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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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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 4h

The Monkey and the Cat clevelandart.org/art/1979.82

This picture interprets one of Aesop’s ancient Greek fables (or probably the more contemporary interpretation by Jean de la Fontaine, even more famous at the time), which warns of the dangers of flattery. A monkey sweet-talks a cat into pulling scalding chestnuts out of the fire. The cat finishes the risky and painful task to discover that the monkey has already gobbled up nearly all of them.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 7h

Double-Leaf Doors clevelandart.org/art/1942.2.12.a

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 has recently been conserved.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 8h

The Vineyard clevelandart.org/art/1948.176.3

The Vineyard

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 11h

The Triumph of the Church clevelandart.org/art/1916.1037

This work is likely a copy after Rubens’s oil sketch for the Triumph of the Eucharist tapestry series. Isabella, daughter of King Phillip II of Spain, commissioned the tapestries for a royal monastery in Madrid. The finished tapestries still hang there today, and the original oil sketch is in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Italian Landscape clevelandart.org/art/1946.73

Although French by birth, Claude Lorrain spent his entire working career in Rome. He revolutionized the art of landscape painting by filling his harmoniously ordered scenes (inspired by the campagna, the countryside around Rome) with a golden, hazy light. Painted early in Lorrain's career, <em>Italian Landscape</em> shows a wide, sweeping vista with a wooded hill topped by a structure resembling an ancient Roman temple. The left side of the picture is dark, but the foreground sweeps away in a curve to the right that leads off into an increasingly luminous distance.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Declaration of Love clevelandart.org/art/1944.86

A category of painting invented in France in the early 1700s is the fête galante (gallant party), with subject matter that hovers between fantasy and reality. The figures in theatrical costume derive from Italian street performers seen in Paris, while the playful outdoor garden party connects to leisure activities enjoyed by certain Parisian elites. The arts of conversation, music, and painting—all highly valued by French aristocracy—intersect in this work.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

The Holy Family clevelandart.org/art/1998.10

A work of Gandolfi's later years, the Holy Family was exhibited in the religious festival at the church of San Procolo in Bologna in 1776. The painting's balanced composition, along with the suggestion of emotional connections among the figures, expresses the religious honesty of Gandolfi's art. Here St. Joseph holds the scriptures for the Christ child, who sits on his mother's lap; the elderly Joseph also holds the flowering rod, a sign from heaven that he was chosen to be Mary's husband. Joseph looks with concern toward Mary, who in turn looks up toward the cherubim hovering in a cloud at the upper left. Viewers of the private devotional painting were meant to understand that the young Christ reads of his future in the gospels, and that the suffering he will endure is reflected in Mary's sad gaze.

Gandolfi was the most popular member of a prominent artistic family in Bologna. As both draftsman and painter he distinguished himself in religious, mythological, and genre subjects and was admired by his Italian and English patrons. He is known for his down-to-earth naturalism, typical of Bolognese art.

The frame—although modern—is a "Gandolfini," so-called because the style was created for paintings by members of the Gandolfi family.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Death of the Virgin clevelandart.org/art/1916.797

Death of the Virgin

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

Portrait of a Woman clevelandart.org/art/1949.545

Portrait of a Woman

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Study for "The Assumption of the Virgin" for San Augustín, Seville clevelandart.org/art/1987.7

This painting is a sketch for a large altarpiece. The rough, flickering surface, the unusually sharp contrast of hot and cool hues, and the compression of space all characterize the artist’s intense spirituality and unique technique. While often held apart from the sweetness and grace of Murillo (whose works are also on this wall), his contemporary in Seville, the two artists worked closely together on commissions and often presented their work side by side, speaking to the stylistic diversity and religious complexity preferred by patrons in Seville during the late 1600s.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Portrait of a Woman clevelandart.org/art/1942.48

