French, Italian, and Spanish Paintings

On View: West Building, Main Floor

Filter Results

86 artworks on view.

Results

This painting shows a man from the legs up, his body facing slightly to the left but his head turning to look at us. He has pale skin, ruddy cheeks, short, dark hair, a dark, curling mustache, a dark goatee, arched eyebrows, deep-set eyes, and thin lips set in a neutral expression. He wears a dark green smock with a white lace collar, and beneath that a white lacy garment over a dark green robe. He holds a black book in his left hand, and his right hand rests on a table next to him that is draped in red fabric. On the table appears to be a tall white hat with gold detailing. The background is a dark brown-green color.

Bishop Alvise Grimani

Bernardo Strozzi

1633 or after

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1961.9.41

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M29
Download artwork
Two pale-skinned women wearing jewel-toned blue, pink, and yellow togas sit on the ground at the foot of a stone building, with three, winged, child-like putti flying nearby in this horizontal painting. The women take up most of the left half of the painting while the building behind them spans nearly three-quarters of the composition. A sliver of landscape is visible beyond the building to our right. Both women have dark, ash-brown hair wrapped back around diadems, long, straight noses, dark eyes, and smooth skin. Their cheeks are flushed, and their dark pink lips are parted. To our left, the first woman sits with her body facing our right in profile, and she turns to look at us from the corners of her eyes. Six silver stars line the sky-blue diadem in her hair. Her voluminous white shift falls off the shoulder closer to us, and she wears a swath of sapphire-blue drapery over her other arm and lap. One foot, wearing a yellow sandal, emerges from under the hem of her robe. She leans the elbow closer to us on a silver sphere, which comes a bit higher than her waist. Her other hand rests on the shoulder of the woman next to her. The second woman sits with her legs angled to our right, and she turns her face back to look at the first woman. She wears a butter-yellow garment under a rose-pink toga, and one foot, wearing a blue sandal, rests on the dirt ground. A baby-blue ribbon is tied through her hair, around a gold coronet. Her hands rest on a book in her lap. The partial word “odiss” is written along the edges of the pages facing us. Three pudgy angels with small blue wings flutter near the second woman, to our right. The putti have short, brown or blond, curly hair. Sashes in golden yellow, pink, or blue are tied around one shoulder and their opposite hips. They hold up three crowns of leaves. The building immediately behind the women and putti is parchment white streaked with brown. A tall foundation supports two columns, the base of which are near the top edge of the painting. A few plants grow out of the crevices, and a bush with white and light blue flowers grows behind the woman in blue, to our left. A landscape extends into the distance to our right, with rolling green hills, trees, and far-off, ice-blue mountains along the horizon. The sky above has apricot-peach and gray clouds against a pale blue sky.

The Muses Urania and Calliope

Simon Vouet

c. 1634

Oil on wood  Accession ID  1961.9.61

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M37
Download artwork
In the distance, a fortress sits on a rocky plateau below a sky filled with lightly rolling white and gray clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon line is low, about a quarter of the way up the composition, so the plateau and fortress loom high above the surrounding land. The fortress is made up two distinct sections, with a nearly windowless stronghold or massive city wall to the right and what looks like a row of six interconnected white rowhouses to the left. More rooflines peek over the stronghold. Tiny in scale, people work on scaffolding erected against a grassy cliff below the white section. Five men and women and a child and a few cows gather in the foreground, closer to us. People walk through the landscape in the background and along roads leading to the fortress. A hilly landscape recedes deep into the distance to our left below pale peach and lilac-purple clouds.

The Fortress of Königstein

Bernardo Bellotto

1756-1758

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1993.8.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M31
Download artwork
This is a painting of a cherub with small wings hovering in the sky amidst swirling clouds. The sky is a soft blue with streaks of darker blue tones and a section of gray on the right. This cherub holds a circular object in one hand, perhaps a crown or a wreath, and a long, thin object in the other hand. Below, people appear to lie on the rocky, reddish-brown ground. We see them from the side, and their features are indistinct. On the left seem to be a man with a dark beard and another cherub holding an indistinct object, and on the right seem to be two women who lean towards each other. The brushstrokes in the painting are thick and visible.

