wrmthorne/National_Gallery_style_classification huggingface dataset:
The jewelled mitre studded with pearls tells us this saint is a bishop.  He also carries a bishop's crook, called a crosier, in one hand and a Bible, sealed with leather clasps, in the other. He looks out at us as with an upward glance, head tilted slightly to one side.

This figure has been identified as Saint Romulus. Faint white letters at the right of the roundel read 'OL VS', and at one point 'ROM' may have been painted on the other side, to make up his full name in Latin: Romulus. His face has been painted with extraordinary delicacy. The artist has used tiny brushstrokes and subtle shading to shape his face and to give the appearance of stubble, and dark circles under his eyes. All these details, combined with his striking golden eyes, make him appear more lifelike and individual.

The blue roundel enclosed by a gilded square forms part of the  group of panels that once belonged to an altarpiece made by Fra Angelico for the church of his convent of San Domenico in Fiesole. The roundel was probably originally also gilded and it may have been painted blue when the altarpiece was updated and repainted in the early sixteenth century. Ultimately, the altarpiece was replaced altogether and dismantled. Its panels were dispersed among private owners, eventually finding their way into museum collections. This is one of the panels that has been associated with the altarpiece, along with the predella and pilaster and pinnacle panels, some of which are in the National Gallery. Like the  left and right panels from the base of the pilasters its wood grain is vertical, suggesting that it too came from the pilasters, perhaps higher up.

A connection to Fiesole makes it more likely that the saint is Romulus, as he was the town's first bishop and its patron saint. He was martyred for his belief in the first century and so here carries a palm, a symbol of martyrdom. The cathedral in Fiesole was dedicated to him and it was in the Diocese of Saint Romulus that the church of San Domenico was built.

Another saint painted on the same scale within a roundel (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) has been identified as this one's pair. He's been identified as the bishop-saint Alexander, to whom another church in Fiesole was dedicated.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
God the Father, seated on a cloud, holds a cross with the crucified Christ while the dove of the Holy Ghost hovers between them. This type of Trinity is known as a 'Throne of Mercy' (compare it with the roughly contemporary The Trinity with Christ Crucified). It comes from the top of a large polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece) painted in Florence in around 1420 by Giovanni dal Ponte. The altarpiece was meant for the high altar of the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Pratovecchio near Florence.

The Trinity is commonly found in the central pinnacle of early fifteenth-century Italian altarpieces, flanked -- as here -- by the Annunciation: one pinnacle shows the Virgin while the other shows the Archangel Gabriel. This kind of Trinity was an especially suitable scene for an altarpiece, as it emphasised Christ's sacrifice which was reenacted during the Mass performed at the altar. When a chalice containing wine was lifted up during the Eucharist, the blood from Christ's feet would have appeared to run down towards it, reminding the nuns sitting in the choir stalls that the wine was thought to turn into Christ's blood.

The pigment used for God the Father's robe -- azurite -- has darkened over time; it would originally have been brighter.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
This kneeling angel holding a lily -- symbolic of the Virgin Mary's chastity -- is part of an Annunciation scene. He comes from the top of the left panel of a large polyptych  which was painted in Florence in the 1420s by Giovanni dal Ponte for the high altar of the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Pratovecchio.

On the far side of the altarpiece, at the top of the right panel, is The Virgin Annunciate. Between the two, on top of the central panel, is The Trinity. This combination was a common choice of scenes for pinnacles in early fifteenth-century Italy, as it showed the beginning and end of Christ's life on earth.

The frame is not original -- it was made in the nineteenth century.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
Three men, one with a crown, stand in a landscape. They hold between them a large piece of paper, while two are pointing to a classical city in the background. The gods Apollo and Neptune have disguised themselves as mortals to advise King Laomedon on the building of Troy (Ovid, Metamorphoses XI, 199ff.)

This large fresco is one of ten which were designed by Domenichino -- and painted with the help of assistants -- to decorate a magnificent garden pavilion at the Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, near Rome. Eight of the frescoes were transferred to canvas and are in our collection. The paintings were in the Stanza di Apollo, a large room in the right-hand wing of the pavilion, which also contained an elaborate fountain with figures of the Greek sun god Apollo and the Muses.

The iconographical scheme of the pavilion was devised by Domenichino's friend Giovanni Battista Agucchi, both to glorify the Aldobrandini family and to express their philosophical and religious ideas. Many of the scenes, including this one, were taken from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses.  Agucchi used classical stories to symbolise contemporary ideas: Apollo was not just the god of the sun but also of the arts and the Stanza was a temple to the arts.  Here he takes on the role of architectural adviser.

