Rembrandt | Art in detail

Rembrandt's contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch art (especially Dutch painting), although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative and gave rise to important new genres.

Like many artists of the Dutch Golden Age, such as Jan Vermeer of Delft, Rembrandt was also an avid art collector and dealer.

When he was just 18 he bought a studio and shared it with a colleague after training under two influential artists of the time, Jacob Van Swanenburgh and Pieter Lastman.

Mike Savad | American photographer

Mike Savad is an photographer. His style of digital manipulation of images and the addition of color to old images, to achieve that personal cyberpunk effect is fantastic. Mike has achieved a unique style that makes him recognizable all over the world.

"Mike Savad: Photo realistic is what people think of first. There are many themes, flowers, porches, and local Suburban Scenes, some city, some urban.

My style is not really photography and not really a painting.I create images that resemble paintings, a cross between Rockwell, and the paintings of the Renaissance.

I don't like plain photos. I found that over time every photographers work will look the same. Its hard to set yourself apart from everyone else if your work looks like everyone else's".

Perugino | The Delivery of the Keys, 1481-1482

The wall paintings of the Sistine Chapel are among the most important examples of the type of painting developed in Florence in the later fifteenth century.

The five artists brought to Rome to execute them came from various different art centres: Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli from Florence, Perugino from Umbria, Signorelli from Cortona.

Perugino's contribution was the largest, with the altar wall paintings and three additional pictures.

Recent scholars have concluded that it was he who was in charge of the whole project and who produced the overall design.

It is true that in "the Christ Handing the Keys to St Peter" his portraits appears next to those of the architect and builder.

Cristo Redentore (Rio De Janeiro, 1931)

La statua del Cristo Redentore di Rio de Janeiro è uno dei monumenti più conosciuti al mondo. Il monumento, alto circa 39.6 metri, raffigura un grande Gesù Cristo dalle braccia aperte, a simboleggiare il calore e l'accoglienza del popolo brasiliano verso i visitatori.

Situato sulla montagna del Corcovado, all'interno del Parco Nazionale di Tijuca, sorge proprio sulla cima del monte, a più di 700 metri sul livello del mare, a picco sulla città e sulla baia di Rio de Janeiro, è alta 38 metri, di cui 8 metri fanno parte del basamento, in posizione dominante rispetto alla città.

Dall'alto della sua posizione si apre una splendida veduta sul panorama circostante, che comprende la città di Rio de Janeiro con la sua baia. Da qui sono inoltre visibili il Pan di Zucchero e la Baia di Guanabara e Niteròi, così come le spiagge di Copacabana, di Ipanema e la Laguna Rodrigo de Freitas.

Genre painting

Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities.

One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached either individually or collectively - thus distinguishing petit genre from history paintings (also called grand genre) and portraits.

A work would often be considered as a genre work even if it could be shown that the artist had used a known person - a member of his family, say - as a model.

In this case it would depend on whether the work was likely to have been intended by the artist to be perceived as a portrait - sometimes a subjective question.

The depictions can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist. Because of their familiar and frequently sentimental subject matter, genre paintings have often proven popular with the bourgeoisie, or middle class.

Vincent van Gogh | The reaper after Millet, 1889

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, 1864-1901)

Throughout his career, which spanned fewer than 20 years, Toulouse-Lautrec created 737 canvases, 275 watercolours, 363 prints and posters, 5.084 drawings, some ceramic and stained glass work, and an unknown number of lost works.

His debt to the Impressionists, in particular the more figurative painters Claude Monet 1840-1926 and Edgar Degas 1834-1917, is apparent. His style was also influenced by the classical Japanese woodprints which became popular in art circles in Paris.

In the works of Toulouse-Lautrec can be seen many parallels to Monet's detached barmaid at A Bar at the Folies-Bergère and the behind-the-scenes ballet dancers of Degas.

Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta (Spanish, 1870-1945)

Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaletawas was a Spanish Genre and portrait painter noted for his theatrical paintings of figures from spanish culture and folklore depicting of traditional spanish characters, including peasants, gypsies and bullfighters.

Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta born in Eibar, near the monastery of Loyola. He was the son of metalworker and damascener Plácido Zuloaga and grandson of the organizer and director of the royal armoury in Madrid. In his youth, he drew and worked in his father's workshop. He was educated by the Jesuits in France.

His father wanted him to be an architect, and with this objective in mind, he was sent to Rome, where he immediately followed the strong impulse that led him to painting.