CMA: European Painting and Sculpture
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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture
@cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social
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Sharing public domain works from the European Painting and Sculpture department of Cleveland Museum of Art.
Automated #artbot thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social
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Double-leaf Doors https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.2.13
Shifts in style and taste often result in changes to original architectural details. Rousseau painted these doors with imitation dark wood grain. Another craftsman later scraped off the dark color surrounding the classical designs. This set was conserved in 1979 and retains more traces of the original graining than the other doors by this artist in the museum's collection.
December 3, 2025 at 5:43 PM
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Figure from a Crèche https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.368.2
The practice of creating scenes of the Nativity for the home dates from the early 1700s in Italy, where people began to set up doll-like figures of about a foot or less in height. The custom was particularly popular in Naples around 1800, where crèche scenes (crèche means cradle, or crib) included many figures, whose heads and hands of painted terracotta, stuffed cloth bodies, and clothing adapted from contemporary local costumes gave them an amazingly realistic character. Representations of the birth of Jesus can be traced to the first few centuries of Christianity. Both living creatures and sculptural depictions of them were used from early times. By the late middle ages it was customary to create life-size figures of wood or stone, naturalistically painted, to represent the characters who participated in the events of Jesus's early life. These sculptures were then arranged in scenes illustrating one or both of the most important of these events, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi-the three kings from the East who came to pay homage to the Christ child. Used in churches, these large figures were especially popular in Italy, Central Europe, Spain, and Portugal. This Object in Focus presentation was organized by Henry Hawley, Curator of Renaissance and Later Decorative Arts and Sculpture.
December 3, 2025 at 3:51 PM
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The Waterfalls at Tivoli https://clevelandart.org/art/1984.175
Likely Vernet’s first major work during his study in Rome, this landscape demonstrates his signature style. He preferred and is best known for marine subjects; so water, unsurprisingly, is central in this painting. Vernet drew on both Italian and French landscape traditions for inspiration; he synthesized the dramatic, rugged Italian style with the calmer pastoral scene more typical of French landscapes. Vernet exhibited his work with great success in Paris and became the predominant French landscape painter of the 18th century.
December 3, 2025 at 1:58 PM
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Young Girl Carrying a Garland of Roses on a Platter https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.50
Claude Michel, generally referred to as Clodion, is best known for his decorative terra-cotta statuettes. This work is quite representative of Clodion in both subject and style. The sculpture, which is developed upon works dating from the artist's earlier residency in Rome, represents a standing female figure carrying an abundant display of flora. The figure alludes to Greek and Roman depictions of the horae, or goddesses of the seasons, and, through the figure's floral crown and platter, can easily be attributed to the season of spring.
December 3, 2025 at 10:33 AM
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Self-Portrait https://clevelandart.org/art/1961.334
Lié Louis Périn painted many self-portraits, but rarely ever at full scale. The son of a cloth manufacturer from Rheims, Périn left the countryside for Paris to pursue a career in miniature painting. Although he enjoyed a fast-growing reputation as a miniaturist among Parisian aristocracy, a full-scale self-portrait provided an opportunity to display his skills unhampered by the demands of a commissioned picture or painting in a miniature format.
December 3, 2025 at 8:09 AM
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The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew https://clevelandart.org/art/1976.2
Saint Andrew’s efforts to introduce Christianity to Greece in the first century AD were met with hostility from local authorities. He was sentenced to die on the cross because he refused to acknowledge pagan gods. For two days, Andrew preached from his martyr’s station to an increasingly sympathetic crowd. Bowing to public demand, Andrew’s would-be executioners attempted to untie him, but their hands were mysteriously paralyzed. Andrew’s desire for martyrdom was thus fulfilled and he died enveloped in divine light. Caravaggio’s innovative interpretation involves the viewer more closely in the event by presenting the crucifixion as intimate and private, rather than as a gruesome public spectacle. Bold contrasts of light and dark suggest the presence of God. A masterpiece of Baroque painting, Caravaggio’s Crucifixion of Saint Andrew is the only altarpiece by the artist in America.