This fresco was originally on the right-hand side of the room.  Domenichino designed its composition and there are four preparatory drawings for figures in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Much of the actual painting was left to assistants, however, especially on the right-hand side of the room. Work seems to have started over the door with The Flaying of Marsyas, and proceeded clockwise around the room. By the time they reached the right-hand wall, Domenichino was engaged in other projects and his assistants largely took over. The frescoes on this wall, which also include Apollo with the Head of Orpheus (still in situ);  Mercury stealing the Herds of Admetus guarded by Apollo and Apollo slaying Coronis, seem to be inferior in quality and are probably almost entirely the work of assistants.

Style: Baroque, Academic
In this lively, informal portrait, Anthony van Dyck presents to us someone he had known for several years and whose company he clearly enjoyed. François Langlois was an engraver, art dealer and publisher who lived in Florence and Rome in the 1620s. It’s at that time that he must have met Van Dyck, on the artist’s first trip to Italy, although the picture was painted in the 1630s.

Langlois was also an accomplished amateur musician. He has dressed up for the picture, playing the part of a savoyard -- a wandering shepherd and musician -- with his cocked hat, a musette de cour tucked under his arm and a sparkle in his eyes. His long-snouted dog gazes up at him, but whether he is a dog borrowed for the occasion or Langlois’s own pet, we don’t know. The deep red of Langlois’s costume makes his weather-beaten skin glow and the white of the sleeve and the fragment of shirt at his neck bring brilliance to the image.

The musette de cour is a small bagpipe, with a quiet tone similar to an oboe. It originated as a folk instrument but was taken up by the French royal court. It featured in grander musical entertainments, especially in scenes set in the fashionable Arcadian style, in which aristocratic actors and musicians took the part of humble rustic characters against an idyllic background. With the bellows strapped over his white sleeve, Langlois's fingers already feeling for the finger holes on the chanter, he glances away to the left, smiling an encouraging smile, as if waiting for other musicians to be ready to play.

This image shows quite a different relationship from the formal one Van Dyck had with aristocratic sitters at the opulent and elegant court of Charles I. He has portrayed his friend with great affection and with no attempt at the flattery he used on his English courtiers. Langlois is totally at ease, engrossed in the performance that is about to begin. Set against the sky and a rural landscape, he is himself like a breath of fresh air. Despite Van Dyck’s change of circumstances and his elevation to a knighthood by Charles I, his friendship with Langlois must have continued, as Langlois acted as an agent, acquiring paintings on behalf of the king and other English collectors from his home in Paris.

Style: Baroque
Saint Jerome sits in the wilderness, carefully removing a thorn from the paw of a very endearing lion -- it went on to be his companion. This was a popular subject in medieval art -- Dürer covered it, as did Bono da Ferrara -- though Jerome is usually shown with the lion as a pet, rather than actually treating it.

This is one of five scenes from the predella of the Pistoia Santa Trinità Altarpiece. Four of them are in our collection: this panel, Saint Mamas in Prison thrown to the Lions, Beheading of Saint James the Great and Saint Zeno exorcising the Daughter of the Emperor Gallienus. A fifth panel, showing the vision of Saint Augustine, is now in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. They correspond to the saints in the main panel above.

The altarpiece was begun by Francesco Pesellino and completed by Fra Filippo Lippi after Pesellino's death. We aren't completely sure how much was finished when Pesellino died, but the predella seems to have been done by Lippi and his workshop. Like the main altarpiece, the compositions were planned in great detail, but the underdrawing is closer in style to Lippi's Seven Saints than to the underdrawing of the main panel. It seems likely that Lippi did the designs but left the painting of some of the panels to his assistants.

The predella panels were painted on a singe plank of wood which originally measured 221 cm -- larger than the main panel, but close in size to the altar frontal which Lippi was commissioned to paint in 1460. Either the predella was always meant to stick out at either end or the main panel has been cut down at the sides.

This panel has been extremely thinly painted and the colours have perhaps become even more translucent over time; you can see a lot of the underdrawing, especially for the two figures in the background. Just how much Fra Filippo himself contributed to the work on the predella is debatable, but he probably did paint this scene -- it's of notably higher quality than most of the others. A drawing by Lippi of a seated monk in the Uffizi in Florence is perhaps a preliminary sketch for the figure of Jerome.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
The terrified boar is surrounded on all sides by riders on horseback and men on foot with spears. This moment has been chosen for dramatic effect: the fleeing boar is trapped and about to be killed. The rearing horses and snarling dogs add to the intensity of the action. Forced into a narrow space, animals and people collide into one another; a dog has been knocked to the ground. The loose, visible brushstrokes create a feeling of hurried movement.

