wrmthorne/National_Gallery_style_classification huggingface dataset:
This is the central panel of the predella of the altarpiece made by Fra Angelico for his own convent church in Fiesole, just outside Florence. Christ hovers in the centre of this heavenly scene -- you can see traces of white clouds beneath his bare feet.

This is Christ after his death: there is a hole in his right hand, a wound from his crucifixion. His body is paler than his white robe, draped over his shoulder, perhaps to show the pallor of death or that he is shining white. He holds the fluttering flag of the Resurrection -- its red cross echoing that on his halo -- and makes a blessing gesture. The gold background around him is incised with a series of straight lines that appear to radiate from his body, as though he is glowing with golden light. The angels surrounding him are kept at bay by this powerful light, which is like a golden orb around him.

He is surrounded on either side by five rows of angels, some praying, others playing musical instruments. Some appear to sing too.  Fra Angelico's nickname referred to the 'angelic' style of his painting which was was graceful, refined and decorative. The panel is immensely detailed: look, for example, at the decorative gilding of the angels’ costumes, some dotted, some patterned; each individual halo has been punched with a small circular shape giving texture to the gold leaf. The angels' long blue and gold wings are patterned like peacock feathers.

Orderly rows of angels surround Christ, affirming him as the king of heaven. The upper row of angels to Christ's left are dressed in red and so are seraphim and those on the right, in blue, are cherubim. The angels on the lowest row stand and kneel on a blue semi-circle, perhaps intended to represent the vault of heaven. Immediately below Christ are six angels playing trumpets and two kneeling play hand-held organs. Two angels on the lowest row on the left look like they're dancing along to the angelic music -- it's a playful detail, enhancing the sense that heaven is joyful after Christ's resurrection.

Certain angelic beings stand out. To Christ's immediate left an angel approaches to crown him with a wreath of foliage, possibly intended to be a vibrant contrast to the crown of thorns placed upon his head before his crucifixion. Another -- at the front of the third row, on the right  -- wears blue and gold armour, and carries a sword and shield. He is the Archangel Michael, a warrior angel who plays an important role in the weighing of souls at the Last Judgement. The entire predella has been compared with a fresco of the Last Judgement in the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella (the main church of the Dominican Order). That scene also shows the Dominican saints lined up in rows; Saint Michael's prominence here -- because of his connection with the Last Judgement -- might be a deliberate reference to that church.

It is likely that Fra Angelico was largely responsible for this scene and had less assistance from his workshop than in the other predella scenes.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
For those living in Utrecht in the 1630s, this painting must have seemed like a window onto an exotic, tempting world. A crowd of naked women pose elegantly while they talk and bathe in a river. Behind them loom the overgrown tower and arches of a Roman ruin, while the bright morning sky glows behind the farmhouses, foothills and distant mountains of what would have been immediately recognisable as an Italian landscape.

This fantasy world is a very long way from the level pastures, grey skies, neat gables and modest fashion of contemporary Holland. No wonder then that paintings like this proved so popular at the time: they offered a vision of the warm south and intellectual references to the lost world of the classics, as well as an excuse to enjoy female nudity.

Several Dutch artists of the time travelled to train and study in Rome and profited from what they had seen and learnt when they came home, developing a lucrative market for paintings in this genre. Van Poelenburgh spent a decade in Italy from 1617 to 1627 and so was one of those who had experienced the light, landscapes and ruins for himself. On his return he became so highly regarded that he was invited to London to work for Charles I, before returning to Utrecht in 1641 just before the English Civil War.

Often paintings in this genre would represent a scene from a classical or biblical story. It’s possible that here van Poelenburgh meant to depict Diana bathing with her nymphs, but none of the objects that usually identify the goddess are present. Instead his allusion to the classical world is more general, relying on the poses adopted by the nudes to remind his audience of Roman statuary. Van Poelenburgh was considered a specialist in painting such figures -- so much so that he was drafted in to help other artists by adding them to their landscapes. There’s an example of such a collaboration with the artist Jan Both (who studied with him in Rome) in our collection: A Landscape with the Judgement of Paris.