December 2, 2025 at 7:05 PM
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Portrait of a Woman with a Guitar, called Louise D'Aumont, Mazarin, Duchesse d'Aumont https://clevelandart.org/art/1921.913
Portrait of a Woman with a Guitar, called Louise D'Aumont, Mazarin, Duchesse d'Aumont
December 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
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Head of Saint John the Baptist https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.424
Salome’s dancing so pleased her stepfather Herod that he offered her anything she wanted. Her mother advised Salome to demand John the Baptist’s head, which Salome presented to her family in an elaborate dish. Here, the head stands on its own, with a startlingly tangible presence. Despite its biblical source, this work was meant for a domestic setting, whose owner would have admired the artful presentation of a shocking story. Acquired in 1953 as the work of the Venetian Renaissance artist Titian, the painting soon lost this attribution because it lacks Titian’s distinctive brushwork. After decades of research, the museum has yet to identify a clear author. Recently, several scholars have argued persuasively for a Spanish artist, partly because the subject is common in Spanish art in the early 1600s. Yet the color scheme and the handling of paint in the face recalls the work of earlier artists inspired by Titian in northern Italy.
December 2, 2025 at 1:18 PM
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Satyress https://clevelandart.org/art/1947.29
The use of complex symbols interested Renaissance scholars, artists, and humanists. The unusual objects surrounding the satyress may be an allegory of vice triumphing over virtue. The lyre and pipes at the base of the laurel tree represent the spirit and the emotions, while the jawbone and bow are weapons of violence and love. The helmet and snake (under the satyress’s hooves) were Renaissance symbols of wisdom.
December 2, 2025 at 11:20 AM
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Portrait of Mrs. Leneve https://clevelandart.org/art/1942.247
Mrs. Leneve appears as a voluptuous beauty, facing the viewer with her large, symmetrical, almond-shaped eyes. Her ample shoulders, curled hair, long slender fingers, and fleshiness under her chin conform to the ideals of beauty in the late 1500s. Equally important in this conception of beauty was the more elusive quality of grace and effortless movement. Lely achieves this through the sitter’s elegant pose.
December 2, 2025 at 8:37 AM
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Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos https://clevelandart.org/art/1973.168
A snake bit the Greek warrior Philoctetes en route to the Trojan War. The stench of the infected wound led the ship’s crew to abandon him on the island of Lemnos, where he fans the agonizing injury with a bird’s wing. The warrior’s noble suffering in the face of tremendous pain would have been a classical model of stoic composure, highly valued in Renaissance court culture.
December 1, 2025 at 6:28 PM
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Figure from a Crèche: Negro Magus https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.368.10
The practice of creating scenes of the Nativity for the home dates from the early 1700s in Italy, where people began to set up doll-like figures of about a foot or less in height. The custom was particularly popular in Naples around 1800, where crèche scenes (crèche means cradle, or crib) included many figures, whose heads and hands of painted terracotta, stuffed cloth bodies, and clothing adapted from contemporary local costumes gave them an amazingly realistic character. Representations of the birth of Jesus can be traced to the first few centuries of Christianity. Both living creatures and sculptural depictions of them were used from early times. By the late middle ages it was customary to create life-size figures of wood or stone, naturalistically painted, to represent the characters who participated in the events of Jesus's early life. These sculptures were then arranged in scenes illustrating one or both of the most important of these events, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi-the three kings from the East who came to pay homage to the Christ child. Used in churches, these large figures were especially popular in Italy, Central Europe, Spain, and Portugal. This Object in Focus presentation was organized by Henry Hawley, Curator of Renaissance and Later Decorative Arts and Sculpture.
December 1, 2025 at 12:53 PM
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Dubia Fortuna https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.139.b
The inscription DUBIA FORTUNA is generally translated as"doubtful fortune," and speaks to the vagaries of war.
December 1, 2025 at 12:41 PM
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Saint Jerome https://clevelandart.org/art/1977.2
Not all subjects are easy to identify. This museum long thought that the subject was the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, largely because tears are part of the standard representation of this ancient thinker. However, ter Brugghen omits the other crucial key to identifying Heraclitus--a globe over which he weeps. Instead, the book and skull indicate that the figure is Saint Jerome, known for translating the Bible into Latin. The artist probably chose to show Jerome crying to intensify his penitence.