Study for a Ceiling with the Personification of Counsel

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

before c. 1762

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1939.1.100

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M32
Download artwork
Shown from about the hips up, a young woman with smooth, light skin, rosy cheeks, and dark brown hair stands in front of a dark background holding a pewter plate with two human eyes on it, and a tall palm frond in this vertical painting. She stands with her body and face angled to our right but she looks to our left from the corners of her dark eyes, under dark eyebrows. She has a long, straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. A strong light falls on the woman’s face from our left, leaving the other half of her face in darkness. She wears a crown of ruby-red, buttercup-yellow, shell-pink, and white flowers on her head. A faint gold halo catches the light above the flowers and then is swallowed in shadow. Her dress has a close-fitting, scarlet-red bodice over puffy white, long sleeves. A teal-blue ribbon on her chest frames a gold and red brooch-like medallion. Three strings of white pearls encircle her neck above the neckline. Olive-green fabric that drapes over her left shoulder, farther from us, and around her waist is gathered with a gold brooch at her left hip. In her right hand, closer to us, she holds the pewter plate with two lidded human eyes with dark pupils; they seem to look out at us. In her left hand, she holds a long yellow palm frond, which is bright against the dark brown background. The identify of the woman is written in capital, gold letters in the upper left corner “S. LVCIA.”

Saint Lucy

Francisco de Zurbarán

c. 1625/1630

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1943.7.11

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M34
Download artwork
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.

The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew

Jusepe de Ribera

1634

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1990.137.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M29
Download artwork
The soaring, gilded vault of a central aisle of the inside of a church fills this horizontal painting. The ceiling of the nave curves up and away from us like a tunnel. It is lined with coffers, which have inset panels, decorated with gold. The light-filled nave angles down from the top center of the composition toward the lower left as it moves away from us. The white stone pillars supporting the barrel vault are intricately carved and decorated with pudgy, winged cherubs holding portraits of men, and aisles run parallel to the central nave to our left and right. In the side aisles, pink marble columns flank altars in chapels. At the far end of the church, the nave is interrupted where it opens into the light-filled crossing, before continuing beyond. Marking the space where the long hall of the church is intersected by a shorter arm to create a cross shape is a structure made of four twisting columns supporting a pointed canopy, all cast in bronze. Tiny men and women pray or gather in pairs and small groups along the nave. Some wear tattered clothing and others are elegantly dressed.

Interior of Saint Peter's, Rome

Giovanni Paolo Panini

c. 1754

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1968.13.2

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M31
Download artwork

Ceres Searching for Persephone

Michel Anguier

model 1652, cast probably 1652/1670s

Bronze  Accession ID  1989.44.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M37
Download artwork
Shown from the chest up, a young woman faces us holding a nude baby in her arms in this vertical painting. They both have pale, peachy skin with pink cheeks. The woman has an oval face with a thin nose, and her coral-pink, bow mouth is closed. She looks down and to our left with dark eyes under arched brows. Her hair is covered by a white veil, and an azure-blue mantle is draped over her rose-pink robe. She cradles the plump child in her crossed arms. The baby has short, wavy, copper-red hair framing a round, flushed face with a button nose, peach lips, and hazel eyes that look at us. He holds a bird in his left hand, on our right. The bird has an off-white body with charcoal-gray wings and neck, and a strawberry-red face. A delicate chain wraps around the bird’s foot, and the baby holds the end in his other hand, up by his chest. A golden brown curtain covers most of the space behind the pair, except for a sliver of stone-gray wall to our left.

Madonna of the Goldfinch

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

c. 1767/1770

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1997.60.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M32
Download artwork
In this painting, a woven basket on a stone ledge contains peaches, black grapes, green grapes, and wide green leaves. Peaches are placed prominently at the top of the pile, with grape clusters overflowing on either side. The green leaves and red-tinted grapevine leaves are scattered around. The gray stone surface is visible under the basket, and the background is black.

Still Life with a Basket of Peaches and Grapes

Louise Moillon

1636

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2024.54.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M36
Download artwork
This painting shows a woman sitting with her body turned to the right, her hands clasped around her knees and her head tilted up to the ceiling. Her eyes are closed, and her long, wavy hair flows over her shoulders and down her back. She has pale skin, and her face is illuminated by dramatic lighting, highlighting her round cheeks and small nose. She is wearing a white blouse with ruffled sleeves that drapes off of her right shoulder, exposing her neck, sternum, and part of her shoulder. Over this shirt she seems to be wearing a draped purple garment with a yellow border that covers her other shoulder and her legs. The background is dark.

Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy

Artemisia Gentileschi

c. 1625

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2025.88.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M29
Download artwork
The sculpture is a bust of a man with curly hair, a mustache, and a goatee. He is wearing a collared shirt with a decorative tie or lace-up front, and his attire features a textured, draped fabric. The sculpture is predominantly off-white, with subtle gray veining typical of marble. It is mounted on a simple pedestal, allowing the viewer to observe the intricate details of the face and clothing from eye level or slightly above. The bust appears life-sized.

A Venetian Ecclesiastic

Giovanni Bonazza

c. 1690/1700

Marble  Accession ID  1978.42.1

On View: West Building Main Floor, Gallery M32
Download artwork

Loading Results