wrmthorne/National_Gallery_style_classification huggingface dataset:
The lifeless body of Christ has been taken down from the Cross and lies on a white sheet -- the shroud with which he will be wrapped and placed in the tomb. Behind him is the Virgin Mary, eyes raised to heaven in grief, and alongside her Saint John the Evangelist, mopping his eyes with a handkerchief, and a second woman, probably Mary Magdalene. In the foreground, bending down to kiss Christ's hands and feet, are two monks in the white robes of the Carthusian Order.

This is a much-reduced copy of a large altarpiece painted for the Carthusian monastery in Naples by Massimo Stanzione, one of the leading painters in Naples in the seventeenth century. Though he was a great rival of Jusepe Ribera, Stanzione frequently collaborated on commissions with other artists working in Naples, including Artemisia Gentileschi. Stanzione's rich colour and naturalism greatly influenced Neapolitan artists such as Bernardino Cavallino. From 1630 Stanzione was almost constantly involved in large-scale church commissions in Naples. He executed a number of works for the Carthusian monks in the church of the Certosa di San Martino in Naples; some of which, including the original of this composition, are still in situ.

This copy may date from the eighteenth century and is unusual for being painted on slate, a support whose smooth surface and dark grey colour not only evokes the gloom in which the scene is set, but also perfectly enhances the three-dimensionality of the figures that are the subject of this picture.

Style: Baroque, Academic, Rococo, Neoclassical
This is one of the best examples of Gerrit Dou’s brilliance at depicting different surfaces and textures in an extraordinarily convincing way: the fraying cloth crumpled underneath the bucket, the smooth stone of the sill, the feathers in the duck’s wing and the pocked skin of its breast and neck.

Not only do they look almost photographically real in themselves, but Dou has demonstrated his mastery of reflection and distortion by mirroring them in the shiny curve of the pail. Many seventeenth-century Dutch painters were skilled at painting in this way, but few -- if any -- could match Dou, who was apprenticed to Rembrandt, but also studied the minute techniques of copper engraving and glass painting. He became one of the most successful artists in Leiden, and his accounts of everyday scenes like this -- a young woman buying poultry and game -- were particularly sought-after.

As here, many were set in an architectural frame. It is an unusual device: while the details and the interaction between the figures are extremely realistic, the architecture reminds us that this is not a real scene. A typical Leiden poultry seller might well have looked as we see her here, but she definitely wouldn't have displayed her produce in such a grand and formal setting. It was a device which proved popular with Dou’s own customers though, and it also allowed him to give a greater sense of depth to the painting. The caged chicken, the crumpled cloth and the dead birds protruding over the sill, and the poulterer reaching out with the hare all seem to come forward into our own space. The illusion is intensified by the dramatic shaft of light which highlights the objects and figures in the foreground. Meanwhile, the shop and the two figures inside recede into a deep, shadowy background.

It is quite a formulaic composition. Dou’s customers might have recognised the sculpted panel showing children playing with a goat. It is based on a seventeenth-century marble bas-relief and often appears in Dou's work from 1651 and later. The old woman is also recognisable from several of his works from at least 1647 onwards. The style of this painting, however, suggests that it was made significantly later than this: there are comparisons, for example, with his Grocer's Shop of 1672 (Royal Collection, London).

Some art historians -- swayed by what they see as the exaggerated eagerness of the young woman -- have argued that we should read a moral message into the scene, based on the fact that the Dutch word for bird (vogel) puns with a slang word for sex (vogelen), and that empty bird cages could symbolise the loss of chastity. Hares were also associated with lust. But it's hard to make a convincing case for what such a message or lesson might be. It is more likely that if Dou were suggesting any double entendres, they were for comic, rather than moral, effect.

Style: Baroque
This is is traditionally said to be a portrait of the Englishman John Scott, who bought the estate at Banks Fee, near Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, in 1753. During the early 1770s -- around the same time as this work was produced -- Scott did travel to Rome, where the famous portraitist Batoni worked. The city was a popular destination for English gentleman on their Grand Tour of Europe.

Here, the sitter's gaze is directed towards the lower right and his mouth is slightly open; it's as if he has been distracted by something or someone just out of view. He rests one hand on a walking stick and holds a black hat in the other. His formal wig is neatly tied back with a black ribbon, and his shimmering blue silk coat, fur-lined and trimmed with exquisite silver thread -- perhaps an Italian-bought luxury -- stands out against a plain, shadowy background. Batoni was highly skilled at creating texture, something that can be appreciated here in the creases of the waistcoat, which emphasise the sitter's form, and in the details of the lace scarf and sleeves.

