wrmthorne/National_Gallery_style_classification huggingface dataset:
This scene shows Saints Clement and Justus coming to the aid of the citizens of Volterra -- the town was under siege by the Vandals, a Germanic tribe. There was little to eat  and the people were starving until, in answer to the saints' prayers, the granaries were miraculously filled and it was finally possible to bake some bread.

The saints appear at the gates of the fortified city, offering the bread to their enemies following the instruction of the Book of Romans, which teaches: 'if thine enemy hunger, feed him' (Romans 12: 20). This is a slight deviation from the story, in which the saints throw the bread over the city walls, but Domenico Ghirlandaio's version is simpler to depict and has the benefit of stressing the courage and kindness of the saints' action. Some of the soldiers here rip off round rolls from a larger loaf. Well-fed, they end the siege and leave the city with their weapons.

This panel was part of a predella -- the lowest part of an altarpiece, usually painted with narrative scenes from the lives of the saints depicted on the main panel. The altarpiece was probably painted in 1479 for San Giusto alle Mura, a church just outside of Florence that was dedicated to Saint Justus. The altarpiece's main panel (Uffizi, Florence) shows the Virgin and Child enthroned surrounded by Saints Michael, Justus, Raphael and Zenobius. Four other predella panels survive (Fall of the Rebel Angels in the Detroit Institute of Arts; The Marriage of the Virgin, Tobias and the Archangel Raphael and Burial of Saint Zenobius, all in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). This panel would have been below the image of Saint Justus.

Style: Early Renaissance
Late in his career, Nicolaes Maes painted several small portraits in this style, often in an oval format. The background is dark, with a brown brocade curtain pushed to one side behind the sitter. A stylish young man confronts us with a direct gaze and half smile.

We don’t know who this young man might be, but he’s dressed in the fashionably informal style for portraits of the time. His brown silk robe would only have been worn in the house. His knotted scarf replaces the high collar with tabs worn on formal occasions, but he still wears a full-bottomed wig with its ornate curls. He tucks one hand into the front of the robe, revealing the white of his undershirt. The other hand is just visible, pushed into a pocket in the robe.

Style: Baroque
This painting illustrates a story from the Golden Legend. The servant of a knight of Provence disobeyed his master's command that he was not to venerate the relics of Saint Mark, and was ordered to be stretched on the rack and have his legs broken. He lies naked on the ground surrounded by his torturers and a crowd of onlookers. Saint Mark, clutching his Gospel, swoops headfirst into the scene from above and miraculously causes the torturers' hammers and axes to break against the servant's body.

This picture, which is painted on paper stuck on to canvas, is a much smaller copy of Jacopo Tintoretto's The Miracle of Saint Mark, painted for the Scuola di San Marco (Confraternity of Saint Mark) in Venice in 1547/8. Tintoretto's The Miracle of Saint Mark is regarded as one of his greatest paintings and is one of the most celebrated works on public view in Venice.

Analysis of the pigments in the National Gallery's copy shows that it cannot have been painted earlier than the eighteenth century, and was probably painted later. Several British painters who travelled to continental Europe after the 1815 Battle of Waterloo were interested in Tintoretto's work.

The National Gallery's catalogue first described this painting as 'perhaps by William Etty (in Venice 1832)'. Etty (1787--1849) was an English artist best known for his paintings of historical subjects. In Italy he was called the 'English Tintoret' and his most ambitious composition, executed only as a sketch, was inspired by Tintoretto's dynamic narratives and dramatic lighting. In his sketchbook he listed Tintoretto's The Miracle of Saint Mark as first of the paintings worthy of special attention in Venice. However, the National Gallery's picture does not look like William Etty's technique and it is more likely to be the work of a talented amateur painter.

The picture may have been painted by its first recorded owner, Blanche Lindsay (1844--1912). She was the granddaughter of the great financier Nathan Meyer Rothschild, and a relative of Alfred Charles de Rothschild, who was a Trustee of the National Gallery. She first visited Italy in 1864 on her honeymoon and started copying old master paintings there. Her husband, Sir Coutts Lindsay (1824--1913) was a painter and founded the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, at which Blanche exhibited watercolour paintings. She bequeathed the paintings from her drawing room, including this one, to the National Gallery in her will.

Style: High Renaissance
A fisherman stands in the water among the rushes that border either a pond or possibly a river. Willow trees cluster at the water’s edge, the shade they provide contrasting with the sunlit meadow beyond.

This small landscape was most likely painted in the 1850s around the small town of L’Isle-Adam, about 25 kilometres north of Paris. Situated on the left bank of the River Oise, the town is partially built on three islands and is surrounded by streams, ponds and small lakes. Dupré settled there in 1849 and often painted river scenes that include fishermen.

