22 Works, October 21st. is Domenico Zampieri's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #224

Domenichino (1581–1641) (after)

The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew

Oil on canvas

H 33.5 x W 43.5 cm

University of Edinburgh

Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras (Patræ) in Achaea. Early texts describe Andrew as bound, not nailed, and crucified on a cross of the form called crux decussata, now commonly known as a "Saint Andrew's Cross" 

Scene of the martyrdom of Saint Andrew with stuggling figures and a mounted figure on the left. This painting is a late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century copy after an engraving of Domenichino's fresco of this subject on the vault of Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome, painted in 1622–1627. These frescoes were Domenichino's most extensive Roman commission for which he vied with rival, Giovanni Lanfranco. Saint Andrew was martyred at Patras. He asked that he should be crucified on an 'X' shaped cross as he considered himself to be unworthy to die in the same manner as Jesus. More on this painting

Domenico Zampieri (October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters

Domenico Zampieri known as Domenichino, (Bologna 1581 - Naples 1641)

The Hunt for Diana, c. 1617

Oil on canvas

225x320 cm

Galleria Bolognese

Domenichino reworks one of the episodes narrated by Virgil in the fifth chapter of the Aeneid (vv. 485-518), in which we read of a competition between some archers, friends of Aeneas, moved by the idea of ​​killing a dove, tied to the ship's mast. As portrayed in the picture, three arrows were shot: the first hit a pole, the second the ribbon, wrapped around the bird's legs, the third the dove.

Emulating the painting of Apelles (Kliemann 1996), the painter imagines the race all female, depicting Diana at the center of the scene and in the space surrounding her nymphs, spied in their intimacy by two men, hidden in a bush at the right end of the painting, whose making brings to mind the myth of Actaeon, a young hunter transformed into a deer and torn to pieces by the dogs of the terrible goddess. In fact, some details seem to allude to this story, such as the two greyhounds on the right and the nymphs immersed in the water, among which we admire a beautiful girl who with a sensual and captivating gaze invites the viewer to be part of that surreal world. More on this painting

Domenichino (1581–1641)

Venus

Oil on canvas

H 121.9 x W 168.9 cm

York Art Gallery

Domenichino was born in Bologna, and there initially studied under Denis Calvaert. After quarreling with Calvaert, he left to work in the Accademia degli Incamminati of the Carracci where, because of his small stature, he was nicknamed Domenichino, meaning "little Domenico" in Italian. He left Bologna for Rome in 1602 and became one of the most talented apprentices to emerge from Annibale Carracci's supervision. As a young artist in Rome he lived with his slightly older Bolognese colleagues Albani and Guido Reni, and worked alongside Lanfranco, who later would become a chief rival.

Domenichino  (1581–1641)

Virgin and Unicorn (A Virgin with a Unicorn), circa 1602

Fresco

Palazzo Farnese

“Unicorns were portrayed as forest-dwelling creatures with this monstrous four-foot long horn that they used to stab the wombs of elephants, and they were regarded as the most dangerous beast in the forests.” The only way to capture them, she explained, was to lure them into a meadow using a naked virgin.

“According to lore, the unicorn will then come and put his horn in her lap and fall asleep. She then grabs the horn, a signal for hunters to arrive and stab the beast, bringing his body to the palace of the king, the bestiaries say. They do this because the unicorn’s horn, in fact every part of his body, had amazing medicinal properties and could cure any poison. So that’s the legend of the unicorn!” More on Virgin and Unicorn

Giulia Farnese (1474 – 23 March 1524) was mistress to Pope Alexander VI, and the sister of Pope Paul III. She was known as Giulia la bella, meaning "Julia the beautiful" in Italian.

Dominiquin (Domenico Zampieri, known as Il Domenichino, or Le)

Captive Timocles brought before Alexander

Oil on canvas

Height: 1.14 m; Width: 1.53 m

Louvre

After the army of Alexander the Great invaded Thebes, Timoclea is brought before him to be judged for having stoned a captain who had use violence against her. Alexander touched by her righteousness and pride, sets her free.

Dominiquin (Domenico Zampieri, known as Il Domenichino, or Le)

Renaud presenting a mirror to Armide

Oil on canvas

Height: 1.21 m; Width: 1.68 m

Louvre

Armide is an opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully. The libretto by Philippe Quinault is based on Torquato Tasso's poem La Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered). The work is in the form of a tragédie en musique, a genre invented by Lully and Quinault. More on Armide

Critics in the 18th century regarded Armide as Lully's masterpiece. It continues to be well-regarded, featuring some of the best-known music in French baroque opera and being arguably ahead of its time in its psychological interest. Unlike most of his operas, Armide concentrates on the sustained psychological development of a character – not Renaud, who spends most of the opera under Armide's spell, but Armide, who repeatedly tries without success to choose vengeance over love.

