wrmthorne/National_Gallery_style_classification huggingface dataset:
An attractive young man looks out at the viewer with a piercing gaze and provocative expression. With an elegant hand gesture he points towards his chest, alluding to the fact this image is in fact a self portrait.  His lips are parted, as if to speak and introduce himself -- this is the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck.

Van Dyck worked in the Antwerp studio of the leading Flemish painter Rubens before finding success as an independent artist in his late teens. With his cultured sophistication, self-confidence and love of fashion, Van Dyck fitted in effortlessly within courtly circles. He swiftly rose to fame working for prestigious patrons across Europe, including Charles I, King of England, and his court in London. He travelled a lot in the course of his career, and spent long periods of time settled in England and Italy. He died in his house at Blackfriars in London.

The National Gallery’s picture is a reduced, late eighteenth- or early nineteenth-century copy of Van Dyck’s half-length original, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This is one of three self portraits Van Dyck painted in the years around 1620, when he would have been about 20 years old and acutely conscious of his new-found fame across Europe (the other two are in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, and Alte Pinakothek, Munich). The facial likeness in all three appears to have been based on a now-lost head study that was made from life (or rather, in the case of a self portrait, from a reflection in a mirror). Opinions differ over the exact dated sequence of the three pictures, but it is generally accepted that the New York painting was made before the Munich version, and before Van Dyck travelled to Italy, either while he was in Antwerp or, most likely, during his first visit to London in the winter of 1620--1.

Style: Neoclassical
Two sleeping nymphs have been discovered by a pair of satyrs (mythological woodland creatures who were half human and half goat). The satyrs sneak forwards, intent on shocking the nymphs awake; their tanned complexions and rugged looks contrast with the nymphs' smooth, pale skin. In the landscape behind, three more nymphs bathe in a still pool -- they too are about to be startled by a creeping satyr.

The coat of arms of the city of Antwerp has been painted on the back of this panel. Wouters had trained as an artist in Antwerp and worked in Rubens’s studio from 1634. Later, he spent time in London but by 1641 he had returned to Antwerp, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Style: Baroque
A frog, crouched in the foreground and glittering like a glittering jewel, appears to be causing a stir. The male birds looking down at it seem angry or excited by its presence, they prowl, flutter their wings or glare, feathers ruffled. On a top branch is a chaffinch, fluffing out its plumage; its mate sits below, ​next to a tree sparrow . The bird closest to the frog and about to attack, is probably a brambling, a kind of finch.

The frog is too big to be prey for these small birds, and it takes their attention away from the snail, definitely on their menu, meandering along dangerously close to them. Emperor moths flutter on the stem of a tall plant and a painted lady butterfly perches overhead. Mushrooms at the base of the plant, uprooted and damaged, add to the uneasy, almost threatening, atmosphere.

Like Dutch flower painters, Melchior d'Hondecoeter grouped interesting specimens in his images, making them spectacular and dramatic, with little regard for the seasons or their country of origin (look at Rachel Ruysch's Flowers in a Vase, for example). This is an early work and his painting of the birds is a little less assured than it is in The Floating Feather (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), in which much larger and more exotic birds from Africa and the Far East are contrasted with smaller ones native to the Netherlands. The creatures in Birds, Butterflies and a Frog among Plants and Fungi would have been in or around Amsterdam for at least part of the year, and all, except the painted lady, might be found there in the spring.

Although a little awkwardly posed, the birds are accurately portrayed, and d'Hondecoeter has made each one naturalistic and recognisable. A small tortoiseshell butterfly and a single emperor moth are placed flat on to the canvas, like specimens in a glass case -- which is probably what they were when d'Hondecoeter painted them. The background is imaginary, and the dark foliage, glowing evening light and ruined building help create a dramatic scene.

There was great interest in the natural sciences in seventeenth-century Holland, and a large number of artists specialised in detailed pictures of plants, animals or landscape. Some collectors prized these paintings for their accuracy, and displayed them as part of a wider collection of scientific instruments and specimens, including butterflies, rocks and shells, and stuffed animals. Melchior d'Hondecoeter may well have drawn and sketched his creatures from such a collection; he may even have had one himself. Some collectors, however, bought works like his simply as exotic and dramatic additions to the decoration of their houses.

Style: Baroque
Capturing the physical likeness of a sitter as well as their soul or character was crucial to Renaissance portraiture. This was made easier with the introduction of the three-quarter view, as used here. It allows us to see more of the sitter's face and so is more engaging than the previously preferred profile view, which derived from ancient coins and medals. This young man's intense gaze is fixed towards something outside of the picture. Although he does not engage directly with us, we get the impression that he is thinking deeply, strengthening the sense of his real presence.

