Catherine II of Russia

Catherine the Great

Russian, 1729 - 1796

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Carved from cream-white marble, a woman stands next to a hip-high, three-legged table in this free-standing sculpture. Her weight rests on her left leg, her right knee bent. She wears a flower crown over a garment that covers her head and falls in sweeping, voluminous folds to her sandaled feet. An urn is tucked into her left elbow and she holds a saucer-like dish in her right hand down by her side to pour oil onto the flames on the altar below. She looks down toward the altar, which is decorated with a ram’s head and garlands.
Clodion, A Vestal, 1770, marble, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.99

A Vestal

Clodion · 1770 · marble ·  Accession ID  1952.5.99

Shown from the shoulders up, a man with a flushed complexion, wearing a crimson-red cap and garment, looks at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. He is brightly lit from behind us and the mahogany-brown background is deep in shadow. The man’s shoulders angle to our right, and he turns his head slightly to look at us with brown, deep-set eyes under arched brows. His wispy, auburn-brown goatee is tinged in silvery gray. His nose is slightly bulbous, and his thin lips are tightly closed in a straight line. Wrinkles and jowls give his face a paunchy look. His tall, flat-topped, fez-shaped hat covers his hair. A white, nearly translucent collar curls up along his neck and flares out to points at his collar. Rose-pink highlights on his red cape suggest it is a shiny material, like silk, and it is fastened with several small, dark buttons down the front.
Anonymous Artist, Pope Innocent X, c. 1650, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.80

Pope Innocent X

Anonymous Artist · c. 1650 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.80

A pale-skinned young girl leaning over a low fence and holding a broom gazes in our direction in this vertical painting. Her red hair is pulled back from her round face, and she has large hazel eyes under thin brows, a petite nose, and her coral-red mouth is slightly open. She is shown from the chest up, behind a wooden partition that spans the width of the painting. She wears a loose, ivory-white shirt under a garment with pumpkin-orange straps on the shoulders and chest. She leans forward with her elbows hooked over the partition as she holds a long-handled broom to her chest. A wooden pail with a bronze handle is overturned to the right of the broom. A blocky brown object to our left is difficult to make out. A dark brown semicircular object close to us in the center of the composition resembles the mouth of a well. Soft light from the upper left illuminates the girl and the left side of the caramel-brown wall behind her and throws the right side into shadow. A signature near the lower left looks like it had been painted on the inner edge of the well. It reads, “Rembrandt f. 1651.”
Dutch 17th Century, Carel Fabritius, A Girl with a Broom, probably begun 1646/1648 and completed 1651, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.74

A Girl with a Broom

Dutch 17th Century, Carel Fabritius · probably begun 1646/1648 and completed 1651 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.74

A man wearing armor, sitting astride a cream-white horse, drives a long lance down at a lizard-like dragon as a woman kneels with her hands in prayer in the landscape beyond in this vertical painting. Both people have pale skin and thin, gold halos floating above their heads. At the center of the composition, the man faces our left in profile as he looks down at the creature. The man has a straight nose and honey-brown hair under his gold-trimmed, pewter-gray helmet. Armor covers his entire body, and a celestial-blue cape billows behind him from where it fastens around his neck. A narrow, indigo-blue and gold band is tied around his left calf, and is inscribed with the word “HONI.” A black sword hangs from his left side. The horse is white with a silvery-white mane and tail. It rears on its hind legs as it turns its head to look at us with hazel-brown eyes. The horse wears a blue saddle and bridle, the same color as the man’s cape, trimmed with gold. A strap around the horse’s neck is painted in gold with the name, “RAPHELLO.” The rider thrusts his foot into the stirrup we can see as he plunges a lance down at the dragon under the horse’s front feet. The dragon has tawny brown skin with a mint green, dog-like head. It grips the earth with clawed feet as at pushes at the lance with one front foot. It twists its long, snake-like neck to look at the man with dark eyes. The dragon opens its pointed snout to show its teeth, and bat-like wings splay out. A tall outcropping over a cave rises along the left edge of the composition, behind the dragon. In a field a little farther back, to our right, the woman kneels with her body angled to our left. She tilts her head away from us and gazes past the man and horse. She has a straight nose, pale pink, bow-shaped lips, and her blond hair is pulled back in a bun. She wears a ruby-red dress and a sheer white wrap around her shoulders and across her arms. Around the woman, straw-yellow hills with bands of pine-green trees roll into the distance. Two terracotta-orange towers rise from a row of trees along the horizon. A few taller trees are outlined against the baby-blue sky, which lightens toward the horizon.
Raphael, Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1506, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.26

Saint George and the Dragon

Raphael · c. 1506 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.26

Six elegantly dressed, light-skinned women, a man with dark brown skin, and a person of short stature gather around a nude baby boy in front of a landscape with a town in the distance in this vertical painting. Attention is focused on the baby, held by a woman kneeling to our lower left, and on a woman wearing a silver and gold-colored brocade dress standing near the center of the painting. The central woman's dress is trimmed with gold and jewels. She wears a pearl necklace, and her blond hair is wrapped with pearls around a gold, jeweled tiara. She leans to our right, toward another woman with blond, pearl-adorned hair wearing a blue and white stripped dress with puffed sleeves. In front of that pair, and along the right edge of the painting, another woman with pearls in her hair bends over a person of short stature and gestures toward the baby. The person of short stature has brown hair over a high forehead and a tan complexion. He holds an instrument like a recorder and wears a navy-blue and crimson-red jester’s costume. Seen from the waist up in the lower left corner of the painting, the man with brown skin has close-cropped black hair and wears a marigold-orange garment. Looking onto the scene from the sunken riverbed, he gazes to our right in profile and holds a basket. Above him, the woman holding the baby looks at the woman wearing silver and gold. An older woman holds up a cloth, presumably to wrap the baby. Another person looks on over that woman’s shoulder, and two more women stand farther back to our left, apart from this group. Behind the main scene, a few spindly trees with feathery pine-green or harvest-yellow leaves extend off the top edge of the canvas. An arched bridge spans the river in the distance to the left and beyond a town is painted in blue and gray against rocky hills. Blue sky above is strewn with white clouds.
Veronese, The Finding of Moses, c. 1581/1582, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.38

