Henri Chapu | Mercure inventant le caducée, 1861

Henri Chapu's Mercure inventant le caducée (Mercury inventing the caduceus) was executed for la Villa Médicis in Rome in 1861.

The caduceus (from Ancient Greek: κηρύκειον kērū́keion "herald's wand, or staff") is the staff carried by Hermes in Greek mythology and consequently by Hermes Trismegistus in Greco-Egyptian mythology.

The same staff was borne by other heralds like Iris, the messenger of Hera. The short staff is entwined by two serpents, sometimes surmounted by wings. In Roman iconography, it was depicted being carried in the left hand of Mercury, the messenger of the gods.

Some accounts assert that the oldest imagery of the caduceus is rooted in Mesopotamia with the Sumerian god Ningishzida; his symbol, a staff with two snakes intertwined around it, dates back to 4000 BC to 3000 BC.

Henri Chapu | Mercure inventant le caducée, 1861 | Musée d'Orsay

Cenacolo di Leonardo: "Uno di voi mi tradirà" / "One of you will betray me"!

The Last Supper, painted between 1494 and the beginning of 1498, is considered perhaps the most important mural painting in the world, "a beautiful and marvelous thing", as Giorgio Vasari wrote in his Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, in which he speaks of Leonardo and describes the Last Supper.

Painter, architect, sculptor, engineer, inventor, mathematician, anatomist and writer, Leonardo da Vinci embodied the ideal of the many-sided man dreamed of by the Italian Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci | The Last Supper, 1494-1498 (detail) | Church and Dominican Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie

Mariangela Gualtieri | Non sono capace, amore / I cannot, my love

Non sono capace, amore, di farti un canto.

Tu sei tutto di spine e di fuoco

e mi tieni lontana dal tuo cuore

pericoloso. Io non so bastarti alla gioia

e così poco così poco mi pare

t’incanto, sollevo quell’ombra scontrosa

Roberto Ferri

Luigi Russolo | Profumo (Perfume), 1910

Quest’opera del 1910 si inserisce nella produzione futurista di Russolo e si avvicina ai dettami della nuova pittura enunciati nei due manifesti dello stesso anno: il "Manifesto dei pittori futuristi" e "La pittura futurista manifesto tecnico".

L’atmosfera inebriante del profumo diventa il centro della composizione più ancora del soggetto rappresentato e viene resa attraverso sottili pennellate di colore, accostate secondo la tecnica divisionista a cui il primo futurismo si rifà apertamente.

Il profilo estatico della donna protagonista della composizione sembra quasi perdere i propri contorni e sfaldarsi nell’ambiente, fino a rendere quella visione atmosferica e simultanea tanto cara ai futuristi.

Luigi Russolo | Profumo (meaning "scent", "fragrance"), 1910 | Mart - Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento

Anna Ancher | Sewing fisherman's wife, 1890

Sewing fisherman's wife is an oil on canvas painting created by Anna Ancher (Danish Skagen painter, 1859-1935) in 1890.

The painting is in the collection of the Randers Museum of Art in Denmark.

Anna Anchers is celebrated for her transgressive use of color and her fabulous ability to capture a ray of sunlight.

The fine work Sewing fisherman's wife is significant for the artist's work with sunlight in an interior.

Anna Ancher | Sewing fisherman's wife, 1890 | Randers Museum of Art in Denmark

René Magritte | Le Préméditation, 1943

"Before the war, my paintings expressed anxiety", René Magritte explained, "but the experiences of war have taught me that what matters in art is to express charm.

"I live in a very disagreeable world, and my work is meant as a counter-offensive".

Painted during the final months of 1943, Le Préméditation is one of the earliest in a series known as Le Surréalisme en plein soleil (Surrealism in sunshine), created by Belgian Surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967) during the turbulent years of the Second World War in the hope of re-enchanting daily life.

A radiant bouquet of springtime flowers all improbably sprouting from the same plant, Le Préméditation captures a magnificent vision of optimism and hope.

René Magritte | Premeditation, 1943 | Christie’s

Francesco Hayez | Melancholy, 1841-1842

Melancholy is an oil-on-canvas painting created during 1841-1842 by Francesco Hayez (Italian Romantic painter, 1791-1882).

The painting, measuring 138,6 x 104cm, is part of the collection of the Pinacoteca di Brera, in Milan.

The work, executed between 1840 and 1842, is full of erudite references to the Italian and European pictorial tradition: from reflections on the 16th-century painting of the Veneto exemplified by the treatment of the clothing, which echoes the textural effects of Savoldo and Titian, to the citation of Flemish still lifes.

Painted for Marquis Filippo Ala Ponzoni, a patron of the arts, patriot and follower of Giuseppe Mazzini, this picture owed its popularity both to its outstanding quality and to its emblematic value, making it a symbol of the restlessness of Romanticism.

Francesco Hayez (Italian, 1791-1882) | Malinconia, 1841-1842 | Pinacoteca di Brera