Floor plan

The RotundaThe Rotunda

The Rotunda

In this painting, there are two women standing near a body of water, surrounded by tall green grass and white flowers. One woman wears a bright pink dress, while the other wears a brown dress with a white apron. The woman in pink holds a long, thin rod outwards, its other end connected to a thin string and a small red lure floating on the water. The other woman stands behind her and holds a baby wearing white clothes and a white bonnet. Behind both women, on the right, is a brown shape like a small dog running towards them. The reflection of the women is visible against the still, blue water. The sky is light blue at the top, transitioning to a warm pink by the horizon, crossed by purple clouds and a flock of small birds. In the bottom right corner, across the water from the women, is a patch of more tall blue-and-green grass. The brushstrokes of the painting are light and feathery.
The Dance Class, by Edgar Degas, 1874
Painting
Virgin and Child with Angels, by Master of the Holden Tondo, early 1500s

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

The entrance hall. Its bays hold the works that show each museum at its fullest: large paintings first, a few from each collection, rehung every day.

Bay 1

  1. In this painting, there are two women standing near a body of water, surrounded by tall green grass and white flowers. One woman wears a bright pink dress, while the other wears a brown dress with a white apron. The woman in pink holds a long, thin rod outwards, its other end connected to a thin string and a small red lure floating on the water. The other woman stands behind her and holds a baby wearing white clothes and a white bonnet. Behind both women, on the right, is a brown shape like a small dog running towards them. The reflection of the women is visible against the still, blue water. The sky is light blue at the top, transitioning to a warm pink by the horizon, crossed by purple clouds and a flock of small birds. In the bottom right corner, across the water from the women, is a patch of more tall blue-and-green grass. The brushstrokes of the painting are light and feathery.
    The Artist's Wife FishingJean Louis Forain, 1896Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. The Dance Class, by Edgar Degas, 1874
    The Dance ClassEdgar Degas, 1874Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bay 2

  1. Painting
    The sage-physician Dhanvantari, folio from the “Sixth” Bhagavata Purana series, also known as the “small” Guler-Basohli seriesManaku, ca. 1735-1740Courtesy of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution
  2. Virgin and Child with Angels, by Master of the Holden Tondo, early 1500s
    Virgin and Child with AngelsMaster of the Holden Tondo, early 1500sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Bay 3

  1. A nude woman, pudgy child, and two satyrs, which have men’s heads and torsos with goat’s legs and horns, are in a landscape in this octagonal painting. The scene is divided in half by a tree stump which only reaches to the center of the composition. To the left of the stump, the pale-skinned, nude child stands and hunches over to draw on the ground with a V-shaped compass. Two pieces of paper and a violin lie nearby. The landscape behind him has a body of water leading back to a town with buildings streaked with peach, perhaps flames. A band of peach sky separates the blue silhouettes of mountains lining the horizon from the vivid blue sky above. At the bottom center of the painting, a shield with an oval horizontally striped with red and white leans on the boy’s side of the tree, which has one leafy branch growing on the left side. One satyr holds a jug and kneels close to the tree with his back to it as he looks back over one shoulder. He and the other satyr both have dark, peach-toned skin and full beards. The second satyr hovers to the right of the nude, sleeping woman, both hands reaching for her or the rose-pink cloth surrounding her. The woman has blond curls, a round face, and she sleeps with one hand resting across her belly and her head tipped to our left. The trio are on a grassy area enclosed by dense, dark-green bushes and trees.
    AllegoryPietro degli Ingannati, c. 1515-1525Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. A young woman and two children are shown from the waist up through an oval, stone opening, holding and looking at a wooden box with a lens protruding from one side in this square painting. All three people have pale skin with rosy cheeks. To our right, the young woman’s body is angled to our left as she braces the torso of a young girl. The young woman looks at us from the corners of her sage-green eyes, under lifted brows. Her small, pink mouth is pursed in a slight smile, and she has a faint dimple in her rounded chin. Her heather-gray hair is partially plaited over the crown of her head, and long curls fall over her shoulders. She wears a spruce-blue shawl over the shoulders of her low-cut, olive-green dress. The child she braces has chubby cheeks, and her wavy blond hair is brushed back from her forehead and falls loosely to her shoulders. She wears a blush-pink dress with ruffles on the half-length sleeves and gossamer-white trim around the neckline and cuffs. The top and side rails of a wooden, ladderback chair up against the inside of the opening suggests she stands or kneels on a backward-facing chair. She rests her left hand on the edge of the stone opening and her other hand on the wrist of the boy standing close behind her. Mostly in the shadow behind the others, the boy has small, pointed features and short, curly, sable-brown hair. He wears a tan coat, and a muted blue scarf is tied at his throat. The two children gaze at the wooden box the boy holds, which is about the size of a toaster. A short, cylindrical, brass-lined lens pokes out of the center of the side facing the trio. The oval opening through which we see them is carved on our side with stylized leaves and berries, and the wall around it is the same elephant gray as the carvings. The girl and the box cast a shadow across the opening. The artist signed and dated the painting in the lower left corner, “Amedee Can Loo./1764.”
    The Camera ObscuraCharles Amédée Philippe Van Loo, 1764Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Bay 4

  1. A work made of oil on panel.
    The Shadow of DeathWilliam Holman Hunt, 1873-74Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. Painting
    Ancestral group of Mughal rulersGovardhan, 18th centuryCourtesy of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution