balding man standing behind the woman. To the right, a man with brown skin also wears a crown, holds a gold vessel, and has a cloak patterned with crimson red over pearl white. The underside of the cloak is laurel green, and this man appears to be barefoot. He stands facing away from us so only his cheek and one ear are visible as he faces the baby. A gray horse with a gold halter is behind the Black man in the upper right corner.
  • Facing away from us, a young woman with pale skin, wearing a golden yellow gown, leans her head down toward the lute she holds nearly upright in her lap in this horizontal painting. She sits near the right edge of the painting so her body faces the table beyond her, to our left. Her body is angled away from us but she turns her head so we see her in profile, facing our left. She tips her head to put her ear next to the lute, and she looks down and off to our left with brown eyes under thin, slightly arched brows. She has a straight nose, smooth, flushed cheeks, and her coral-pink lips are closed. Her dark blond hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under long braids looped around the back and over the top of her head. Light reflects off her hair and off the short, loose strands near the ear we can see. Her long yellow dress has a full skirt. The stiff bodice is laced up the sides and hooks over the shoulders, over a voluminous, bright white blouse. The sleeve we can see is pushed up over her forearm. Her seat is draped in crimson-red, velvety fabric. She holds the neck of the lute up high with her left hand, her fingers pressing the strings, so she brings the rounded body of the instrument up to her ear. In front of her, the table is draped with fringed, olive-green fabric. A violin made with blond wood lies on the table with the neck stretching toward us. There is also the violin bow and at least three wooden recorders on the table. One book of music is open so the pages fall over the edge of the table, near the woman. One other book of music at the back of the table is held open with a recorder. The feet of the table and the ankles of the woman are cut off by the bottom edge of the painting. The background is dark, earth brown except for a diagonal shaft of light across the top left corner of the composition, presumably from a high window in the wall out of our view.
  • A group of four men with pale skin, shown from the waist up, almost fill this square painting. Light pours onto the scene from the upper left and falls across the upturned face of the bearded, bare-chested man, Saint Bartholomew, who is situated with his back facing us and his arms spread wide. In the top right corner, his right wrist is lashed to a pole that extends off the top edge of the painting. His other arm is bent at the elbow near the lower left corner, and he holds that hand palm up. His profile, facing our left, is bright against the shadowed background. His mouth is slightly agape, and his eyebrows are raised as he looks up toward the light that bathes his lithe, muscular body. His long beard is streaked with gray, and he has receding black hair. A second, broad-shouldered man, draped in a brown cloak, stands facing us behind and just to our left of Saint Bartholomew. The younger man holds a knife in one hand resting against a black, rod-like sharpener held in the other. He turns his head to gaze at Saint Bartholomew, his eyes deep in shadow. He also has a furrowed brow and a craggy, ruddy complexion. Two more men stand behind him, to our left, filling the left side of the painting. The man on the far left has smooth skin, a trimmed beard, and short brown hair. He stands in profile looking to our right and wears a cranberry-red cloak. Barely visible beyond him, to our right, is a man wearing a gray-green hood hiding half his face. His features are loosely painted and faint, but he also looks up, either toward the young man or the light from above. All four are surrounded by deep shadows against a brown background.

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Shown from the knees up, a woman stands facing and looking at us with her head tilted a little to our left in this vertical portrait painting. She has pale skin, a heart-shaped face with rosy cheeks, and a rose-pink bow mouth. Thin, arched, sable-brown eyebrows frame her gray eyes. A wreath of pale pink flowers and curling white ostrich feathers crowns her long gray hair, which is piled high on her head. Loose curly tendrils brush both shoulders. Her glowing, silver satin gown is trimmed with delicate sheer lace around the wide, plunging neckline and sleeves, and has a pink sash around her narrow waist. Pearl bracelets adorn her wrists. She leans to her left, our right, to rest her left elbow against a waist-high, cinnamon-brown stone pedestal, which is decorated with a bronze-colored garland and bow on the side facing us. A ring of blue, yellow, red, and pink flowers, woven with strands of ivy, dangles in the hand resting on the pedestal. Her right hand hangs loosely by her side. Along the left edge of the dimly lit background, a tree with a thick trunk angles into the upper left corner. A smaller sapling grows just in front of it. On the right, bushes with olive and fern-green leaves dotted with lilac-purple flecks rise above the pedestal. Dark clouds fill most of the top third of the canvas but they part around her head to reveal the soft blue sky. The artist signed and dated the work in white in the lower right corner, “L. Vigée Le Brun 1782.”

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Sculpture

Sculptures come in many forms—from figures chiseled out of stone to interlocking pieces of metal suspended from a ceiling. They can be made of almost any material: marble, clay, silver, wood, bronze, steel, wax, pâpier-maché, and more.

A winged, blond angel kneels facing our right in profile wearing a gold garment, and is shown against a gold background in this vertical painting. The textured robe the angel wears is a similar color to the background, and with the golden hair and wings, the painting is almost entirely gold. The angel’s pale skin has a greenish cast but the cheeks are rosy. Blond hair curls around the face and falls over the shoulders. The angel looks to our right with slitted eyes over a long, straight nose, and pale pink lips are closed. The hand farther from us is drawn across the chest and tucked under the arm closer to us, with which the angel holds a tall leafy palm frond. The inside surface of the wing facing us deepens from butter yellow to tangerine orange, and the other side of the wings are lapiz blue. The robe is textured with gold swirls against slate blue for the shadows and rose pink on the sleeves. A gold halo encircles the angel’s head and the gold background is textured with an ornate decorative border along the inner of edges of the top and both sides. The floor beneath the angel is ruby red. The gilding has worn away in some areas, especially in the background, so the red layer beneath is visible through cracks.

Angels

Artists have imagined angels as divine winged figures, painting them in Christian scenes since the Byzantine period. We see angels delivering messages, floating in space, and playing music.