In addition to assisting Annibale with completion of his frescoes in the Galleria Farnese, including A Virgin with a Unicorn (c. 1604–05) (See above), he painted three of his own frescoes in the Loggia del Giardino of the Palazzo Farnese c. 1603–04. With the support of Monsignor Giovanni Battista Agucchi, the maggiordomo to Cardinal Aldobrandini and later Gregory XV, and Giovanni's brother Cardinal Girolamo Agucchi, Domenichino obtained further commissions in Rome. His most important project of the first decade was decoration of the Cappella dei Santissimi Fondatori in the medieval basilica of the Abbey of Grottaferrata (1608–1610), some 20 kilometers outside Rome, where Odoardo Farnese was the titular abbot. Meanwhile, he had completed frescoes c. 1604–05 in the church of Sant'Onofrio, feigned stucco decoration of 1606–07 in the Palazzo Mattei, a large scene of The Flagellation of St. Andrew at San Gregorio Magno, painted in competition with a fresco by Reni that faces it, and a ceiling with Scenes from the Life of Diana, 1609, in the Villa Odescalchi at Bassano di Sutri (today Bassano Romano).

Domenichino  (1581–1641)

The Virgin and Child Jesus with Saint John, also known as Le Silence, or Le Silence du Carrache, c. 1605

Oil on canvas

Height: 0.38 m, Width: 0.47 m

Louvre Museum

Domenichino (Domenico Zampieri) (Italian, Bologna 1581–1641 Naples)

The Lamentation, c. 1603

Oil on copper

20 7/8 x 14 3/4 in. (53 x 37.5 cm)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends mourned over his body. This event has been depicted by many different artists.

 

Lamentation works are very often included in cycles of the Life of Christ, and also form the subject of many individual works. One specific type of Lamentation depicts only Jesus' mother Mary cradling his body. These are known as Pietà (Italian for "pity") More The Lamentation of Christ

The surface of this pristinely preserved painting has an enamel-like finish and jewel-like depth of color. It was painted by Domenichino a year after he moved from his native Bologna to Rome. The composition repeats that of a large altarpiece designed by Annibale Carracci for the church of San Francesco a Ripa, Rome (now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris). Annibale greatly admired the talent of his young assistant, who in this picture outstripped his master in creating a mood of restrained but poignant grief. The turbaned figure of Joseph of Arimathea with an urn was Domenichino's personal interpolation into Annibale’s composition. More on this painting

Domenichino  (1581–1641)

The Rapture of Saint Paul, c. 1600 - 1625

Oil on copper

Height: 0.5 m; Width: 0.38 m

Louvre Museum

Saul of Tarsus, on his way to Damascus to annihilate the Christian community there, is struck blind by a brilliant light and hears the voice of Christ saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?...And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice..." (Acts 22:6-11). Elsewhere Paul claims to have seen Christ during the vision, and it is on this basis that he grounds his claim be recognised as an Apostle: "Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?" More on The conversion of Saint Paul

Domenichino  (1581–1641)

The lapidation of Saint Stephen,c. between 1605 and 1607

Oil on copper

Height: 55 cm (21.6 in); Width: 40 cm (15.7 in)

Condé Museum

Stephen or Stephan; traditionally venerated as the first martyr of Christianity, was, according to the Acts of the Apostles, a deacon in the early church at Jerusalem who aroused the enmity of members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy, at his trial he made a long speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. His martyrdom was witnessed by Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee who would later himself become a follower of Jesus. More on Saint Stephen

Domenichino  (1581–1641)

Saint Agnes, c.1620

Oil on canvas

212.7 x 152.4 cm

The Royal Collection Trust

Domenichino represents the saint standing and gazing heavenward as an angel holding a palm and a crown floats above her. Pentiments are clearly visible in the head and the hands of the saint where the artist made slight changes to their position. On the left-hand side the large classical vase and low-relief sculpture signify the pagan beliefs rejected by the saint; in contrast, a small putto in the foreground embraces a lamb, her attribute (from the Latin, agnus) and a symbol of innocence and purity. More on this painting

Domenichino  (1581–1641)