The stone plinth that the sitter leans against is inscribed with Batoni's signature and the date 1774. A plinth of this kind would display a classical bust or sculpture, or a decorative urn. These objects appeared in many of Batoni's portraits, and alluded to the sitter being learned and well travelled (see Portrait of Richard Miles, for example).

Batoni was among the most famous Roman portraitists of his time, and many Englishmen visited his studio in Rome. He did not invent the Grand Tour portrait and some of the features associated with his work, such as the three-quarter view or the array of carefully positioned objects or props, were used by portraitists in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But he did make it his own, dominating the market with his precise drawing, high degree of finish and freshness of colour.

Style: Neoclassical
The mythological story of the musical competition between the god Apollo and the satyr Marsyas is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses (VI, 382ff.). Marsyas challenged Apollo to a music contest, which the god won. To punish him for his presumption, Apollo then skinned Marsyas alive. Here the satyr is tied to a tree while Apollo, in a red cloak and with his lyre on the grass beside him, leans forward to plunge his knife into Marsyas' skin. They are surrounded by a group of fauns, nymphs and other figures.

This is one of ten frescoes by Domenichino and assistants depicting stories of Apollo which originally adorned the walls of a room known as the Stanza di Apollo in a garden pavilion in the grounds of the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, near Rome. Eight of the frescoes were transferred to canvas and are now in our collection. The decoration of the room glorified the Aldobrandini family and expressed their philosophical and religious ideas. For them, Apollo was not just the classical god of the sun, but also the light of reason. By contrast, Marsyas, whose half-animal nature is seen in his hairy legs, represented the sensual and brutish aspects of human nature, and his grisly death symbolised the triumph of reason over man's darker passions.

This, the only fresco in a horizontal format, was originally positioned over the entrance and so would have been seen last, as the viewer turned to leave the room. Its composition, which is centrally arranged, would have been viewed directly from below and the scene summed up the theme of the entire room. The tapestry border is a modern addition.

There are five preparatory drawings for figures in this scene in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, and a sixth for the landscape background. One figure was changed in the final painting: the kneeling satyr was originally standing, suggesting that Domenichino may have been actively involved in painting this particular fresco. Of the other scenes in the Stanza, Domenichino was responsible for their design but the actual painting was left largely to assistants.

Style: Baroque, Academic
An old man in an exotic costume is reading a young lady's palm. She is accompanied by a young man in a turban who leans towards her and rests his hand on her shoulder, but the nature of their relationship is unclear.

The objects that surround the old man tell us that he is a magician: an alembic (a still to make alcohol), an incense burner, several reference books and a magic wand. His rich brocade gown, the coins on the table and the upholstered chair indicate that he is successful. But perhaps the appearance of wealth is only to make the two visitors trust him. The young pair look as if they are entirely convinced by the magician’s words.

The title ‘The Necromancer’ is a translation of that given to the work, or a version of it, when it was exhibited at the 1775 Paris Salon. In the 1762 edition of the Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise a necromancer is defined as either someone who evokes the spirits of the dead in order to predict the future, or simply a magician. However, the elderly man here is not practising necromancy but chiromancy – the occult art of reading the future from the palm of the hand. Practising chiromancy was a criminal offence punishable by exile during Le Prince's time. It was not illegal to consult a chiromancer, those who did so were regarded more to be pitied than blamed.

Le Prince went to Russia in 1757, and following his return to Paris in 1764 he exhibited numerous pictures of the people and places of Russia. Some have assumed this painting to be among his Russian subjects, although this is unlikely as Russia is not included in the title, and the costumes appear to be exotically oriental rather than specifically Russian. The woman’s dress with its striped underskirt resembles contemporary French fashion, but her long coat and sash are Turkish elements. The young man’s tall cap and turban drapery are shown in Le Prince’s print The Turkish Officer (Officier Turc). The coat worn by the old man is Chinese, as are his shoes and trousers. At his death, Le Prince owned a number of items of Chinese, Turkish and Russian clothing, and the costumes in the painting may be based on these. Le Prince’s painting may have been a conscious response in reverse to two earlier compositions: Caspar Netscher’s The Fortune Teller, of about 1666--70, which was then in the Orléans collection; and his own painting of 1773, The Physician (Le Médecin Clairvoyant), now in Baltimore Museum of Art.

There are three known virtually identical versions of this picture. Ours is signed 'L Prince'. The version in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg is signed lower right 'Le Prince' and may have been the version exhibited in 1775 at the Paris Salon, meaning it is probably the original. There is another unsigned version in the Graham Collection, Texas. The painting was also etched and engraved by Isidor Stanislas Helman in 1785. Unusually, the engraving is the same way round as the painting – normally engravings reproduce the painting in reverse.

