Old Masters

ElGreco_Cardinal — El Greco (attributed), Portrait of Charles de Guise, Cardinal de Lorraine, 1572, Kunsthaus Zürich, The Betty and David Koetser Foundation, 1986

Giovanni Antonio Canaletto, Ricevimento dell’ ambasciatore imperiale a Palazzo Ducale, c. 1730, Kunsthaus Zürich, Betty and David Koetser Foundation, 1986

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, Der Apostel Simon, 1661, Kunsthaus Zürich, Ruzicka-Stiftung, 1949

Jacques Linard, Still Life with Shells, 1638, Kunsthaus Zürich, donated by Annette Bühler, 1999

Asselijn, Hafenszene, 1652 — Jan Asselijn, Harbour Scene with Galley Slaves, ca. 1652, Kunsthaus Zürich, Ruzicka-Stiftung, 1948

Lanfranco, Rinaldo, 1614 — Giovanni Lanfranco, L’addio di Rinaldo ad Armida (Rinaldo’s Farewell to Armida), 1614, Kunsthaus Zürich, Donated by the Dr. Joseph Scholz Foundation and René Wehrli, 2014

Angelica Kauffmann, Amor und Psyche, 1792, Kunsthaus Zürich, donated by the Jacobs Suchard AG, Zurich, 1987

Jacob van Ruisdael, View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds, c. 1670/1675, Kunsthaus Zürich, The Ruzicka Foundation, 1949

Bartolomeo Montagna, Cristo portacroce, um 1515, Kunsthaus Zürich, Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde, 2002

During the first half of the seventeenth century Italian and Netherlandish painting reached new heights marking one of the great periods in European art. The visible world provided one of the most important motifs for this new art: landscape painting, the still life and genre painting all came into their own.

In Italian Baroque painting in Italy around 1600 there were two rival schools: Caravaggio followers such as Matthias Stom and Mattia Preti painted emphatically naturalistic figures in close-up, illuminated by stark shafts of light that pierced the darkness. Artists like Annibale Carracci and Domenichino aligned themselves more closely with tradition but imbued it with more lively observation of nature and emotion.

The main problem in the composition of realistic paintings in the seventeenth century was how to present the pictorial space as a harmonious whole. The high point of this harmonization in Dutch painting came under Jan Brueghel der Ältere and Jan van Goyen around 1600–1640: flowing brushwork melds bright colors and compositional detail into a single, atmospheric whole.

Collection online

Stop in front of a work of art for as long as you like, find out more about its history and download it - on a virtual tour of over 3,000 paintings, sculptures, installations and graphic works from the Kunsthaus, online thanks to the kind support of the Federal Office of Culture (FOC).

Go to the online collection