French, Italian, and Spanish Paintings

On View: West Building, Main Floor

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86 artworks on view.

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In a room with avocado-green walls, three people cluster around and support a noticeably pale young woman who leans back on a pillow, as an older man looks on in this horizontal painting. All the people have light skin, gray or white hair, and wear long, voluminous dresses or robes. The woman and pillow are held in place by the two men and one woman around her. The swooning woman’s heavily lidded eyes are barely open, and her thin lips are closed. Her left hand, to our right, rests gently on her breast, while her other hand hangs limply by her side. Her pastel-pink gown is open down the front over a milky white, low-cut chemise and a pale yellow underskirt. Wide, lace ruffles hang from her elbow-length sleeves, and she wears white stockings and white, low-heeled shoes. The white pillow is edged with a pink ribbon tied into bows at the corners. Directly behind her, a man with long, curly, gray hair looks down at the woman’s pale face, and a second man, to our right, looks off in that direction as he braces her body. The second man has curly, blond hair and wears a yellow robe. One black shoe with a silver buckle pokes out under the hem. To our left, a woman slightly bends over the swooning woman, facing our right in profile. Her low cap or head scarf is lined with flowers at the back of her head over steel gray hair. She wears a teal-blue, satin gown with wide, sheer cuffs over her forearms. The front of her low-cut bodice is lined with a textured, lemon-yellow material. Her right fingertips, closer to us, brush the top of the glass vial she holds in her other hand. To our right and a bit apart from the group, an older man faces the swooning woman in profile, stooping slightly, and gestures toward her with one hand. His long, wavy, gray hair falls to mid-back and some sweeps over his shoulder, nearly reaching his waist. He wears a blue robe with white cuffs. The wall behind the group is covered with green wallpaper with a floral motif picked out in moss green against the lighter background. Shamrock-green curtains hang along the right edge of the painting, possibly over a door. A honey-yellow sofa with fringed upholstery sits along the wall to our left, extending off that edge of the painting. A black tricorn hat and piece of rumpled, white fabric sit at the center of the sofa, which overlaps the corner of a wooden mantle. A chubby, baby-like, winged putto seems to stand on the mantle, holding up the edge of a gold frame, presumably of a painting hanging over the fireplace. A blue and white vase sits near the putto on the mantle. To our left, in front of the sofa, a round gaming table is toppled onto the muted, marigold-orange floor. The surface of the table is mottled with areas of white, pale yellow, blue, and sage green that may represent people, possibly in a landscape. Coins spill from a red purse near a deck of cards scattered on the floor near the upended table.

The Faint

Pietro Longhi

c. 1744

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1939.1.63

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M32
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An elderly man, woman, and boy sit around a makeshift table in an interior as a girl stands by a fire in the background in this nearly square painting. The man, woman, and boy sit at a low, wide barrel partially covered with a white cloth. Their pale skin and clothing, in frosty tones of sand brown and white, are washed out by the bright, cold light coming from our left. Their clothing has rips and holes. To our left, the man sits facing our right in profile. He has tousled gray hair and a short beard and moustache. Wrinkles line his forehead over bushy brows, and a deep crease connects his nose and the corner of the mouth we can see. He wears a brown cloak and vest, and dark blue pants are tucked into his boots. He holds a wide-brimmed hat in his lap, and a walking sick with a spike on the end rests between his knees. An empty wooden bowl is tucked in near one elbow. The woman sits in the center facing us with one hand holding the other, close to her body on her lap. A pointed staff wrapped with white wool, a spindle, is tucked into one elbow. Her bronze-colored hair is covered by a white cap. Her small, dark eyes gaze, unfocused, toward us. She has a wide face and the hint of a double chin. She wears a muted red jacket over a frayed white shirt. The red is echoed in the tall, narrow glass of liquid the boy holds near one knee, to our right. Light glints off his arctic-blue eyes as he gazes at the old man. Pale blue shadows make the skin around the boy’s delicate nose, eyes, and mouth look almost translucent. His full pink lips are closed. His ash-brown hair is choppily cut and also tousled. He holds a jug in one hand and the glass in the other. A pewter plate and spoon rest on the barrel, and the plate holds a mound of unidentifiable, peach-colored food. The young girl stands at a tall hearth on the left side of the room beyond the man and woman. She faces our left and looks down, her face warmed to rosy pink by the fire below. She wears a brown pinafore, and stands of brown hair escape from her cap. In the background to our right is an open door next to a table or wooden shelf holding a pot, at least one plate, and a ladle.

Peasant Interior

Louis Le Nain

c. 1645

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1952.2.20

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M37
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We look slightly down onto a port-side town along a canal, with a church across the water from us in this horizontal landscape painting. A bright blue sky with billowing white, pink, and gray clouds fills the top two-thirds of the painting. Below, a three-masted ship with all but one sail furled is surrounded by a couple dozen black long, low boats, gondolas, and one or two other sailboats. People stand and walk mostly in pairs and trios along the stone walkway under us, which extends into the distance to our right. The women all wear long dresses and most of the men wear suits with knee-length jackets with tails or capes, and hats. The clothing is painted in shades of brick and terracotta red, pine green, royal blue, and gray. The walkway is interrupted by two low walls that partition off an area near us. The angled roofs of stalls line the walkway in the farther distance before it is again interrupted, this time by a two-story, cream-colored building. The walkway continues as a narrower path under an arched arcade on the lower level of that building, alongside the water. On the far side of the canal, to our left and in the distance, a cluster of ivory-white buildings includes a structure with two stone-blue domes. More buildings extend into the deep distance to our left.

Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Molo, Venice

Canaletto

1742/1744

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1945.15.4

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M31
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This is a painting of a scene with a large cross at the center. The painting depicts a gathering around the cross, with angelic figures flying above amidst clouds. Some of these angels hold instruments, garlands, or tall staffs. On the ground, a group of individuals in colorful attire surround the bottom of the cross with a backdrop of a classical cityscape, including arches and stone buildings. In the bottom left, a man wearing a white cloth on his waist kneels down in front of the cross, his hands raised in prayer. To the right, two women in flowing clothes of gold and seafoam-green look at the cross, one resting her hand on it. At the very top of the painting, above the cross, is a pale-yellow arch.

The Exaltation of the True Cross

Sebastiano Ricci

1733

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1939.1.72

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M30
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A young man wearing only a loincloth kneels at a river’s edge, facing a man holding a bowl over his head with two winged angels nearby in this almost square painting. Three of the people are pale skinned, one is tan, and all have dark hair. Jesus kneels at the bottom center of the composition. Saint John the Baptist, the man to our right, has tanned skin and is wrapped in a tawny brown cloak. He holds a tall staff in one hand and extends the bowl over Jesus’s head with his other. A white dove hovers above in a butter-yellow starburst. The two angels to our left have dark gray wings that barely catch the light in the murky, active landscape. One wearing sand-brown robes kneels and looks toward Jesus. The other wears straw-yellow and looks away, a cloth held up in both hands. The river cuts back and forth across the composition from the background to our left, and it sweeps across the picture and churns off the right side of the painting. Trees tower up along the left edge next to the group, and a grass-covered outcropping thrusts high into the sky behind Jesus and Saint John the Baptist. Pale yellow and cream-white clouds puff across a vivid blue sky across the top of the picture. Brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the water and landscape.

The Baptism of Christ

Alessandro Magnasco

c. 1740

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1943.4.27

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M30
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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.

Queen Zenobia Addressing Her Soldiers

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

1725/1730

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1961.9.42

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M32
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Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned woman wears a black tricorn hat and a black cloak that covers her shoulders, chest, and much of her face in this vertical portrait painting. Her body is angled to our left, and she looks at us from the corners of her dark, almond-shaped eyes. The jet-black hat is set back slightly on her head but covers most of her forehead. A loop goes around a black button on the side to our right, and the corner of a parchment-white decoration, presumably a bow, peeks up from the far side of the hat. Her pale face is like a moon, partially visible within the opening of the cloak that goes from her temples, down her cheeks, and covers her chin to just under her lower lip. The garment is gathered over her chin, and drapes down her chest. The fabric is painted black with green undertones. A glimpse of brown hair peeks out over her left temple, to our right. Her right, gloved hand, on our left, emerges from beneath the fabric to hold a closed fan by her chin. The glove is gossamer white. The sides of the fan's sticks are coral orange, and the fan is streaked with forest green and more orange against cream white across the top, where the fabric is accordioned. The space behind her is dark, pine green, a shade lighter than the woman’s dress.

Young Lady in a Tricorn Hat

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

c. 1755/1760

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1952.5.77

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M32
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This is a tall, vertical painting. In the center, a woman in a pink-and-yellow gown sits on the ground, holding a limp child in her arms. She faces the left and is looking upward at a man in a brown robe who faces her and extends one arm towards the child, placing his finger on its forehead. Surrounding this group, many other people look at them with expressions of shock or amazement, leaning forward with their mouths open and hands raised. All the people in the painting have pale skin, although the child and another man in the bottom right corner have a greenish sheen to their skin. In the sky above this group, cherubs and angels fly, surrounded by clouds and looking down on the scene below. The sky is blue, with pink clouds and green trees, and a tall gray column on the left side.

