Hand-Carved Paintings

This small oil on panel is attributed to Adolphe Valette (1876–1942), the French painter who later became a leading figure of the Manchester School and mentor to L.S. Lowry. Dating f...

A beautiful mid-century modern wall relief panel featuring a dynamic figural composition rendered in sculptural low relief. The artwork depicts stylized human figures in motion along...

17th century Italian oil painting of Mary surrounded by cherub angels framed with a 17th century Italian pediment and fluorite, pyrite, chalcedony, jasper, and barite natural specime...

This is a Dutch Old Master oil on canvas, measuring 130 inches tall by 119 wide (~10.8 Feet x 10 Feet). Known as a behangsel or large-scale room decoration commissioned for Dutch or ...

Victorian Classic Still Life Painting of Flowers from the late 1800's. The Antique Oil Painting is on panel and features a dark floral still life setting of a multi-colored Bouquet o...

An English 19th-century oil on board portrait of a wire-haired terrier, shown in profile against a muted green-brown background. The dog is depicted with a predominantly light coat, ...

A beautiful late 19th to early 20th century devotional painting on wood depicting the Holy Mother by the French artist Xavier Sager. The serene portrait, rendered in warm tones and s...

A fine Italian 19th century oil painting on canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520) The circular canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved gilt wood and gesso frame (all high quality gilt is original) which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting, circa 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Measures: Canvas height: 29 1/4 inches (74.3 cm) Canvas width: 29 1/4 inches (74.3 cm) Painting diameter: 28 1/4 inches (71.8 cm) Frame height: 57 7/8 inches (147 cm) Frame width: 45 1/2 inches (115.6 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/8 inches (13 cm).   Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...

19th century oil painting of yorkshire flither pickers by robert farren circa 1890. Painted by robert b. Farren (1832-1912) This is a a skilfully executed and coloured oil painting...

A refined oil painting on canvas, framed in carved wood and gilded with gold leaf. The work depicts the Virgin Mary holding the naked infant Jesus in her arms, seated on a cushion. A...

A very Fine and rare French 19th century Louis XV style giltwood carved Vernis Martin Stylefl fireplace screen. The rectangular carved giltwood panel surmounted with four circular oil paintings...

Old Master John Linnell Landscape Collector Painting Oil on Canvas Museum Art. “The Barley Field” By John Linnell 1874 / Oil on Canvas / 1792-1882 / English . SIGNED and DATED at the...

Beautiful oil painting on canvas depicting a gentleman belonging to the ancient chivalric order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, founded in 1572 by the House of Savoy. The protagonist ...

This 1840s portrait presents a Dutch gentleman of notable status. He is dressed in a crisp white shirt with high collars, a black silk necktie, and a gold brooch on his chest, reflec...

English Victorian style carved gilt framed oil landscape painting of field and trees with sun.

A pink-white, antique French still life oil on canvas painting depicting a working table with a yellow teapot vase with flowers, painted by Eugène Henri ...

Another stunning hand-painted oil on canvas work of religious art. This antique oil painting was first hand-painted on canvas and later mounted onto a zinc backplate .. a traditiona...

Oil painting on wooden canvas, accompanied by a carved and gilded wooden frame, decorated with geometric and floral motifs. In the center, the scene depicts a battle, with two main c...

A refined oil painting on canvas, set in a carved and gilded wooden frame. The painting features an inner frame decorated with scrollwork friezes and floral motifs, at the center of ...

Refined and unique oil painting on canvas, housed in a wooden frame carved with scrolls and gilded with pure gold leaf. The painting depicts the portrait of a young girl belonging to...

Set of Four Panels Decorated with Allegories of Arts France Circa 1865 Height. : 180 cm (70,9 in.) ; Width : 63,5 cm (25 in.) ; Depth : 12 cm (4,7 in.) Set of four large painted panels, in carved and gilded wood. The upper part of each panel is decorated with allegories of the arts, representing music...

19th Century French Fixé Sous Verre Bird Painting in Giltwood Frame. Decorate a study, powder room, or gallery wall with this charming antique French fixé sous verre painting crafted...

Decorate a study or dining room with this elegant French oil on canvas landscape, set in its original carved giltwood frame. Painted circa 1870 and signed “Corot” in red at the lower...

A Marvelous 19th Century Italian Oil on Canvas titled "The Cardinal's Present" by Arturo Ricci. This oil on canvas is truly incredible and one of Ricci's best works of art. The sce...

This Italian tempera painted on gilt wood gold ground panel is a Tuscan religious artwork in the style of late Renaissance - early Gothic period. The sc...

