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This print represents the high point of the collaboration between Marcantonio Raimondi and Raphael, who designed the subject specifically for it to be replicated as an engraving, as well as the starting point of a successful method to spread his works. The immediate success of this graphic masterpiece, which according to Vasari “astonished all of Rome”, led to the production of various copies and derivative works throughout the following centuries, making it one of the most famous prints of the sixteenth century.

The scene relates to the grisaille painting executed for Pope Leo X below the fresco of the Parnassus in the Segnatura Room in the Vatican. In this print, Raimondi succeeds in expressing exquisite pictorial effects with a velvet tonality, achieved through the use of a grained plate which was then polished and sanded in the white areas and thus offering an array of differing shades of grey. However, in terms of its composition, there are many recurring elements from earlier works by Raphael dating back to 1510-15 approximately. The scene shows Raphael’s mastery of exploring subjects through different styles and formal characters, while demonstrating an interpretative freedom and power that was entirely new for that period.

The picture shows the figure of St Peter from this bronze group.

Fra Angelico painted this fresco for the refectory of the convent of San Domenico in Fiesole. He borrowed a theme from the cloister of San Marco.

Elsheimer painted a few pictures in which figures predominate, but generally they are fused into a harmonious unity with their landscape settings. They are invariably on a small scale and on copper.

Palmerino di Guido was a collaborator of Giotto on the Legend of St Francis in the Upper Church. He executed many of the paintings in the St Nicholas Chapel of the Lower Church. This chapel is located at the end of the transept and it was built by Cardinal Napoleone Orsini at the end of the 13th century as indicated by the coat-of-arms occurring many times on the walls of the chapel.

This fresco is on the ceiling above the monumental stairway in Palazzo Bernardi. The fresco shows groups of musicians, pages, and servants at an illusionistic balustrade turning to greet the guests.

During the Eighty Years War a Frenchman fighting for the Dutch, Charles de Br�aut�, insulted the commander of the Spanish garrison at ’s-Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc), Anthonie Schets van Grobbendonck. The two decided to settle the matter with an equivalent of single combat but involving twenty a side, which took place on 5 February 1600 on a heath near Vugterheide. Grobbendonck annoyed de Br�aut� by sending a deputy in his stead, one Gerard Abrahams van Houwelingen (known as ‘Lekkerbeetje’ which translates as ‘tasty morsel’ perhaps indicating that he was something of a snacker). Both Lekkerbeetje and de Br�aut� were killed, but the Spanish were deemed to have won. This throw-back to the age of chivalry was frequently painted.

Sebastian Vrancx created the genre of battle scenes in the Low Countries, cavalry pictures of battles sometimes relating to actual historical engagements, such as the well-known Battle of Lekkerbeetje, a popular composition, the original of which is lost and only known from a countless number of copies of varying quality. In most cases, however, these battlefield scenes do not represent any real event.

The teapot was produced in the Haagsche Plateelbakkerij Rozenburg, The Hague, a Dutch pottery that specialized in eggshell porcelain, developed by Juriaan Kok. The factory was in operation from 1883 to 1916.

The group of sculptors and architects, who were active in northern Italy and elsewhere from the mid-12th century to the late 14th and originated from Campione (Campigliono) di Lugano, has been termed “Campionesi” in the 19th century.

The earliest document mentioning the masters from Campione is a contract dated 30 November 1244 between Ubaldino, Director (Massaro) of the Cathedral Works of Modena from 1230 to 1263, and Enrico di Ottavio da Campione, who undertook, on behalf of himself and his heirs, to work for the cathedral in perpetuum. This contract was a renewal of an earlier one drawn up between Alberto, Director from 1190 to 1208, and Anselmo, the grandfather of Enrico. The names of Anselmo’s three sons, Alberto, Jacopo, and Ottavio (father of Enrico), are also cited in the document. From the chronology it can be deduced that in the second half of the 12th century a master from Campione named Anselmo was installed as Master of the Works at the Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1184.

A document dated 1261 mentions that the workshop of the Campionesi was situated on cathedral property between the church and the Ghirlandina bell-tower, but there are no documents allocating responsibility for particular works within the cathedral to a specific master. The marble parapet between the central nave and the crypt (also considered as rod screen) is unanimously attributed to Anselmo and his collaborators; Anselmo himself is credited with the Passion scenes, from Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples to Christ Carrying the Cross. The work of four collaborators can also be identified on the screen. Other works at the cathedral attributed to Anselmo’s followers are the pulpit (erected under Bozzalino, Director from 1208 to 1225), the altar, the crypt capitals, work on the fa�ade, including the rose window, and the Porta Regia (1209–31) on the south flank of the nave, which has a porch supported by two columns of ophite, one twisted and the other hexagonal, a characteristic feature of later works by the Campionesi. The last of these masters active at Modena was Enrico II, who completed the Ghirlandina bell-tower (1319) and the free-standing pulpit in the nave (1322).

