Painting of the Day

[Luke Blanchard]

I've saved the original thread, and I'll transfer the posts across as time permits.

Painting of the Day (original series):

Winter by Nicolas Poussin, a French painter of the 17th century who worked for most of his career in Rome.

This is one of his series The Four Seasons, painted near the end of his life. Each depicts a Biblical scene. In this case the subject is Noah's flood. You can see the Ark in the background on the left.

[Luke Blanchard]

I think in Wikipedia's large version of the image the face looks like that of a suffering man. I don't know that paintings of this period had titles in our modern sense, by I made a mistake in pulling The Death of St Sebastian from memory. That was a spoof artwork referred to in Stephen Pile's The Book of Heroic Failures, consisting of "a skeleton with a darts board behind it". According to the legend of Sebastian the saint survived the attemped execution.

[Luke Blanchard]

Painting of the Day: The Birth of Venus, by Sandro Botticelli.


c. 1482–1486. Wikipedia has a page on the work here.

[Luke Blanchard]

Painting of the Day: Primavera (=Spring), by Sandro Botticelli.

c. 1482. Wikipedia has a page on the work here.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

Huh. I recognized the title, but I don't think I've ever seen this one.

Luke Blanchard said:

Painting of the Day: Primavera (=Spring), by Sandro Botticelli.

c. 1482. Wikipedia has a page on the work here.

[Luke Blanchard]

That makes me glad I posted it. It's a very well-known work.

Painting of the Day: Madonna of the Magnificat, by Sandro Botticelli.

The Magnificat is Mary's song of thanksgiving from Luke 1:46-55. (The text begins with magnificat, "magnifies", in Latin). Mary is here depicted writing it down, hence the title. Wikipedia has a page on the painting that identifies the figures here.

[Luke Blanchard]

Painting of the Day: The Mystic Nativity, by Sandro Botticelli.

From 1500. Wikipedia has a page on the work here. It's held by the National Gallery, London, which has a page on it here.

[Luke Blanchard]

Painting of the Day: The Calumny of Apelles, by Sandro Botticelli.

Wikipedia has a page on the work here, which explains that it's a recreation of a lost work by Apelles, a Greek painter of the 4th century BC, as described by the Roman-era writer Lucian.

[Luke Blanchard]

Painting of the Day: St. Philip Driving the Dragon from the Temple of Hieropolis, by Filippino Lippi.

Filippino was the son of Filippo Lippi. The site I've linked to also has details from the painting, here. A shot of the work from a different angle can be seen here.

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

The last three all have beautiful architectural details in them. They almost draw my eye away from the foreground.

[The Baron]

Jozsef Borsos Portrait of Kristóf Hegedűs

[Luke Blanchard]

Thanks for filling in again. I've not heard of Borsos before, but that's a nice portrait. How'd you come across it, Baron?

A Wikipedia link led me to a gallery of more of his works here.

[Luke Blanchard]

Painting of the Day: Leda and the Swan, copy by Cesare da Cesto after a lost work by Leonardo da Vinci.

I've moved into the High Renaissance now, of course.

This isn't my favourite subject, to say the least, but I thought the item might be of interest as a record of a lost work by Leonardo. This page has a list of other surviving works that provide guidance to the appearance of Leonardo's painting. Leda appears nude, so the image could be held not worksafe.