Corneille de Lyon worked both for the French court and wealthy merchants. His distinctive northern style stood in contrast to the taste for Italian Renaissance painting (seen in the nearby portrait) and connected closely to portrait miniatures and manuscript painting. Recent conservation treatment has restored the smooth, enamel-like background and the meticulous rendering of detail.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Saint Jerome clevelandart.org/art/1961.219

Saint Jerome (about ad 347–420) translated biblical texts into Latin. Although he sometimes appears as a scholar in his study, Ribera represents him here as a penitent who withdrew to the desert, beating his chest with a stone to emulate Christ’s suffering and contemplating a skull symbolizing human vanity. Working in Naples, Ribera enthusiastically adapted Caravaggio’s characteristic use of light and dark and naturalistic models.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Venus and Adonis clevelandart.org/art/1987.198

Venus, the goddess of love, fell in love with the mortal Adonis. Here she urges him not to pursue the dangerous sport of hunting boar, advice he ignored, eventually leading to his death.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Figure from a Crèche: Angel 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.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Bust of a Man clevelandart.org/art/1916.1003

Bust of a Man

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Portrait of Victor Amedeus of Savoy clevelandart.org/art/1989.64

Portrait of Victor Amedeus of Savoy

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Kiss of Peace and Justice clevelandart.org/art/1971.102

The figures of Peace (burning the weapons of war) and Justice (holding a sword and scales) embrace in a quiet landscape. The Latin inscription under the antique urn reads “Justice and Peace kissed” (referring to an Old Testament verse, Psalms 85:11). The subject may have had political significance: the painting’s date coincides with the end of the Fronde, a period of civil war in France during which the parlement (courts of appeal) and the nobility sought—unsuccessfully—to limit the power of the monarchy

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Portrait of an Old Man clevelandart.org/art/1916.794

Portrait of an Old Man

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Portrait of Infante Don Luis de Borbon clevelandart.org/art/1966.14

As a younger child of King Philip V of Spain, Don Luis received important religious posts, including Archbishop of Toledo and Seville. However, his philandering led to losing these titles and banishment from the court, while he became a crucial avant-garde art patron, especially of Goya. The encrustations of medals and cacophonous fabrics speak to Mengs's experiments in representing status, privilege, and royal honors in the age of Enlightenment, when rational skepticism began to confront absolutist, hereditary power.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The Resurrection of Christ clevelandart.org/art/2017.192

According to the New Testament, on the third day after his crucifixion Christ rose from the dead to ascend to heaven. Johan König shows a triumphant Christ soaring toward heaven’s golden light. Around the empty sarcophagus are the soldiers charged with guarding it; some sleep, while others scatter in fright, shielding their eyes against the brilliant light. Through the archway in the background, dawn breaks over the city of Jerusalem as the three holy women (Mary Magdalene, Mary of Cleopas, and Mary Salome) hasten toward the empty tomb. König specialized in small, vividly colored narratives painted on copper or vellum. The <em>Resurrection</em> is among the artist’s largest paintings on copper.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

The Supper at Emmaus clevelandart.org/art/1931.245

In the Gospel of Luke (24:30–31), two disciples walked to the town of Emmaus after the Crucifixion, and the resurrected Christ followed them unrecognized. At dinner that evening he revealed himself, took bread from the table, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the two men. When the disciples realized who was before them, Jesus vanished. Here Christ appears just before tearing the bread. Piazzetta emphasizes the dramatic tension by placing only three monumental and isolated foreground figures before an indeterminate background. This painting's intimacy, limited palette, and careful attention to chiaroscuro effects are typical of Piazzetta's somber work, of which this canvas is an early example.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Medal of Isotta degli Atti da Rimini (obverse) and (reverse) clevelandart.org/art/1986.66

Medal of Isotta degli Atti da Rimini (obverse) and (reverse)

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Dancers in a Pavilion clevelandart.org/art/1938.392