The episode depicted, narrated by Livy and Valerius Maximus, tells of how after the taking of Carthage in 209 BC Scipio had treated with respect a beautiful virgin, one of the hostages who had been consigned to him, and had sent her back to her intended husband and parents with the sole recommendation that her suitor strived for peace between Rome and Carthage.

The Three Philosophers must be a work of the last couple of years of Giorgione’s life, since a near-contemporary source says that it was begun by him and finished by Sebastiano del Piombo, a collaboration confirmed by stylistic analysis. The subject matter has long been a source of disagreement. In addition to interpret the painting as three philosophers (or three matematicians) it is also assumed that the painting represents the three Magi, the Holy Family being in the cave at the left.

Whatever the precise theme, one can find three ages of man, three distinct temperaments, and three different nations. There are important pentimenti, more easily accomplished in the oil medium that Giorgione favoured than with tempera. The present picture may have been cut down on all sides, judging from a later copy. If there was an element of collaboration, the invention and the figure types, their poses, and the relation of one to another are Giorgione’s. Sebastiano’s role must have been limited literally to finishing the work, that is, giving it the final surface and unifying the elements. In the Three Philosophers the figures are rather weightless, silent images, placed somewhat unspecifically in space, haphazardly related, as it were, to the landscape. For example, the youngest figure, seated toward the centre of the composition, is partly blocked out by the oriental with the deep red garment, and his head, in profile, is apparently unrelated to the twin tree trunks behind it. The natural and private world Giorgione has created envelops us with its mystery and poetry, with its antiscientific structure and even its rather unclassical choice of figural types and poses.

The painting belonged to the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels, as shown by the painting of David Teniers (now in the Prado, Madrid). Teniers also painted a strongly modified copy of this painting (now in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin).

Joseph Georg Friedrich Ernst Karl, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg (1789-1868) succeeded his father as Duke after his death in 1834. In 1817 he married Amelia of W�rttemberg, a daughter of Duke Louis of W�rttemberg. They had six daughters.

The theme of Susanna and the Elders was particularly suited to Pinturicchio’s decorative sensibilities, resulting in a pleasing, fable-like environment for the biblical account. The two lecherous old men grab the maiden who stands in front of a fountain, the lower part of which is similar to that in the Baptistery of Siena. In the foreground are animals, including several rabbits, symbolic of lust.

Kraft was a virtuoso stone carver who translated into stone the technical skill and exuberance of wood-carving. His most celebrated work, the tabernacle in St Lawrence, Nuremberg, is a gigantic stone imitation (c. 18 m high) of a subtle piece of goldsmith’s work. The richly decorated structure houses a multitude of human figures, animals, etc. One of the supporting figures at the base is supposed to be a self-portrait of Kraft.

The picture shows a relief of the tabernacle in the St Lawrence Church in Nuremberg.

Silenus in Greek mythology is a rural god, one of the retinue of Bacchus, a gay, fat old drunkard who was yet wise and had the gift of prophecy. On the picture he is lolling drunkenly the back of an ass.

Piero di Cosimo’s two mythological paintings, the Discovery of Honey (Art Museum, Worcester) and The Misfortunes of Silenus (Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge), with their free, combinatory constructions, bright palette and almost outrageous sense of humour and wit, were ordered by Giovanni Vespucci.

The tablet originating from the Biccherna (revenue office) was recently attributed to Francesco di Giorgio. It depicts the scene when Pope Pius II (Enea Silvio Piccolomini) names Cardinal his nephew Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini.

This is one of the small panels that served as book covers for the semiannual ledgers of the biccherna and gabella, the financial and fiscal offices of the commune of Siena. The tradition of binding the ledger volumes with painted wood panels was instituted in 1257 and the oldest preserved panel covers the accounts of the second semester of 1258. The Archivio di Stato in Siena has a collection of over a hundred of these panels.

The earliest covers usually show the camerlengo (the chief financial officer of the Republic), often a monk from the Cistercian abbey of San Galgano, as he writes in his account book, counts or disburses money, or supervises a clerk. The covers always display the coats of arms of at least four leading citizens who served as provveditori charged with overseeing the financial proceedings. The names of all these officers are prominently mentioned on the lower half of the panels, thus vouching for the accuracy of the accounts.

While most of the panels of the 13th and 14th centuries are anonymous, we find among the later panels attributions to Paolo di Giovanni Fei, Giovanni di Paolo, Sano di Pietro, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, and Benvenuto di Giovanni. Some 15th century panels record important events of Sienese history, such as the coronation of Pius II on a biccherna of 1460, or the Virgin protecting Siena from an earthquake on the biccherna of 1467.