At the age of twenty, in 1538, Jacopo Robusti (c. 1518–1594)—nicknamed Tintoretto—set up his studio in Venice, in the San Polo district, beside the Grand Canal.

James Ensor (1860–1949) joined or even anticipated all the ­pictorial movements of his time, from impressionism to surrealism, by way of symbolism, fauvism, naturalism, and expressionism.

Giovanni di Benedetto (active c. 1350–1390) was a famous illuminator of manuscripts and painter of frescos. He was one of the masters of the studio

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (1610–1662), a pupil of Pietro da Cortona in Rome, quickly became one of his chief collaborators, in the service of Pope Urban VIII.

This large-scale Byzantine icon (33″ x 26″) is preserved at Saint Catherine Monastery on Mount Sinai, where it was probably painted in the early 13th century.

Rembrandt was his first name, van Rijn his surname. The ninth child of a Protestant miller and a Catholic mother, he would become in an

The destiny of this Virgin and Child, a work by the famous Scottish painter William Dyce (1806–1864), is closely connected to a beautiful royal romance which

Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678) was the contemporary and then successor of Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) in Antwerp (present-day Belgium). By his talent and fame he became the

Jean Bourdichon (c. 1457–1521) surely could have taken his place in the Pantheon of the ten greatest French painters, but alas, his works did not

This English miniature from the twelfth century depicts the return of Saint Cuthbert, and of two of his brother monks, from the land of the