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Giovanna Garzoni and Maria Sibylla Merian lived two unusual lives for female artists at the time. Both of them left their husbands and both are renowned for their work in still lifes. Yet this article argues that their most powerful connector is how…

Bernini’s “The Rape of Prosperina” marble sculpture portrays the abduction of Proserpina, also known as Persephone, who is seized by the god of the underworld Pluto. The work was commissioned by Cardinal Scipione Borghese for his four large-scale…

Ruben's rendition of the "Rape of Proserpina" mythological tale. The work shows Pluto grasping Persephone vigorously. However, there are additional figures in this image. Minerva, the goddess of war, Venus, and Diana, the goddess of the hunt are…

The Artist
Giuseppe Recco was born into an intergenerational family workshop of still-life painters in 1634 in Naples [1]. Much of what is known about Giuseppe comes from Bernardo De Dominici’s Vite dei pittori, scultori ed architetti napoletani,…

Jesus Christ shown in contrapposto form carrying the cross. This work influenced Bernini's Aeneas, Anchises, and Ascanius masterpiece.

The Separation of Night from Day happens in the story of the Creation. A winged celestial being or spirit, who has variously been called Dawn or Twilight, separates two figures with two wands. Day, a scantily clad young man, moves swiftly towards the…

Altarpiece of the Chapel of the Angels of the Gesu.

Ceiling fresco by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo in the S. Maria di Nazareth, destroyed in 1915

Ceiling fresco by Pietro da Cortona in Chiesa Nuova

Triumph in the Name of Jesus is the most well-known of Giovanni Battista Gaulli’s frescoes decorating Il Gesù in Rome. Gaulli, commonly known as Baciccio, was mentored by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, an outstanding figure in the Italian art world. He…