The Jewish Bride by Rembrandt Postcard

The painting on the postcard is entitled The Jewish Bride and is a work of Rembrandt. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 – October 4, 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history.

The Jewish Bride Postcard

The Jewish Bride shows an elegantly dressed man and woman in a vague, dark room. The man has lovingly placed his arm around the woman's shoulder and a hand on her breast. Very carefully she touches his hand with her fingertips. Both are staring straight ahead, they seem deep in thought. A few objects can be recognised in the obscure background: beside the woman is a plant in a pot and behind her an architectural fragment.

Additional Information:Portrait of Two Figures from the Old Testament, known as 'The Jewish Bride'1667Oil on canvas121.5 x 166.5 cmRijksmuseum Amsterdam

SOURCES:
Rembrandt Wikipedia Entry
The Jewish Bride Wikipedia Entry

The Jewish Bride, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The Townhall Postcard

The back of the postcard reads:

Bruxelles - Brussel
L'Hotel de Ville
Het Stadhuis
The Town Hall
Das Rathaus

Unfortunately the postcard also did not include the name of the artist. The Town Hall (French: Hotel de Ville, Dutch: Stadhuis) of City of Brussels is a Gothic building from the Middle Ages. It is located in the middle of the famous Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium.

The Town Hall Postcard
(PH Wish from Richard Young)

The Three Dancers by Picasso Postcard

The painting on the postcard is entitled "The Three Dancers" and a work of Pablo Picasso. Pablo Picasso (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was a Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. As one of the most recognized figures in twentieth-century art, he is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work.

The Three Dancers by Picasso(PH Wish from Teresa Ostrander)

The jagged forms of Three Dancers convey an explosion of energy. The image is laden with Picasso's personal recollections of a triangular affair, which resulted in the heart-broken suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas. Love, sex and death are linked in an ecstatic dance. The left-hand dancer in particular seems possessed by uncontrolled, Dionysian frenzy. Her face relates to a mask from Torres Strait, New Guinea, owned by the artist, and points to Picasso's association of 'primitive' forms with expressiveness and sexuality.

Additional Information:
June 1925
Oil on canvas
support: 2153 x 1422 mmframe: 2232 x 1507 x 107 mm
Tate Gallery, London

SOURCES:The Three Dancers Wikipedia Entry
The Three Dancers, Tate Collection

The Mirror of Venus by Burne-Jones Postcard

The back of the postcard reads:

Museu Calouste Gulbenkian
O Espelho de Venus
Le Miroir de Venus
The Mirror of Venus
E Burne-Jones (1833-1898)

The painting on the postcard is the work of Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, an English artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and was one of the great forerunners of Symbolism. The subject can be seen as an exaltation of ideal beauty, set in the atmosphere of the universe represented in a perspective also common to late-Victorian art. The painter uses the minimum narrative discourse, distributing the poetic and dreaming figures, wearing pseudo-classical garments, in a linear frieze-like manner, of Greek inspiration.

The Mirror of Venus Postcard(PH Wish from Richard Young)

Additional Information:
England
Signed and dated; E. Burne-Jones 1875
Oil on canvas120 x 200 cm
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon

SOURCES:
Edward Burne-Jones Wikipedia EntryMirror of Venus, Museu Calouste Gulbenkian Collection

Baptism of Christ fresco by Signorelli Postcard

The back of the postcard reads:

Luca Signorelli
Battesimo (part)
The Baptism (detail)
Le Bapteme (detail)
Die Taufe

I found out that the image on the postcard is from a fresco done by Luca Signorelli. The fresco can be found in a chapel at Palazzone di Cortona. Luca Signorelli (c. 1445 - October 16, 1523) was an Italian Renaissance painter who was noted in particular for his ability as a draughtsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescoes of the Last Judgment (1499-1503) in Orvieto Cathedral are considered his masterpiece.

Baptism of Christ Postcard(PH Wish from Richard Young)

Opposite the courtyard from the entrance of the Palazzone di Cortona is the Chapel, with Luca Signorelli's “Baptism of Christ”, in unfortunately bad condition. Vasari wrote of this painting that Signorelli “was not able to finish it because he died while he was working on it”. The fresco was actually not completed by him because while painting the great artist fell from the scaffolding: the work was finished by apprentices from his workshop.

SOURCES:Luca Signorelli Wikipedia Entry
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa: Palazzone di Cortona