wrmthorne/National_Gallery_style_classification huggingface dataset:
Cadmus, a prince of Tyre, travelled to the Delphic Oracle after his sister was stolen away by Zeus. He asked where to find her but was told that, instead of searching for his sister, he should 'follow the cow outside and wherever it rests, build a new city'.

This Cadmus did. When the cow collapsed from fatigue, he sent his followers to search for water so he could sacrifice it to the goddess Athena. But the spring they found was guarded by a fierce dragon, the son of Ares, and it slaughtered them all. When his men failed to return, Cadmus set out after them and came face to face with the monster. After a fierce struggle he killed it, and was told by Athena to sow its teeth in the ground. Armed men sprang up from the earth as soon as the teeth touched it -- and began to fight each other. Five were left alive. They swore allegiance to Cadmus and helped him build the city that later became known as Thebes.

Here, a man reaches up to wrestle the dragon away as it sinks its foul teeth -- described by the Roman poet Ovid as shining like gold, though van Haarlem imagines them otherwise -- into his cheek. The dragon's tail curls and clings down past the man's shoulder, the livid pink tip obscenely probing his curls. Its claws seem to tear his torso and legs, but a closer look reveals that they belong to another person, already dead and flung across his hips. A severed head is on the ground, the throat revealed behind the first man's muscular back and contorted arm. The bones of other victims are scattered about. The dragon's black wings are outlined against a thundery sky, but a glimmer of hope is offered by a distant view of Cadmus fighting it to its death. This collapsing of time -- showing two scenes from a story in one painting -- was a favourite device of artists like van Haarlem, working in the Manneriststyle.

The story of Cadmus is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses with as much gory detail as van Haarlem shows in his painting. Biblical and classical stories gave Mannerist painters scope for studies of the nude in contorted poses with exaggerated facial expressions. Karel van Mander, an artist and influential writer on art in Haarlem in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, was van Haarlem's mentor. Together with the painter and printmaker Hendrick Goltzius, who made a print after van Haarlem's painting, they furthered the Mannerist style in the city, with Michelangelo and more muscular examples of classical sculpture as their ideal exemplars. Not for them the cosy Dutch interior or elegant flower arrangement. Their ambitions were far wider than the Haarlem market and they sought to align themselves with international developments in painting.

Style: High Renaissance
A monumental Virgin Mary sits on a stone pedestal. The Christ Child, a solid toddler, is perched on her raised knee, his left hand resting tenderly in the curve of her left thumb and forefinger. He clutches at his mother's veil; she cups the fingers of her right hand around his naked leg to support him. Mary looks down sadly to one side, as if contemplating the destiny of her son.

This painting is a faithful copy of a lost work by Giovanni Bellini, known through a number of copies and variants, perhaps painted for the Chiesa degli Scalzi in Venice. It is signed and dated in Latin by the Cremonese painter Francesco Tacconi. Like all Renaissance artists, Bellini and his workshop produced large numbers of paintings of the Virgin and Child, from small-scale works for private devotion to larger, full-length figures intended for high altars and private chapels in churches. Bellini displayed great ingenuity in varying a traditional format.

It was widely believed that the first painting of the Virgin was made by Saint Luke, to whom Mary and Christ appeared in a vision. Artists were therefore limited in the level of innovation possible, and patrons were doubtless attracted by the accessibility of Bellini's essentially traditional representations, combined with their great technical skill.

The green cloth of honour behind Mary also appears in Bellini's Virgin and Child (probably 1480--90), which is a truncated version of the full-length image.

Style: Early Renaissance
This warm, tranquil scene is bathed in sunlight. The sun sits low in the sky, and the clock on the building to the left records the time as five o'clock. A coat of arms with three golden fleurs-de-lis (emblem of the French king) against a blue background can be seen above the clock and faintly on the ship’s flags to the right, suggesting this painting was intended for a French patron. Perhaps he is the figure dressed in a red cloak and carrying a sword who stands closest to the ship -- a kneeling man could be pointing towards him or to the magnificent architecture on the opposite side of the painting. A group of well-dressed men to the left are in conversation while others work hard: they row passengers to the larger ships and secure a boat's mooring. A musician sits beside his lute, and a woman and child watch those gathered at the port.

