wrmthorne/National_Gallery_style_classification huggingface dataset:
The events following the destruction of the sinful city of Sodom, from which Lot and his daughters are here shown fleeing, are recounted in the Old Testament (Genesis 19: 30--38). Forewarned of the city's demise by God, the trio escaped to the mountain town of Zoar. We see them in a moment of conversation, perhaps contemplating their next move -- the daughter on the right raises her right index finger, while her father opens his palm, as if in response, and his other daughter looks on.

Conspicuously absent from Reni's composition are narrative details typically associated with the subject and common in other seventeenth-century depictions of it: Sodom burning in the background, for example, or Lot's wife as a pillar of salt (her punishment for disobeying instructions not to look back at the doomed city). Later in the biblical account, the daughters ply their father with alcohol and seduce him, in order to ensure the survival of their family line.

This subject enjoyed renewed popularity in Europe after the Council of Trent, not least because it provided a just, moral context in which to illustrate a social taboo. While many artists seized this as an opportunity to paint a scene rife with eroticism and nudity, Reni deviated from such tradition by illustrating the family as fully clothed, sober and chaste. The monumental figure of Lot in the centre of the composition is not that of a helpless, drunken, old man, but rather a powerful patriarchal figure. The large antique vase held by the daughter on the left, probably filled with wine, and the drapery gathered around the other daughter's midriff, which makes her appear pregnant, may serve as subtle indicators of the events that were soon to follow.

This painting was made around the time of Reni's celebrated Aurora fresco in Rome, where he lived and worked for more than a decade; the statuesque figures and solid handling of paint are illustrative of the style that he had developed there. The saturated, opaque colours and dark, nondescript background, life-size figures and half-length format may show the influence of Caravaggio, whose style Reni experimented with in the first decade of the seventeenth century. However, the porcelain-like classical features of the daughters are far from stark naturalism introduced by Caravaggio, as are the pale pastel tones in the drapery of the daughter on the right -- colours which would come to dominate Reni's paintings in the decades that followed.

Since the mid-seventeenth century, this painting has been regarded as a companion piece to Susannah and the Elders. Though similar in format and both illustrating moralising tales, the two pictures were painted several years apart, and were not originally intended as a pair. This work is first recorded in the Palazzo Lancellotti, Rome, in 1640, where it hung alongside Susannah and the Elders until the paintings were respectively acquired by the National Gallery in 1844. Its earlier history is unknown.

Style: Caravaggist, Academic
This small portrait is puzzling in many ways. We don't know who this man was or why he is holding a scroll, which is -- rather strangely -- inscribed on the outside. The painting's tall, narrow shape is unusual and there are mysterious inscriptions on the large, cracked stone parapet which runs along the front.

At the bottom is van Eyck's signature in abbreviated Latin: Actu[m] an[n]o d[omi]ni 1432 10 die octobris a ioh[anne] de Eyck ('done on 10 October 1432 by Jan van Eyck'). Van Eyck often dated his paintings to a single day, although they would have taken much longer to complete; perhaps this was they day on which it was finished. Above this are large capitals, apparently carved into the stone, reading 'LEAL SOVVENIR' ('Loyal Remembrance'), the words divided by a deep crack in the stone. This is the only French inscription on a surviving picture by van Eyck. It might mean that the picture is a good likeness, or that it was meant to be a keepsake. It is possible that it was painted after the sitter's death, in which case the crumbling parapet might be an allusion to man's mortality.

At the top of the parapet, carefully centred, is a small white inscription in Greek letters. There are two words, written in Greek, the last letter disappearing into a chip in the stone. Van Eyck often used the Greek alphabet to spell out words in Latin or Dutch. Here it is Latin: TUM OTHEOS ('then God'). What this means is unclear.