But there's a question over how successful van Poelenburgh has been in depicting the figures. On an individual basis, the women are carefully painted. Look at shading of contours and muscles, and subtle changes of skin tone in the three figures in the foreground. But there's something not quite natural about the way they interact: the poses seem to have been selected for individual effect, rather than a naturalistic grouping. Even more surprising is the woman sitting on a rock on the right-hand side -- the one with her arm raised. She is apparently meant to be part of the group bathing in the distance, but she seems as close to us as the central figures. As a result she and the bathers with her look strangely like a group of miniature people.

Style: Baroque
Guardi's picture takes in the view across the Grand Canal, towards some of the grandest palaces in Venice: the imposing facade of the Palazzo Pesaro is in the centre and the Palazzo Corner della Regina at the far left.

A funeral boat glides along the water, carrying churchmen and ornate burning candles. It heads towards the church of Sant'Eustachio on the far right, the facade of which is illuminated by intense sunlight that leaves the other buildings in gloomy shadow. To the left, two men wrestle a barrel from their boat onto the stone quay while a woman in a vivid white gown steps into a gondola. Another man appears to be crafting a long wooden oar.

The composition is based on an etching by Guardi's near contemporary, Michele Marieschi, in Magnificentiores Selectioresque Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus, published in 1741.

Style: Rococo, Neoclassical
A bearded Saint Philip stands in a landscape, immersed in a book. A slender cross rests against his shoulder, with another cross attached to it where Christ's crucified body would have been hung, a reference to Philip's martyrdom (he was crucified upside down).

Philip was one of Christ's early disciples. He was present when Saint John the Baptist identified Christ as the Messiah, and later persuaded a man called Nathaniel (possibly Saint Bartholomew) to follow Christ. He perhaps spoke Greek and acted as a link with the Greek community; later traditions describe him as the apostle who preached in Greece, Syria and Phrygia. According to the anonymous Acts of Philip, the saint was martyred in the city of Hierapolis in Phrygia. His preaching had converted the wife of the Roman proconsul, who had Philip and Bartholomew executed. Philip preached from his cross, resulting in Bartholomew's release by the crowd. Philip, however, insisted that he remain crucified, and died on his cross.

This picture was originally part of a large, multi-panelled altarpiece painted by Lorenzo Costa for the oratory of S. Pietro in Vincoli, Faenza. It appeared next to The Virgin and Child, with Saint Peter on the other side. The steps on Philip's left are part of the Virgin's elaborate throne, and the delicate landscape extends across these three panels. The paintings were originally on panel but were transferred to canvas in 1848.

Style: High Renaissance
Small-scale images of the Virgin and Child made for private worship were one of Bellini's specialities, and demand for them was so high that his assistants produced a large number in his style. This picture was once thought to be by members of Bellini's workshop, but infrared reflectography revealed that the underdrawing is a detailed and skilled design which could only have been made by Bellini.

In order to reflect the special intimacy of this kind of image, Bellini frequently set the holy figures in a landscape background, connecting them with the countryside familiar to his clients. Here, they are separated from this space by the green cloth of honour behind them -- a feature of many of Bellini's images of this type -- and from us by the marble parapet in front of them; while they seem to be present in our space, their divinity places them just out of reach. Their tender gestures, on the other hand, remind us of the humanity they share with us.

Another clue as to who painted the picture can be found in the pomegranate -- a symbol of Christ's Passion  -- that the Virgin holds. Although the picture is often called 'The Madonna of the Pomegranate' after the fruit, infrared reflectography also revealed that the hands and arms of both figures were in different positions in the original design. The pomegranate was most likely a later addition. The change -- which was probably made after painting had begun -- affected other parts of the picture too: in order to make space for the hands and the pomegranate, the artist had to paint over some of the Virgin's blue robe with red paint. Since the change was so extensive and made at such a late stage it was very likely requested by the patron; that Bellini went to such lengths to incorporate the request shows that the client was obviously important to him. It is therefore very likely that he, rather than members of his workshop, painted the picture.