The Martyrdom of St. Agnes, c. 1621-1625

Oil on canvas

533 x 342

Inacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

St. Agnes, also called Agnes of Rome (c. 291 – c. 304) was a popular saint about whom little is known, Agnes is said to have been a beautiful, wealthy Roman maiden who had, in childhood, dedicated herself to God. Some say that a rejected suitor betrayed her to authorities; others say that she was asked at 13 to sacrifice to the gods and marry, both of which she refused. Legends tell of her being thrown into a brothel, where her purity was miraculously preserved. Having escaped that fate, she was martyred. In the IV Century, Constantia, the daughter of Constantine, built a basilica on the site of her tomb. St. Ambrose wrote about Agnes in De virginitate, and Damasus I wrote an epitaph for her. Prudentius composed a hymn in her honor. Her emblem in art is the lamb because of the similarity between her name and the Latin word for lamb, agnus. More on Agnes of Rome

The composition is set out on two levels, the earthly one and the celestial one, according to the traditional scheme. On the upper level, bathed in bright light, is the Trinity, surrounded by a choir of graceful musician angels. On the lower level is the martyrdom of the Saint, observed by some soldiers and women. In the background, various figures look on from the top of a loggia, between whose columns we can see the countryside in the distance.

The very young martyr is depicted as she is dying, pierced in the throat on the orders of Aspasio, vicar of the prefect, whose son had been rejected by Agnes, who had already devoted herself to chastity.

The saint, on the other hand, with her ecstatic gaze, is already engulfed in the vision of paradise and the promise of eternal salvation, sealed by the presence of the angel who is receiving the palm of martyrdom from Christ's hands.

In the foreground, next to the stake, which the Saint had miraculously survived, the bodies of two men, probably identifiable with two executioners, lie on the ground.

The monumental altarpiece with the Martyrdom of St. Agnes, commissioned by Pietro Martire Carli for the convent of Sant'Agnese in Bologna, was begun by Domenichino in 1619 and completed in Rome, where the artist had sojourned in 1621. More on this painting

Dominiquin (Domenico Zampieri, known as Il Domenichino, or Le)

Saint Cecilia with an angel holding a musical score

Oil on canvas

Height: 1.6 m; 1.96 m; Width

Louvre Museum

Saint Cecilia is the patroness of musicians. It is written that as the musicians played at her wedding she "sang in her heart to the Lord". She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass.

 

According to the story, despite her vow of virginity, she was forced by her parents to marry a nobleman named Valerian. During the wedding, Cecilia sat apart singing to God in her heart, and for that she was later declared the saint of musicians. When the time came for her marriage to be consummated, Cecilia told Valerian that she had an angel of the Lord watching over her who would punish him if he dared to violate her virginity but who would love him if he could respect her maidenhood. When Valerian asked to see the angel, Cecilia replied that he would see the angel if he would go to the third milestone on the Via Appia (the Appian Way) and be baptized by Pope Urbanus.] After his baptism, he found an angel standing by the side of Cecilia, and crowning her with a chaplet of roses and lilies.

 

The martyrdom of Cecilia is said to have followed that of Valerian and his brother by the prefect Turcius Almachius. The legend about Cecilia’s death says that after being struck three times on the neck with a sword, she lived for three days, and asked the pope to convert her home into a church. More on Saint Cecilia

Domenichino  (1581–1641)

Communion of Saint Jerome, c. 1614

Oil on canvas

Vatican Museums

Jerome (c.  347 – 30 September 420) was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia, then part of northeastern Italy. He is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate), and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive.

The protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life. This focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families.

He is recognised as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion. His feast day is 30 September. More on Jerome

The painting, commissioned by the Congregation of St Jerome of Charity for the church of the same name in Via Giulia in Rome, was executed by Domenichino between 1611 and 1614. The Bolognese painter had come to this city in 1602 called by his fellow citizen Annibale Carracci, with whom he worked in the Farnese Gallery.

The Communion of St Jerome constitutes his first important recognition in Rome and, except for some rare cases, excited the enthusiastic approval of his contemporaries, who considered it among the masterpieces of Italian art. The subject, which is quite rare, is that of St Jerome who, by now ninety years of age, on the point of death wants to take his last communion surrounded by his disciples and St Paula. Domenichino took his inspiration from a painting with the same subject painted by his master Agostino Carracci ten years previously. More on this painting

Dominiquin (Domenico Zampieri, known as Il Domenichino, or Le) , After

Saint Magdalene

Oil on canvas

Height: 0.76 m; Width: 0.66 m

Louvre Museum

A sinner, perhaps a courtesan, Mary Magdalen was a witness of Christ who renounced the pleasures of the flesh for a life of penance and contemplation. Penitent Magdalene or Penitent Magdalen refers to a post-biblical period in the life of Mary Magdalene, according to medieval legend. 