This antique Baroque period oil on canvas painting, is an authentic 1600s Italian School Allegory of Winter featuring putti and cherubs in a rich still life, and housed in its original golden frame, is a rare masterpiece preserved in prima tela (original first canvas). Sourced directly from an exclusive, historic private villa in Tuscany, this exceptional piece has been meticulously preserved by the same noble family for generations. Emerging on the art market for the very first time, this late 17th-century canvas represents a premier acquisition from The Tuscan Villa Collection, offering absolute authenticity and prestigious provenance. Design, Details & Attribution The composition is a sophisticated allegorical study executed with the dramatic chiaroscuro and emotional depth characteristic of the late Italian 1600s. Four masterfully proportioned putti (cherubs) gather around a small fire, their flesh tones illuminated by a theatrical play of light against a deep, crepuscular Italianate landscape. To the right, a monumental Baroque urn overflowing with a finely detailed floral still life anchors the scene, symbolizing the cycles of nature. The dense brushwork, rich earthy palette, and expressive anatomical rendering point directly to a highly skilled hand active in the Italian Baroque School circa 1680-1710. Stylistically, the artwork shares strong affinities with the classicizing Baroque circle of Carlo Cignani and central Italian genre painters of the era. The canvas remains housed in its spectacular coeval original frame, which retains its genuine gold leaf gilding and a magnificent, deep, age-earned patina. Styling & Placement With its grand visual presence and historical importance, this authentic 17th-century canvas serves as an elite statement piece for high-end interiors. The Classical Anchor: Perfectly suited above an early 18th-century walnut console table or credenza in a formal dining room, entryway, or library, where the golden frame and warm tones create an immediate focal point. The Curated Contrast: Highly effective when placed in a minimalist, contemporary space. The juxtaposition of a genuine Baroque masterpiece against clean, modern architecture offers profound historical depth. Collection Harmony: This painting communicates beautifully with fine period furniture, particularly Biedermeier walnut pieces or Italian marquetry chests...

This original vintage oil painting from around the 1960s shows a landscape with tall trees in the foreground and hills and mountains in the distance. The green, blue and warm earth...

American portrait oil on canvas of a young ship captain holding a spyglass with a sailing ship, crew in rowboat, and gulls in lower background mounted in the original decorative gilt...

A very fine Italian 17th century oval oil on canvas "Head of Christ Crowned with Thorns" Circle of Pierre Mignard (French, 1612-1695) within...

A vintage original oil painting of a cottage interior, dating from the 1940s. The painting shows an interior scene of a woman arranging flowers in a cottage interior. The muted gree...

A charming late 19th/early 20th Century oil painting of a Bulldog, standing in a barn scene, with his rear feet behind a step and in proud stance, with a wooden water trough in the b...

This 1840s portrait presents a Dutch lady of notable status. She is dressed in a black embroidered tulle gown, with long gold earrings, a necklace, and a lace cap decorated with blue...

A pair of original antique oil portraits, dating from around 1870. These 19th century paintings show Baron Adam Franz Bernhard von Hirschberg and his wife Charlotte, Baroness von Hir...

This large Italian Baroque oil on canvas, dating from the late 17th century represents an exceptionally vivid battle scene with the unusual subject of a brigand ambush on a stagecoac...

More information coming soon… Set within giltwood frames, this pair of oval French paintings depicts two hunting trophies. Both displays of game are set within lush vegetation, inc...

A fine Italian 19th century oil painting on canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Ma...

Antique Polish Icon of The Great Martyr Theodore Stratelates (our best hypothesis). Our purported Antique Polish Icon of the Orthodox Icon of Saint Theodore the General, Commander, S...