Jean-Baptiste Pater was the sole student of the early 18th-century artist Antoine Watteau (1684–1721). Upon Watteau's death, Pater finished some of his teacher's compositions and copied them for reproduction. Due to this association, Pater was in the position to capitalize on the popularity of the <em>fête galante</em> genre invented by Watteau. This genre was based on the fêtes held by the aristocracy to escape the tedium of life at the French court, and depict the same amusements: conversation, music, dance, and the pursuit of love. <em>Dancers in a Pavilion</em> is a pastiche of several works by Watteau. The couple in this painting is most likely performing the minuet, which was considered the most flirtatious of dances.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Writing Casket clevelandart.org/art/1941.63

The interior is divided into four compartments for storing writing implements and sand for blotting.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Portrait of a Man and Portrait of a Woman (pair) clevelandart.org/art/1941.562

Portrait of a Man and Portrait of a Woman (pair)

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Adoration of the Shepherds clevelandart.org/art/1916.782

Adoration of the Shepherds

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

The Denial of Peter clevelandart.org/art/1972.169

Wtewael depicted the moment after the Last Supper when the apostle Peter (at the left) denied knowing Jesus in order to protect himself from Roman soldiers searching for Christ's followers. Few works by this artist are known, and he draws on an unusual combination of styles. The dramatic use of light derives from Dutch followers of the Italian painter Caravaggio, in vogue around 1625, while the twisting bodies, startlingly low viewpoint, and tight detailing come from a more refined, courtly mode more popular earlier in the century.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Landscape with Travelers clevelandart.org/art/1916.823

Swanevelt played an important role in the development of 17th-century landscape painting in Rome. Often regarded as a follower of Claude Lorrain (1600-1682), with whom he briefly shared a home, most scholars now believe that the influence was mutual. Swanevelt's landscapes are distinguished by the use of Roman peasants, rather than the classical figures preferred by his contemporaries.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Woman Reading clevelandart.org/art/1964.288

Woman Reading

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The Holy Family on the Steps clevelandart.org/art/1981.18

This deceptively simple composition represents a complex meditation on the Holy Family’s role in the redemption of humanity. At the center, Mary presents the Christ Child to the world. At the left, Saint Elizabeth leans forward to foretell his eventual death, while her son, Saint John the Baptist, offers Jesus an apple, signifying humanity’s fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. At the right, Saint Joseph holds a compass, a sign of his occupation as a carpenter and also symbolic of God the Father. Poussin developed his composition meticulously and deliberately, using clear primary colors, simple forms, and a geometric organization to express the central importance of the Holy Family in Christian belief.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Horticulture clevelandart.org/art/1948.176.2

Horticulture

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Model for a Portrait Medal of Wolfgang Gamensfelder at Age 19 clevelandart.org/art/1976.16

Model for a Portrait Medal of Wolfgang Gamensfelder at Age 19

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The Sacrifice of Isaac clevelandart.org/art/1937.577

In this dramatic test of faith from the Old Testament book of Genesis, Abraham agrees to slay his son Isaac on God’s command. As Abraham raises the knife, an angel suddenly appears to halt the sacrifice. This work gains its power from the complex expressions of father and son, combining grief, strength, resignation, fear, and realization in their faces and bodies, the latter inspired by ancient sculpture and Michelangelo. Andrea del Sarto never finished this painting, and it lays bare his working methods. He transferred the design to the panel from a drawing, reinforcing the chalk with painted lines—best seen in the donkey at the far right. He then worked over the whole panel at once with thin, brushy veils of color, letting him alter the composition while painting—especially evident in the angel, Isaac’s body, and Abraham’s head.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Figures from a Crèche clevelandart.org/art/1972.368

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.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Portrait of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough clevelandart.org/art/1949.549

Portrait of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Saint Sebastian clevelandart.org/art/1972.23

Saint Sebastian

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Venus and a Satyr clevelandart.org/art/1982.144

Elhafen depicted mythological scenes in many small ivory reliefs intended for domestic decoration. As with any work in ivory, the size of the tusk dictated this relief’s scale.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Portrait of a Musician clevelandart.org/art/2011.46