According to the tenets of the 17th–century Catholic church, Mary Magdalene was an example of the repentant sinner and consequently a symbol of the Sacrament of Penance. According to legend, Mary led a dissolute life until her sister Martha persuaded her to listen to Jesus Christ. She became one of Christ's most devoted followers and he absolved her of her former sins. More on The Penitent Magdalen 

Penitent Magdalen refers to a post-biblical period in the life of Mary Magdalen.

Domenichino (1581–1641) (circle of)

Saint George 17th C

Oil on canvas

H 134.3 x W 98 cm

The Bowes Museum

To the early Christians a dragon symbolised evil. The conversion of a heathen country to Christianity by a saint would thus be depicted in symbolic form, as slaying a dragon with a spear. Saint George was shown in this manner to signify the conversion of Cappadocia (now part of Turkey) to Christianity. A maiden often personified Cappadocia. The story was later adapted and Saint George was said to have fought a dragon, outside the walls of a city, in order to rescue the king’s daughter who had been offered to the dragon as a sacrifice. In the background of this work we can see Saint George on a white horse (symbolising purity) slaying the dragon whilst the princess stands to one side, her arms raised, signifying her joy at being rescued.

During the sixteenth-century Northern Italy was in a perpetual state of war. Saint George was the patron Saint of a number of Italian cities including Venice and Ferrara. At courts greatly concerned with military matters it became popular for gentlemen from among the ruling families to be depicted as Saint George, a figure associated with bravery and valour.

Continued fighting in Italy stimulated the rapid evolution of armour design and an artist able to produce accurate and skilful portrayals of armour and weapons would have been greatly appreciated. The artist has taken great care to depict the protective elements of the armour such as the Pauldrons on the shoulder, Besagew to defend the armpit and the Couter which consisted of a winged joint to protect the elbow. More on this painting

Following Annibale Carracci's death in 1609, the pupils who had followed Annibale's Roman style, including Domenichino and Francesco Albani, were not as successful at gaining the most prestigious commissions as Guido Reni. In turn, the Bolognese biographer Malvasia states that Guido [Reni] was put ahead of everyone else, Guido alone proclaimed and well treated, while Domenichino was either not recognized or constantly mistreated in the fees he got, so that he was left without commissions and rejected. Therefore, he was forced to go begging for work, with much effort, through intermediaries, and at any price...

Follower Domenichino

A Sybil

Oil on canvas

87cm x 74cm

Private collection

The sibyls were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece.[1][2] The earliest sibyls, according to legend, prophesied at holy sites.[3] Their prophecies were influenced by divine inspiration from a deity, originally at Delphi and Pessinos. In Late Antiquity, various writers attested to the existence of sibyls in Greece, Italy, the Levant, and Asia Minor. More on sibyls

After Domenichino

The Persian Sibyl, c. 1647/1648

Oil on canvas

w960 x h1170 cm

Musei Capitolini, Roma, Italy

The Persian Sibyl - also known as the Babylonian, Hebrew or Egyptian Sibyl - was the prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle.

The Persian Sibyl allegedly foretold the exploits of Alexander of Macedon. Nicanor, who wrote a life of Alexander, mentions her. The Persian Sibyl has had at least three names: Sambethe, Helrea and Sabbe.

Sambethe was said to be of the family of Noah. More on Persian Sibyl

After Domenichino

Sibille, c. around 1880/1900

Oil on canvas

102 x 77 cm

Private collection

After Domenichino

Cumean Sybil

Oil on canvas

48 1/2 by 35 1/4 in. /2 by 41 1/4 in.

The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. 

The Cumaean Sibyl prophesied by “singing the fates” and writing on oak leaves. These would be arranged inside the entrance of her cave, but if the wind blew and scattered them, she would not help to reassemble the leaves and recreate the original prophecy.

In the Middle Ages, both the Cumaean Sibyl and Virgil were considered prophets of the birth of Christ, because the fourth of Virgil's Eclogues appears to contain a Messianic prophecy by the Sibyl. In it, she foretells the coming of a saviour, whom Christians identified as Jesus. Similarly, Michelangelo prominently featured the Cumaean Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel among the Old Testament prophets, as had earlier works such as the Tree of Jesse miniature in the Ingeberg Psalter (c. 1210). More on The Cumaean Sibyl

One of Domenichino's masterpieces, his frescoes of Scenes of the Life of Saint Cecilia in the Polet Chapel of San Luigi dei Francesi, was commissioned in 1612 and completed in 1615. Concurrently he painted his first, and most celebrated, altarpiece, The Last Communion of St. Jerome for the church of San Girolamo della Carità in 1614. It subsequently would be judged as being comparable to Raphael's great Transfiguration and even as "the best picture in the world".