Style: Neoclassical
The Adoration of the Shepherds is a late altarpiece by Guido Reni, painted on a monumental scale. Nearly five metres high without its frame, it is one of the largest paintings in the National Gallery's collection. It shows a group of shepherds gathered around the newborn Christ in a stable in Bethlehem.

Reni has staged a night-time scene, using the darkness to full effect by surrounding the Christ Child with an otherworldly glow that illuminates the faces of those around him; they gaze upon his manger with awe and devotion. Celestial light seems to spill from the heavens through a gap in the clouds surrounded by a group of joyful putti. The scroll they carry reads: GLORIA IN ECCELSIS DEO ('Glory to God in the highest'). The Adoration was a popular devotional subject addressed frequently by artists in Europe in the seventeenth century and in the preceding centuries. The subject has been interpreted by different artists with great variety -- Nicolas Poussin's representation, for example, sets the scene in daylight and depicts the holy family in a stable built among classical ruins.

This work was completed in Reni's final years and is recorded by his biographer, Carlo Cesare Malvasia, as one of the paintings left in the artist's studio at the time of his death. Many of these works were left unfinished when Reni died in 1642, though the loose, painterly brushwork of his late style often makes it difficult to tell which works are finished and which are not. Reni has used a deep blue for the Virgin's drapery and bright orange and blue for Joseph's robes -- a deliberate use of complementary colours that highlights the distinction between the holy family and the shepherds, whose garments are more sombre. Reni has used a high-quality variety of the pigment ultramarine for the blue of the Virgin's robes. Considered to be the most expensive pigment on an artist's palette -- at one time worth more by weight than gold -- the purest ultramarine would often be reserved for depictions of the Virgin, as in Sassoferrato's The Virgin in Prayer.

According to Malvasia, the majority of the paintings that remained in Reni's studio upon his death were either sold or delivered to the client who commissioned them by the executor of the artist's will. This painting is one of two very late large-scale treatments of the Adoration of the Shepherds by Reni; the other was painted for the Certosa di San Martino in Naples (where it remains). The paintings are close in date, but show some variations between their compositions. Malvasia names the two works as examples of great altarpieces created by Reni at the end of his career, describing the National Gallery work as 'per germania' (for Germany). It is possible that the painting was commissioned by Prince Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein (1611--1684), or that the prince acquired it from Reni's studio following the dispersal of its contents after the artist's death. The painting hung in the royal chapel at the castle in Feldsberg, before being moved to the family's palace in Vienna in 1706. It was purchased from the prince's descendants by the National Gallery in 1957.

Style: Caravaggist, Academic
This long rectangular panel is painted with scenes from the life of Saint Jerome, surrounding a central image from the story of the Old Testament hero Esther. It was made as a predella, the lowest tier of an altarpiece which runs along the bottom of the main panel.

The altarpiece was commissioned jointly in 1519 by Niccolò Gamurrini, a papal officer in Rome, and the Company of Saint Jerome for their church in Arezzo. The contract stated that Signorelli ought to include painted pilasters and a predella, decorated with scenes 'pleasing to the confraternity'. The main panel, which is now in the Museo Civico, Arezzo, shows the Virgin Mary surrounded by saints and prophets, including Saint Jerome, who stands in the foreground in the position of honour to her right. The Virgin is shown with symbols that refer to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which stated that she was conceived without sin.

Esther was sometimes seen as an Old Testament forerunner of the Virgin; like Mary, she was a humble Jewish woman who was elevated to a position of high rank. Esther was married to Ahasuerus, King of Persia; through her bravery in appealing to him to spare the Jews from a massacre planned by his chief advisor, she became a hero of her people. This scene shows her pleading to the King to put a stop to the murderous decree (Esther 8: 3--6).

Here she is attended by two maids, who support her body; Esther was so fearful of Ahasuerus that she fainted in his presence. Horrified at her state, he promised to protect the Jews. These details come from apocryphal Greek additions to the biblical text, which describe how, 'raising his golden sceptre he laid it on Esther's neck, embraced her and said, "Speak to me."' This singling out of Esther by the King was often associated with the Virgin's special status as born free from sin.

The three surrounding scenes show episodes that, according to the legend of Saint Jerome, occurred after his death when he appeared to various clerics as a vision. In the first scene to the far left, Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist appear to Saint Augustine; in the next, he appears with Christ to Sulpicius Severus. Finally, to the right of the scene with Esther, he appears to Saint Cyril, again with Christ. These episodes were recorded in a fourteenth-century Latin text by Giovanni da Bologna,  translated into Italian and published frequently in the fifteenth century as Il Divoto Transito del Glorioso Sancto Hieronymo.