This unsigned panel depicts an unidentified musician, seen at half-length. He holds a score, which is legible, but not yet identified. The man wears a black coat; plain, high-collared white shirt, and a white cravat, a style broadly fashionably among European elite and bourgeois men in the years around 1800.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Portrait of the Jester Calabazas clevelandart.org/art/1965.15

Calabazas, a jester in the court of King Philip IV of Spain, had physical and mental disabilities, a state that the artist emphasizes, rather than tries to hide. While the Spanish court prized and doted upon people with disabilities such as Calabazas, Velázquez transformed their depiction in portraiture. This startling work uses the format of the formal, full-length court portrait to present a type of person who was generally perceived as marginal at this point in history and profoundly humanizes him.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Sketch for a Ceiling clevelandart.org/art/1916.780

This small, quickly painted picture is typical of the sketches Tiepolo made as studies for larger compositions. When completed full-scale on a ceiling, works like these give the impression of a massive window, through which one can see angels or mythological beings floating among the clouds. Although we know from the work's shape that it was a study for a ceiling painting, it is not related to any of Tiepolo's finished architectural decorations. Tiepolo used such sketches to explore design problems, experiment with form and color, or give his clients an idea of how a finished project would look. With the help of a large workshop, which included two of his sons, Tiepolo completed a number of painted ceilings and decorative schemes across Europe.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Pope Pius VI Descending the Throne to Take Leave of the Doge in the Hall of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, 1782 clevelandart.org/art/1949.187.1

The third scene in the series depicts one of the final events of the pope’s stay. At the back of the magnificent audience hall of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the doge (in gold and white) approaches the throne to receive his papal blessing, with a line of red-robed senators in his wake.

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Adam and Eve clevelandart.org/art/1948.359

The present plaquette is the only signed and dated work in bronze by Ludwig Krug. The plaquette exists in two examples, the earlier of which was cast only with the date "1515" (the date of the model) on the obverse side. This slightly later plaquette bears the date "1515" on the front side, but also bears the actual casting date of "1518" on the reverse.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Landscape with Venus and Adonis clevelandart.org/art/1962.293

Venus, the goddess of love, unsuccessfully tries to dissuade her mortal lover Adonis from hunting the boar that would eventually kill him. The artist nestles this story in the foreground of an expansive view with Germanic architecture, rather than a classical setting. Woodlands were relatively new subjects in European painting and this work points toward the full-blown forested landscapes of the 1600s, seen in the adjacent gallery of Dutch art.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Portrait of a Man in a Landscape clevelandart.org/art/1943.636

Portrait of a Man in a Landscape

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Portrait of Charles IV, King of Spain, and María Luisa, Queen Consort of Charles IV (obverse) clevelandart.org/art/1916.1870.a

Portrait of Charles IV, King of Spain, and María Luisa, Queen Consort of Charles IV (obverse)

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Studies of Ram Heads clevelandart.org/art/1980.229

Studies of Ram Heads

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger clevelandart.org/art/2011.49

This portrait reinterprets a pastel by Maurice-Quentin de La Tour (1704–1788) of the important French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger (1704–1778). The sculptor, seen toward the end of his life, appears in working garb. His close-cropped grey hair, frank, observant stare, and bemused smile all demonstrate the closeness of the young painter to the elder sculptor. The work also speaks to Vigée-LeBrun’s interest in naturalistic portraiture (as opposed to her more formal, commissioned portraits), and in the handling of the paint as well as her source image, her debt to pastel painting, her original medium. A recent conservation treatment and a new frame more appropriate for a work of the 1770s reveal the painting to be a crucial early work by the artist as she made the transition from pastel to oil paint.

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Eve Expelled from Paradise clevelandart.org/art/1982.58

Eve Expelled from Paradise

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CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Figure from a Crèche: Negro Magus 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.

000

CMA: European Painting and Sculpture @cmaeuropeanpaint.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Doorpull clevelandart.org/art/1994.114.1

Doorpull