Hunting was a common pursuit of the wealthy in seventeenth-century France. The figures on horseback enjoy the chase rather than directly participate in the act of killing, which is being carried out by the men on the ground. The male figure on the grey horse raises his sword in triumph; his costume is appropriately theatrical in style. Behind him a man blows a bugle, a type of horn. Two woman in elegant seventeenth-century dress and riding side-saddle watch from their horses. One of them holds a spear, imitating those held by men attacking the wounded animal.

Parrocel was surely influenced by earlier hunting scenes, such as Wolf and Fox Hunt (Metropolitan Museum, New York),  painted in about 1642 by Peter Paul Rubens. His influence can be seen in the bright colouring and lively brushwork, and the twisted positions of the rearing horses. The men surrounding the boar with spears in Parrocel’s painting are similar to those in Antonio Tempesta's (1555--1630) A Boar Hunt (Royal Collection, London) of about 1608/12. Parrocel's training in Rome with Jacques Courtois, the leading battle painter of the seventeenth century, was also good preparation for the complex scenes featuring figures and animals that he produced in the 1660s and 1670s.

The painting's companion, The Return from the Hunt is also owned by the National Gallery. This is more playful and light-hearted, and shows the influence of Dutch scenes of everyday life. The pair were painted in around 1700 and were intended to be hung together.

Style: Rococo
This panel was originally placed to the right of another, which shows Christ after his resurrection -- and its figures look towards him. Both panels are from the predella of the altarpiece of San Domenico, in Fiesole, near Florence.

The top row shows 21 of Christ's biblical predecessors, those interpreted by the Christian Church as foretelling or prefiguring him. The middle row consists solely of male saints who were martyred for their faith; the bottom row, female martyr saints. They carry palms, the symbol of martyrdom.

Some of the figures in the top row carry scrolls that identify them, such as the prophet Jeremiah, in red, whose scroll is inscribed: YEREMIA. Next to him is Ezekiel, in a blue cap inscribed above the brim in tiny black script: EZECIEL. The row is headed up by Adam, depicted, as was common, as an old man with a flowing grey beard; Christ was often described as the 'new Adam' for renewing humanity's relationship with God. Saint John the Baptist is the only New Testament figure in this row. He stands at the centre, looking directly out to us. He holds a cross in his left hand and with his right he points towards Christ, echoing his role in the Gospels as the one who foretold Christ's divinity.

The male martyrs in the middle row are identified either by inscriptions or by the objects they hold. So, for example, the second and third in the row are the bishop saint Cyprian and Saint Clement, a first-century pope. Their names are inscribed on their headgear -- a mitre and papal tiara respectively. Behind them, two saints are shown with the instruments of their torture. Saint Vincent rests his hand on a large flat grey stone -- this is the millstone that drowned him. Next to him Saint Lawrence is shown with the grill upon which he was burned alive.

The bottom row is reserved for female saints. Saint Anne, the Virgin's mother, wears a soft lilac robe and kneels at the front in devotion. Behind her is Saint Thecla,the first female martyr, a contemporary of the apostle Paul. She is placed just below Saint Stephen, in green, the first male martyr. The saint holding the lamb is Agnes, her name relating to the Latin for 'Lamb of God', Agnus dei. Towards the back, the saint in pink with the cross under her arm is Saint Helena, the Byzantine empress who found the relic of Christ's cross. At the very back are certain nun-saints dressed in their habits, including Saint Bridget of Sweden, who holds a lighted candle.

As in the panel to the left of the central scene, this one also includes some silver leaf -- now blackened -- in the decoration of the saints' costumes: look for the helmet of a saint wearing armour, towards the back of the middle row.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
The young Saint Francis of Assisi, the son of a wealthy merchant, was given a position in a profitable trading business. He continued to act with charity towards the poor, however, and one day gave the expensive clothes he was wearing to a poor knight. The next night God sent him a vision of a great palace, hung with banners decorated with the cross of Christ, and promised it to him and his soldiers. At first Francis took this literally, setting off to the wars in Apulia, but he later realised it represented the army of Franciscan friars he was to found.

This the first of eight paintings from the back of  a large, richly coloured and elaborate altarpiece, one of the outstanding artistic commissions of fifteenth-century Italy. This panel originally sat in the top left-hand corner of the altarpiece, next to Saint Francis renounces his Earthly Father. In general these narrative scenes follow the text of Francis's official biography, Saint Bonaventure's Legenda Maior, with some details from other sources.

On the left of this panel, the youthful saint has dismounted his horse and is taking off his outer garment to give to the thin-faced nobleman next to him. Francis's elegant dress contrasts vividly with the knight's ragged clothing: his spurs are silver and his robe is silver, incised with tiny vertical strokes, and painted over with red lake pigment. On the right, the saint lies in bed, the richness of his home emphasised by the use of gold for the bedhead, cover and pillow. An angel with golden wings hovers over him, pointing to a castle in the sky. White banners with red crosses flutter from its battlements.