The turn of the sitter's torso towards the viewer was, like the landscape setting, a feature of Netherlandish portraiture, introduced by the artist Memling, whose work was very popular in Italy. The imaginary landscapes usually included a river or lake between a valley and mountains beyond. Distant fortifications, painted in miniature, were also often included to emphasise the breadth of the landscape. The mountains in the background here are painted with blue tones to evoke a sense of their distance and they contrast strongly with the lush green hills of the middle ground.

The sitter's youth is evoked by the smoothness of his skin. This effect was typical of Florentine painting in the fifteenth century and was achieved by applying paint in very fine and dense lines. Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop and associates, including his brother Davide and his brother-in-law Sebastiano Mainardi, all produced portraits in this style.

Style: Early Renaissance
Christ rises in triumph from his open tomb, his burial shroud billowing around him like a mandorla -- an almond shaped aureole of holy light -- against the pale blue sky. In his right hand he holds a standard with a fluttering white pennant marked with the sign of the Cross, symbolising his victory over death. His foot, stepping on to the pink marble sarcophagus, and his hand are wounded with the stigmata – the holes from the nails, and we can see the cut in his side inflicted during his crucifixion. He looks down at us and points upward to heaven. Behind him a mountainous landscape stretches to the horizon.

This painting was the central panel of the high altarpiece painted in about 1540 for the church of S. Pietro at Maggianico, near Lecco, on the shore of Lake Como in northern Italy. The town of Lecco is surrounded by mountains like those in the painting.

It is not easy to reconstruct the original appearance of the altarpiece, which was comprised of several panels – a type of altarpiece known as a polyptych. It seems that on the right of Christ rising from the Tomb was a panel showing Saint Roch, and on the left was Saint Christopher carrying the infant Christ. A panel almost certainly of Saint Andrew, which is also in the National Gallery's collection, was in the centre of the lower part of the altarpiece with Saints Peter, Bernard, Ambrose and Anthony at its sides. The lowest row of panels (known as the predella) is in the Castello Sforzesco, Milan. It is monochrome and depicts scenes of Christ and the apostles. Monochrome predella panels were a particular feature of  sixteenth-century art from this region. All the panels of the altarpiece were enclosed in a gilded frame.

The altarpiece was situated above the high altar, which was made of a similar pink marble to that of Christ’s painted tomb, creating a clear visual connection between the risen body of Christ depicted in the altarpiece and the Eucharist – the body of Christ -- on the altar during Communion.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the altarpiece was removed from the church, broken up and the panels were sold. We do not know the whereabouts of the larger panels, apart from the two now in the National Gallery.

A triptych (a three panel altarpiece) by a collaborator of Gaudenzio Ferrari of Saints Ambrose, Anthony Abbot and Jerome remains in the church of S. Pietro at Maggianico, which has caused further confusion. However, this was not part of the original high altarpiece. The triptych was commissioned by the Ghislanzoni family for the altar of Saint Anthony.

Style: High Renaissance
Goya adds a satirical twist to this supposedly innocent scene, set in an idyllic landscape. It appears that a romantic outing has gone terribly wrong. The remains of a picnic lie on the tablecloth: pieces of bread, two almost-empty plates and bottles of wine. To the right, a man appears to be unwell, presumably from drinking too much, and he cradles his face in his hands.

In the centre, a man holding a full glass of wine tries to flirt with the woman sat near him. She -- presumably the sick man's picnic companion -- looks out at us, seemingly rejecting his advances. Another man leans on his hand, fast asleep. Behind him, three men are deep in conversation, as if plotting to take advantage of the situation -- two look out at us, amused.

This sketch is one of a series of designs by Goya for tapestries intended to decorate the bedrooms of King Charles III of Spain's daughters at the palace of El Pardo, outside Madrid. The works explore a number of themes in countryside settings -- hunting, music and dance, playing games and eating -- inspired by light-hearted scenes of daily life in Madrid. These subjects reflected the King's own desire to understand the lives of working-class people. Only one tapestry, that depicting a game of blind man's bluff, was finally woven (and is now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid). Perhaps the scene we see here was deemed too disturbing for the princesses' bedrooms.

In 1775 Goya had started working for the Royal Tapestry Factory and he continued to produce designs on and off for the next two decades. During this time, he established his career as court painter.