A Miracle of Saint Francis of Paola

Sebastiano Ricci

1733

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1939.1.71

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M30
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A young woman sleeps with her cheek resting on the back of one hand next to a woman holding a nude baby and two winged angels in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin and they nearly fill the composition. The sleeping woman, Saint Catherine, rests her elbow on a stone table covered by a golden yellow cloth, which also wraps around her shoulders. Her knees are angled to our right and her face tips onto her hand to our left. Her curly, light brown hair is pulled back. She has delicately arching eyebrows, a straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. Her pale, olive-green, floor-length dress is tied at the waist with a mauve-purple sash. She wears a gold ring with a gray stone on the third finger of her left hand, which rests in her lap. To our right, the second woman, Mary, leans over Saint Catherine. Mary’s head is angled to our left, toward the sleeping saint, and she looks to our right, down past the baby. Mary’s complexion is has a faint gray cast, and her brown hair is covered by a white cloth, which is surrounded by a halo of light. A dark garment covers her shoulders over a scarlet-red dress. The baby sits on Mary’s lap with his body facing our left, toward Saint Catherine. He leans our way and looks at us with dark eyes. Light catches his brown curls and he has chubby cheeks, arms, and legs. Along the bottom edge of the canvas, a puff of gray cloud near the lower right corner seems to support Mary’s feet. A curving, charoal-gray spike in the lower left corner of the painting is partially covered by the yellow drapery. Behind Saint Catherine and over her head, next to Mary, are two winged angels with dark blond, curly hair. The angel closer to us rests one hand on the pine-green pillow behind Saint Catherine’s head and turns to look past Mary in profile, lips parted. The angel behind looks down with hands together in prayer. Light falls across the scene from our right. The upper right corner behind Mary is filled with brick-red clouds that, upon closer examination, are filled with faces looking onto the scene.

The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Lodovico Carracci

c. 1593

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1952.5.59

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M29
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A woman struggles against a man who grips her shoulder to push her back onto a canopied bed in this vertical painting. Both people have pale skin. Bright light coming from our left illuminates the pair and the bed, while the area beyond is in deep shadow, creating a black background. To our left, the man faces the woman so we see him in profile facing our right, though much of his face is in shadow. He wears a silver breastplate over a white and gold tunic, which has a lion’s face on the sleeve facing us. His thin, gold crown blends into his chestnut-brown hair and a golden-yellow cape slips off his shoulders. He raises his right index finger to his lips as he thrusts his right leg between the woman’s legs, as if striding toward her. The woman’s torso twists away from the man, toward us, and she braces her left hand, to our right, against the bed. She stretches her other arm up to the man’s forehead, her fingers grasping at his hair and coronet. Her face and honey-brown eyes turn up, and her pale pink lips are parted. Her slate-blue gown is torn at the neckline, exposing part of her left breast. Her blond hair is pulled back behind her neck, and dots of pale yellow suggest flower petals or jewels around her temples. The twisting, copper-brown curtains of the bed frame the scene and pool around a gilded, carved horse that decorates the corner of the bedstead, in the lower right corner of the painting. A partly unsheathed sword and a white flower with torn petals lie on the floor near the sandaled feet of the man and woman.

Tarquin and Lucretia

Giuseppe Maria Crespi

c. 1695/1700

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1952.5.30

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M30
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The head and pale face of a bearded man with a ring of interwoven branches of thorns over his chin-length, wavy, reddish-brown hair floats against a white cloth that has been hung over a wooden rod in this vertical painting. The cloth fills the composition. At its center, the man’s head faces us and he looks down with heavy-lidded, brown eyes. His lips are parted, and his cheeks are slightly sunken and shaded with pale lilac purple under high cheekbones. Blood drips down the man’s pallid forehead from the thorns. A brown spot high on his right cheek, on our left, might be a bruise or injury. A soft brown glow surrounds the head. The white cloth is frayed along its front edge, where it rests facing us on a wooden surface along the bottom edge of the painting. The cloth is bunched a little to each side where it drapes over the wooden rod above. The white cloth is painted with tones of pale coral pink, icy blue, silvery white, and dove gray. The background behind the cloth is black.

The Veil of Veronica

Domenico Fetti

c. 1618/1622

Oil on panel  Accession ID  1952.5.7

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M30
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Nine women and girls create a procession leading to a blond, smiling infant lying in a basket being held by a man next to a riverbank that runs across this horizontal landscape painting. The tallest woman, near the center of the retinue, wears a gold, crown-like diadem, and a toga-like gown of golden yellow over a pale, slate-blue, short-sleeved dress. She stands facing our left in profile, and looks toward the baby with dark eyes under dark, arched eyebrows. Her nose is long and straight, her pink lips are closed in a faint smile, and she has a rounded chin and jawline. Her wavy, dark blond hair is braided and pulled back, and she wears a gold earring on the ear we can see. She reaches her right arm, farther from us, straight in front of her with her palm facing the ground. Three women and three girls trail behind her in a row to our right. They wear brightly colored wraps and robes in rose pink, topaz or cobalt blue, plum purple, butter yellow, or ivory white. Most look toward the baby but the girl at the back offers the woman in front of her a tiny bouquet of flowers. Two women to our left of the standing woman stoop to reach out to the basket, held by a muscular, bare-chested, bearded man. Gray, stone blocks of a wall create steps to our left and behind it, a younger, cleanshaven man, also bare-chested, and with shoulder-length, strawberry-blond hair, reaches for his marigold-orange clothing. Trees lining the far riverbank and the brilliant blue sky with steel-gray clouds are reflected in the water’s surface. Across the river to our left, beyond a ruined stone abutment, a man in a red toga, and one in yellow, look on. More people work along the opposite bank. A city built of light gray stone stretches into the deep distance beyond.

The Finding of Moses

Sébastien Bourdon

c. 1655/1660

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1961.9.65

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M37
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