Even the phrasing of van Eyck's signature is unusual, and is reminiscent of the wording of a legal document. The scroll in the sitter's hand looks like a legal deed, although it is rolled inside out so the writing is on the outside. Could he have been a lawyer? He is dressed as a prosperous member of the middle class, in a dark green chaperon, fashionable fifteenth-century male headgear which van Eyck showed in several portraits (for example Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?)). Its short hood falls over his left shoulder, and the long scarf-like cornette hangs down by his right. His red houpelande -- a long-sleeved robe worn by both men and women -- is trimmed with brown fur and fastened at the neck with two small buttons.

Van Eyck often put his sitters' names on the frames of their portraits, but this has been lost and the panel has been trimmed down almost to the edge of the paint. The back was marbled but this is now very damaged. Paintings were not always hung on walls in the fifteenth century, as is usual now, and the backs were sometimes decorated too as they could be seen.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
These two small paintings are part of a group of four scenes, which are painted on two poplar panels. They would once have decorated a piece of furniture, perhaps the case of a musical instrument. The black borders separating the two scenes on each panel appear to be original and must relate to how they were framed.

The paintings illustrate key scenes from Tebaldeo's Eclogues, which were poems first printed in Modena in 1498. The poems were very popular and were reprinted several times before 1520. The first and third scenes are represented on this panel: Damon broods on his Unrequited Love and Damon takes his Life.

In the first scene we see the young shepherd, Damon, with his flock in a mountainous landscape. He sits on the ground with his head in his hand. He has stopped playing his lyre and ignores his sheep. The large dense tree on the left and hill on the right form screens between which we catch a glimpse of a distant vista of mountains and sky. There are several buildings in the landscape, including a distinctive steep-roofed structure on the hill that is similar to one in The Virgin and Child with a Tonsured Supplicant and Saint Catherine by Previtali.

In the second scene, Thyrsis asks Damon the Cause of his Sorrow (on the other panel), Thyrsis asks Damon why he is so unhappy. Damon says he prefers to be alone 'among thorns and brambles in a remote and dismal place.' He determines to kill himself, lamenting the fate of his flock, which wolves are watching. He breaks his lyre on a stone and utters his last words: 'Alas, where I am I cannot now tell! / Shadows lengthen before night falls: / Amaryllis, I forgive you: Amaryllis, farewell.'

In the third scene, Damon is in a rugged, desolate landscape with a lake or shore in the middle distance. Previtali has depicted the moment when he plunges the dagger into his chest. A stream of blood pours from the wound, while his lyre lies broken at his feet. The final scene, Thyrsis finds the Body of Damon, is on the other panel.

Style: High Renaissance
This small picture shows two episodes from the life of Saint Jerome. At the front, the saint sits under a lean-to shelter, built against a natural rock arch in a dramatic landscape, and removes a large thorn from a lion's paw. According to the Golden Legend, Saint Jerome met and healed an injured lion which then remained with him in the wilderness and after his return to monastic life. They are depicted together in the wilderness in Bellini's Saint Jerome reading in a Landscape.

The arch leads to another rock, topped with buildings that are accessible only by a track of planks supported on posts; a man and his dog make their way up it. This is the monastery near Bethlehem where Jerome lived (the red objects hanging from the church tower could be nesting boxes for birds). On the grassy platform in front of the monastery a man dressed as a cardinal addresses two merchants. Their camels carry barrels, probably containing oil, and large greyish packs; a donkey grazes behind them. This figure is also Saint Jerome -- he was often shown as a cardinal as he had been secretary to the pope. The Golden Legend tells how the lion guarded the donkey that carried firewood for the monastery, and when passing merchants stole the animal the lion recovered it. The merchants came to the monastery to ask Jerome's forgiveness and gave him oil.

This picture has been cut down on the right; the strip of wood along the edge was created by scraping away the paint and ground to match the other unpainted edges. It originally looked very like a version of the subject in the Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, which includes other incidents from the story. There are variants of the scene in the Prado, Madrid, in the Louvre, Paris and elsewhere, some closer to our painting than others. It seems impossible to work out the exact stages by which the composition evolved. The Prado painting is signed by Joachim Patinir and it's possible that all of them were being worked on at much the same time in his workshop, probably before 1518. Ideas tried out in one painting were sometimes taken up in another or others.

Style: High Renaissance
A company of richly dressed saints, many with impressive beards, gaze adoringly at something on their right, or turn to talk to each other. This  panel was part of a large polyptych painted by Lorenzo Monaco for the monastery of San Benedetto fuori della Porta Pinti in Florence.

They are looking at The Coronation of the Virgin; you can see -- on the far left -- parts of the wings of angels who sit around the throne. Other parts of the altarpiece are in our collection and in collections around the world. Arranged in three tiers, the saints are carefully structured so that their gestures and colours balance and echo those in Adoring Saints: Left Main Tier Panel, giving the whole polyptych an almost musical harmony.

San Benedetto belonged to Camaldolese Order, a small reformed monastic order founded by an Italian monk, Saint Romuald, in 1012. Although they followed the Rule of Saint Benedict, Saint Romuald wanted them to live a stricter and more solitary life. They lived in individual cells, like hermits, although they came together to eat and pray.

The saints here were well known to the monks at San Benedetto. At the front, in the white habit of the Camaldolites, is Saint Romuald, the Order's founder. Next to him is Saint Peter, the first pope, dressed in yellow and blue and holding a large key -- the key to heaven, given to him by Christ. Both Peter and Romuald appear on another altarpiece for the Order, made for the nuns at Pratovecchio.

At the very back, wearing the white and gold papal tiara, is Pope Gregory the Great, the sixth-century Benedictine who wrote the Life of Saint Benedict; the dove of the Holy Ghost is whispering in his ear to inspire him. Beside him is Saint Dominic, the pair to Saint Francis in the other wing, and founder of the Dominican Order.

In places the paint has worn thin and we can see traces of underdrawing in the yellow of Saint Peter's robe and the pink of John the Evangelist's next to him. Technical analysis has identified kermes, a pigment widely used in manuscript illumination, in Saint John's robe; Lorenzo Monaco also painted books.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
This view is of the Delaware River, which flows between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, two of the original 13 states of what was to become the United States of America. We are positioned on the Pennsylvania side of the river, below the Delaware Water Gap, an area where the river has carved a large ridge through the Appalachian Mountains. The hills on either side of the river are the Kittatinny Mountains -- the hill on the left (in Pennsylvania) is Mount Minsi and the one on the right (in New Jersey) is Mount Tammany.

In the 1850s, much of the American landscape was still unknown to European settlers. George Inness gives it a distinctly European look. The placid river, the relatively low height of the grass-covered hills and the trees and woodlands along the riverbanks all suggest fertile land that can be easily inhabited and cultivated. Inness reinforces this by including other details: cattle wade in the water, two men are fishing -- as well as contemplating the landscape, like us -- and a lumber raft makes its way north along the river. On the right, you can also see the recently constructed Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and a steam locomotive, but Inness does not make them the focus of the painting. This is a tranquil and domesticated landscape, a pastoral scene very different from the often dramatic and extremely harsh terrain that artists and photographers at this time were encountering further west. A rainbow on the left indicates that it has been raining. Inness captures the effect of light breaking through the clouds and eliminating what remains of the dark shadow in the immediate foreground.

Innes was around 30 years old when he painted this picture and already an established artist who had exhibited nationally. Born in New York, he had trained under the French painter, Régis-François Gignoux, a student of Paul Delaroche. He had also made two extended trips to Europe. While there, he had been impressed by the Barbizon landscape painters, especially their looser brushwork, more informal compositions and emphasis upon mood. He particularly admired the early work of Corot. However, perhaps also influenced by his study of Claude and Poussin while in Rome, Inness has given careful thought to the structure of the picture, which he divides into horizontal bands. These include the dark foreground, the mid-distance (which contains the human activity and livestock), the distant hills, the blue sky and a band of white clouds above it. These horizontal bands are countered by the diagonal line of the river which takes us towards the horizon and into the distance. The arc of the rainbow introduces another shape into the picture, which is echoed by the outline of the hills and the contour of the riverbank on the left.

This is first of many paintings by Inness of the Delaware Water Gap and the Delaware Valley that often include details similar to those we see here.

Style: Realist
David Teniers the Younger made his fortune painting bawdy scenes like this one. They were popular with wealthy collectors who were proud of their own good manners compared with those ascribed to peasants (they also found the pictures amusing).

In this painting, Teniers has created screened entrances and exits for the characters in his story, like a stage set. A short wall protrudes into the space on one side, an open door on the other, with an enormous butter churn and an unlit stove flat against the wall like a painted backcloth. He has dressed the foreground with an unlikely amount of large kitchen utensils, ingeniously arranged on either side like the painted wings in a theatre. They engage the eye but also demonstrate Teniers's skill in painting textures. A metal and glass lantern sits close to an enormous earthenware pot and a draped piece of cloth while, on the other side of the picture, a besom broom leans against a heavy wooden table with a slipware jug on it. The jug glints with the reflection of an unseen window.

The unfortunate young woman on her knees has lost a shoe -- perhaps in her efforts to scour yet another pot, but more likely startled by the unwelcome advances of the old man. This painting may be a slice of life, but it could also derive from the comic stock characters performed by companies of Italian travelling players, the commedia dell'arte. The peasant in Teniers’ picture resembles the character Pantalone, or Pantaloon, a stupid old man with a bulbous nose and white beard. But the jaunty feather in his cap here suggests he is crafty enough to take advantage of any situation, especially one involving a woman. He sits with his legs apart, his breeches open -- but empty -- at the crotch, suggesting that he's all talk and no action (a common joke in the commedia dell’arte). The comic old women were often played by male actors bundled up in female garments, but in these genre paintings they are simply made grotesque. In this picture, the eyes of the old woman peeking round the door aren’t on the old man, as might be expected. She beckons to the cat, likely to be a symbol of lasciviousness. The suggestion appears to be that if the cat obeys and runs to her, the old man will do likewise.

David Teniers made his fortune painting bawdy scenes like this one. They were popular with wealthy collectors, who were proud of their own good manners compared with those ascribed to peasants, but found the pictures amusing too. He was influenced by Adriaen Brouwer, who also painted such scenes (but far more bawdy than Teniers' own -- for example, Tavern Scene). Another painting in the National Gallery's collection, A View of a Village with Three Peasants talking in the Foreground, appears to draw on the commedia dell’arte, while A Man holding a Glass and an Old Woman lighting a Pipe is another kitchen scene.

Style: Baroque
In this scene of day-to-day life on the muddy shores of the North Sea, Jan van de Cappelle has depicted a virtually windless day. We see a smalschip (a traditional transport vessel), its helmsman doing his best to catch what wind he can by setting the sails out on both sides. But they hang almost limp and the boat makes only the faintest of wakes in the glassy water. A rowing boat carrying two passengers seems to be about to intercept it -- perhaps they are being taken out to a bigger vessel anchored in deeper water.

Meanwhile the crewman on the beached boat (a kaag) seems to be pouring something into a basket held up by his colleague. It looks as though they have been fishing for shellfish and are landing their catch. It's an image of calm and plenty, but there's also a reminder of the destructive power of the sea: the timbers of a wreck protrude from the mud.

Style: Baroque
This painting illustrates an episode described in the Old Testament (1 Samuel: 6-12), which is rarely depicted in art. The Ark -- a wooden chest covered in gold containing the Ten Commandments -- is pulled along on a cart drawn by cattle. It is being returned to the Israelites after the Philistines stole it in battle, and the Israelites are rejoicing. The Ark was a sacred object to Jews and Christians as it had been built by Moses according to God's instructions. God punished the Philistines for their theft and forced them to send the Ark back to its rightful owners.

