wrmthorne/National_Gallery_style_classification huggingface dataset:
An imaginary ruined castle or fortress, bathed in gentle sunlight, stands on a piece of land that juts into the water. A fishing boat is moored in a sheltered cove, and two figures -- perhaps off fishing, as one holds a rod -- walk past it along the water's edge. A gentle breeze coming off the water catches and tilts the white sails of boats towards the horizon. You can sense the movement of the clouds, made up of thick white paint, which give way to an expanse of blue sky.

This imaginary scene and its companion, A Ruin Caprice, entered the National Gallery's collection as the work of Guardi -- the artist's expressive brushstrokes and heavy-set lines certainly imitate Guardi's style. Both are now thought to be by a nineteenth-century imitator.

Style: Neoclassical
This painting includes several features often found in landscapes by Théodore Rousseau. In the middle distance a solitary figure, painted in monochrome, fishes from a flat-bottomed boat or punt moored in an inlet of water, which may be part of a river estuary. Although there are trees, the landscape is flat and marshy with small rivulets running through it. The thin strip of grey-blue on the horizon suggests a further expanse of open water, perhaps a wide river or the sea.

Rousseau constructed the picture as a series of horizontal bands of water, land and sky -- with the latter taking up two-thirds of the picture. Despite the small size of the canvas, this simplified composition and the small figure create an effect of expansive space. The absence of dramatic or picturesque effects enhances the slightly melancholic mood.

The picture is similar to Rousseau’s river landscapes of the 1850s, which were all studio compositions based on scenery along the west coast of France. It is likely he painted it in the studio as a souvenir of visits to the Loire river, or perhaps to the Lay river in the Vendée.

Style: Barbizon
Although this picture is highly detailed, it shows an imagined interior rather than a real church. Steenwyck has created a view down the nave towards the holiest part of a church -- the high altar at the eastern end. This area is separated from the nave by a rood screen, beyond which a large crucifix is suspended from the ceiling.

Mass is being led by a priest at one of the altars in the centre of the nave. Other sacraments are also taking place: a group enter the church to attend a baptism, while a funeral procession is visible in the background. A poor family appears in the lower left of the painting, the children asking other churchgoers for support. The other figures are wealthy, judging by their clothing, and their disapproving attitude towards the poorer family is shown by a woman in the far left of the picture -- she clutches her daughter’s shoulders and tries to move away from the beggar boy, as if he is dangerous or contagious. Steenwyck's depiction would have reflected attitudes held by many of his wealthy, privileged patrons. The two small dogs in the centre foreground add a humorous element to the otherwise serious scene -- one appears to be climbing on top of the other.

This picture was painted on a copper plate, which gives it a smooth finish and allowed the artist to paint in minute detail. The lead of the windowpanes is visible, and the subjects of some of the paintings hanging on the pillars and over the altars can be identified. The picture hanging on the closest pillar on the left depicts Christ with the woman of Samaria, a story taken from the Gospel of John: Christ asks the woman for a drink, even though Jews and Samaritans did not usually speak to one another. Steenwyck has used a reduced colour palette and placed the main emphasis on the subtle rendering of light and his technically accomplished depiction of architectural perspective.

Steenwyck painted at least 130 paintings of church interiors such as this. He was trained by his father, who also painted church scenes. He created this picture with the assistance of Jan Brueghel the Younger, who painted the figures, while Steenwyck was responsible for the architectural details. The two artists worked together on numerous occasions. On other commissions, Steenwyck was apparently also assisted by his wife, Susanna, who was a painter in her own right.

Style: Baroque
This painting is in extremely poor condition, making it very difficult to identify the artist; it is now thought to be by the Munich painter Hans Mielich. The woman's name is not known but her headdress is typical of those worn in southern Germany in the sixteenth century.

Style: High Renaissance
A small dark silhouetted figure sits fishing at the edge of a pool on a common. The location is almost certainly near the village of Barbizon in the forest of Fontainebleau. The tree immediately to the figure’s left is set against a tumultuous sunset sky. This is an early example of a subject to which Diaz returned much later in his career. In numerous paintings he depicted watery plains with solitary fishermen, dominant trees standing out against dramatic skies, and light reflected in water. In fact, he became well known for his predilection for sunsets, which allowed him to display his talent in using rich and bold colour, which was compared at the time to ‘the explosion of fireworks.’ The composition and light effects of such works also show the influence of Théodore Rousseau, whom Diaz famously followed into the forest of Fontainebleau in around 1836 to observe how he painted.

Random strokes of rich yellows, pinks and oranges are interspersed with small streaks of pink. In the sky, darker grey clouds hint at a passing storm, and strong sloping strokes on the horizon at the left suggest rainfall. The horizon at the right is clearer, the feathery outlines of bushes standing out against a pale grey. In general, the paint is thickly applied, but in some areas the paint layers and ground have been scraped back to reveal the warm colour of the wood panel itself. At the top of the painting the grey clouds are randomly and thinly painted, so that all the strokes of the brush are visible.