By late 1616, Domenichino had designed the coffered ceiling with The Assumption of the Virgin in Santa Maria in Trastevere; and he had begun a cycle of ten frescoes depicting the Life of Apollo in a garden pavilion of the Villa Aldobrandini (Belvedere) in Frascati, where he was assisted by Giovanni Battista Viola, a Bolognese artist who, like Domenichino himself, was a pioneer in the development of classicistic landscape painting. From 1617 until 1621, Domenichino was absent from Rome, working in Bologna and at Fano, where during 1618–19 he frescoed the Nolfi chapel of the Fano Cathedral with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin.

Domenichino  (1581–1641)

The Sacrifice of Abraham, c. between 1627 and 1628

Oil on canvas

Height: 147 cm (57.8 in) ; Width: 140 cm (55.1 in)

Museo del Prado  

According to the Bible, God commands Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. After Isaac is bound to an altar, the angel of God stops Abraham at the last minute, saying "now I know you fear God." At this point, Abraham sees a ram caught in some nearby bushes and sacrifices the ram instead of Isaac. 

This painting was one of a group of works commissioned from Italian artists for the Alcázar in Madrid. More on the sacrifice if Isaac

With the election of a Bolognese pope (Gregory XV) in 1621, Domenichino returned to Rome. Appointed Papal Architect, he nonetheless continued to be most active as a painter, obtaining many commissions for altarpieces in Roman churches (San Lorenzo in Miranda, 1626–27, SS. Giovanni Evangelista e Petronio dei Bolognesi, 1626–1629, Santa Maria della Vittoria, 1629–30, and St. Peter's, 1625–1630). He also executed numerous frescoes in Rome during the 1620s: a ceiling in the Palazzo Costaguti (c. 1622); the choir and pendentives in Sant'Andrea della Valle, where he worked in fierce competition with Lanfranco, who painted the dome above Domenichino's pendentives; and the pendentives of San Silvestro al Quirinale (c. 1628) and San Carlo ai Catinari (1628–30).

School of Domenichino

17th Century Italian Woman with four putti figures

Oil on canvas

27 3/4 x 40 in

Private collection

In spite of his activity in Rome, Domenichino decided to leave the city in 1631 to take up the most prestigious, and very lucrative, commission in Naples, the decoration of the Cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro of the Naples Cathedral. His Scenes from the Life of San Gennaro occupied him for the rest of his life. He painted four large lunettes, four pendentives, and twelve scenes in the soffits of the arches, all in fresco, plus three large altarpieces in oil on copper. He died, perhaps by poison at the hands of the jealous Cabal of Naples, before completing the fourth altarpiece or the cupola, which was subsequently frescoed by Lanfranco. More on Domenico Zampieri

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19 Works, September 19th. is William Dyce"s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #206

William Dyce, 1806-1864

King Joash Shooting "the Arrow of Deliverance"

Oil on canvas

76.3 x 109.5 cms | 30 x 43 ins

Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Elisha's Final Prophecy: …16Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So the king put his hand on the bow, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands. 17“Open the east window,” said Elisha. So he opened it and Elisha said, “Shoot!” So he shot. And Elisha declared: “This is the LORD’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram, for you shall strike the Arameans in Aphek until you have put an end to them.” 18Then Elisha said, “Take the arrows!” So he took them, and Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” So he struck the ground three times and stopped.… More on the Arrow of Deliverance

William Dyce FRSE RSA RA (19 September 1806 in Aberdeen – 14 February 1864) was a Scottish painter, who played a part in the formation of public art education in the United Kingdom, and the South Kensington Schools system. Dyce was associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and played a part in their early popularity

William Dyce, R.A., H.R.S.A.

Neptune Resigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea, c. 1847

a scheme for a fresco at Osborne House

Oil on paper laid down on board

Private collection

This was Dyce’s only exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1847. It was described in the catalogue as ‘Sketch for a picture to be painted at Osborne House for Her Majesty and H.R.H. Prince Albert’. 

