Mariano Salvador Maella - The Last Supper [c.1784]

Mariano Salvador Maella - The Last Supper [c.1784], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

A preparatory sketch for a work intended possibly the private chapel of the Infante Don Antonio Pascual in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez. The composition is very similar to The Last Supper painted by Maella in 1794 and preserved in the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Mariano Salvador Maella (Valencia, August 21, 1739 - Madrid, May 10, 1819) was a Spanish painter. He became painter of the chamber to the king and director general of the Acadmia Real de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. Along with Bayeu in 1775 he was commissioned to repaint and restore the dilapidated canvases by Juan de Borgona in the cloister of the Cathedral of Toledo. As an engraver, he illustrated the vignettes published with the works of Francisco Quevedo in 1772.

[Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid - Oil on canvas, 36 x 94 cm]

Fray Jaun Bautista Maino - The Recovery of Bahia de Todos los Santos [1634-35]

Fray Jaun Bautista Maino - The Recovery of Bahia de Todos los Santos [1634-35], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The painting is divided into two parts and depicts the aftermath of battle, juxtaposing the coronation of the victors with the suffering of the victims. Maíno (Pastrana, 1581 - Madrid, 1641) recreates the moment immediately after the battle in which Don Fadrique de Toledo recovered the holding of Bahía of Todos los Santos in Brazil for Spain on 1 May 1625. There are several symbolic elements in the picture. For example, King Philip IV is trampling on some corpses which symbolise the enemies of the Spanish monarchy: heresy, wrath and deceit. The woman surrounded by children may represent the victims of the battle, comforted by Christian charity. It was painted for the Buen Retiro palace, where it remained until it was taken to France. It was returned to Spain in 1815 and housed in the Royal Academy of San Fernando until 1827, when it came to the Prado.

[Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid - Oil on canvas, 309 x 381 cm]

Adolphe Monticelli - Still Life, Oysters, Fish [c.1878-82]

Adolphe Monticelli - Still Life, Oysters, Fish [c.1878-82], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Many of Monticelli's still lifes of this period were painted with the same patterned fabric covering the table. The painting recalls the Dutch tradition of demonstrating one's virtuosity as an artist by describing objects and textures, such as the glass and the half-peeled lemon.

[National Gallery, London - Oil on wood, 46.4 x 61.6 cm]

Theodore Wores - A Street in Ikao [1895]

Theodore Wores - A Street in Ikao [1895], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Theodore Wores (San Francisco, August 1, 1859 - September 11, 1939) was an American painter. He went to Japan for two extended visits and had successful exhibitions of his Japanese paintings in New York and London, where he became friends with James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Oscar Wilde. He visited Hawaii and Samoa in 1901-1902 and established a home in San Francisco about 1906.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on panel, 9.125 x 12.125 inches]

Alessandro Magnasco - The Tame Magpie

Alessandro Magnasco - The Tame Magpie, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

The reputation of Magnasco (Italian, Genoa, 1667 - 1749), one of the most individual eighteenth-century painters, resides in the exuberance of his technique and the fantasy of his subject matter. Here people from the fringes of society have gathered to watch the spectacle of a man trying to teach a magpie to sing - an impossible task. The picture was probably painted in about 1707–8, when Magnasco was working for the Medici in Florence and was in contact with Sebastiano Ricci.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 63.5 x 74.9 cm]

Gaspare Traversi - Teasing a Sleeping Girl

Gaspare Traversi - Teasing a Sleeping Girl, a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Little is known of Traversi's career, but he was unquestionably the leading genre painter in eighteenth-century Naples. His pictures parodying the pastimes of the noble classes are particularly striking for their emphatic naturalism and biting wit. In this work an old woman tickles a young girl who has fallen asleep with her box of keepsakes on her lap.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 86.7 x 107.6 cm]

Thomas Lawrence - Portrait of Mrs James Fraser of Castle Fraser [c.1817]

Thomas Lawrence - Portrait of Mrs James Fraser of Castle Fraser [c.1817], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Jane Fraser is seated, looking out directly at the spectator, who sees her from a viewpoint slightly below. Her dress is in the Empire style, its high waist defined by a gold sash just below her bosom. She wears a red velvet coat with ballooning, mutton-chop sleeves and a fur-trimmed collar turned down around her shoulders to reveal a yellow silk lining. She is posed on a balcony or terrace, with one fluted pillar behind her to our right. In the distance below, Scottish lochs and mountains are seen in the moonlight, silhouetted against a dark and turbulent sky.

[Philadelphia Museum of Art - Oil on canvas, 76.5 x 63.5 cm]