Style: Barbizon
A young woman wearing a white dress and blue apron is seated at a table weaving straw. Her hair is tied up in a bun and her head is tilted to one side as she concentrates on her task. Her hands have not been painted behind the rapidly brushed-in wooden post but we can imagine them busy at work. This evocative sketch was made from life and we sense the artist’s sympathy for the girl. Another woman, recorded in even sparser detail, is shown in the background. Signorini has devoted most attention to the fall of light on the folds of the girl’s white blouse. His dynamic brushstrokes, ranging from thin sweeps of colour to thicker impastoed areas, suggest form and texture with the greatest of economy.

This sketch, made in about 1880, is a first idea for one of Signorini's most famous paintings, Straw Weavers at Settignano, which exists in three versions. It shows craft workers in Settignano, a village in the hills above Florence. Straw weaving was only introduced to the area in around 1840, and proved a useful cottage industry to supplement meagre family incomes. The more prominent figure in our sketch relates most closely to the woman at far right of the finished painting.

Signorini was a member of a group of Florentine painters known as  the Macchiaioli (which means mark or spot-makers). The Macchaioli rejected the conventions taught by Italian art academies in favour of an art based on modern life. They worked outdoors in order to capture natural colour and light, and were forerunners of the Impressionists. Signorini travelled frequently to London and Paris, bringing back art world news, and was a life-long friend of Degas, whose works hang nearby in the Gallery.

Style: Realist
Joseph-Nicolas-Blaise Forlenze (1751--1833) was born in Picerno, at that time part of the Kingdom of Naples, into a family of physicians. His name at birth was Giuseppe Nicolò Leonardo Biagio Forlenza (his descendants -- and also streets in Italy named after him -- retain the original spelling of his surname). After studying surgery in Naples, he pursued further study in France and England. By 1797 he was running an eye surgery in Paris and in 1798 he was surgeon at the Hôtel national des Invalides (a retirement home and hospital for war veterans) and at the Hôtel-Dieu (the city’s oldest hospital).

While in France, Dr Forlenze soon gained a reputation as a pioneering ophthalmologist and surgeon, particularly following his successful treatment of notable political and cultural figures. His curing of eye diseases, such as trachoma, among French troops returning from Egypt brought him to the attention of Napoleon. In gratitude, Napoleon issued a royal decree appointing him eye surgeon for schools, civil hospices and all the charitable institutions of the French Empire. Further awards and titles followed.

Jacques-Antoine Vallin painted this near life-size portrait in Paris, where it was exhibited at the Salon of 1808, but it is set against an Italian background. On the left, you can see Mount Vesuvius, which rises over the Bay of Naples. The hint of red at its peak and cloud of dark smoke show the volcano is active. The lighthouse on the right may be on the Molo (dock) in Naples. In front of it, there is a fountain topped with a statue of Saint Januarius, the patron saint of Naples.

Fashionably dressed in a long-tailed black coat, cut high in front, and wearing aristocratic knee-breeches, Dr Forlenze holds a pale pink carnation (the flower associated with January) in his right hand. His hat is tucked under his left arm. Facing us directly, he displays the orders and decorations of the Légion d'Honneur and the Order of St Michel. He became a member of these orders after 1807.  His head and shoulders, including the decorations on the lapel, were painted on a small canvas that was subsequently fitted into the full-length portrait -- if you look very closely, you can just see its outline.

Style: Neoclassical
This painting, like its pendant Buildings and Figures near a River with Shipping, is a capriccio, a scene made up of elements drawn from reality and fantasy. The cascade at the right and the colourful figures on the opposite bank -- resting shepherds, elegantly dressed ladies, and a milkmaid attending to her cows -- are typical features of pastoral landscapes. The two groups of trees at the sides are like a stage set, framing the composition and giving it a sense of balance and depth. A mountainous landscape lies beyond.

One of the pleasures of this picture and its pair is Marieschi's use of paint: he has applied it freely and thickly, particularly in shaping the buildings. He has clearly enjoyed crafting a fantastical world of overlapping towers, rustic roofs, balconies, windows and turrets, all bathed in warm sunlight.

Style: Baroque, Rococo
Although we don't know the identity of this woman, her clothing and the objects around her suggest that she was painted in around 1500 and most probably came from Cologne. The design is simple but striking, with delicate details. The bright red cloth behind the woman echoes the colour of her bodice, which is bordered with gold thread and pearls, and provides a contrasting backdrop for her black gown and cap and her pale white skin. The peak of the headdress is a stiff gauze with a crisp V-shaped crimp at its centre -- its edges cast a fine shadow on the woman's forehead.