Of all the artists associated with the Barbizon school of landscape painters, Dupré was perhaps the most influenced by English landscape painting. In 1831 he visited England, where he studied the work of Crome, Turner and Constable. Constable’s influence, especially, can be seen in the small touches of paint and use of white highlights that help create the effect of a bright, sunlit day despite the extensive use of dark green in much of the painting.

Style: Barbizon
A man with a distinctive beard and moustache sits in a red-upholstered chair looking out towards us. He wears an ecclesiastical robe – a black cassock, or soutane – and holds a geometric compass in his left hand. On the table to the left is an armillary sphere and a sheet of paper with a horoscope, in which the characters are not clearly legible. On it rests a book, inscribed along the edge of its pages: Efemer (the last letter is not certain). Technical examination including infrared reflectography and X-radiography has shown that the artist made substantial changes in the area of the still life: the book was originally turned with its spine towards the sitter and was inscribed along the top edge: Piaz:Vn. This book rested on a second book, also with the spine turned towards the sitter, inscribed: Efeme V. Sacr -- words that were subsequently painted out.

The current inscription on the book allows the sitter to be identified as Carlo Bartolomeo Piazza (1632--1713), an erudite Milanese priest who had a successful career in the Roman Curia (papal court) and whose Efemeride Vaticana, an illustrated calendar of saints listing liturgical anniversaries organised by month and with a commentary for each day, was published in Rome in 1687 and dedicated to King James II of England. Piazza was born in Milan and soon entered the religious congregation of the Oblates, distinguishing himself as a learned ecclesiastic and occupying various posts in Milan and Padua before moving to Rome in the early 1670s. Piazza published widely, including a weighty pilgrim’s guide to Rome for the Holy Year of 1675 for which he was rewarded with the title ‘Abbate’ (abbot).

When this painting was bequeathed to the National Gallery in 1908, it was thought to be a portrait of the astronomer Galileo Galilei by the Florentine painter Domenico Cresti, called Passignano (1558--1638). Given the identification of the sitter and Piazza’s probable age, the portrait was most likely painted in Rome in the late seventeenth century.

Style: Baroque, Academic
This is one of three scenes from the predella of Raphael's Colonna Altarpiece, painted for the convent of S. Antonio da Padua in Perugia and named after the Colonna family in Rome who once owned it. The main panel of the altarpiece depicted the Virgin and Child enthroned with saints (Peter, Paul, Catherine and another female martyr). At the top of the altarpiece was a lunette showing God the Father blessing, flanked by two angels with scrolling ribbons similar to those in Raphael's earlier Mond Crucifixion. The panel and lunette are both in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

The Procession to Calvary was the central scene of the predella, positioned below the main panel of the altarpiece. Christ looks to us as he carries the Cross, escorted by five foot soldiers, one of whom drags him by a rope round his waist. Simon of Cyrene, behind Christ, helps him bear the weight of the Cross. The Virgin Mary, in dark robes at the far left, is supported by the Three Marys and accompanied by Saint John the Evangelist, who wrings his hands in grief. The three distinct groups of the procession are linked together by a pattern of repeated colour and by the figures who look back over their shoulders at the groups behind.

We can see Raphael's interest in the work of other artists in this small panel. The turbaned horseman and rearing white horse behind him reveal his knowledge of Leonardo's unfinished fresco, The Battle of Anghiari, after which he had made a sketch (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). The procession with all its diversity may indicate Raphael's knowledge of an engraving of the same subject by the German artist Martin Schongauer. Another predella panel by Raphael, Saint John the Baptist Preaching, takes further the variety of costume and colour, and emphasis on rhythm and pattern, to add structure and interest to a crowd scene. The group of the Virgin supported by the Three Marys was inspired by figures in a Deposition scene for the high altar of SS. Annunziata, Florence, begun by Filippino Lippi and completed by Perugino after Filippino's death in 1504. The pose of Raphael's Christ was inspired by the work of Justus van Ghent, who had worked at the court in Urbino where Raphael's father, Giovanni Santi, had been court painter.

The Procession to Calvary was originally flanked on the left by The Agony in the Garden (Metropolitan Museum, New York), and on the right by the Pietà (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston). The scenes were originally painted on a single plank of wood that was cut into three when the predella was sold. Two smaller panels showing Franciscan saints completed the predella.

Although some have since criticised the Colonna Altarpiece as an awkward blend of styles and influences, at the time of its making it received the highest praise. The predella scenes demonstrate Raphael's growing talent for narrative and for drawing out a poignant human dimension in biblical stories.

Style: High Renaissance
There are really two subjects of this painting. The landscape creates a slightly mysterious air. The trees are backlit by a bright sky, and the long reflection across the pond leads our eye to the open gate beyond. It seems we are in a walled park or the formal gardens of a grand house. Then there is the activity in the foreground. A gaggle of ducks and exotic waterfowl -- fashionable among wealthy landowners at the time -- flock to the woman who is feeding them from the window of a garden house.

Anthonie van Borssum was born in Amsterdam and may have been a pupil of Rembrandt from about 1645 to 1650. He was a versatile and eclectic artist who principally painted landscapes and pictures of plants and animals. This picture was probably made in the early 1660s and may have been influenced by the work of Melchior d'Hondecoeter, who specialised in painting birds.

Style: Baroque
Two naked children appear to be bathing in a pool beneath a dark tree set against a cloudy, moonlit sky. A third child, who is clothed, sits on the bank near a patch of red that may be a fire.

It is likely that this picture was painted by a late nineteenth-century imitator of Theodore Rousseau and not by Rousseau himself. Some features of the painting -- for example, the multi-directional brushwork of the sky and the delicate brushwork of the trees in background on the left -- do recall landscapes painted by Rousseau. However, his landscapes are usually deserted. When he does include people, they never have the prominence of the three bathers we see here.

Unlike the lively confident brushwork of the background, the children themselves are crudely painted, and lines and dabs of thick dark paint have been used to add detail to their faces and clothing.

Style: Barbizon
This is a fragment of a painting made in the fresco technique, which involves applying paint to wet plaster. Once dried, the painting becomes part of the wall. It shows a bearded saint -- identifiable by his halo -- shown in profile, and comes from the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. It may have formed part of the decoration of the chapel dedicated to Saint Andrew.

The remains of various frescoes were discovered in the chapel in 1859. This one was bought by the archaeologist and explorer, Austen Henry Layard, who left it to the National Gallery in his will. Layard was a founder of the Arundel Society, which aimed to document frescoes in Italian churches and palaces through drawings and art-historical descriptions.

This fragment is in very poor condition. It is covered in tiny dents, probably caused by air bubbles that erupted as the plaster was drying. It is slightly concave, perhaps due to its position in the chapel: it might have decorated a vault in the ceiling.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
This small oil painting on millboard has a false signature of the Dutch artist Matthijs Maris. Maris studied in The Hague and Antwerp and also worked in Paris from 1869 to 1877 -- his Men Unloading Carts, Montmartre was painted during his time there. He settled in London in 1877, where he died in 1917.

Although not by Maris, the picture may have been painted by a follower or imitator. As it has little resemblance to Maris’s work it is difficult to believe it is a deliberate fake.

The white building, which is probably a farmhouse, does not look Dutch. Instead, this may be a scene in the south of France or in a Mediterranean country. The picture does convey an impression of a white building shaded from the sun by overhanging trees, but it is quite crudely painted throughout with a limited range of colours.

Style: Realist
This little portrait in watercolour on ivory was apparently produced in 1840, the year of Queen Victoria's marriage to Prince Albert. From the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Albert was 20 when he married Victoria, his first cousin. This was one of several portraits of the Prince Consort painted by Ross, who was Queen Victoria's Miniature Painter in Ordinary.

Prince Albert had a keen appreciation of painting and was one of the first collectors in Britain to buy so-called primitive Italian and German painting. By 'primitive' it was meant that that the pictures had been produced prior to the Renaissance. In 1863, after the death of Prince Albert at the relatively young age of 42, Queen Victoria presented a number of his pictures to the National Gallery in accordance with her late husband's wishes. These included some of the first fifteenth-century German pictures to enter the Gallery's collection. Among the paintings presented were the Crucifixion by Quentin Massys, the Virgin and Child by Hans Memling, Mater Dolorosa and the Virgin and Child by the workshop of Dirk Bouts, and An Augustinian Friar (?) by Gerard David.

Style: Realist, Victorian
This is one of two fragments of a larger work which showed the Virgin Mary and Christ Child seated in a garden. It depicts Saint Dorothy, who lived in Caesarea (Kayseri in modern-day Turkey) in the fourth century.

Saint Dorothy is usually shown, as here, carrying a basket of roses. According to her legend she was killed for her faith on the orders of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. She was sure that she would enter paradise after her death, which she proclaimed was full of roses. As she was about to be decapitated she was mocked by a Roman scribe, Theophilus, who asked her to bring him some of these roses. Miraculously, Christ appeared as a young boy with a basket of the flowers.

On the ground behind Saint Dorothy are the attributes of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, who is also included in the painting: a broken wheel (the instrument of her torture) and a sword, with which she was eventually killed.