December 1, 2025 at 9:37 AM
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Figure from a Crèche: Virgin Mary https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.368.13
The practice of creating scenes of the Nativity for the home dates from the early 1700s in Italy, where people began to set up doll-like figures of about a foot or less in height. The custom was particularly popular in Naples around 1800, where crèche scenes (crèche means cradle, or crib) included many figures, whose heads and hands of painted terracotta, stuffed cloth bodies, and clothing adapted from contemporary local costumes gave them an amazingly realistic character. Representations of the birth of Jesus can be traced to the first few centuries of Christianity. Both living creatures and sculptural depictions of them were used from early times. By the late middle ages it was customary to create life-size figures of wood or stone, naturalistically painted, to represent the characters who participated in the events of Jesus's early life. These sculptures were then arranged in scenes illustrating one or both of the most important of these events, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi-the three kings from the East who came to pay homage to the Christ child. Used in churches, these large figures were especially popular in Italy, Central Europe, Spain, and Portugal. This Object in Focus presentation was organized by Henry Hawley, Curator of Renaissance and Later Decorative Arts and Sculpture.
November 30, 2025 at 7:29 PM
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Figure from a Crèche: Angel https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.368.18
The practice of creating scenes of the Nativity for the home dates from the early 1700s in Italy, where people began to set up doll-like figures of about a foot or less in height. The custom was particularly popular in Naples around 1800, where crèche scenes (crèche means cradle, or crib) included many figures, whose heads and hands of painted terracotta, stuffed cloth bodies, and clothing adapted from contemporary local costumes gave them an amazingly realistic character. Representations of the birth of Jesus can be traced to the first few centuries of Christianity. Both living creatures and sculptural depictions of them were used from early times. By the late middle ages it was customary to create life-size figures of wood or stone, naturalistically painted, to represent the characters who participated in the events of Jesus's early life. These sculptures were then arranged in scenes illustrating one or both of the most important of these events, the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi-the three kings from the East who came to pay homage to the Christ child. Used in churches, these large figures were especially popular in Italy, Central Europe, Spain, and Portugal. This Object in Focus presentation was organized by Henry Hawley, Curator of Renaissance and Later Decorative Arts and Sculpture.
November 30, 2025 at 4:57 PM
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An Estuary Scene with Fisherman https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.288
An Estuary Scene with Fisherman
November 30, 2025 at 2:53 PM
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Doorknocker with Two Satyrs Riding an Ox https://clevelandart.org/art/1975.58
Doorknocker with Two Satyrs Riding an Ox
November 30, 2025 at 12:03 PM
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Saint Sebastian https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.130
Saint Sebastian
November 30, 2025 at 10:10 AM
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Aurelius Antoninus Pius https://clevelandart.org/art/1939.160
Aurelius Antoninus Pius
November 29, 2025 at 7:26 PM
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Portrait of a Woman https://clevelandart.org/art/1949.545
Portrait of a Woman
November 29, 2025 at 5:18 PM
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Eve https://clevelandart.org/art/1946.429.2
Mauch straddled the late medieval and Renaissance traditions across his career. These small-scale statuettes, however, each made from a single piece of boxwood, stem from the most progressive strands of Renaissance art in southern Germany, closely connected to developments in both Italian and German bronze sculpture. The bodies reveal Mauch's careful study of human anatomy as well as a rapport with Albrecht Dürer's well-known print of the same subject.
November 29, 2025 at 2:02 PM
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Portrait of a Woman with a Dog https://clevelandart.org/art/2011.47
The unidentified sitter wears rich black fabric and a brown fur stole, a sheer white linen cap covers her head, an elaborate starched ruff rings her neck, her sleeves finish in <em>punto in aria</em> lace, and a prominent gold ring with a jewel appears on her right hand. The composition, weighted heavily to the right, implies a pendant portrait, yet to identified, probably depicting her husband.
November 29, 2025 at 11:36 AM
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Medal of Isotta degli Atti da Rimini (obverse) and (reverse) https://clevelandart.org/art/1986.66
Medal of Isotta degli Atti da Rimini (obverse) and (reverse)
November 29, 2025 at 10:04 AM
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Venus Discovering the Dead Adonis https://clevelandart.org/art/1965.19
Venus, the goddess of love, urged her mortal lover Adonis to hunt only the easiest game. Yet he insisted on pursuing boar, which eventually gored him to death. In this scene, Venus discovers the young man robbed of his youth, yet the painting eternally preserves him in a state of perfection. This paradox corresponds to wordplay in Italian poetry from the 1600s, with which many artists sought visual parallels in their work. This painting derives from a 1623 poem by Giovanni Battista Marino. The painter remains unknown, although the sophisticated literary reference, dramatic use of light, and vivid use of color demonstrate the artist’s awareness of trends converging in Naples in the mid 1600s.
November 28, 2025 at 6:49 PM