The patron's wealth is evident in the type of pigments used, which they would have paid for. Bellini has used very high quality ultramarine -- the most expensive pigment, made from lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone -- for the blue of the Virgin's mantle. It is applied liberally here. This is the largest of Bellini's pictures of the Virgin and Child which were not part of a larger altarpiece structure, which suggests that it was probably made to sit upon a small altar: perhaps this owner had his own private chapel in his home.

Style: Early Renaissance
Panini specialised in architectural views and painted about 30 pictures of the monumental interior of St Peter's Basilica in Rome over several decades. This is a view from the left of the main entrance, looking down the nave towards the east end and high altar. At the far end is Gian Lorenzo Bernini's famous sculpted bronze canopy, erected between 1624 and 1633 over the tomb of Saint Peter.

The basilica is an enormous building, and the viewpoint Panini has adopted here emphasises its scale and the splendour of the architecture. We look out over the church from an elevated positioned, with figures scattered across the vast tiled floor beneath us, and piers and arches soaring above. Panini has manipulated perspective to create a dramatic effect in his painting: the angle of vision is far wider than the human eye would be able to see in one glance.

Sunlight streams through the upper windows and domes, creating shadows of varying depth across the vaulted ceiling and the aisles, arches and floor. It is these alternating areas of light and shadow, and the combination of vertical, diagonal and curved lines, that lead us deeper into the scene. Panini has beautifully captured the church's lavish decoration, from the ornate gilding of the ceiling and the elaborate design of the floor to the sculpted figures that adorn the upper arches.

Among the visitors you can see a cardinal in red with his party just right of centre, surrounded by members of various religious orders and lay people who kneel in prayer. Around the dome at the end of the central nave you can make out part of the Latin inscription, which in full reads 'Of the Heaven, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church', the words of Christ taken from the Gospel of Matthew. The circular emblem set into the vaulted ceiling is inscribed in Latin, 'Pope Paul V, 1615', while other inscriptions above the doors at the right refer to Pope Innocent IX, who served during the late sixteenth century, and Pope Innocent XIII, who served from the early eighteenth century.

This painting is large: it measures 1.5 metres high by just over 2 metres wide. It seems to be derived from an earlier version of this scene, now in the Louvre, Paris, which was commissioned in around 1730 by Cardinal de Polignac, French ambassador to the Vatican. The pictures Panini made of St Peter's Basilica were fine mementos for visiting tourists, but also serve as historical documents recording architectural changes to the building between the 1730s and early 1750s. In spite of Panini's signature, which appears here on the base of the pier at the extreme left, this painting was probably made with much assistance from his studio.

Style: Baroque, Rococo
Christ stands in the centre of the river Jordan, naked but for a transparent loin cloth. He gazes directly at us, making a blessing gesture with the fingers of his right hand. His graceful contrapposto pose -- he rests his weight on his right leg, so his left leg is relaxed and slightly bent at the knee -- recalls classical sculptures. The ease and stillness of his pose reinforces his majesty and authority in the centre of a scene full of movement.

Saint John the Baptist reaches up on to his tiptoes to baptise Christ, pouring the river water over his head from a wooden bowl. He has a pink robe over the camel-hair tunic that he wore, according to the Gospels, when he was preaching in the desert (Mark 1: 6).

In the sky above, God the Father appears in the clouds, sending the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove towards Christ. Just like the fish that swim around Christ’s feet the dove’s body is elegantly curved. Even the two trees that crown the craggy peaks on either side of Christ seem to lean inwards. Two angels on the left river bank look on -- one holds a blue cloth with a gilded edge, ready to dry Christ.

