Nicolas Poussin was born in 1594 in Les Andelys in Normandy, near Rouen, where he studied with the artist Quentin Varin (c. 1570-1634).
-1679), nephew of Pope Urban VIII (1568-1644): The Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
Dutch seventeenth-century artists drew their subject matter from all elements of society. The refinement of the wealthy burghers in the second half of the century was best captured by Gerard ter Borch the Younger.
Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Joods Historisch Museum, Amsterdam.
After learning the fundamentals of drawing and painting in his native Leiden, Rembrandt van Rijn went to Amsterdam in 1624 to study for six months with Pieter Lastman (1583–1633), a famous history painter. Upon completion of his training Rembrandt returned to Leiden.
52, repro. 1993 Painting the Bible in Rembrandt’s Holland, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Het Oude Testament in de schilderkunst van de Gouden Eeuw (Zwolle, Amsterdam, and Jerusalem
Jerusalem, 1978: 139, fig. 49, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait. 1979 Shapley
Both this panel of Ginevra Bentivoglio and the companion portrait of her husband, Giovanni II Bentivoglio, also in the National Gallery of Art, were created when the family was at the height of its power. Giovanni, a major political figure in northern Italy, ruled the city of Bologna from 1463 until his expulsion for tyranny in 1506.
Jerusalem, 1978:61-62 1979 Shapley, Fern Rusk.
Originally, this painting had an arched top, the contour of which can still be traced in the different appearance of the gilding, which shows that the corners were added much later to transform the panel into a rectangle. Changes like this underscore the fact that early Italian paintings were experienced very differently by their contemporaries than by today’s museum-goers, who are accustomed to single, usually rectangular, paintings hanging by themselves on pristine walls.
for example, shows the Crucifixion taking place before the crenellated walls of Jerusalem
In this tempestuous scene, El Greco depicted an angry Christ driving the moneychangers from the Temple. An uncommon theme, it became increasingly popular in the latter half of the sixteenth century, promoted by the Council of Trent as a symbol of the Catholic church’s attempt to purify itself after the Protestant Reformation.
of an Italian Renaissance palace than of the sacred precincts of the Temple in Jerusalem
purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem
military victory of Simon Maccabeus (1 Mac 13:51), or the entry of Christ into Jerusalem
