The Portinari Altarpiece
1476 · Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Three weathered shepherds crowd in to look at the newborn, and when the triptych reached Florence from Bruges the local painters took note.
★ 8.3
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1470s
1470 – 1479
Showing 14 works across all media from the 1470s
The Montefeltro Altarpiece
1474 · Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy
An ostrich egg hangs from the vault and pulls every sightline down. Federico is shown from the left because a tournament took his right eye.
★ 7.8
Virgin Annunciate
1476 · Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo
No angel, no dove, no lily. Mary looks up from her book straight at us, because we are standing where Gabriel ought to be.
★ 7.3
Annunciation (da Vinci)
1475 · Uffizi Gallery, Florence
An early work, and Mary's right arm reaches further than an arm can. Gabriel's wings were studied from a real bird.
★ 7.2
Ginevra de Benci
1478 · National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia
A juniper bush stands behind her as a pun on her name. The panel was later cut down at the bottom, taking her hands with it.
★ 7.2
The Hunt in the Forest
1470 · Ashmolean, Oxford, England
Red-clad hunters and dogs funnel into a black wood toward a single vanishing point. One of the earliest night scenes on an Italian panel.
★ 7.2
Adoration of the Magi (Botticelli)
1478 · Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The three kings are Medici, and the young man in the saffron cloak at the right, looking straight out at us, is Botticelli.
★ 7.0
Saint George and the Dragon
1470 · National Gallery, London
The princess has the dragon on a leash made from her own belt, and a spiral storm cloud winds up behind the saint.
★ 6.9
Portrait of a Man
1476 · National Gallery, London
A red cap, a parapet, and a gaze that meets yours. Antonello brought the Netherlandish portrait into Italy and killed off the profile.
★ 6.8
Triptych of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist
1479 · Memling Museum, Bruges
In the middle panel the Child slips a ring onto Saint Catherine's finger, and on the right wing the Apocalypse breaks over Patmos.
★ 6.5
Portrait of a Man (Memling)
1470 · The Frick Collection, New York City
Memling put his sitters in front of open countryside instead of a dark ground, an idea that traveled to Italy and came back changed.
★ 5.9
Christ at the Column
1476 · Louvre, Paris
Every hair, every glassy tear, every bead of blood, pushed hard against the front of the picture and made to carry feeling rather than skill.
★ 5.7
The Justice of the Emperor Otto
1475 · Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels
The widow grips a red-hot iron bar unharmed to prove her husband was innocent after he had already been beheaded. Painted for a courtroom.
★ 5.7
Calvary (Antwerp Crucifixion)
1475 · Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Antonello carried the Netherlandish oil technique south to Venice, and Giovanni Bellini responded with a Crucifixion almost identical to this one.
★ 5.4