It is rare to see images of the baptism of Christ at the centre of altarpieces and this is quite possibly the first example where it takes this position in Italian painting. The composition can be found in an earlier picture by Giovanni del Biondo, which is dated to 1365--70; the baptism of Christ is one of 11 narrative scenes that surround a full-length standing image of Saint John the Baptist crushing Herod (the King of the Jews who ordered his execution) under his feet. The painter might have got the idea for a large-scale image of the saint as a central panel from this picture.

Style: Gothic, Early Renaissance
Jan van der Heyden clearly enjoyed the discipline of painting very fine details. Although this is a small picture -- 21.8 by 28.9 cm, almost exactly the same size as a piece of A4 paper set on its side -- he has delineated many of the leaves of the trees individually. If you look closely at the grey roof of the church, you can see that he has used incredibly fine lines of black paint to suggest the patterns made by the tiles. To make these, he would have probably worked with a paintbrush with a single hair.

This is typical of his painting style. But as much as he relished such precision, he also enjoyed thinking imaginatively. In fact, painting was not his primary source of income and he kept many of his finished pictures. Much of his wealth came from his work as an inventor and engineer. Fascinated by the principles and challenges of fighting fires, he invented a highly effective water pump and also a new street lighting system for Amsterdam. As a result he was appointed both director of the city’s lighting and, a little later, of its fire service.

This ingenuity also infuses his art. He seems to have enjoyed the challenge of 'improving' or altering reality, and of depicting entirely imaginary buildings and townscapes and making them seem real. This picture is almost certainly an example of his inventive streak -- a fantasy composed of elements of different buildings that he had seen during his travels in Germany and Holland. The architecture of the church is typical of the mid-sixteenth-century Gothic of Franconia, Braunschweig and the area of northern Germany surrounding Cologne. The simpler brick building on the left seems more Dutch in character. 

The figures in van der Heyden’s paintings are important additions to the architectural views, adding scale, life and interest to the composition. Here he seems to have painted them himself, but he would also sometimes ask other specialist painters to add them once he had finished.

There are several other examples of such imagined scenes in our collection, including An Imaginary View of Nijenrode Castle and the Sacristy of Utrecht Cathedral and An Architectural Fantasy.

Style: Baroque
The Virgin Mary and Christ Child are seated in front of a gold cloth of honour, topped with a tasselled baldachin, in this large and highly decorative altarpiece. They are surrounded by saints, in a composition known as a sacra conversazione ('holy conversation').

On the Virgin's right is Saint John the Baptist, wearing his traditional camel skin -- the saint lived as a hermit in the desert for many years, wearing uncomfortable clothes to bring him closer to God (as in Saint John the Baptist by Carlo Crivelli). He points at the Christ Child and holds a cross, around which curls a scroll with a Latin inscription: Ecce Agnus Dei. These are the first words of the  phrase with which John recognised Christ as the Messiah when he baptised him: 'Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.' Next to him is Saint Gall, the patron of the church for which this was painted, dressed as a bishop. He was one of the missionary saints who converted the pagan French to Christianity in the seventh century.

On her left is Saint James, with a pilgrim's staff and a hat decorated with pilgrim badges; he was patron saint of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the most important pilgrimage church in medieval Europe. Next to him is Saint Bartholomew, holding the knife which which he was skinned alive. He must have been especially important, as the Christ Child turns to look at him -- he may have been the donor's name saint.

The whole group appear to be under the dome of a church decorated with mosaics, and in front of a niche -- as if Virgin and Child are seated on the altar itself. Inscribed on the vaulting of the apse behind them are the abbreviated Latin words, 'Rejoice, Queen of Heaven, Hallelujah', the opening lines of the famous hymn to the Virgin. The decoration of the church reflects the tradition of mosaics in medieval Venetian churches; the artist, Marco Marziale, was Venetian. He has painted his name and the date, 1507, on the cartellino on the marble step of the throne.

This picture was painted as the high altarpiece for the church of San Gallo in Cremona. In 1507 Cremona was part of the Duchy of Milan, which was at that time under French rule -- which is presumably why there's what looks like a fleur-de-lis on Christ's halo.

Style: High Renaissance
The picture appears to have been the central part of an altarpiece in five compartments that was in the Hercolani collection in Bologna in 1770.

It may be identical with one known to have been painted by Giovanni between 1512 and 1516 for the Chapel of Saint Thomas Aquinas in S. Andrea, Faenza. Existing panels showing Saint John the Evangelist and Thomas Aquinas can be associated with the picture as side compartments.

Style: High Renaissance
Jan Fyt was an extremely successful painter of bird and animal still-life pictures, using a light, frothy style of brushwork peculiar to him. Here, he has piled up the birds' bodies -- a brace of partridges alongside a greenfinch, chaffinch, brambling, robin and quail -- in a pyramid. The evening sky casts a mellow glow on the gate behind them, but is grey and threatening overhead. It has been suggested that the object behind the tree trunk is a bird trap, but it is more likely to be a birdcage used to carry a decoy bird or a bird of prey.

At this time in the Southern Netherlands, hunting was still a pastime reserved for the aristocracy. But members of the well-off urban elite were eager to acquire Fyt’s game pieces, and to decorate their houses with these tokens of a lifestyle only open to aristocrats.

Style: Baroque
Pale flowers glow in a soft light against the dark wall of an anonymous room. Pink hollyhocks flaunt dozens of tiny petals. Delicate white poppies face out towards us, the yellow pistil holding our gaze like a tiny eye. Above them a tall stem curves upwards, fat little buds clinging on to it, their pink tips held tight by the green sepals till they burst into flower. All these flowers nestle against enormous leaves. Each vein, each frilled edge turning brown in places, is made almost tangible by the minute detail of the artist's brushwork.

The flowers that surround them -- violas, primulas, harebells and convolvulus -- merge into the shadows, partly to make a frame for the hollyhock and the white poppy, partly to give depth and form to the bouquet. Van Huysum shows the fiery red poppy turned away to reveal grey sepals, shielding the paler flowers from a brilliance that would take attention away from them. On the right, two ragged looking sunflowers are virtually lost in darkness, their shadowy presence serving to balance the composition in answer to the broad leaf, itself half in shadow, on the right.

An African marigold droops over the edge of the table as if exhausted, almost as if reaching for the drop of cool water nearby. A snail makes its way up the nearest leaf, leaving a silvery trail behind it. A tiny ant hurries down towards the shade of the curled-up leaf. Another ventures, finely balanced, along the spine of the leaf above.  A second snail raises its feelers in exploration, its grey, spiralled shell catching the light like the dewdrops on the table beside it -- they're all painted in similar colours yet are, in the hands of van Huysum, very different textures. Beyond the snail, a small patch of light reassures us that the stone ledge continues beyond the half-hidden vase, again giving depth and substance to the image.

This is van Huysum painting early in his career. He lived in Amsterdam, the centre of culture, trade and scientific exploration -- especially in horticulture. He had access to the main plant nurseries in both his home town and in Haarlem close by, and grew specimen flowers in his own garden. Dramatic lighting against a black background to display the new cultivated flowers was fashionable in painting and van Huysum became one of the most sought after artists in the Dutch Republic.

Like other artists, his interest lay in showing specimen flowers regardless of the season. The primulas, hollyhocks and sunflowers in this painting wouldn't all be in bloom at the same time. He worked from sketches and drawings kept meticulously ready for each new painting that he made, sometimes for sale on the open market, sometimes on commission. As fashions changed, van Huysum changed; his arrangements became less tightly packed, his colours and backgrounds lighter and less dramatic. He became successful internationally, with an aristocratic clientele, but always showing the flowers he knew and loved with the same delicacy, skill and artistry displayed in this picture.

Style: Baroque