Here we present replicas of various paintings and drawing created by
artists from Italy in the XV--XVIII centuries; from Spain, Flanders and
Holland in the XVII century; from France in the XVII--XIX centuries;
and from Belguim and England in the XIX century.
Francesco Pesellino, a Florentine painter of the first half of the XV
century, was known as a brilliant miniaturist. One of his best graphic
works includes separate sheets which served as illustrations for a
manuscript book about the Second Punic War.
Scipio Africanus, a famous Roman General and a hero of this war, is depicted on one of these
sheets. This work becomes a typical monument of the early Italian
Renaissance art due to its bright coloration, delicate and accurate
design, author's interest for depicting shapes of the human body,
general heroism of the image and addressing to Roman history.
Marco Antonio Franceschini is a bologna artist of the late XVII and
early XVIII centuries, who painted "Head of a Girl" - a painting,
which in all likelihood is a portrait. Being a master of the academic
movement, who was extremely skilful in drawing and depicting shapes'
gradations from light to dark, he emphasized the delicate prettiness
of a young Italian woman in this image.
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, who worked in Rome in the XVIII century,
painted mainly large and pompous canvases with religious, allegorical
and mythological content. The latter includes a painting called
"Hercules at the Crossroads" (1765).
The famous hero of Greek mythology, Hercules, is depicted as a handsome young lad. He is
reflecting upon the path he should choose: new feats which rigorous
Minerva calls him for, or love in the image of Venera.
In his "Still Life" (1652) Spanish artist Antonio de Pereda reveals
the love for materiality and accuracy of shapes which is typical of
many artists of the XVII century. Every object is painted by him with
surprisingly accurate outline, volume and texture.
Works of David Teniers the Younger complete the bright flowering of
Flemish painting of the XVII century. One of the artist's favorite
everyday situations is depicted in his painting "Guardroom" (1642). It
is a painting of a crowded scene: soldiers and officers are
comfortably resting in a spacious room.
Teniers often painted life of peasants as well. However, he preferred not to paint their labour, but
to paint country weddings and all kinds of festivities (for example,
his painting "The Village Feast", 1648), interpreting life of his
cheering and dressed-up peasants in an idyllic way.
"The Sea Port" is a good example of his landscape paintings. Here Teniers combines his
subtle sense of observing the nature with his ability to arrange
different elements well together: positioning of the ships and the
coastal rocks with the active busy figures of people and clouds in the
sky.
Dirck Hals, a younger brother and a follower of a great Dutch artist,
Frans Hals, is one of the early representatives of Dutch genre
painting in the XVII century. In his painting "Merry Party in a
Tavern" (1626) one can feel some constraint in posture, mimics and
gestures of the depicted figures. But in general this theme was a
novelty at that time.
Aelbert Cuyp's "Sunset over the River" is a typical example of a Dutch
landscape painting of the XVII century. As a rule, Dutch landscape
painter did not intend to complicate their paintings or look for any
special effects. The same tendency is seen here.
The artist found true beauty and poetry in the most common subjects: in the quiet flow of
the river, lit by the sunset; in the simple figures of peasants,
talking to each other; and in the sheep, peacefully grazing on the
hillock.
Being a representative of French classicism, landscape painter Claude
Lorrain did not paint a particular area in his painting "Noon" (1651).
He selected and grouped different elements of his favorite Italian
nature together: majestic tree clusters, ancient arch bridges, ruins
of an antique temple, distant plains and mountain chains. According to
the tradition of that time, the landscape is animated with a group of
evangelic characters: Maria with the infant Christ, Joseph and an
Angel are resting by the river.
After being inspired by LaFontaine's fable "Exchanging Wives", French
painter Nicolas Lancret depicted an amusing scene in his paining "The
Marriage Contract": two peasants, who decided to exchange their wives,
invited a notary public to make the deal legal. The main characters of
this scene are depicted with author's slight irony.
French artist Jean Baptiste Greuze painted a moving, slightly shy
smile of his modest model in "The Head of a Girl in a Cap" (painted in
1700-s) with a great deal of ingenuousness.
Hubert Robert, a French landscape painter of the second half of the
XVIII century, was called a "singer of ruins" by his contemporaries.
His attention was often drawn to Villa Madama near Rome, which had
been built at the beginning of the XVI century as designed by Raphael
and Giulio Romano for Cardinal Giulio Medici. After that country Villa
was left unfinished, it was lying in dilapidation in the XVIII
century. H. Robert depicted its picturesque and verdurous ruins on his
drawing in watercolour and ink in the middle of 1760-s.
Georges Michel's "Landscape with a Mill" is one of the bright examples
of a French realistic landscape in the second half of the XIX century.
The artist paints a thunderstorm approaching which conveys the mood of
anxious anticipation to the entire painting.
Being the leading master of romanticism in painting, Eugene Delacroix
nurtured a passionate love for Oriental imagery and intense dramatic
situations. That is the mood of his late painting "The Lion Hunt in
Morocco" (1854), which shows courage and virtue of Moroccan hunters.
The bright colours intensify emotional acuteness of the scene.
French artist Joseph Claude Bail painted mainly superficial genre
scenes. In his painting "The Kitchen Boy" (1893) which depicts a
slightly drunken kitchen boy, the author has only one goal - to amuse
the audience.
Louis Gallet, a Belgian historical painter, has some genre paintings
as well. One of them is "Family of a Fisherman" (1848), where the
viewer can see master's sincere interest for his contemporary
characters. The fisherman is looking at the sea sternly and calmly,
but worries about his fate has left a mark of anxiety on his wife's
face.
Florent Willems, a Belgian painter of the second half of the XIX
century, willingly imitated Dutch genre painters of the XVII century
in his painting style. Hence his love for depicting texture of fabrics
and objects and for painting accurate details, which are distinct in
his painting "Writing a Letter".
Many European artists at the end of the XIX century were searching for
lighter coloration and airy transparency, which were partially
depicted in the painting "After a Walk" by a Belgian painter, Gustave
de Jonghe. The very image of the young girl, who is resting with a
dreamy look in a chair, is gentle and appealing in this work.
Alfred East, an English landscape painter, reproduced magnificent
brown-orange tree crowns and emphasized their bright colour by a
dark-blue strip of the river and blueish buildings of the city on the
other bank in his drawing "Autumn Landscape" (1901), executed in
watercolour and gouache paint.