The scripta, the document detailing the scenes to be depicted on the altarpiece, had asked only that the panel depict the moment 'when Saint Francis was shown that palace'. However, a certain amount of freedom was left to the two friars who acted as Sassetta's artistic advisers, and to the artist himself. In the literary sources, Saint Francis is granted the vision as a reward for his generosity to the poor knight, and the first scene is also depicted in the Upper Church of San Francesco, Assisi, which Sassetta or his advisers might have known. The theme of poverty and its rewards runs through the altarpiece, perhaps encouraged by the stringent attitudes of the Observant (reformed) Franciscans, which attracted much interest at the time.

Although the altarpiece was very carefully planned, some pentimenti or alterations are visible even to the naked eye: the horse's tail was originally longer than it was painted, and lines for architecture were incised, but not always used. Arcs for arches and circles for halos were planned using a compass.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
The four stages of human life are represented by figures with objects relating to their age. Childhood holds an empty bird trap, showing his innocence and naivety: he has let the bird escape. Youth plays a lute, symbolising pleasure and desire. Adulthood in armour wears a victor’s laurel wreath and cradles a book. Old Age is positioned next to coins signifying greed, and holds a glass symbolising the fragility of life.

The table and background are plain and mostly in shadow. The strong lighting reveals the facial features of each figure, all but one of whom stare solemnly out of the painting. Adulthood looks down, supporting his head on one arm. Valentin's skill in conveying texture can be seen in the smooth and gleaming armour, the elderly man’s beard and the flamboyant folds of the lutist’s sleeve. The elderly man's fur-collared coat and the youth's costume date from the sixteenth century, suggesting that the figures and objects are allegorical in nature rather than representations of real life.

The Ages of Man was a common subject for paintings during the sixteenth and seventeenth century, but the number of ages varied. The theme had its origin in classical literature:  Ovid's Metamorphoses and Dante's Inferno acknowledged the stages of human life according to physical growth and eventual decline. A poem on this subject written by Gian Battista Marino (1569--1625) and published in Rome during the early seventeenth century may have been known to Valentin, who painted this work in Italy during the 1620s.

Groups of figures around a table were common in the work of Caravaggio and his northern followers. Valentin was influenced by these artists, and painted many tavern and concert scenes. The Concert by Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588--1629), was painted around the same time as this work and shows huddled figures playing musical instruments around a table. Brugghen painted several scenes of seated men wearing armour, for example Sleeping Mars (Centraal Museum, Utrecht), which is a possible visual source for Valentin's figure.

The painting was owned by Michel Particelli, seigneur d’Emery (1596--1650) in Paris during the seventeenth century. Throughout the following century it remained in the Orléans collection at the Palais Royal. Following the high-profile dispersal of this collection in 1791, the painting along with other French and Italian pictures was brought to England. On various occasions in the past it has been incorrectly attributed to other artists, such as Titian  and Caravaggio.

Style: Caravaggist
This panel comes from an altarpiece of the Virgin and Child surrounded by narrative scenes depicting the life of Saints Joachim and Anne and miracles of the Virgin. The two scenes on this panel show the story of the conception and birth of the Virgin Mary, as told in the Golden Legend, the thirteenth-century compilation of the lives of the saints. The Angel of the Lord has appeared to Joachim, who is sleeping in the hills outside Jerusalem (the fortified city with flag flying high on the slopes behind) to tell him that he and Anne will have a child. Joachim has been keeping watch over his flock of long-haired, horned sheep. A shepherd with bobbles on his sleeves sits nearby playing a curved bladder pipe, an instrument like a bagpipe.

Humiliated after his ejection from the temple because of his childlessness, Joachim fled to the wilderness because he was too ashamed to face his family. The artist has combined this with the annunciation to Joachim, mentioned in some of the accounts; in others, the news of the apparition is reported to Anne but not described directly. The Angel of the Lord tells Joachim that Anne would meet him at the Golden Gate, the entrance to Jerusalem.

The lower scene shows the Virgin's birth, the fulfilment of the story of Joachim and Anne. The scene is full of lively details: a maid fans Saint Anne and brings her a dish of food, and a bath is prepared for the baby Mary, who is shown tightly swaddled. On the far right a figure comes into the room, carrying a basket of eggs that hides his face. These details would have engaged viewers of the altarpiece -- they would have identified with this domesticity. They are not, however, the invention of the artist. They are commonly found in images of the birth of the Virgin and derive from a Byzantine prototype. The offering of eggs is found in tenth-century depictions of the Virgin's birth, where it is a symbol of fertility. Giotto included a basket of eggs in his version of the scene in the Arena Chapel in Padua, 1305.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance