Best Oil On Panel
Albrecht Dürer's Four Apostles is a pair of oil paintings completed in 1526, depicting John, Peter, Paul, and Mark as monumental figures. The work was presented by Dürer as a gift to the city council of Nuremberg during the Protestant Reformation, though it contains no explicit religious narrative....
Adam and Eve is a pair of oil-on-panel paintings completed by German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer in 1507. The panels depict the biblical first humans at life size as idealized nude figures, showcasing Dürer's study of human proportion influenced by classical antiquity. Originally created for a...
Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele is a large oil-on-panel painting completed by Jan van Eyck in 1436 and now held by the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. It presents the Virgin and Child with Saints Donatian and George and the kneeling donor, Canon Joris van der Paele, within a carefully construct...
The Montefeltro Altarpiece, also called the Brera Madonna, is a painting by Piero della Francesca made around the 1470s for Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and now housed in Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera. It shows the Virgin and sleeping Christ Child surrounded by saints and angels, with the...
The Descent from the Cross is a monumental triptych by Peter Paul Rubens, completed in the early 17th century for the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, where it remains. Its central panel shows Christ's pale body being lowered diagonally from the cross by a group of straining figures, while the side...
The Virgin of the Rocks is the name given to two closely related compositions by Leonardo da Vinci, one in the Louvre and another in the National Gallery, London. Both show the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child, the young John the Baptist, and an angel gathered in a rocky landscape, using pyramidal grou...
The Transfiguration is an altarpiece begun by Raphael around 1516 and left unfinished at his death in 1520, with parts completed by members of his workshop, probably including Giulio Romano. Its upper register shows the radiant Christ with Moses and Elijah, while the lower register depicts the apost...
The Assumption of the Virgin is a monumental altarpiece painted by Titian between 1516 and 1518 for the high altar of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, where it remains. Approximately 6.9 metres tall, the panel organizes the apostles, the ascending Virgin, and God the Father into three verti...
The San Zaccaria Altarpiece is a signed and dated 1505 painting by Giovanni Bellini, preserved in its original setting in the Church of San Zaccaria in Venice. It depicts the enthroned Virgin and Child accompanied by saints and a music-making angel within a carefully constructed architectural space....
The Descent from the Cross is an oil-on-panel painting made by Rogier van der Weyden around 1435, probably for the crossbowmen's guild in Leuven, and now held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Christ's curved body is echoed by the collapsing Virgin, while the mourners are compressed into a shallow,...
The Mérode Altarpiece is a small oil-on-panel triptych associated with the workshop of Robert Campin and generally dated to the 1420s or 1430s. Its central panel places the Annunciation in a contemporary Netherlandish domestic interior, flanked by kneeling donors and Saint Joseph working in his shop...
The Portinari Altarpiece is a large triptych painted by Hugo van der Goes for Tommaso Portinari, a Florentine representative of the Medici bank in Bruges. Its central panel depicts the Adoration of the Shepherds, while the wings show members of the Portinari family with their patron saints. Installe...
The Ghent Altarpiece, also called The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, is a large polyptych completed in 1432 for Saint Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent. An inscription associates it with the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, although their respective contributions remain debated. Its many painted panels comb...
The Virgin of the Rocks is the title given to two closely related paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and his workshop, now held by the Louvre in Paris and the National Gallery in London. Both show the Virgin Mary, the infant Jesus, the young John the Baptist, and an angel grouped within an imagined rock...
Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci around 1489 to 1490, generally identified as Cecilia Gallerani, a young woman at the Milanese court and the mistress of Ludovico Sforza. She turns toward something outside the picture while holding a pale ermine, an animal that may carry...
The Arnolfini Portrait is a 1434 oil painting on oak panel by Jan van Eyck, now in the National Gallery in London. It shows a richly dressed man and woman in a furnished interior in Bruges, accompanied by a small dog and reflected, with two additional figures, in a convex mirror. The identities of t...
The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a triptych attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, painted around the beginning of the 16th century and held by the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon. Its central and side panels surround the steadfast saint with hybrid monsters, burning landscapes, ruined structures...
The Beaune Last Judgment Altarpiece is a large polyptych painted by Rogier van der Weyden around 1445 to 1450 for the Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune, Burgundy. Commissioned by the hospital's founder, Nicolas Rolin, and his wife, Guigone de Salins, it depicts Christ judging humanity as Saint Michael weighs res...
The Hay Wain is a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, generally dated to around 1510-1516 and now held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Its central panel shows people from every social rank struggling around an enormous wagon of hay, while the wings trace a movement from humanity's fall to punishment in...
Jacopo Pontormo painted this large panel between 1525 and 1528 for the Capponi Chapel in Santa Felicita, Florence, where it remains. Commonly called the Entombment or Deposition, it shows a tightly interwoven group carrying Christ's body, but omits a clearly depicted cross, tomb, or stable ground. I...
Peter Paul Rubens painted The Raising of the Cross in 1610-1611 as a monumental triptych for the Church of St. Walburga in Antwerp; it is now displayed in the Cathedral of Our Lady. Across the three oil-on-panel sections, muscular figures strain diagonally to lift Christ's cross while witnesses and...
The San Giobbe Altarpiece is a large sacra conversazione painted by Giovanni Bellini around 1487 for the church of San Giobbe in Venice. The Virgin and Child occupy a vaulted architectural setting with saints and musical angels, while the painted apse appears to extend the viewer's physical space. E...
Portrait of Pope Julius II is an oil portrait painted by Raphael around 1511 to 1512 and known through an original version in the National Gallery, London, as well as workshop versions and copies. Julius appears seated in three-quarter view, wearing papal garments and holding a handkerchief, with hi...
Hieronymus Bosch's Adoration of the Magi Triptych, generally dated around 1490-1500, is an oil-on-panel altarpiece now in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The central panel presents the Magi before the Virgin and Child, while the interior wings portray the donors with their patron saints. Its conventi...
The Pieta of Avignon, painted around the middle of the fifteenth century, is a French panel painting now in the Louvre. It shows the dead Christ laid across the Virgin's knees, accompanied by Saint John, Mary Magdalene, and a kneeling donor against a stark gold background. Often attributed to Enguer...
The Last Judgment Triptych in Gdańsk is a large oil on panel work painted by Hans Memling around 1467 to 1471 for the Florentine banker Angelo Tani. Its central panel shows Christ judging the dead above the archangel Michael, while the wings divide the saved from the damned. The triptych was seized...
The Descent from the Cross is a monumental triptych painted by Peter Paul Rubens from 1612 to 1614 for the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, where it remains. The central panel depicts Christ's body being lowered on a white shroud by a tightly coordinated group of figures, creating a strong diagonal...
The Saint Vincent Panels are six surviving painted panels attributed to the Portuguese court painter Nuno Goncalves and generally dated to the fifteenth century. They portray Saint Vincent in two central images, surrounded by groups of clergy, nobles, soldiers, monks, and other figures represented w...
The Frari Triptych is an altarpiece painted by Giovanni Bellini around 1488 for the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, where it remains in its original carved frame. The central compartment shows the Virgin and Child enthroned beneath a mosaic lined apse, accompanied by musical an...
The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece is an oil on panel triptych painted by Rogier van der Weyden around 1445 to 1450. A monumental Crucifixion dominates the central church interior, while smaller groups enact baptism, confirmation, penance, the Eucharist, ordination, marriage, and anointing of the sick...