The Finding of Moses

Veronese · c. 1581/1582 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.38

Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Head of a Woman Looking Back Over Her Shoulder, red chalk on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1981.50.1

Head of a Woman Looking Back Over Her Shoulder

Jean-Baptiste Greuze · · red chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1981.50.1

Shown from about the hips up, a young, pale-skinned man with curly brown hair stands facing and looking at us, wearing a plum-purple coat under a golden yellow cape in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s oval face is angled a little to our left so he looks out from the corners of his gray eyes. His left eyebrow, on our right, is slightly arched. His skin is smooth and his cheeks lightly flushed. He has a long, straight nose, his pink lips are closed, and there is a faintly painted suggestion of a goatee. Wavy bangs fall across his forehead, and he has curly, chin-length hair. He stands with his right hand, on our left, on his hip, and in his other arm, he holds a wooden staff with a pewter-gray, metal, scoop-like hook at the top. White lace trims the high neck of his garment and the cuffs of his sleeves. Light reflecting off the plum-purple coat suggests a soft material, possibly velvet. Crisp reflections on the deep, butter-yellow cape fastened over one shoulder suggest satin. An emerald-green cloth hanging from the top right corner of the painting falls behind the man’s shoulder. Behind the cloth and to our left, a craggy, rocky outcropping opens to a view of a landscape with a green valley and topaz-blue mountains in the distance. Bands of golden light illuminate the cloudy sky above. The work is inscribed with yellow lettering in the lower right corner to read, “Philip Lord Wharton 1632 about ye age of 19.” The artist’s name is painted in the lower left: “P. Sr Ant: vandike.”
Sir Anthony van Dyck, Philip, Lord Wharton, 1632, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.50

Philip, Lord Wharton

Sir Anthony van Dyck · 1632 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.50

Shown from the waist up, a bearded man with a tanned, peachy complexion wears a turban and voluminous robes and looks out at us in this vertical portrait painting. Lit strongly from the left, the man’s brow is slightly furrowed over brown eyes, and his gray beard is trimmed. His turban is accented with a gold chain and feather, and his fur-lined robe is clasped over a burgundy-red garment with another gold chain. His right hand, on our left, grasps a sash that wraps around his waist, while his other hand rests on a wooden staff. The gray background behind the man deepens into shadows at the corners. The artist’s signature is painted to our left near the man’s upper arm. The first letter “R” is missing so it reads “embrandt ft.”
Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch 17th Century, Govaert Flinck, Man in Oriental Costume, c. 1635, oil on linen, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1940.1.13

Man in Oriental Costume

Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch 17th Century, Govaert Flinck · c. 1635 · oil on linen ·  Accession ID  1940.1.13

Shown from the shoulders up, a young woman with pale skin, dark hair, and wearing a muted turquoise bodice over a white shirt, peers at us against an olive-green background in this vertical portrait painting. Her shoulders are angled slightly to our left, and she tips her head away from us, over her right shoulder, to our left. With her chin jutting a bit toward us, she looks at us from the corners of her heavy-lidded, dark green eyes under arched brows. She has a straight nose, and her smooth cheeks are flushed. The corners of her closed, peach-colored lips are barely pulled back in a faint smile. Her chestnut-brown hair is pulled back, and short curls frame her face in front of her ears. She wears a white, ruffled flower with a white bud and deep green leaves in her hair over her left temple, to our right. A dark rope or twisted fabric encircles her neck, and she gathers the long ends in her right hand, to our left, at her chest. One long curl wraps around the fabric, to our left. Her chest is smooth, and the backs of her fingers are touched with coral pink. Her low-cut, muted blue bodice is worn over a full-sleeved, white shirt pleated below the shoulders. She is lit from our left so casts a shadow against the olive-green wall to our right.
Pietro Rotari, A Girl with a Flower in Her Hair, 1760/1762, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.108

A Girl with a Flower in Her Hair

Pietro Rotari · 1760/1762 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.108

Shown from the chest up, a young woman with smooth, pale skin sleeps with her head tipped away from us in this vertical painting. Her face leans to our left so we see her delicate features in profile. She has faint brows, and her pink lips are parted. The tip of her nose and cheeks are also lightly flushed. Her brown curls are topped with a black fur cap, which is draped with a triangular, muted red cloth. The cloth comes to a point with a gold tassel, which hangs alongside her neck. A flaring, pleated, white collar encircles her neck, seeming unconnected to her other garments. Her topaz-blue bodice is open to show a butter-yellow corset beneath. The jacket is lined with cool, shimmering green. Her head tips alongside the arched, wooden back of her chair, which is upholstered with caramel brown edged with gold. The background is washed with tones of olive and dark green. The painting is created with blended strokes, giving it a soft, almost blurry appearance.
Pietro Rotari, A Sleeping Girl, 1760/1762, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.107

A Sleeping Girl

Pietro Rotari · 1760/1762 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.107