The finished wall painting, completed in the same year, measures seventeen feet wide by ten feet high and differs only in small details from the present work. On 13 January 1847, following a lunch with the Queen and Prince, Dyce told his fellow artist Charles West Cope that his design had been well-received; ‘Prince thought it rather nude; the Queen, however, said not at all.’ This remark demonstrates Queen Victoria’s lack of coyness in her artistic tastes. The dozen towering nudes, including the God of the Oceans Neptune and his cohort Amphitrite, accompanied by tritons and sea-nymphs, a putto and centaur, delighted the Queen but Dyce reported that ‘The nursery maids and French governesses have been sadly scandalised by the nudities.’ More on this painting

William Dyce (1806–1864)

Bacchus Nursed by the Nymphs of Nyssa, c.1827

Oil on board

H 30.8 x W 40.5 cm

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums

This oil depicts a dynamic, bucolic revel, much in the style of the great Bacchanals of Titian.

The myth centres on the god Bacchus, the son of Jupiter and the mortal, Semele, who was reared by the nymphs of Nyssa. In the central group Silenus, a satyr-god, squeezes grape juice into a cup, whilst Bacchus, kneeling on a young goat and tended by one of the nymphs, raises his arm to reach for the drinking vessel. More on this painting

After studying at Marischal College, Dyce early showed an aptitude for design and began his artistic career at the Royal Academy schools in Edinburgh and London. He travelled to Rome for the first time in 1825, and while there he studied the works of Titian and Poussin. He returned to Aberdeen after nine months, and painted several pictures, including Bacchus nursed by the Nymphs of Nysa (See above), which was exhibited in 1827. He returned to Rome in 1827, this time staying for a year and a half, and during this period he appears to have made the acquaintance of the German Nazarene painter Friedrich Overbeck, who admired Dyce's Virgin and Child (See below). After these travels, Dyce settled for several years in Edinburgh. He supported himself by painting portraits at first, but soon took to other subjects of art, especially the religious subjects he preferred.

William Dyce (1806–1864)

Virgin and Child

Oil on plaster

H 78.7 x W 60.3 cm

Nottingham City Museums & Galleries

A study of the Virgin Mary facing right, holding Jesus in her right arm, and reading a small red book in her right hand. She wears her light brown hair braided at the back, and has on a red round-necked dress with large sleeves edged in green, with a blue cloak that has slipped to waist level. The child is naked except for a band of white material slung over his left shoulder. The background is a rocky landscape. More on this painting

William Dyce  (1806–1864)

The Virgin and Child, c. 1845

Oil on canvas

Height: 81 cm (31.8 in); Width: 58 cm (22.8 in)

Windsor Castle

The influence of Raphael is clearly evident in this painting, which bears a similarity to works such as The Small Cowper Madonna (Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art). The resemblance was noted by Queen Victoria who described the painting on first seeing it in Buckingham Palace as ‘quite like an old master, & in the style of Raphael – so chaste & exquisitely painted’ (Journal, 9 August, 1845).

While the pose here is tender, the focus is more on religious devotion than maternal affection, the spiritual rather than the sensual. The Virgin reads a Bible passage referring to the stock of Jesse (Isaiah 11) and the child points to Mary as the origin of Christ. The picture was hung in the Queen’s Bedroom at Osborne House. The Queen herself made a pastel copy of it , and in 1846 the Prince commissioned from Dyce a companion picture, St Joseph, which he considered even finer (See below). More on this painting

WILLIAM DYCE (1806-64)

Saint Joseph Signed and dated 1847

Oil on canvas

78.9 x 54.8 x 2.3 cm

Queen's Bedroom, Osborne House

After acquiring The Madonna and Child (See above) Prince Albert commissioned this painting of St Joseph, and the two pictures were hung together in the Queen's Bedroom at Osborne House. The works were inspired by early Italian art, being painted on white grounds and with somewhat severe profile views, and they contain hints of the lowland Scottish scenery that would become more prominent in Dyce's later biblical pictures. Commissioned by Prince Albert.

After the artist had made some alterations to the head, giving it more hair and a longer beard, Prince Albert was apparently very pleased with this painting. It was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1855, and placed in the Queen’s Bedroom at Osborne. Inscribed on the back with the subject, the artist’s name and the date, 1847. More on this painting

There exists an earlier painting (possibly dating from 1838) of the same subject in the Tate Gallery, London, and a variant of the present design in the Castle Museum, Nottingham. 