Style: Early Renaissance, Gothic
Wilkie was famous for his paintings of everyday life. Here he represents a local pub scene. Recalling the classical theme of choosing between vice and virtue, one man is torn between staying to drink with his friends or going home with his family. The man slumped in the corner on the right acts as a stark warning of the effects of drinking to excess. Between the large oil sketch made in preparation for this work, and this final version, the artist amended the composition to sit the buildings further back within the scene.

This painting was purchased from the collection of Sir John Julius Angerstein to found the National Gallery in 1824. Hogarth’s The Painter and his Pug, and his celebrated series Marriage A-la Mode also formed part of the original purchase. As a living artist, Wilkie’s inclusion meant contemporary art was included from the outset in the National Gallery Collection. Hogarth’s The Painter and his Pug and this work by Wilkie were both transferred to the Tate Gallery, Millbank, during the twentieth century.

Style: Regency
These are two of three paintings made to decorate the front and sides of a wooden chest, known in Italian as a cassone.  They depict the story of the nymph Callisto, as told in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

The two small paintings, each about 18 cm square, decorated the ends of the chest. They are painted on canvas and would probably have been glued to a thin wooden panel. Cassoni were important pieces of furniture used for storing clothes and household linen. A bride's parents would give her one as a wedding gift and she would take it with her to her marital home. These chests were frequently painted with the coats of arms of the two families joined by the marriage, or decorated with religious scenes or cautionary legends about love. They were often placed at the foot of the couple's bed.

Jupiter seducing Callisto is the first episode of the story. The nymph Callisto was a favourite of Diana, the goddess of hunting and of chastity. While Callisto was resting in a leafy glade, Jupiter appeared disguised as Diana. He seduced Callisto and made her pregnant. In the long painting for the front of the chest (Musée de Picardie, Amiens) Callisto's fellow nymphs reveal her pregnancy to a furious Diana. When Diana discovered that Callisto was pregnant, she turned her into a bear. In the third episode of the story, Arcas Hunting, Arcas goes out into the woods and shoots the bear dead, not realising that it is his mother.

Schiavone was especially known for his lively handling of paint. Here he has used gold for light in the clouds and on the foliage as well as on the drapery. The quality of Schiavone's paintings must have been greatly admired -- these pictures had already been detached from their cassone by 1779 and were displayed in a Venetian art collection.

Style: High Renaissance
These three long panels tell the story of a young peasant women called Griselda, which was taken from The Decameron, a fourteenth-century collection of novellas by Italian author Boccaccio. Her beauty caught the eye of a local nobleman, the Marquis Gualtieri di Saluzzo. After they married he put her through a series of emotional ordeals, but her steadfastness and loyalty to him throughout earned her his renewed affection, as well as the nickname, 'patient Griselda'.

The three paintings were likely made to decorate the chamber (or camera) of a newly-wed couple, since the tale celebrates a woman's loyalty and marital fidelity, against the odds. Furthermore, they are the size and shape of panels known as spalliere, which were inset into the walls at about shoulder height (spalliera is Italian for shoulder). Vertical channels carved into the reverse of all three panels provided space for battens (narrow strips of wood) which would have secured them in place on the wall.

It's very likely that they were commissioned at the time of the marriages of two brothers of the noble Sienese Spannocchi family. Their father, Ambrogio, was the papal banker to Pius II Piccolomini, also from Siena. Antonio married a Sienese woman called Alessandra Placidi, while his brother Giulio married Giovanna Mellini, from Rome. Accounts of the wedding celebrations, which took place in January 1494, record that it was a lavish affair: there was a performance of another of Boccaccio's stories, and a large temporary structure resembling a Roman triumphal arch was built for the occasion.

Our panels have been connected with two others of a similar shape and size at Longleat House, Wiltshire; like ours, they were also once owned by the nineteenth-century collector, Alexander Barker. They depict ancient heroes Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and have been attributed to the workshop of the Florentine artists, Domenico and Davide Ghirlandaio. Vasari, the sixteenth-century biographer of many artists, writes that Domenico, along with Bastiano Mainardi, decorated a room at the Spanocchi Palace with lots of stories inhabited by tiny figures. It seems likely that he was referring to the Longleat pictures, to which both Davide and Bastiano definitely contributed. The subjects, Alexander and Julius Caesar, might relate to Alessandra and Giulio, two of the newly-weds.

The picture of Alexander the Great included the Spanocchi coat of arms, and some of the figures in it wear exactly the same livery (uniform) as the servants in our panels, giving another reasons to connect our panels with those at Longleat, and both to the commission mentioned by Vasari. Despite the wealth of the Spanocchi and the obvious importance of the commission, we do not know the identity of their painter -- these panels have given him his name.

Style: Early Renaissance