The portrait was almost certainly part of a diptych (a painting made of two panels), which could have been hinged at the centre. The woman is turned towards the left-hand panel, which might have shown the Virgin Mary (although diptychs of this kind were very unusual) or perhaps an image of her betrothed or husband.

The symbols on the ledge -- the violets and white carnations in the cup to the left and the apple to the right -- could refer either to the Virgin or to marriage, but it is not clear which is intended without knowing the subject of the other painting in the diptych. The apple, for example, might be a reference to the sin of the first woman, Eve, who in the Garden of Eden ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, even though it had been forbidden by God. In Christian tradition, Mary is seen as the second Eve and Christ, her son, the second Adam, who through his death atoned for the sin of humankind. Although the panel has been cut down at the top and bottom edges, it's still just evident that the red cloth hanging behind the woman continued over her head in the form of a canopy -- unusual in a portrait but quite common in images of the Virgin. The woman also holds a rosary, which was used as an aid when reciting prayers to the Virgin. However, the carnation was often found in double portraits commemorating marriage or betrothal (see, for example, our South German Portrait of a Man, which once, along with an image of the sitter's wife, formed a double portrait).

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
This is one of only a dozen or so surviving pictures by Juan de Zurbarán, son of the celebrated Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán. Although Juan is recorded as having painted religious works these have not survived, and he is known today exclusively as a still-life painter. This work probably dates from the final years of Juan’s life, which came to an abrupt end when he died, aged 29, during the plague epidemic that hit Seville.

He depicts an array of objects with extraordinary delicacy and accuracy. At the centre stands a large wicker basket piled high with fresh lemons, seemingly just picked from a tree, their waxy green leaves still attached. Sprigs of flowers -- lemon blossom, red carnations, blue delphiniums, white roses, day lilies and a tulip -- are scattered throughout the composition. A goldfinch perches on the edge of a porcelain bowl filled with water, and a single day lily floats on the surface.

These objects are almost certainly intended to be symbolic. The water and lily both refer to the purity of the Virgin Mary; the same is true of the water and rose in Francisco de Zurbarán's A Cup of Water and a Rose. The goldfinch is often associated with Christ’s Passion and sacrifice. According to legend, the bird flew down towards Christ on the road to Calvary, the site of his crucifixion, and plucked a thorn from his brow, splashing its feathers with a drop of his blood.

The porcelain bowl, which has a distinctive repeating motif of a deer, was made in China for export and reappears in another painting attributed to Francisco de Zurbarán, suggesting that it was in his studio. An example of the bowl, salvaged from a galleon that sunk off the Philippines in 1600, is in the Museo Naval, Madrid.

Juan delights in conveying the textures of the objects on display -- coarse lemon rind, delicate flower petals, the reflective surface of the silver tazza. The objects are astonishingly realistic and the curling leaves create a sense of energy and movement throughout the composition. The basket, with its regular weave, appears in two other paintings by Juan, which are also dated to the late 1640s. In each of these paintings Juan adopts strong lighting effects, and the vivid colours of the fruit and foliage contrast with the stark setting and darkness behind.

Style: Baroque
This young blonde lady appears to be drawing back a green curtain to look out of an open window. At a time when women’s movements were strictly controlled, one of the few places for a man to encounter an unmarried young lady from outside his own family, other than in church, was at her window. The effect of looking out of a window is enhanced here by the framed dark interior in which the lady is standing, which contrasts with the brightly lit exterior space into which she is looking. When displayed on a wall, the painting would appear as a trompe l'oeil window -- an illusionistic effect to trick the viewer's eye.

The lady does not look directly at us, but sidelong at something or someone else. She holds an object in her hand which she may be about to drop over the window ledge as a token to an admirer below. It appears to be a golden ball with a flower attached to it, but cannot be identified with any certainty.

The provocative character of the lady’s dress, revealing her nipples, and her sly sideways glance from behind the curtain suggest that she may be a courtesan attracting lovers at her window. However, this may not necessarily be the portrait of a specific individual. Such images of beautiful ideal women or courtesans were popular in Venice in the early years of the sixteenth century and many were produced, especially by Titian and Palma Vecchio. Palma Vecchio's A Blonde Woman of about 1520 reveals her charms in an even more provocative manner, while offering the viewer a posy of flowers. The colour scheme is a similar gold, green, white and black.

In the past this painting, which is in oil paint on wood, has been attributed to Pordenone who worked mainly in Friuli, Cremona and Venice. The costume is comparable to that in other Italian works of about 1515. The painting probably dates from the second or third decade of the sixteenth century.

Style: High Renaissance
This extraordinary painting is a unique depiction of the Adoration of the Shepherds. The Virgin Mary, Joseph and two shepherds cluster round the infant Christ, who lies naked on a cloth spread over grass; the ox and the donkey peer out of the darkness behind them. They are not, however, in a stable in Bethlehem, but gathered in front of a verdant grotto. The shepherds have no gifts, and there are no flocks of sheep or angelic messengers in the background. Instead, two trumpeting angels stand on rocky outcrops.

A host of angels overhead hold the instruments of the Passion -- among them the Cross, the sponge on a spear, the ladder, pincers and column -- explicitly linking Christ's birth with his eventual crucifixion. Angels with instruments of the Passion were sometimes included in Ferrarese paintings of the Adoration, but there are none quite like this. Even more exceptional is the angelic orchestra that flanks the scene. Nine groups of angels on clouds play instruments ranging from drums and tambourines to portable organs, lyres and pipes. Although musical angels appear in a number of Ferrarese paintings (like The Holy Family with Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and The Holy Family with Saints John the Baptist, Elizabeth, Zacharias and (?)Francis), this imagery is unparalleled.

According to medieval Christian theologians, angels were organised in a hierarchy of nine orders -- sometimes known as choirs -- from cherubim and seraphim at the top to archangels and ordinary angels at the bottom. Some artists, such as Francesco Botticini in The Assumption of the Virgin, tried to illustrate all the different types. But there were simpler schemes, more like the one in this picture. A lost fourteenth-century fresco in the hospice of S. Giacomo al Colosseo in Rome is framed by choirs of musical angels, and a similar arrangement is found in an illumination of Christ in Majesty attributed to Andrea da Bologna in the Missal of Cardinal Bertrand de Dreux (Vatican Library, Rome). Perhaps the patron of this picture asked Lorenzo Costa to follow such a model.

This painting was probably made at the very end of the fifteenth century; the closest stylistic comparison is Costa's 1499 predella of the Adoration of the Kings (Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan). Such a date might help explain its meaning. It was commonly believed that the year 1500 -- one and a half thousand years after the birth of Christ -- would be marked by some kind of divine intervention in the world. This idea, which also prompted the creation of Botticelli's 'Mystic Nativity', might have been behind this very unusual painting.

Style: Early Renaissance
We don't know who painted this picture, nor do we know who the sitter is, but his upright stance and direct gaze and the immaculate points of his handsome moustache suggest a man used to authority. The commander's baton in his right hand confirms his likely rank in the Dutch army.

The picture has been much darkened by age and coats of varnish, but it is possible to see the white lace of his collar and cuffs and the wide sash over his shoulder that holds his sword sheath suspended behind him. He supports the pommel of the sword with his left hand.

The building in the background appears to be the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. Perhaps this was the Commander's choice to remind him of a visit to the city, since it's unlikely that it was painted when he was actually there.

Style: Baroque
An unidentified man turns to us with a look of affable irony, his eyebrows raised. This expression is unusual in portraiture at this date although Moroni repeated it elsewhere. It creates a strong sense of psychological interaction between the subject of the portrait and us, the viewers: the momentary expression suggests that the man is reacting to our presence. We are not only looking at him, he is looking at us -- what is more, he is responding to us. His raised eyebrows suggest that he is somewhat amused or unconvinced by what he sees.

We gain a sense not just of the man's appearance, but also his character and mood, and engage with him almost as though he were present. The feathery brushstrokes in the face, beard and hair bring a liveliness and spontaneity to the portrait, which add to the sense that this is a fleeting expression painted rapidly from life.

The subtlety of both expression and composition is characteristic of Moroni's late work. He uses unobtrusive diagonals set up by background shadows and the slope of the shoulders to give emphasis to the raised eyebrows and the tilt of the head. The style of the broad white collar is typical of the 1570s; it is also found in a Moroni portrait of a man with a similar raised eyebrow now in the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The costume reveals that the man engages in some form of military activity. His chain mail sleeves would have been attached to an arming doublet beneath the black tunic he wears, which is fastened with decorative gold buttons. Chain mail sleeves can be seen in Moroni's Portrait of a Gentleman with his Helmet on a Column Shaft. Chain mail and this type of tunic would have been worn beneath plate armour for war or for tournaments -- a form of military recreation, display and training adopted by the nobility. Contemporary plate armour can be seen strewn on the ground in Moroni's A Knight with his Jousting Helmet. The man portrayed here with his eyebrows raised may be a nobleman, which perhaps makes this moment of apparently unguarded intimacy even more surprising.

This portrait is a particularly striking example of Moroni's preference for placing the top of the sitter's head very close to the upper edge of the canvas. The painting now has a 3.5 cm wide strip of canvas added to the upper edge, so originally the head was even closer to the top of the picture.

This is also a good example of Moroni's tendency to paint the background after completing the figure. It is very thinly and freely painted; in many areas the threads and weave of the canvas show through. The brownish priming layer is visible all around the figure where the background grey has not been completed. This may be because the painting is unfinished or it may be a deliberate choice by the artist.

Style: High Renaissance