This is one of a number of seaport scenes by Claude without a story taken from literature. This scene is mostly imaginary, although the architecture is based on sixteenth-century buildings in Rome. Claude's aristocratic patrons were keen to link their names with the ancient grandeur of Rome. The most distant building combines features taken from the Villa Farnesina and Palazzo Senatorio; the four towers just visible in Claude's painting are close in design to the campanile (bell-tower) of the palace. The ornate entrance to the building in the foreground is inspired by the gateway to the Farnese gardens, created by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. On the balustrade of the building is a statue of Venus, the goddess of love. During the 1640s, when this work was painted, the statue belonged to the Medici family, wealthy Italian bankers who were Claude's patrons. Between these two buildings stands the Arch of Titus, an ancient Roman landmark.

Such port scenes were popular in Rome during the seventeenth century, and Claude produced a number of them. He painted earlier works with a similar composition for Pope Urban VIII  (Alnwick Castle, Northumberland) and Angelo Giorio, who became a cardinal in 1643 and was the owner of the Villa Farnesina, which is referred to in this painting. Many of Claude's paintings were later purchased by northern European aristocrats travelling around the Continent on what became known as the 'Grand Tour'  -- an opportunity to see the great works of ancient and modern art, and to acquire examples for their own collections.

Style: Baroque, Academic
This scene closely follows the account in the Old Testament book of Samuel (book 2, 23: 13--17), which was rarely painted during the seventeenth century. King David and his companions emerge from the cave of Adullam. They cannot enter the city of Bethlehem and the valley below as the Philistines, whose pitched tents are just visible in the bottom left corner, occupy both. Three of the King’s bravest soldiers -- Ishbaal, Eleazer and Shamma -- have fulfilled the King's wish for a drink of water by reaching a well at the city gate. They have returned and offer the water to him, but he  raises his hands, refusing to drink. He is ashamed for risking their lives and offers it instead to God.

The Gallery owns 12 paintings by Claude, many combining landscapes and seascapes with depictions of stories from the Bible or classical mythology. This picture was painted in 1658 for Prince Agostino Chigi (1634--1705), then a young military commander in the papal service, and nephew to Pope Alexander VII (1599--1667). The unusual subject links the patron with the honourable behaviour of a great biblical hero, King David, and with the Christian world -- the three warriors standing before the King anticipate the better-known scenes of the Three Kings offering gifts to the infant Christ.

The distance between the cave and the Bethlehem gate shows the difficulty of the task undertaken by the three warriors. The foreground activity framed by the central tree and cave, leading to a hazy evening sky, is typical of Claude's idealised landscapes. Closer inspection reveals many intricate details: different plants have been placed along the bottom edge, the valley is occupied by small-scale animated figures, and buildings merge with the landscape beyond. Areas of the sky and central tree have been damaged, which prevents Claude's skill being fully appreciated.

Agostino intended this painting to be paired with Argos, Io and Mercury by Salvator Rosa (1615--1673) (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City), painted five years earlier, which hung beside it in an identical frame. The subject and composition of these paintings is very different. They present a contrast between princely self-restraint of King David in Claude's painting and the immoral behaviour of the characters taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses (book 1: 588) in Rosa's work.

Style: Baroque, Academic
A large tent or booth is set up on top of a hill above a military camp, which we can just make out in the murky, purple distance. It has been erected next to a blasted tree and together they stand upright against a big, luminous sky, filling nearly half the picture. The tent has a flag raised high above its peak, while the dying, dead and broken branches of the tree create sharp fracture lines on the cloudy background.

Dramatic though this backdrop is, it's not the main focus of the picture. Instead, tree and tent are a stage set for the cavalrymen who have gathered in the foreground; their antics are the main entertainment for the viewer. They have been attracted up from the camp by the tent, which has been pitched by a 'sutler', a man -- or very often a woman -- who made their living by following an army on the march and selling drink and other provisions to the troops. Inevitably, such booths would have been popular places for off-duty soldiers to relax and enjoy themselves.

