Image Details
Date: 23 June 2025
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 55mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 560
Licensing: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current director of the National Gallery is Gabriele Finaldi.

The National Gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its collection belongs to the government on behalf of the British public, and entry to the main collection is free of charge.

Unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein in 1824. After that initial purchase, the gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, especially Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which now account for two-thirds of the collection. The collection is smaller than many European national galleries, but encyclopaedic in scope; most major developments in Western painting “from Giotto to Cézanne” are represented with important works. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, but this is no longer the case.

The present building, the third site to house the National Gallery, was designed by William Wilkins. Building began in 1832 and it opened to the public in 1838. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, as the building has been expanded piecemeal throughout its history. Wilkins’s building was often criticised for the perceived weaknesses of its design and for its lack of space; the latter problem led to the establishment of the Tate Gallery for British art in 1897. The Sainsbury Wing, a 1991 extension to the west by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, is a significant example of Postmodernist architecture in Britain.

Image details
Date: 10 April 2025
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1,600s
ISO: 200
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

This boy sculpture of Kraus was shown at an exhibition in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. Around the same time a British driver had run over a fountain at the Augustaplatz. From the penalty of this motorist a part of the cost for a new fountain could be paid, for which the statue of Professor Kraus was used. Moral concerns of philistines were wiped away, and 29 July 1910 the fountain was inaugurated.

August Kraus (Ruhrort 1868 – Berlin 1934), German sculptor

Object description
Type: Sculpture, fountain
Location: Baden-Baden, Germany
Material: Bronze
Artist: August Kraus (1868-1934)
Date: 1910

Image details
Date: 25 June 2023
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 46mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 320
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

From Wikipedia

The Fonte Gaia is a monumental fountain located in the Piazza del Campo in the center of Siena, Italy.

The first fountain in the Piazza del Campo was completed in 1342, after hydraulic construction had led water to the site. Underground pipes brought water to the site from 25 kilometers away. Legend holds that the fountain was met with much joy, thus it was given the name Gaia or joyous. Others suggest the term Gaia refers to the Latin term for “bride”, and that the fountain was dedicated to the bride of God and patron of Siena, the Virgin Mary. The fountains, plates, and statues conflate Roman matrons’ cardinal virtues, with a central relief of the Madonna and Child, curiously framed by stories of Genesis.

In 1419, the fountain had the present decorative frame constructed by Jacopo della Quercia. In 1858, the original marble panels were replaced by copies sculpted by Tito Sarrocchi, under the supervision of architect Giuseppe Partini. The side reliefs depict episodes from Genesis: The Creation of Adam and The Flight from the Garden of Eden. The wolves spouting water, representing the mother-wolf of Remus and Romulus, form part of the reconstructed fountain. Two nude female figures once adorned the front two columns, traditionally believed to represent Rea Silvia and Acca Larentia, in celebration of Siena’s supposed links to ancient Rome. These were not added in the reconstruction but can be viewed along with the original panels at a museum at Santa Maria della Scala, the old hospital overlooking the Piazza del Duomo. The long section of the fountain is adorned at the centre with a Madonna and Child, surrounded by allegories of the Virtues.

Image Details
Date: 14 September 2022
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Tamron 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 300mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/500s
ISO: 450
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

From Wikipedia

The Fonte Gaia is a monumental fountain located in the Piazza del Campo in the center of Siena, Italy.

The first fountain in the Piazza del Campo was completed in 1342, after hydraulic construction had led water to the site. Underground pipes brought water to the site from 25 kilometers away. Legend holds that the fountain was met with much joy, thus it was given the name Gaia or joyous. Others suggest the term Gaia refers to the Latin term for “bride”, and that the fountain was dedicated to the bride of God and patron of Siena, the Virgin Mary. The fountains, plates, and statues conflate Roman matrons’ cardinal virtues, with a central relief of the Madonna and Child, curiously framed by stories of Genesis.

In 1419, the fountain had the present decorative frame constructed by Jacopo della Quercia. In 1858, the original marble panels were replaced by copies sculpted by Tito Sarrocchi, under the supervision of architect Giuseppe Partini. The side reliefs depict episodes from Genesis: The Creation of Adam and The Flight from the Garden of Eden. The wolves spouting water, representing the mother-wolf of Remus and Romulus, form part of the reconstructed fountain. Two nude female figures once adorned the front two columns, traditionally believed to represent Rea Silvia and Acca Larentia, in celebration of Siena’s supposed links to ancient Rome. These were not added in the reconstruction but can be viewed along with the original panels at a museum at Santa Maria della Scala, the old hospital overlooking the Piazza del Duomo. The long section of the fountain is adorned at the centre with a Madonna and Child, surrounded by allegories of the Virtues.

Image Details
Date: 14 September 2022
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Tamron 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 120mm
Aperture: ƒ/4.2
Shutter Speed: 1/800s
ISO: 400
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

From Wikipedia

The Fonte Gaia is a monumental fountain located in the Piazza del Campo in the center of Siena, Italy.

The first fountain in the Piazza del Campo was completed in 1342, after hydraulic construction had led water to the site. Underground pipes brought water to the site from 25 kilometers away. Legend holds that the fountain was met with much joy, thus it was given the name Gaia or joyous. Others suggest the term Gaia refers to the Latin term for “bride”, and that the fountain was dedicated to the bride of God and patron of Siena, the Virgin Mary. The fountains, plates, and statues conflate Roman matrons’ cardinal virtues, with a central relief of the Madonna and Child, curiously framed by stories of Genesis.

In 1419, the fountain had the present decorative frame constructed by Jacopo della Quercia. In 1858, the original marble panels were replaced by copies sculpted by Tito Sarrocchi, under the supervision of architect Giuseppe Partini. The side reliefs depict episodes from Genesis: The Creation of Adam and The Flight from the Garden of Eden. The wolves spouting water, representing the mother-wolf of Remus and Romulus, form part of the reconstructed fountain. Two nude female figures once adorned the front two columns, traditionally believed to represent Rea Silvia and Acca Larentia, in celebration of Siena’s supposed links to ancient Rome. These were not added in the reconstruction but can be viewed along with the original panels at a museum at Santa Maria della Scala, the old hospital overlooking the Piazza del Duomo. The long section of the fountain is adorned at the centre with a Madonna and Child, surrounded by allegories of the Virtues.

Image Details
Date: 14 September 2022
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Tamron 70.0-300.0 mm f/4.0-5.6
Focal Length: 120mm
Aperture: ƒ/4.2
Shutter Speed: 1/640s
ISO: 400
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Image Details
Date: 7 June 2021
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 400
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

From Wikipedia:

The Fountain of Neptune (Italian: Fontana del Nettuno) in Florence, Italy, is situated in the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1559 to celebrate the marriage of Francesco de’ Medici I to Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria. Cosimo I de’ Medici was the Duke of Florence from 1537-1569 and responsible for a vast number of architectural and artistic elements in Florence that still exist today.

The fountain was designed by Baccio Bandinelli, but created by Bartolomeo Ammannati with the assistance of several other artists between 1560 and 1574. It incorporates a series of mythological figures and iconographies that symbolize both Cosimo I de’ Medici’s power and the union of Francesco and Joanna.

It has sustained a great deal of damage over the years due to vandalism and general mistreatment but underwent a major restoration completed in 2019 that restored it to its original glory.

Object description
Type: Fountain, sculpture
Location: Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy
Material: Marble
Artist: Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511-1692)
Date: 1560-74

Image Details
Date: 10 September 2019
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 55mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 360
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

From Wikipedia:

The Fountain of Neptune (Italian: Fontana del Nettuno) in Florence, Italy, is situated in the Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchio. The fountain was commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1559 to celebrate the marriage of Francesco de’ Medici I to Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria. Cosimo I de’ Medici was the Duke of Florence from 1537-1569 and responsible for a vast number of architectural and artistic elements in Florence that still exist today.

The fountain was designed by Baccio Bandinelli, but created by Bartolomeo Ammannati with the assistance of several other artists between 1560 and 1574. It incorporates a series of mythological figures and iconographies that symbolize both Cosimo I de’ Medici’s power and the union of Francesco and Joanna.

It has sustained a great deal of damage over the years due to vandalism and general mistreatment but underwent a major restoration completed in 2019 that restored it to its original glory.

Object description
Type: Fountain, sculpture
Location: Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy
Material: Marble
Artist: Bartolomeo Ammannati (1511-1692)
Date: 1560-74

Image Details
Date: 10 September 2019
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 46mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.3
Shutter Speed: 1/1,000s
ISO: 280
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Image details
Date: 22 February 2019
Camera body: Nikon D50
Lens: Nikkor AF-S DX 18-55mm ƒ3.5-5.6G ED
Focal Length: 55mm
Aperture: ƒ/10
Shutter Speed: 1/200s
ISO: 400
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International