This picture is typical of Goya's style in the later 1780s: the paint is applied softly, with a light touch, creating hazy lighting effects and visible, lively brushstrokes. It was among a group of works by Goya sold to the Duke of Osuna, one of the artist's most loyal supporters and patrons, in about 1799. The painting remained with the Osuna family until the National Gallery bought it in 1896, together with A Scene from El Hechizado por Fuerza.

Style: Romantic
This is one of three tiny pictures that have been grouped together since the early nineteenth century (the others show a man and child in a landscape with a derelict folly and hard-working men beside a pool). It shows an elegantly dressed couple heading towards a pillared ruined arch, which appears in other pictures by Guardi. These foreground figures are only around one centimetre tall, but Guardi still managed to portray a sense of their movement, poses and dress.

Rich colours and bright light draw us into the scene. Guardi has created a glowing atmosphere -- the elegant columns and domed roof reflect the sunlight, which also illuminates the white building beyond. These works, known as capricci or imaginary views, were bought as souvenirs by tourists to Venice, Guardi's home city and where he spent his entire career.

Style: Neoclassical
This altarpiece is considered Ortolano's masterpiece. In it he achieves effects of startling realism through his deep understanding of anatomy, optics and perspective.

It was made for the church of S. Maria in Bondeno, a small town to the north-west of Ferrara. A new chapel was dedicated to Saints Sebastian, Roch and Demetrius in 1483. In 1516 Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, became patron of the church and in 1520 Garofalo's Resurrection (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) was painted for the altar to the right of the high altar. This painting by Ortolano was made for the altar on the left at about the same time.

Saint Sebastian (in the centre) was a Roman officer martyred in the third century. By the end of the fifteenth century he had become one of the most venerated saints in Christendom, chiefly as a protector against the plague. He is usually shown, as here, tied to a tree and pierced by the arrows which miraculously failed to kill him. Ortolano has depicted the musculature of Sebastian's arms and left leg, revealing the position of veins below the knee, with great anatomical accuracy. The crossbow and wolf-fur quiver of arrows discarded on the ground are also observed and recorded with incredible realism. The device with the toothed bar and handle leaning against the crossbow is a type of crank used to draw back the crossbow string. It would be removed before the arrow was fired.

Saint Roch (on the left), was born in Montpellier, France, in the fourteenth century and travelled to Italy as a pilgrim, where he contracted the plague. In paintings he is generally shown revealing a plague sore on his thigh, but here the sore is discreetly concealed by shadow. Ortolano has omitted the helpful dog who usually accompanies Saint Roch in paintings, but included a startlingly realistic wicker-covered glass flask and sack at his feet.

Saint Demetrius (on the right) is rare in Italian art. The fact that his name has been written on a paper at his feet suggests that no one at the time was expected to recognise him. Proconsul on the Greek island of Thessalonica, he was martyred by being run through with spears shortly before AD 305. He is always depicted as a warrior holding a sword and frequently a shield -- his red cloak symbolises his martyrdom. Here, he is wearing full plate armour, the reflections in its polished surface observed and depicted in incredible detail. His gesture -- thoughtfully resting his face on his hand -- must have been suggested by Raphael's Saint Paul in the Saint Cecilia Altarpiece, sent from Rome to Bologna in 1516 (now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna). However, Ortolano's decision to cover Saint Demetrius' mouth is very unusual, as is his choice of giving him a beard. The meticulously observed still life of objects on the ground in Ortolano's painting was certainly influenced by the musical instruments similarly placed on the ground in Raphael's painting.

Ortolano's altarpiece may once have had a lunette above it depicting the Risen Christ, which might explain why both Saint Sebastian and Saint Roch are looking upward.

Style: High Renaissance
A little girl looks out at us from her child-sized chair, as if eager for us to tell her that she's doing her job well -- her smile a little nervous, the hand on the handle of the cradle clutching it tight. She looks no more than five years old, but she's been given the responsibility of looking after the baby that sleeps soundly, button nose in the air. The baby's mouth is open, and a tiny fist is almost hidden in cumbersome garments.

The warm browns and reds that Maes chooses for his painting, and the deep shadows and softly gleaming light on the little girl's forehead and collar, invite us into this cosy, intimate place. The same colours and chiaroscuro -- the contrast between light and shade -- also tell of Maes's training with Rembrandt, who was a master of the techniques needed to create the candlelit interior of a Dutch house at the time.

The child, like the room, is neat and clean, the two watchwords of the respectable household. Her hair is impeccable under the bonnet tied with a tiny bow under her chin. Her rosy cheeks speak of her health. On her arm she has a cuff to protect her heavy dress sleeve, which can be removed for washing. Maes places her white apron over the other arm partly to show its cleanliness, partly to set off the textures of the cuff and the little girl's hand.

