Old Masters Paintings & Artworks

Featured Old Master Fine Artists

Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452 near Florence, Italy, and died in 1519. He was apprenticed to the Florentine painter and sculptor, Andrea Del Verrocchio, in 1466 (the angel on the left of Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ, 1470, was painted by Leonardo). In 1478, Leonardo became an independent master. Besides his years in Florence, Leonardo was to work in Milan, Venice, and Rome as a painter, military architect and engineer, and inventor. He served under the Dukes Ludovico and Maximilian Sforza in Milan, Cesare Borgia in Florence, and King Francis I of France. While in the employ of Ludovico, Leonardo painted The Last Supper in 1498. From 1499 to through 1515, during his "nomadic" period, he lived in Venice, Florence (twice), Milan (twice), and Rome working on various projects and commissions. Between 1503 and 1507, while in Florence, he painted his most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. Leonardo pioneered the chiaroscuro painting technique. [More...]

Sandro Botticelli was born in 1445 in Florence, Italy, and died in 1510. He was an apprentice to Fra Filippi Lippi, as well as to Andrea Del Verrocchio, where he worked beside Leonardo da Vinci. He opened his own independent studio in 1470 and was employed frequently by Lorenzo de Medici. His most famous painting, The Birth of Venus, was painted 1484-86. Later in his life, he came under the influence of Savanorola and burned a number of his early "pagan" paintings. [More...]

Jan (Johannes) Vermeer was born in 1632 in Delft, Netherlands, and died in 1675. His father was a silk weaver and art dealer, and there is some evidence that Vermeer might also have worked on the side as an art dealer. Vermeer may have apprenticed under Carel Fabritius, and there is certainly some afinity between their painting styles, but this, like much else about his life, is uncertain. While Vermeer was a Master in in the Delft painters' guild and was well regarded in his lifetime, he left his wife and 11 children in debt when he died. After his death, he was largely forgotten, not to be rediscovered until the late 19th century. [More...]