The raft of the Medusa, de Theodore Géricault (1819) 

Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 4.91 x 7.16 mts.

In 1816 the French ship called Medusa sunk near the coats of Senegal with 150 soldiers on board on colonising mission. Artist Gericault (Rouen, 1791-Paris, 1824) made this painting according to the account of two of the ten only survivors. A raft was built with the remains of the ship and it floated in open ocean during 13 days. The painting shows the exact moment in which the rescue boat appears on the horizon. Despair, famine and distress were the feelings Gericault wanted to express and does so with such great skill, that this work of 5 x 7 mts was considered an icon of the artistic period known as Romanticism.

The second...

Summer, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1573)

Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 76 x 64 cm

Belonging to the series Seasons, painted by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (Milano, 1527–1593), Summer is maybe the most delicious one, specially because of the peach used as cheek. The artist personified each season with the elements of nature characteristic of each of them. This painting is not currently on exhibition at the museum.

The third...

The wedding feast at Cana, by Paolo Veronese (1563)

Technique: oil on canvas

Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese for his birth-town Verona (1528- 1588), gave rhythm to his paintings thanks to his colourful palette. It was a way of reflecting, according to the artist, the good fortune of being alive in the 16th Century in Venice. This painting represents a moment in the New Testament, but set in the 1500s. Jesus, in the center, presides the banquet of a wedding celebration in which he has miraculously multiplied bread and fishes. Veronese's painting is exuberant in quantity of people, dressing, architecture and, above all, food. It is clearly an exaltation of life with effervescence and happiness. Veronese included himself in the picture, together with his colleagues Tiziano, Tintoretto and Basano, performing as musicians.

The three paintings were put together, with humor, in an  animated short by the Film School of Sainte Geneviève...

The MNBA has a painted attributed to Veronese (although there's no certainty that it belongs to the Master). It's a great composition, also a religious one, with characters in sumptuous closing. We can see St Catherine de Siena (1347-80), a young girl who, after many years of praying. it is said to have mystically wed Christ. She was canonised by Pope Pius II in 1461 and she is protector to the ill.

The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, by Paolo Caliari (attributed to Paolo Veronese)

Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 118 x 154 cm

Keep reading... 

"Géricault (catalogue d’exposition au Grand Palais 1991-1992)," by S. Laveissière, R. Michel and B. Chenique, Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris, 1991.

"The Art of Venice From its Origins to 1797," by F. Pedrocco. Scala Group, Florence, 2002.

"Lives of the Saints," by R. McBrien, Harper Collins, New York, 2003.