But for now all a listener can go by is Saturday's Wagner concert, which had more than its share of stunning moments, among them an electrifying "Ride of the Valkyries," a rich-hued "Meistersinger" Prelude and a vividly painted "Der Fliegende Holländer" Overture.
Among the most striking are a haunting Rembrandtesque portrait of a dead baby painted by Bartholomeus van der Helst in 1645 and a small, stormy seascape by the great 17th-century Dutch landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael.
Every aspect of this book is precious, from the gold leaf that makes the pages glow to the image painted by Rogier van der Weyden.By contrast, the bread and butter of illuminators was the "Book of Hours": a pocket-sized breviary, sometimes no more than three inches high, which was designed as an intimate object of devotion to guide the reader in prayer.
Six or seven years before Vermeer produced his paean to Delft, another of the city's artists, Egbert van der Poel, painted a very different scene.
The artist Jan van der Straet painted a scene of a wealthy man receiving treatment for syphilis with the tropical wood guaiacum sometime around 1580.
Estimations range from the mid-1440s thethe mid-1450s; early in Christus's career to about the time van der Weyden painted his c. 1455 Altar of St John.
After spending a day at Woburn studying the painting, Mr. van der Wetering believes it is by Rembrandt.
Most of van der Weyden's portraits were painted as commissions from the nobility; he painted only five (including Portrait of a Lady) that were not donor portraits.
Jan van Eyck painted the Annunciation while in Philip's employ, and Rogier van der Weyden became the duke's portrait painter in the 1440s.
He has paired a depiction of a furious woman by de Kooning, the ultramasculine Abstract Expressionist, with Ms. von der Ahe's portrayal of an effeminate Ludwig II painted with her own menstrual blood.
Instead, a landscape under a stormy sky is painted very much in the manner of the Flemish master Rogier van der Weyden; it is rich in detail, colour, and life and features the small intricate figures of butterflies, birds, and lizards.