Many pictures were painted to show this ideal of family life. To have one on the wall was a good example to family and servants alike, and to show to visitors the standards they aspired to. This is an affluent home. Maes painted for an affluent Dordrecht clientele. He paints the textures in minute detail: the strongly woven wicker cradle on its wooden rockers, the gleaming jug, the pattern of the Turkish carpet on the table. Carpets of this kind, brought into the newly prosperous country from the Middle East, were too expensive to be put on the floor, but were put on a table for display and usually, but not always, rolled back for a meal.

The picture also serves to emphasise the expectations of a girl in the Dutch Republic. Marriage and motherhood awaited the well brought up girl child -- there was little or no alternative. They might assist in the family business, but generally the home was their domain. Although Maes has lit the little girl sympathetically, accentuated her charm and the reassuring solidity of the wood-panelled room, he has concentrated the brightest light on the large book on the table and on the jug with its tightly closed lid. The book is old and well thumbed, most probably a Bible, the basis of all children's moral education.

Style: Baroque
We don't know who the young woman in this small portrait was, but her jewellery and clothes, which are in the fashion of around 1560, are not enormously rich: she was probably not a lady of the court. The portrait is rather loosely, even carelessly, painted and it is not always clear exactly what is represented.

Her headdress, which is a cap or snood with a central seam, is pale yellow and patterned with orange dots and dashes. The ruffles at her chin and the upper part of her underdress are similarly decorated in orange and yellow: this is probably intended to suggest embroidery in gold thread on white fabrics. Her dress is purple with deep purple facings, and her sleeves are white pattered with horizontal and vertical slashes. She wears a belt and a bracelet apparently made of small gold links, and a necklace incorporating small pearls alternating with gold links, which she has looped into the neckline of her dress. At the wrists her sleeves and the ruffles are decorated with red or pink. A restorer has prettified her cap, collar and underdress, and the belt, necklace and bracelet by adding touches of gilding.

The picture is painted on limewood panel. The ground is white, presumably chalk and glue, and seems to be covered with a whitish priming. Infrared reflectograhy reveals extensive underdrawing. In the face the features are outlined in short overlapping strokes which are probably the result of drawing over a design transferred from a cartoon by tracing or pouncing. The underdrawing for the hair, cap and clothes is bolder and freer.

This painting was in Italy at an early period (perhaps around 1700), when it was attributed to Lucas van Leyden, whose name, Luca Di Olanda, is written on the back. When it was taken to France it was attributed to Corneille de Lyon.

A rather similar but even smaller portrait of a similarly dressed lady is in the collection of the Duke of Westminster at Eaton Hall. She wears a dark veil of the kind associated with women of lesser rank and has looped her necklace into the neckline in the same way. Like the lady in our painting, she is smiling, her eyes are too far apart and her near eye is placed too low and too far to our right. Both these portraits could be by the same, rather unskillful, follower of Corneille, perhaps tracing the underdrawing from a drawing by a more competent artist. If he was working in Corneille's workshop, perhaps he painted the less influential and prosperous clients.

Style: High Renaissance
The stretch of water in the foreground has been described as both a lake or a river. If the latter, then it almost certainly depicts the river Oise, near to Daubigny's home in Auvers-sur-Oise. The surface of the water is covered with vegetation, including clumps of reeds and water-lilies. These vie with the myriad reflections from the trees, bushes and the sky itself. A woman wearing a red and white hat sits at the far side, under a clump of alders. It is an evening scene, with pink touches in the sky close to the horizon at the left. A sense of impending dusk is also conveyed by the mauve colour of the clouds on this side.

This painting is closely related to a number of other  compositions by the artist, all dated 1873, a year later. The closest of these is Lake with Ducks (Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow), which, along with the other variants, includes a small house at the left. It was Daubigny's habit to paint repetitions of his landscapes, often at the request of dealers and collectors, and it is probable that the Glasgow view was painted from this work. While the compositions are similar, the sky and water have been treated differently, and the sunset tones are more pronounced in the later picture.

Daubigny built up Alders in multiple layers, often applied wet-in-wet, and using a variety of painterly techniques. Throughout the painting some of the touches of paint are quite dry: for example, the reflections of tree trunks are expressed as vertical strokes with an almost dry brush catching the grain of the wood. In some areas, for example in the pink cloud left of centre, the paint surface is textured with short, evenly spaced parallel lines. These were possibly created with a graining comb. Such marks are also to be found in the sky of Landscape with Cattle by a Stream and the path of The Garden Wall, Auvers-sur-Oise, where they are more widely spaced.

Style: Barbizon