So it is the atmosphere of young men having a good time that Philips Wouwerman has attempted to create here. We can’t quite see what is being bought and sold from the sutler, just the shadowy entrance where some horses are feeding from a trough. But a cavalryman raising his empty tankard and the presence of a woman with a flagon suggest that alcohol was available, and probably other pleasures of the flesh too.

The officer in the centre of the foreground is clearly attempting to seduce the woman with the flagon, and she seems well disposed to his advances. He fondles her chin with one hand while controlling the reins of his prancing horse with the other -- an obvious metaphor for his excited state of mind. Behind them we can just make out another seduction, one which seems to have progressed further: a woman seated on the ground is already partly undressed. A third horseman celebrates his own arrival at the booth with a blast on his bugle.

The excitement of these three cavaliers who seem to have just arrived on the scene is countered by quieter pleasures of the other soldiers on the hill. One is fast asleep while others play cards, watched by a standard bearer holding his flag furled. In the foreground, two children are playing with a dog, and a beggar holds out his cap to the seducing officer.

Wouwerman, an astute observer of horses and horseman, and of soldiers in battle as well as at rest, has not painted a real scene. This picture would have been composed in his studio in Haarlem. And the mountainous coastline we see in the background is not one he could have known in reality. It was probably inspired by paintings of Italian landscapes by Dutch artists who had travelled to Rome to study and work.

Style: Baroque
This painting is a damaged fragment of a larger composition by the Florentine painter Filippino Lippi. The original appearance of the complete picture may be echoed in a copy that survives in a private collection, which shows the Virgin Mary with the infant Christ flanked by two angels.

Our fragment contains the angel that would have been originally on the left-hand side. His hands are clasped in adoration of Christ, traces of whom may still be seen around the right edge of the picture. The top of another head, possibly belonging to the young Saint John the Baptist, is visible at the bottom of our painting. A fragment showing the other angel survives in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg. It's likely that the original painting had become very damaged, and that the owner thought he could make two independent -- and saleable -- pictures by cutting out the best preserved sections and making them into stand-alone works of art.

The copy of the complete picture is of circular format and it is possible that our picture had the same shape. Circular paintings, known as tondi, were particularly appreciated in Florence, where Filippino established himself as one of the leading painters in the final third of the fifteenth century. Although not unique to Florence, the inclusion of the young Saint John the Baptist is especially common in devotional paintings made for the city. He was both the patron saint of Florence and dedicatee of the city’s most important church, the Baptistery. Whether circular or not, our painting is likely to have been made as an aid for prayer in a Florentine household.

Nothing is known about the painting’s original whereabouts. It is first documented in the nineteenth century, before the English politician Wynn Ellis acquired it. Well known as a liberal MP for Hertford and a political rival of the later Prime Minister Robert Peel, Ellis amassed a considerable fortune in the silk trade. The proceeds allowed him to buy more than 400 paintings by contemporary artists and old masters. They were the pride of his London home in Cadogan Square.

Ellis died in 1875. While his contemporary paintings were auctioned off at Christie’s, he had stipulated that the old master paintings were to be bequeathed to the National Gallery. They constitute one of the largest single gifts in the history of the institution. Seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, including major works by Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Both and Nicolaes Berchem, made up the majority of Ellis’s collection. Of the works that aren't Dutch, many are masterpieces, from Paolo Veronese to Claude and Canaletto. An Angel Adoring was among a small group of early Italian paintings, which also included Piero del Pollaiuolo’s Apollo and Daphne and Rosso Fiorentino’s Knight of Saint John.

Style: Early Renaissance
We don't know who the boy in the portrait is, or who painted it. It was once thought to have been the work of François Duchastel, a Flemish painter living in Ghent, but the attribution is now considered uncertain. From his ornate, costly costume, fashionable in the Southern Netherlands in the 1660s, we know that the boy is probably the child of nobility.

