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Art History Diary

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Art History Diary

Art Blog for your daily inspiration! Learn and enjoy!

06/08/2026

Saint Catherine, a III century martyr, belonged to a noble family in Alexandria. Driven by her Christian faith to disobey the Roman emperor, she was ordered to oppose him in a philosophical symposium. As a result of her debating skills, which led to the conversion of several highly placed figures at court including the empress herself, she was put to death. Given her social status and the fact that she was held to embody the virtues of wisdom, strength, and eloquence, she was hailed as a model for aristocratic ladies in early modern Spain. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the Spanish royal collection should boast several works of art displaying this iconography, including this canvas painted by Guido Reni (1575—1642).

Guido Reni, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1606, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Museo Nacional del Prado

01/08/2026

This portrait, commissioned from Eduardo
Gimeno, depicts Alfonso X “the Wise” (1221—1284), King of Castile and León (1252-1284). He rests his hand on a parchment of the Siete Partidas, a legal code drafted during his reign, between 1256 and 1265, and on a table upon which rest the Tables of Astronomy or Alfonsine Tables, also created at his initiative.

Eduardo Gimeno y Canencia, Alfonso X the Wise, c. 1857, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Museo Nacional del Prado

31/07/2026

She is the central figure in the famous Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, and the subject of many of his later paintings.

Margaret Theresa of Spain (Spanish: Margarita Teresa, 1651—1673) was, by marriage to Leopold I, Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. She was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain and the elder full-sister of Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs. She had four children with her husband Leopold I, but Archduchess Maria Antonia (1669–1692) was their only child to survive infancy.

Jan Thomas, Empress Margarita Teresa with her daughter Maria Antonia, c. 1670, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum

29/07/2026

Angelica Kauffmann was a founding member of Britain’s Royal Academy of Arts and one of the most celebrated painters of her time. Her portrayal of another professional woman in the arts suggests an exceptional sympathy between artist and sitter.

Angelica Kauffmann, Portrait of Sarah Harrop (Mrs. Bates) as a Muse, 1780–81, Princeton University Art Museum, US Princeton University Art Museum

23/07/2026

Max Schödl (1834—1921) was born in Vienna and specialised in still lifes with antiques, porcelain, and objets de vertu.

Max Schödl, Still Life with Antiques, 1879, Private collection.

19/07/2026

“Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Ferdinand Knab, Ruins Landscape in the Evening Light, 1892, Private collection.

16/07/2026

The sitter of this particularly engaging portrait, a rare signed bust-length by one of Britain’s first professional female artists, Mary Beale (1633—1699), is thought to depict Lady Mary Croone, who, in 1685, the date inscribed upon this painting, had just been widowed.

Mary Beale, Lady Mary Sadleir (Croone), née Lorymer, 1706, The Weiss Gallery, London.

Source: weissgallery.com

18/06/2026

Standing in front of her striking interpretation of Judith Slaying Holofernes in the Uffizi Gallery you’ll be struck by Artemisia Gentileschi’s (1593—1652/53) unique talent.

The naturalistic “virility” of the work provoked strong reactions on its arrival in Florence and the painting was denied the honor of being exhibited in the Gallery; in fact, it was only with great difficulty and the help of her friend Galileo Galilei that the painter managed to extract the payment, with a significant delay, that had been agreed with Grand Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici, who died in 1621 shortly after the great canvas was completed.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes, c. 1602, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence Gallerie degli Uffizi

30/04/2026

The exhibition ‘Zurbarán’ brings together works from major galleries across Europe and the US that span Francisco de Zurbarán’s (1598–1664) career from his first religious commissions to paintings made for private devotion. Stand in front of monumental works by one of the greatest painters of the Golden Age in Spain that can still move and inspire us today.

The synthesis of tradition and innovation in Zurbarán’s art, of forms that are at once timeless and tangible, perfectly expresses the spirit of Counter-Reformation theology and of contemporary Spanish society, with its faith in both mystical and earthly reality.

Zurbarán
2 May ‒ 23 August 2026
📍National Gallery, London

15/04/2026

“But the law of loving others could not be discovered by reason, because it is unreasonable.”
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina.

Józef Simmler, Portrait of Emilia Włodkowska, 1865, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie, Poland.

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