Style: High Renaissance
According to the Gospel of Matthew (1: 20-1), an angel appeared to Saint Joseph in a dream to confirm that the Virgin Mary had conceived Christ through the Holy Ghost. Champaigne shows the angel suspended above Joseph and surrounded by a soft ray of light, pointing with one hand to heaven and with the other to Mary -- a gesture often seen in biblical paintings. Kneeling in front of an open Bible, Mary glances towards the angel, her arms crossed and held against her chest.

Joseph was the patron saint of workers, particularly carpenters and joiners. Scattered on the floor are his tools: a wooden mallet, chisel and axe. He is shown as a youthful rather than elderly man, as was more common. The chair, with its ornately carved arms and legs and deeply padded and tasselled cushion, on which Joseph rests his head, are at odds with the simplicity of his yellow cloak and sandals. His appearance signifies his humility, which the viewer would have been encouraged to follow. Champaigne's figures were typically inspired by classical sculpture, and the drapery here appears solid and arranged in precise, large folds.

This subject was painted frequently during the seventeenth century. It was promoted by, among others, Saint François de Sales (1567--1622) and Pope Gregory XV (1554--1623), who in 1621 introduced an annual Saint Joseph's day (19 March).

Like most of Champaigne's paintings, this one is not signed or dated. A painting of this subject by the artist was mentioned in late eighteenth-century guidebooks as being in a chapel in the now demolished monastery of the Minims, near the Place Royale, Paris. Champaigne also painted this episode for the Carmelites of the Faubourg St-Jacques (the painting is now in the Louvre) and the Tuboeuf chapel in the church of the Oratory in the rue St-Honoré, both in Paris.

Style: Baroque, Academic
A young man stands next to the body of a stag which he has just shot with an arrow: his bow lies on the ground at his feet. His hands are flung up in horror, and greenery is growing from his fingers and from his head. This is the story of Cyparissus, a favourite of Apollo, who has accidentally killed his own pet stag (Ovid, Metamorphoses (X, 126ff.). He was so distressed that he begged Apollo to be allowed to mourn forever, so Apollo transformed him into a cypress tree, the symbol of mourning.

This is one of ten frescoes by Domenichino and assistants which originally adorned the walls of a room known as the Stanza di Apollo in a garden pavilion in the grounds of the Villa Aldobrandini in Frascati, near Rome. Eight of them were transferred to canvas and are now in our collection. All show stories of Apollo, mainly taken from the Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses.

This scene was on the left-hand side of the room, next to Apollo pursuing Daphne. The original detachment of this fresco from the wall was not completely successful and the upper, smaller portion containing the figure of Apollo is still in situ at Frascati.

Although Domenichino was responsible for the overall design of the frescoes he did not invent the iconography, but based it on a long tradition of illustrated printed editions of Ovid's famous poem. He may have used Antonio Tempesta's 1606 edition, although he revised the compositions extensively to make them clearer and more legible, and to adapt their shape from horizontal to vertical to fit the Stanza's walls.

A chalk drawing by Domenichino for the figure of Apollo in this painting is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. Although Domenichino is responsible for the design of this scene, much of the actual painting seems to have been left to assistants.

Style: Baroque, Academic
The sun god Apollo -- identifiable by the golden rays around  his head -- pursues a young woman whose fingers are sprouting foliage. This is Daphne, a river nymph with whom the god has fallen in love. She rejects his advances and, rather than allowing him to catch her, is turned into a laurel, the tree sacred to poetry (Ovid, Metamorphoses I, 540ff.)

This is one of ten frescoes which originally adorned the walls of a room known as the Stanza di Apollo in a garden pavilion in the grounds of the Villa Aldobrandini at Frascati, near Rome. Eight of the frescoes, which have been transferred to canvas, are in our collection. All show stories of Apollo, mostly as told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorposes.

The iconographical scheme of the pavilion was conceived by Domenichino's friend Giovanni Battista Agucchi to glorify the Aldobrandini family and to express their philosophical and religious ideas. The precise significance of each scene is not always clear but Apollo as the sun god was also the god of art and music and the Stanza was a temple to the arts. Here, sensual desire is transformed into poetry.

This scene was on the left-hand wall of the Stanza, and is painted as a trompe l'oeil tapestry, with an embroidered border (as is Apollo killing the Cyclops, which was on the same wall).  Domenichino himself was responsible for the overall design of the frescoes, basing it on a long tradition of illustrated editions of Ovid's famous poem. He may have referred to illustrations in Antonio Tempesta's 1606 edition, although he revised the composition of each scene to make it clearer and more legible.

Many preparatory studies by Domenichino survive for this project. A pen and ink drawing in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle is very closely followed in this fresco, and a black chalk figure study for Daphne is in the Louvre in Paris. Although designed by Domenichino himself, much of the actual painting seems to have been left to assistants.

Style: Baroque, Academic