Pier Francesco Cittadini (Milan, 1616-Bologna, 1681) "Jacob and his family go to Egypt" Oil on canvas, cm 109 x 190 (canvas only) The valuable painting, made in oil on canvas, depicts Jacob and his family go to Egypt and we believe it can be, given the high quality painting, autograph work of Italian Pier Francesco Cittadini (Italy Milan, 1616 - Bologna, 1681) made after 1647. The work, in excellent condition is accompanied by a coeval frame in wood finely carved and golden. The scene depicted, which was confused with the Flight to Egypt in the past years, is instead identified with the biblical episode of Jacob’s journey. In the foreground, reading the painting from left to right, we see a caravan composed of animals, including donkeys, dromedaries, goats, dogs and horses and people, women, men and slaves, who carry on their journey along the banks of a river, following a path that to the right, would seem to lead to the through of a bridge. In addition to the watercourse is described an environment characterized by large rocks and impervious come far to cover the entire verticality of the canvas. On the left, in the distance, we see the tail of the caravan that runs along the steep path. Large trees enliven and harmonize the environment, as well as white and grey clouds characterize the predominantly clear sky and illuminated on the right by sunlight. The story is told in the Bible, Book of Genesis, 30, 25, passage in which is described the flight of Jacob from Haran after the contrasts with Laban, father of his wife Rachel. Jacob is the third great patriarch of the Bible. From his descendants originate the twelve generations of the people of Israel. He is the son of Isaac and Rebekah, who led him to flee from the wrath of Esau to Haran to seek refuge from his brother, Laban. At his uncle’s house Jacob met his daughter Rachel. As soon as he saw his cousin, Jacob was taken. Jacob will stay seven years in the service of Laban to marry his beloved Rachel. But Laban, with a deception, will give him in marriage first Lia, the least beautiful eldest daughter, and only after another seven years the splendid Rachel. From his first wife he will have several children, while Rachel will give birth to the beloved son, Joseph, who will become viceroy of Egypt. After years of service, Jacob asked to be paid with every dark-coloured garment among the sheep and every spotted and dotted garment among the goats. Laban accepted and sent away from his sons all the leaders of that kind. So Jacob took fresh branches of poplar, almond and plane tree, and flayed them, and put them in the troughs. The optical suggestion induced the goats and the sheep to conceive and give birth to dark, striped and dotted garments. He also ensured that all the strongest and healthiest leaders of the flock of Laban would drink near the barked branches, thus assuring a genetic superiority to his part of the flock. His flocks grew numerous and strong and he became richer than his relative, arousing envy. It was clear that Laban would not respect him much longer. At the suggestion of the Lord, Jacob decided to return to Canaan. Trying to avoid any possible dispute, he left with his family while Laban was absent for shearing sheep. But when, three days later, his uncle returned home, he became angry, feeling offended because Jacob had gone secretly and had not allowed him to greet his daughters and grandchildren. In addition, his teraphim, statuettes, or idols, which depicted the family deities, had disappeared. After 7 days of pursuit, Laban and his men reached Jacob’s group on Mount Gilead, in the mountainous region west of the Euphrates River, where his uncle and grandson had a stormy conversation. The younger man was outraged at being accused of stealing idols and told Labano to rummage through his family’s tents at will. Neither of them could know or even imagine that it was Rachel who took the idols and hid them in the saddle of the camel. During the search, she sat down firmly on the saddle, apologizing for not being able to get up, «because I usually have what happens to women» (Gen 31:35). So the loot wasn’t discovered. The author of this work was inspired by the composition of an engraving by Stefano Della Bella (1610-1664) of circa 1647. The engraving by Stefano della Bella bears the title "Iacob sur ses vieux jours quitte sans fascherie pour voir son filz Ioseph, sa terre et sa patrie" and is signed on the bottom left "Stef. of the Beautiful In. et fe." while on the right it is declared "Cum privil. Regis", that is with license of the king. Stefano Della Bella (Italy - Florence, May 18, 1610-Florence, July 12, 1664) was born in a family of painters, sculptors and goldsmiths and was left early orphan of his father sculptor, he dedicated himself first to the art of goldsmith at the school of Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione and Gasparo Mola, then turning his attention to drawing and engraving. He soon began drawing figures and copying the etchings of Jacques Callot, which inspired his early works. Under the protection of the Medici, in particular of Don Lorenzo, cadet son of Grand Duke Ferdinand I, Della Bella has the opportunity to make study trips to Rome, where he stayed from 1633-1636; In Rome he met French engravers and publishers of prints such as Israël Henriet and François Langlois, who influenced his decision to move to Paris in 1639, four years after the death of Callot. In Paris he soon reached, thanks to the engravings commissioned by Cardinal Richelieu, the success also worldly; he frequented courtiers, theatre artists and writers, while refusing too oppressive honors. In 1646-1647 he continued his travels in the Netherlands to Amsterdam, Antwerp and Dordrecht. He returned to Florence in 1650 and resumed working under the protection of the Medici court, working for his patrons. In 1656 he became a member of the Academy of Apatists. The painting object of this study is reasonably attributable to Pier Francesco Cittadini, or Pierfrancesco Cittadini, called the Milanese or the Franceschino (Italy - Milan, 1616-Bologna, 1681) as some exemplary stylistic comparisons proposed to follow can prove. Pier Francesco Cittadini was an Italian baroque painter, mainly active in Bologna. His artistic training first took place with the painter Daniele Crespi...