William Dyce (1806–1864)

The Woman of Samaria, c.1850–1864

Oil on panel

H 34.2 x W 48.4 cm

Birmingham Museums Trust

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.. Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink', you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." More on the Samaritan woman

William Dyce (1806–1864)

Lamentation over the Dead Christ, c. 1835

Oil on canvas

H 210 x W 165 cm

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums

The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends mourned over his body. This event has been depicted by many different artists.

 

Lamentation works are very often included in cycles of the Life of Christ, and also form the subject of many individual works. One specific type of Lamentation depicts only Jesus' mother Mary cradling his body. These are known as Pietà (Italian for "pity"). More The Lamentation of Christ

William Dyce (1806–1864)

The Daughters of Jethro Defended by Moses, c. 1829

Oil on canvas

H 73.7 x W 123.7 cm

Perth & Kinross Council

While wandering in exile from Egypt, Moses happened to stumble upon Jethro's seven daughters attempting to draw water out of a well to water their father's sheep.

Unfortunately, some shepherds were preventing them from doing their chores, blocking access to the well while they selfishly watered their own sheep. Moses defended the daughters, driving back the bothersome shepherds and chivalrously watering the sheep himself.

Out of gratitude, Jethro gave Moses his prettiest daughter in marriage. More on The Daughters of Jethro Defended by Moses

William Dyce (1806–1864)

The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel, c. 1850

Oil on canvas

H 70.5 x W 91 cm

Leicester Museum & Art Gallery

The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel illustrates the Biblical text 'Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. The moment represented is that when Jacob falls in love with his cousin Rachel whom he had encountered standing at a well with her father's flocks and who was beautiful and well-favoured. The urgency of his emotion, and her demure acceptance of his love, is poignantly conveyed by the way in which he leans forward to look directly into her face, resting his hand on the nape of her neck and pressing hers to his chest, while she stands before him without recoiling or resisting him, only looking downwards in a gesture of modest acceptance of his adoring attention.

Rachel's father, Laban was to trick Jacob into working for him for fourteen years without payment, on the understanding that he would eventually be able to marry Rachel, and then insisted that Jacob should first marry Rachel's elder sister, Leah, before eventually allowing Rachel to be his wife. More on this painting

William Dyce (1806–1864)

Saint Catherine, c.1840

Oil on panel

H 88.9 x W 64.8 cm

National Galleries of Scotland, Scottish National Gallery

Saint Catherine of Alexandria is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess and a noted scholar, who became a Christian around the age of fourteen, and converted hundreds of people to Christianity. She was martyred around the age of 18. Over 1,100 years following her martyrdom, St. Joan of Arc identified Catherine as one of the Saints who appeared to her and counselled her.

The emperor condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch, it shattered. Maxentius ordered her to be beheaded. Catherine herself ordered the execution to commence. A milk-like substance rather than blood flowed from her neck.

 

The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates her as a Great Martyr, and celebrates her feast day on 24 or 25 November (depending on the local tradition). In the Catholic Church she is traditionally revered as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. In 1969 the Catholic Church removed her feast day from the General Roman Calendar; however, she continued to be commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on 25 November. More on Saint Catherine of Alexandria

In 1837 Dyce was given charge of the School of Design in Edinburgh, and was then invited to London, where he was based thereafter, to head the newly established Government School of Design, later to become the Royal College of Art. Before taking up this post in 1838 he and a colleague were sent to visit France and Germany to enquire into design education there and prepare a report. He left the school in 1843, to be able to paint more, but remained a member of the Council of the school. The ideas that were turned in the following decade into the "South Kensington system" that dominated English art education for the rest of the century really have their origin in Dyce's work.

Circle William Dyce

Two girls playing musical instruments

Oil on canvas

60 x 50cm

Private collection

From the same collection at the Partridge sale was an unsigned Pre-Raphaelite style painting of two girls playing musical instruments. It was in fact a copied detail from John William Waterhouse’s St Cecilia, the two figures appearing in the bottom left of the 1895 painting.

This 2ft x 20in (60 x 50cm) oil on canvas here, showing one girl playing the lute and the other the violin, was catalogued as ‘Circle of William Dyce (1806-64)’. More on this painting

William Dyce  (1806–1864)

The Highland Ferryman, c. 1858

Oil on canvas

50.8 × 61 cm (20 × 24 in)

Private collection

William Dyce  (1806–1864)

Welsh Landscape with Two Ladies Knitting

Oil on board

36 x 58 cms | 14 x 22 3/4 ins

National Museum of Wales

The painting is a romanticised Victorian view of ‘wild Wales’ and its ‘unspoilt’ people. It is a scene that the artist has composed, not observed. The younger woman is dressed in the recently revived Welsh national costume, in reality worn only on special occasions. Both are knitting stockings from scavenged scraps of wool, even though this was an occupation for the home, and one that had largely disappeared by 1860. It is full of contrived contrasts - between age and beauty, and between transitory humans and ancient geological formations - while the sickle moon suggests the cyclical progression of the universe. More on this painting

William Dyce

Henry VI at Towton, c. 1860

Oil on panel

37 x 51 cm

Guildhall Art Gallery, London. 

