Room 26
Paintings in this room
Jupiter, the ruler of the gods, is seated on a cloud, his attribute of an eagle with thunderbolts in its beak beside him. He is embracing the goddess Minerva, his daughter. The scene is witnessed by a gathering of the gods of Olympus, clearly shocked by what they see.Mercury, messenger of the god...
Christ’s body has been taken down from the Cross and is being carried on a shroud to his place of burial. His head rests limply on his shoulder; his pale, foreshortened body is the focus of a whole retinue of grieving figures, each expressing their sorrow in a different way.This small picture is...
The Virgin Mary clasps two small children – Christ and John the Baptist – to her lap. Saint Elizabeth, mother of the Baptist, kneels beside her. In shadow, behind the brightly lit group in the foreground, are Mary’s husband Joseph and angels. Although the characters in this scene are from the Bib...
A bearded man in a hair robe is being violently threatened by a horde of demonic creatures. He has cast aside his book and is gazing up at the heavens for help, where Christ has appeared reclining on a cloud.This very small picture is one of a number of works on copper that Annibale Carracci pain...
Saint Peter fled Rome after Christ’s crucifixion, scared that he too would be executed by the Romans; here, he stands in shock as Christ passes him on the road. When Peter asked Christ where he was going – the question in this painting’s title – he replied that he was headed to Rome to be crucifi...
This is perhaps the most poignant image in the National Gallery’s collection of the pietà – the lamentation over the dead Christ following his crucifixion. It was a subject to which Annibale Carracci returned frequently, especially during the last decade of his life.Here, the limp and lifeless bo...
Domesticity reigns in this exquisite little picture. A delightfully pretty Virgin Mary balances a squirming, curly-haired Christ Child on her knee. She herself is perched rather precariously on a laundry basket, and her nephew, the young Saint John the Baptist, tugs at her blue mantle. On the oth...
The Virgin Mary, in white, places her hand in Saint Joseph’s while the dove of the Holy Ghost hovers above the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem. The high priest joins the couple in matrimony, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers. Mary’s virginal companions on the right are balanced by her disappoin...
An elderly but muscular man with an impressive beard sits in a rocky landscape. Beside him is a pile of books, on top of which sits a skull wearing a cardinal’s hat. He leans on a second pile, and points to the text of an open volume resting on a rocky ledge. This is the fourth-century scholar an...
Christ is shown bending down in the River Jordan as Saint John baptises him, pouring water over his head. An angel and two cherubs carry a red cloth to wrap around Christ after his baptism. The sky has opened up to reveal the intense light of heaven where the bearded figure of God the Father is s...
This small painting depicts a solemn religious scene. Two angels kneel in quiet contemplation next to Christ, whose body has been taken down from the Cross following his crucifixion. While the Gospels make no mention of angels alongside the dead Christ, two are said to have been present at his to...
Forty days after his birth, Mary and Joseph brought the infant Christ to the Temple in Jerusalem. According to Jewish custom, all first-born male children were to be taken to the Temple to be presented to God in a ceremony that involved the sacrifice of two doves or pigeons, visible here at the f...
Paintings of the coronation of the Virgin Mary typically show her being crowned by Christ and God the Father, often accompanied by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove. This work, however, mixes elements of the coronation with those of Mary’s assumption (when angels carried her body and soul to h...
This scene is set in heaven, and Rottenhammer has managed to convey its vast scale even in this small space: rows of angels, saints and prophets fill every inch of the painting, and the more distant figures are painted very faintly to create a feeling of expansiveness.At the top, surrounded by a...
This picture illustrates an episode in the life of Moses (Exodus 2: 16–19). Having fled Egypt, Moses was resting by a well in the land of Midian when seven women, the daughters of a priest named Jethro, approached to draw water for their sheep. A number of shepherds tried to drive them away, but...
The Virgin Mary holds her infant son on her knee, supporting him as he uses his finger to help him follow the words in an open book. The Child traces the line of text with one hand, while the other rests tenderly on his mother’s thumb. Saint Joseph gently supports the book in this charmingly inti...