Dramatic white light illuminates the snow-capped mountains and distant town, representing the Israelites' city of Besh-shemesh. The stormy sky on the left leaves most of the landscape in shade. Although the composition is imaginary, the landscape resembles the countryside around Rome, where Bourdon spent most of his life. Bourdon's  The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (Metropolitan Museum, New York), the date of which is uncertain, uses a similar composition including  group of figures in the foreground with a water mill, a lake and buildings behind them.

This painting is in Bourdon's later style. The classical composition shows the influence of Nicolas Poussin, the most celebrated landscape painter in seventeenth-century France. Our attention is drawn to the dramatic gestures of the figures, varied architecture and contrast between light and shade. Bourdon admired Poussin's work and delivered a lecture on his Christ healing the Blind Man of Jericho (Louvre, Paris) to members of the Académie Royale.

The inscription on the back of the painting reads 'C'est La Toile du Tableaux/A. Mr. Thomas./1659' (This is the canvas of the painting belonging to Mr Thomas./1659), which appeared when the painting was restored. We are not sure who the patron is or whether the inscription is genuine. Bourdon was in his native city of Montpelier during 1657 and 1658, and he may have secured the patronage of Antoine de Thomas or Monsieur Maistre N. de Thomas, both government officials who worked there.

During the late eighteenth century the painting was owned by the celebrated English painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who praised it in his Discourses (lectures delivered to Royal Academy students)  in 1788, as 'one in which the poetical style of landscape may be seen happily executed'. The painting was later given to Sir George Beaumont, who was instrumental in the founding of the National Gallery, and displayed at his home, Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire. It was so popular with this family that his wife made a copy in 1798, but its whereabouts is unknown.

Style: Baroque, Academic
This is an early work by Jacob van Ruisdael, probably made when he was only about 20 years old, around the time that he qualified as an artist and joined the painters’ guild in his home town of Haarlem. It seems to have been influenced by the style of his uncle, Salomon van Ruysdael, who may have been one of his teachers.

Salomon painted many river and estuary scenes, taking a 'naturalistic' approach in which he didn’t necessarily paint a real view, but composed pictures evocative of the everyday waterways and woodlands typical of the landscape around Haarlem. The effects of cloud building in a big sky and of reflections in water were central to his work, and he often used a fairly restricted range of colours, mainly blues, greens and greys. There's a good example of this style in the National Gallery's collection: River Scene.

In the painting we see here, van Ruisdael has taken a similar approach. Instead of a long sweeping view of the countryside, he has built the composition around a narrow focus: a stand of scrubby trees and a farmhouse on the edge of a river. And he has made it all the more artistically challenging by choosing a backlit scene. While this increases the visual impact of the trees against a bright sky, it required him to evoke the effects of light filtering through the leaves and the glare of the sun on the surface of the river.

If you look closely at the brushwork, you can see the techniques van Ruisdael used to create a convincing effect. He paid particular attention to the depiction of the trees in the centre of the picture, building up an impression of the myriad colours of the leaves with thousands of tiny dabs and smudges of different greens, browns and yellows, as well as a few tiny flecks of white. Beneath the canopy are the blue-greens of a willow pollard, the white flowers of an elder in bloom and the spiky light-green leaves of the reeds growing against the river bank.

By contrast, he established the blues of the sky with regular horizontal brushstrokes, and built up the greys and whites of the clouds by using thicker paint and smudging the colours together. For the glassy reflections in the water he used more even paint layers, suggesting the ripples with short lateral streaks of light grey, and picking out the glitter on the surface with delicate spatters of bright white. The cottage and covered hayrick --after which the painting was later named -- are by contrast much more sketchily painted.

There is another version of this painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts, and a chalk drawing by van Ruisdael of a similar composition was sold at auction in 1956 (location unknown). There are records from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of a companion piece to this picture, 'A Cornfield', which has not been identified.

Style: Baroque