In spite of his costume, the boy's wide eyes and arched brows appear a little shy and uncertain. His hand thrusts out of his sleeve to present the rose -- as if from the mouth of a trumpet -- but he holds it delicately between finger and thumb, perhaps nervous of its thorns. The flower is important: it may be a family symbol, or a token of a betrothal. Noble children as young as eight might be promised in a future marriage as a political alliance.

Style: Baroque
In this intimate painting the Virgin Mary holds a branch of lilies entwined with carnations in her left hand and supports the Christ Child with her right. He raises one hand in blessing, and holds a rose in the other. More flowers lie in a basket. The golden-haired infant has a faint halo, making his head stand out against the dark background.

The tender atmosphere and delicacy of execution are typical of Carlo Dolci, who painted several versions of this scene for aristocratic patrons between 1642 and 1649 (there are examples in the Musée Fabre, Montpellier, and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich). The refined draughtmanship, noticeable in details like the lace and the transparent veil covering Christ, is characteristic of the paintings he produced in the 1640s, although this version may be later and seems not to be by Dolci's hand.

The flowers are symbolic: lilies and roses are commonly associated with the Virgin's purity and the carnations (which symbolise marriage) may refer to Mary's role as both Bride and Mother of Christ, as in Italian: Raphael, The Madonna of the Pinks ('La Madonna dei Garofani'). A Latin inscription on the back of Dolci's variant in Munich, in the artist's own hand, suggests that the flowers held particular significance: 'EGO FLOS CAMPI ET LILIUM CONVALLIUM/ET EGO MATER PULCRA DILECTIONIS' ('I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys/And I am the mother of fair love'). These two verses, taken from different books of the Old Testament -- the Song of Solomon 2: 1 and Ecclesiasticus 24: 24 -- were understood to apply to Christ and the Virgin.

The pose of the Christ Child recalls the blessing infant Christ in one of the most beautiful and influential Italian early Renaissance sculptures, Desiderio da Settignano's marble Tabernacle of the Sacrament, made before 1461 for the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. Desiderio's sculpture was extremely well known and Dolci was probably familiar with it since San Lorenzo was his local church; the building where he lived and had his workshop was only a short distance away.

Style: Baroque, Academic
This painting shows an episode from Ovid’s Art of Love (Book III: 83). The Roman goddess Diana would visit the shepherd Endymion every night while he slept. According to Cicero, Diana herself induced Endymion’s sleep so that she could enjoy him undisturbed. Cicero’s account had been newly translated into French in 1732, and two further editions were published during Subleyras’s lifetime. However, the story of the love-struck goddess had been painted so often that Subleyras would have already known the key components of the story. These include the nude, or near nude, Diana hovering at dusk close to a similarly near nude shepherd holding a staff, with dogs, and perhaps sheep, as well as putti in the background. Versions of the story by contemporary French artists, including Boucher, could be seen in Paris and Versailles.

In 1728 Subleyras arrived in Rome to study at the French Academy there, and he remained for the rest of his life. In Rome he would have seen Annibale Carracci’s fresco of the story at the Palazzo Farnese, and he may have already seen prints of the fresco beforehand. It is possible that Carracci’s fresco is the source for the putto in the upper right corner with his finger to his mouth requesting silence, as this gesture was not common to all depictions of the story. Subleyras would also have known the life-size marble sculpture of the Barberini Faun. Discovered in the 1620s and gradually restored over subsequent decades, the antique statue was housed in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. It had already become famous through engravings and the French sculptor Edmé Bouchardon, a fellow student at the Academy, was also making a marble copy of it when Subleyras arrived in the city. The Faun may have provided a model for Subleyras’s reclining Endymion, especially the torso and left arm, but Endymion’s head is more likely based upon another classical sculpture of the Dying Alexander (Uffizi, Florence).