The Battle of Towton on 29th March 1461 was possibly the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil.

Although the Lancastrian King Henry VI had transferred the right of succession to the English throne to Richard, Duke of York and his heirs, his wife Queen Margaret was not prepared to accept an arrangement that deprived her son of his birthright without a fight.

England was effectively a country with two kings, a predicament that could only be settled on the battlefield.

The two huge armies, estimated at between 50,000 – 65,000 men, confronted each other in the middle of a snowstorm on an open field between the villages of Towton and Saxton, in North Yorkshire on Palm Sunday. More on The Battle of Towton

In 1844, having been appointed professor of fine art in King's College London, he delivered a significant lecture, The Theory of the Fine Arts. In 1835 he had been elected an associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, an honour he relinquished upon settling in London, and he was then made an honorary member. In 1844 he became an associate, and in 1848 a full member, of the London Royal Academy of Arts; he also was elected a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

William Dyce (1806–1864)

Piety: The Knights of the Round Table about to Depart in Quest of the Holy Grail, c. 1849

Watercolour and bodycolour over pencil on buff paper, laid down

23.3 x 44 cm

Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

Dyce also engaged in the popular Victorian sub-genre of Arthurian legend. This watercolour uses the hatching more commonly found in illustration and prints, and was the study for a fresco for the Queen’s Robing Room in the Palace of Westminster (Houses of Parliament).

It shows a melée of knights of the Round Table paying tribute to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere (at the right), as those knights prepare to depart on their quest for the Holy Grail, the legendary chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper. More on Piety

William Dyce (1806–1864)

Mercy - Sir Gawaine swearing to be merciful and 'never be against Ladies

Fresco

Palace of Westminster

Sir Gawaine represents the knightly virtue of Mercy in a strange tale in which he fought a knight who had killed Sir Gawaine's hounds, after they had slain that knight's white hart.

'Why have you slain my hounds?' said Sir Gawaine. 'For they did but their kind.' And he smote the knight so hard that he fell to the earth, and then he cried mercy and besought him as he were a knight and a gentleman to save his life. Sir Gawaine would no mercy have, but unlaced his helm to have stricken off his head. Right so came his lady out of a chamber and fell on him, and so he smote her head off by misadventure.

Gawaine returned to Camelot with the lady's body on his horse, and her head hung about his neck.

And there by ordnance of the queen it was judged upon Sir Gawaine for ever after he should be with all ladies, and fight their quarrels, and that he should never refuse mercy to him that asketh mercy. Thus was Gawaine sworn upon the four Evangelists. More on this painting

William Dyce  (1806–1864)

Generosity: King Arthur Unhorsed, Spared by Sir Launcelot, c. 1852

Fresco

11'2½" x 5'10"

Palace at Westminster, London

An episode from near the end of Morte d'Arthur is included to exemplify knightly Generosity. After Arthur learned that Guenever and Launcelot were lovers, he made war against Launcelot's castle of Joyous Guard. In a battle Arthur was thrown from his horse by Sir Bors, Launcelot's kinsman. Here we see the King lying at the feet of Sir Bors, at the mercy of this knight.

And so Sir Bors drew his sword and said to Sir Launcelot: 'Shall I make an end of this war?' and that he meant to have slain king Arthur. 'Not so hardy,' said Sir Launcelot, 'For I will never see that most noble king, that made me knight, neither slain nor shamed.' And therewithal Sir Launcelot alighted off his horse, and took up the king, and horsed him again. More on Generosity

Dyce is less known for, but nevertheless important as, the founder of the Motett Society (1840–1852), which sought to advance the restoration and liturgical use of long-neglected works of the English church. He was noted as an able organist, and is also reputed to have composed some musical works.

Dyce died in Streatham in Surrey on 14 February 1864. He is buried in the churchyard of St Leonards Church in Streatham. He is also memorialised on his parent's grave in St Nicholas Churchyard on Union Street in Aberdeen, and there is a street in Streatham named for him – William Dyce Mews. A stained glass window in St Machar's Cathedral is jointly dedicated to Dyce. More on William Dyce

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