18th century French Aubusson floral painting framed with an 18th century French fragment. The oil painting original comes from France and is painted with a Aubusson-tapestry floral ...

Sharing similarities of a mid-17th-century Italian capriccio painting, this French oil painting from Provence depicts fantastical architecture set amongst the more realistic setting ...

Beautiful oil painting on canvas, made on the first canvas and framed with a contemporary rectangular frame in carved and gilded wood. The painting represents a striking image of the...

Italian 17th century still life painting in period carved gilt frame Italian school still life painting from the workshop of a great master. The 17th century Baroque painting in oil...

English oil on canvas horse portrait in burl walnut giltwood and beaded molded edge frame. Signed & Dated by Artist "J. Brown Coventry 1866"

Pair of English Nobel figural oil on canvas oval portraits of male posing with hunting canine companions and female sitting in garden posing with flowers and lamb. Paintings have bee...

Our French Oil Painting is from the 1700's depicts the Biblical Story of Rebekah and Abraham's Servant, Rebekah is seen offering water to the servant and his camels as a true test of...

A vintage original oil painting of a Scandinavian village scene, dating from 1950. The painting shows colourful cottages in a quiet countryside setting. Presented in its original gil...

Refined pastel portrait on canvas, framed in a carved and gilded wooden frame protected by glass. The painting depicts the face of a gentleman, half-length, dressed in period attire....

Bring soft color and Impressionist charm to an interior with this lovely Mid Century garden landscape by American artist Marion Rice (1904–1995). Painted c...

