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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/21/24) Bernardino Luini (Italian, c. 1480-1532) Portrait of a Lady (c. 1520-25) Oil on panel, 77 x 57.5 cm. National Gallery, Washington DC (Andrew W. Mellon Collection)

Bernardino Luini was a North Italian painter from Leonardo's circle. Both Luini and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio were said to have worked with Leonardo directly; he was described to have taken "as much from Leonardo as his native roots enabled him to comprehend". Consequently many of his works were attributed to Leonardo. (Compare this work with DaVinci's "Lady with Ermine," also in this gallery.) He was known especially for his graceful female figures with slightly squinted eyes, called Luinesque by Vladimir Nabokov.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/20/24) Gianlorenzo Bernini (Italian, 1598-1680) Fountain of the Moor [Fontana del Moro](c. 1653-54) Marble sculptural ensemble Piazza Navona, Rome

This fountain is one of the three fountains standing on the southern side of Piazza Navona. The central one is the famous Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini. The third fountain, the Fountain of Neptune, was designed by Giacomo della Porta and was completed only in 1878. This fountain represents a Moor, or African (perhaps originally meant to be Neptune), standing in a conch shell, wrestling with a dolphin, surrounded by four Tritons. It is placed in a basin of rose-colored marble.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/19/14) Henry Siddons Mowbray (American, 1858–1928) Idle Hours (1895) Oil on canvas, 304.8 x 406.4 cm. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

After a year at the United States Military Academy at West Point, Mowbray went to Paris and entered the atelier of Leon Bonnat in 1879, his first picture, Aladdin, bringing him to public notice. He studied with Bonnat until 1883. In 1886, he became a member of the Society of American Artists. His painting "Evening Breeze" received the Clark Prize at the National Academy of Design in 1888, and he was elected to associate membership in the Academy. He was made a full member of the Academy in 1891. Subsequently, Mowbray was best known for his decorative work.

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MWW Artwwork of the Day (11/18/24) Sandro Botticelli (Florentine, c. 1445-1510) Madonna of the Magnificat (c. 1483-85) Tempera on panel, 118 cm. diameter Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

The work portrays the Virgin Mary crowned by two angels. She is writing the opening of the Magnificat on the right-hand page of a book; on the left page is part of the Benedictus. In her left hand she holds a pomegranate. The history of the painting is not known. It was acquired by the Uffizi in 1785 from Ottavio Magherini. There are several copies of the painting, including one in the Louvre, one in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/17/24) Aubrey Beardsley (British, 1872-1898) Incipit Vita Nova: Here begins a new life (c. 1892-93) Pencil, pen & black ink & bodycolor on brown paper, 20.3 x 19.7 cm. Private Collection

The stylised depiction of the female figure in the present work is an overt reference to the Pre-Raphaelites and the particular notion of ideal beauty that was associated with this movement. However, Beardsley accentuates the facial characteristics of the woman to such an extent that whilst they still allude to this ideal they also border on the grotesque. This sentiment is continued in the scowling foetus figure, the embodiment of a new beginning, who points to the words 'Incipit Vita Nova'. The complex interplay of ideas associated with life, death and art are delivered emphatically by Beardsley's strong composition and restrained palette.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/16/24) Nok culture (Nigeria) Character laying one's chin on one's knee (6th c. BCE-3rd c. CE) Terracotta sculpture, 38 cm. high Musée du Louvre, Paris

Most African sculpture was historically in wood and other organic materials that have not survived from earlier than at most a few centuries ago; older pottery figures are found from a number of areas In West Africa, the earliest known sculptures are from the Nok culture which thrived between 500 BCE and 500 CE in modern Nigeria, with clay figures typically with elongated bodies and angular shapes. The Nok culture was considered to be the earliest sub-Saharan producer of life-sized Terracotta. Little is known of the original function of the pieces, but theories include ancestor portrayal, grave markers, and charms to prevent crop failure, infertility, and illness.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/15/24) Tristram Hillier (British, 1905–1983) La Route des Alpes (1937) Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 80.6 cm. The Tate Gallery, London

Hillier studied at the Slade School of Art, London, in 1926, and then in Paris. He lived in the South of France until 1940, and this picture was painted in 1937 when he was staying near Vence. The artist later wrote of the work: 'Here I started to paint landscape again, not in my earlier manner en plein air, but attempting to construct my pictures from rough drawings which I would elaborate in the studio, in the style of the Flemish and Italian masters whose work I had recently had so much opportunity of studying. This was the beginning of my ultimate phase in painting, and became the manner in which I have worked ever since.'

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/14/24) Alfred de Bréanski (British, 1852-1928) Falls of Leney (c. 1880) Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 76.3 cm. Private Collection

Alfred de Bréanski was a British landscape painter, best known for his idyllic yet realistic depictions of rural Wales and Scotland. Through his close attention paid to the manifold textures, light, and coloristic qualities of each particular landscape, it is evident that de Breanski was deeply influenced by the work of John Constable. He also drew much inspiration from the dramatic nature of the Scottish countryside, such as the Highlands, which are noted for their desolate beauty and spectacular scenery.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/13/24) Hellenistic Greece (323-146 BCE) Drunken Dionysos and Satyr (early 2nd c. BCE) Marble sculpture, 2nd c. CE Roman copy after Hellenistic original Museo Nazionale, Palazzo Altemps, Rome

