Paolo Uccello
Saint George and the Dragon
Creation date: c. 1470
Learning Resource Slideshow
Paolo Uccello
Carlo Crivelli
The Annunciation, with Saint Emidius
Creation date: 1486
Look
Look through all the ‘rooms’ in this painting, noticing the people and search out iconographic objects and symbols.
Think
Think about possible meanings for the objects and symbols. Who might the people be?
Titian
Noli me Tangere
Creation date: c. 1514
Look
Look at the position of the two figures in relation to each other and their body language. This painting is about Mary Magdalene being the first person to see Jesus after the Resurrection.
Think
Titian did quite a bit of re-painting to finalise the composition – originally Mary and Jesus were closer. Think about why he moved them further apart and the effect this creates.
Giovanni Battista Moroni
Portrait of a Gentleman
Creation date: c. 1555–56
Look
Look at how this man has been pictured and note the objects in the painting. Describe what sort of person you think he was.
Think
Think about how the stance, props, colours and contrasts create a mood that evokes the man’s personality.
Jacopo Tintoretto
The Origin of the Milky Way
Creation date: c. 1575
Look
Look at how the figures create a sense of action. Here the Roman god Jupiter takes his mortal son Hercules to suckle at his wife Juno’s breast while she sleeps, so he becomes immortal. Waking up, Juno knocks the baby away, her breast milk squirting upwards to create a constellation of stars.
Think
Think about how people throughout history have tried to understand the skies. Tintoretto’s The Origin of the Milky Way predates Galileo’s discovery that the galaxy is made up of stars by 100 years.