Despite Subleyras’s use of visual sources he encountered in Rome, we cannot assume he painted Diana and Endymion soon after his arrival there. The picture more likely dates from the early to mid 1740s, when he would have seen a marble group of Diana and Endymion (1735--40) by René-Michel (called Michel-Ange) Slodtz. Subleyras and Slodtz had been friends when they were both at the French Academy, and Subleyras’s painting may have been a response to Slodtz’s sculpture of the same subject -- an instance, perhaps, of friendly rivalry between different media. Both men were elected members of the Academia dell’Arcadia (an elite Roman literary society) -- Subleyras in 1743 and Slodtz the following year. As an example of pastoral drama, the subject of Diana and Endymion may well have appealed to fellow Arcadians. The picture’s balanced composition and restrained depiction -- for example, the delicate way Diana barely touches Endymion’s face -- connects it to an ideal of Arcadian classicism promoted by the Academia dell’Arcadia.

Style: Baroque, Rococo
A group of wealthy Venetians sits in the portico of a country house. Two of them play instruments while a young Black page holds their music book. They ignore the beggar who holds out his hand for alms, his sores licked by a dog. The painting is disfigured by ingrained dirt, making it difficult to see the details in the background.

The subject is a parable told by Jesus: the rich Dives gives a feast, ignoring the poor beggar Lazarus covered with sores at his gate. Later Lazarus feasts in paradise while Dives goes to hell (Luke 16: 19).

This work has been considered to be a compositional sketch for Bonifazio’s large picture of the same subject painted around 1540 for the Giustiniani family, and now in the Accademia, Venice. However, it is more likely that it is based on the larger work, which was very famous.

Style: High Renaissance
The Virgin Mary, crowned with stars and standing on the moon, is surrounded by her attributes, which include a temple, fountain, and walled garden. Bowing her head, she presses her fingers together in prayer, eyes half-closed. All around, cherubs swirl in the clouds as a wash of light emanates from the Virgin Immaculate.

Cano made this painting for the church of San Alberto in Seville in the late 1620s, where it was placed in the centre of the second tier of an altarpiece, above Christ bearing the Cross (Worcester Art Museum) and flanked by representations of saints, including Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi (Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville).

Rediscovered in recent years, this remarkable painting is a testament to Cano’s study with Francisco Pacheco, who set down enduring standards for the iconography of the Immaculate Conception. Like his contemporary, Diego Velázquez, who also apprenticed with Pacheco, Cano adhered to his teacher’s precepts but painted with far greater naturalism, joining the scrupulous observation of lived reality with the religious symbolism of the Catholic Church.

Style: Baroque
This is the only surviving mythological painting from Van Dyck's employment as Charles I's court artist. It may be one of a series of canvases illustrating the story of Cupid and Psyche ordered for the Queen's House at Greenwich. This project, which involved Jacob Jordaens and Sir Peter Paul Rubens, was never completed. On the other hand, the painting may have been made as part of the marriage celebrations of Princess Mary and William II of Orange, April‒May 1641. Van Dyck's mistress, Margaret Lemon, may have been the model for Psyche.

In classical mythology, Venus, jealous of Psyche's beauty, set her a number of tasks, the last of which was to bring her a small portion of Proserpine's beauty from Hades in an unopened casket. Psyche, overcome by curiosity, opened it and released not beauty, but sleep, from which she is roused by Cupid. Psyche represents earthly beauty, while Cupid is Desire aroused by her beauty.

Areas of the painting with a higher degree of finish, such as the swirling drapery and the mass of the tree, contrast with thinly painted areas; for example, Cupid's curls and feathers, which are defined with light touches. The free brushwork and poetic rendering of a mythological story show the importance of Titian for Van Dyck, an artist avidly collected by Charles I.

The intimacy and tension of the figures result from a number of simple but striking contrasts: the warmth of Cupid's flesh tones and drapery against the coolness of Psyche's skin and cloak; the speed and energy as he barely touches the ground next to the weight of her 'sleeping corpse'. Cupid enters like an Annunciate Angel with hope, while she assumes the form of a Dead Christ in a Lamentation. The diagonals of their bodies are echoed by the dead and living tree beyond which reinforce the idea of Cupid's touch bringing life back to the dead.

Text adapted from the Royal Collection website

Style: Baroque