A Fine Italian 19th Century Oil Painting on Canvas "La Madonna della Seggiola" after Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino 1483-1520). The circular painted canvas depicting a seated Madonna holding an infant Jesus Christ next to a child Saint John the Baptist, all within a massive carved two-tone gilt wood, gilt-patinated and gesso frame, which is identical to the frame on Raphael's original artwork. This painting is a 19th Century copy of Raphael's Madonna della Seggiola painted in 1514 and currently exhibited and part of the permanent collection at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy. The bodies of the Virgin, Christ, and the boy Baptist fill the whole picture. The tender, natural looking embrace of the Mother and Child, and the harmonious grouping of the figures in the round, have made this one of Raphael's most popular Madonnas. The isolated chair leg is reminiscent of papal furniture, which has led to the assumption that Leo X himself commissioned the painting. Circa: 1890-1900. Subject: Religious painting Painting diameter: 28 inches (71.1 cm) Frame height: 55 1/8 inches (140 cm) Frame width: 46 inches (116.8 cm) Frame depth: 5 1/8 inches (13 cm) Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (Italian, March 28 or April 6, 1483 - April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael's more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates. Raphael was born in the small but artistically significant central Italian city of Urbino in the Marche region, where his father Giovanni Santi was court painter to the Duke. The reputation of the court had been established by Federico III da Montefeltro, a highly successful condottiere who had been created Duke of Urbino by the Pope - Urbino formed part of the Papal States - and who died the year before Raphael was born. The emphasis of Federico's court was rather more literary than artistic, but Giovanni Santi was a poet of sorts as well as a painter, and had written a rhymed chronicle of the life of Federico, and both wrote the texts and produced the decor for masque-like court entertainments. His poem to Federico shows him as keen to show awareness of the most advanced North Italian painters, and Early Netherlandish artists as well. In the very small court of Urbino he was probably more integrated into the central circle of the ruling family than most court painters. Federico was succeeded by his son Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, who married Elisabetta Gonzaga, daughter of the ruler of Mantua, the most brilliant of the smaller Italian courts for both music and the visual arts. Under them, the court continued as a centre for literary culture. Growing up in the circle of this small court gave Raphael the excellent manners and social skills stressed by Vasari. Court life in Urbino at just after this period was to become set as the model of the virtues of the Italian humanist court through Baldassare Castiglione's depiction of it in his classic work The Book of the Courtier, published in 1528. Castiglione moved to Urbino in 1504, when Raphael was no longer based there but frequently visited, and they became good friends. He became close to other regular visitors to the court: Pietro Bibbiena and Pietro Bembo, both later cardinals, were already becoming well known as writers, and would be in Rome during Raphael's period there. Raphael mixed easily in the highest circles throughout his life, one of the factors that tended to give a misleading impression of effortlessness to his career. He did not receive a full humanistic education however; it is unclear how easily he read Latin. Early Life and Works His mother Màgia died in 1491 when Raphael was eight, followed on August 1, 1494 by his father, who had already remarried. Raphael was thus orphaned at eleven; his formal guardian became his only paternal uncle Bartolomeo, a priest, who subsequently engaged in litigation with his stepmother. He probably continued to live with his stepmother when not staying as an apprentice with a master. He had already shown talent, according to Vasari, who says that Raphael had been "a great help to his father". A self-portrait drawing from his teenage years shows his precocity. His father's workshop continued and, probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age. In Urbino, he came into contact with the works of Paolo Uccello, previously the court painter (d. 1475), and Luca Signorelli, who until 1498 was based in nearby Città di Castello. According to Vasari, his father placed him in the workshop of the Umbrian master Pietro Perugino as an apprentice "despite the tears of his mother". The evidence of an apprenticeship comes only from Vasari and another source, and has been disputed—eight was very early for an apprenticeship to begin. An alternative theory is that he received at least some training from Timoteo Viti, who acted as court painter in Urbino from 1495.Most modern historians agree that Raphael at least worked as an assistant to Perugino from around 1500; the influence of Perugino on Raphael's early work is very clear: "probably no other pupil of genius has ever absorbed so much of his master's teaching as Raphael did", according to Wölfflin. Vasari wrote that it was impossible to distinguish between their hands at this period, but many modern art historians claim to do better and detect his hand in specific areas of works by Perugino or his workshop. Apart from stylistic closeness, their techniques are very similar as well, for example having paint applied thickly, using an oil varnish medium, in shadows and darker garments, but very thinly on flesh areas. An excess of resin in the varnish often causes cracking of areas of paint in the works of both masters. The Perugino workshop was active in both Perugia and Florence, perhaps maintaining two permanent branches. Raphael is described as a "master", that is to say fully trained, in December 1500. His first documented work was the Baronci altarpiece for the church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Città di Castello, a town halfway between Perugia and Urbino. Evangelista da Pian di Meleto, who had worked for his father, was also named in the commission. It was commissioned in 1500 and finished in 1501; now only some cut sections and a preparatory drawing remain. In the following years he painted works for other churches there, including the Mond Crucifixion (about 1503) and the Brera Wedding of the Virgin (1504), and for Perugia, such as the Oddi Altarpiece. He very probably also visited Florence in this period. These are large works, some in fresco, where Raphael confidently marshals his compositions in the somewhat static style of Perugino. He also painted many small and exquisite cabinet paintings in these years, probably mostly for the connoisseurs in the Urbino court, like the Three Graces and St. Michael, and he began to paint Madonnas and portraits. In 1502 he went to Siena at the invitation of another pupil of Perugino, Pinturicchio, "being a friend of Raphael and knowing him to be a draughtsman of the highest quality" to help with the cartoons, and very likely the designs, for a fresco series in the Piccolomini Library in Siena Cathedral. He was evidently already much in demand even at this early stage in his career. Influence of Florence Raphael led a "nomadic" life, working in various centres in Northern Italy, but spent a good deal of time in Florence, perhaps from about 1504. Although there is traditional reference to a "Florentine period...

A refined and unique painting on canvas, created using the ancient "succo d’erba" (grass juice) technique, which employs plant-based pigments, set in a carved wooden frame. The work ...

These magnificent lacquered wood panels have been mounted together on a lucite panel. Each panel has its original hanging handle. The panels are hanging on antique railroad...

This vintage original oil painting from around the 1960s shows a peaceful lake with trees, hills, and mountains in the distance. The clear blue water and warm natural tones give the ...

French Victorian style (20th Cent) carved gilt framed still life watercolor painting of white and yellow flowers

Italian Renaissance style (modern) oil painting of Madonna & Child in antique gold carved frame

Refined oil painting on canvas, embellished with a carved and gilded wooden frame. The painting depicts a scene of adoration, with the baby Jesus centrally positioned at the top, hal...

A wonderfully charming large and colorful Chinese hand painted wallpaper section in a carved and shaped hardwood frame. The wallpaper dates to the first half of the 20th century or e...

A beautiful painting of modest size, made in oil on canvas and framed in a carved and gilded wooden frame. The painting depicts the portrait of a young woman with her hair gathered a...

American Victorian landscape painting of 4 houses with a brideg by a river in a gold carved frame (signed: SAMARTHA)

This late 19th century oil on wooden panel offers a captivating glimpse of historic Florence, expertly rendered with meticulous architectural detail and atmospheric quality typical o...

A striking oil on board painting depicting a country forest scene by French painter, Marcelle Papillaud. Marcelle PAPILLAUD was born in 1888, she painted numerous works of art that...