The heads, torsos and thighs of Dionysos and satyr, and the right arm of Dionysos are original; the legs of Dionysos and legs and arms of the satyr are restorations. The formula, with somewhat exaggerated contrapposto, the god's right hand resting on his head, is based on the Apollo Lyceus, which is variously attributed and dated. This ivy-crowned Dionysus is accompanied by the panther that signalises his numinous presence, and a satyr of reduced size, a member of his retinue. Long locks of his hair fall girlishly over his shoulders and in his left hand he holds a bunch of grapes, emblematic of his status as god of wine.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/12/24) Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917) The Rehearsal of the Ballet Onstage (c. 1874) Oil colors freely mixed with turpentine, with traces of watercolor and pastel over pen-and-ink drawing on cream-colored wove paper, laid down on bristol board and mounted on canvas, 54.3 x 73 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (H.O. Havemeyer Collection)

There are three similar versions of this composition. The largest, painted in grisaille (Musée d'Orsay, Paris), was shown in the first Impressionist exhibition, in 1874. The two other works, tentatively dated the same year, are in the Metropolitan's collection. This painting probably preceded the version in pastel (at right), which is more freely handled. Preparatory drawings exist for almost every figure in the rehearsal compositions.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/11/24) Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Flemish, c. 1525-1569) Netherlandish Proverbs (1559) Oil on oak panel, 117 x 163 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Although individual proverbs and groups of proverbs had been represented in Flemish art before, this is the first picture to create a whole world of them. The picture is overflowing with references and most of the representations can still be identified; while many of the proverbs have either been forgotten or never made the transition to the English language, some are still in use. Critics have praised the composition for its ordered portrayal and integrated scene. There are approximately 112 identifiable idioms or proverbs in the scene, although Bruegel may have included others which cannot be determined.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/10/24) Odilon Redon (French, 1840-1916) Caliban (1881) Charcoal on paper, 49 x 36 cm. Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Caliban, a character from The Tempest by William Shakespeare, was a major source of inspiration for Redon and was depicted in several other works, including a later painting (around 1895-1900) of small size called "Caliban asleep" (Musée d'Orsay). Familiar with Darwinism and contemporary scientific theories on the mutation of living beings, Redon interpreted the Elizabethan Renaissance myth of the savage through the portrayal of this strange hybrid creature, closely associated with the plant world.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/9/24) Alfredo Zalce (Mexican, 1908-2003) Los abogados The Lawyers Oil on Masonite, 91.4 x 121.9 cm. Private Collection

Zalce's subjects are typically drawn from the working classes -- bricklayers, laborers, fishermen, loggers -- but occasionally, as in the present work, he chose to foreground their oppressors. A rousing image of political injustice, Los abogados takes aim at the systemic corruption of Mexico's legal system, caricatured by four sharp-suited lawyers who shield their faces and portfolios while trampling -- literally and figuratively -- over the body of a young worker. Anonymous and virtually indistinguishable, the lawyers stride in rhythmic unison, their legs thrust dynamically across the worker's prostrate, all-white form. The vertical compression of the painting--the lawyers, even hunched over, barely fit within the frame -- amplifies the feeling of subjugation, symbolically reenacting the social and economic disenfranchisement of Mexico's rural peasantry.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/8/24) Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881–1973) Reading at a Table (1934) Oil on canvas, 162.2 x 130.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Florene M. Schoenborn Bequest)

Here, Picasso's twenty-five-year-old lover, Marie-Thérèse Walter, sits at a table reading, seemingly unaware of her crown of flowers. This chaste scene was set at the artist's country home in Boisgeloup, in Normandy, where, in addition to painting, Picasso produced large-scale sculptures and prepared many etchings.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/7/24) Carl Wilhelmson (Swedish, 1866–1928) The Bay (1901) Oil on canvas, 135 x 145 cm. Konstmuseum, Malmö

Carl Wilhelmson is the great painter of Sweden's west coast. At the turn of the last century, he was among the most acclaimed Swedish national romantic artists. He was primarily a depicter of everyday life, producing many paintings of the people and rugged landscapes of Bohuslän. This scene with two girls are from his home town of Fiskebäckskil.

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/6/24) Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917) Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone (c. 1880-81) Bronze sculpture, 43.5 x 29.2 x 31.8 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art

Among the elements from Rodin’s greatest sculptural undertaking, The Gates of Hell, was the figure of a woman bent under the weight of a stone. As an independent work, she has been entitled Caryatid, but she may have originally been called Sorrow. The Gates of Hell In 1880 Rodin received a commission for a sculptured portal (known later as The Gates of Hell) for a proposed museum of decorative arts in Paris. He conceived the idea of freely interpreted scenes from The Inferno, Part I of The Divine Comedy, an epic poem by the Italian poet Dante (1265-1321).

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MWW Artwork of the Day (11/5/24) George Copeland Ault (American, 1891-1948) Bright Light at Russell's Corners (1946) Oil on canvas, 49.9 x 63.4 cm. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC (Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Lawrence)

George Ault created images of unpeopled, often mysterious cityscapes, interiors, and rural scenery in a range of styles always inflected with precise line and smoothly rounded volumetric forms. Ault made a series of paintings of Russell's Corners in Woodstock, New York. These images of lonely farm buildings symbolized traditional farm life and reflected Ault's desire to isolate himself from others. He often incorporated religious imagery into his works, and here, a single bright light marks the center of a cross formed by the power lines. But the bleak landscape and vast expanse of darkness threaten to overwhelm, and this painting perhaps reflects the artist's depressed state of mind.