Ochre Editions
SearchSign inCart (0)

The Rotunda

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.

30 works · hang 9870 ·

The rooms are imagined; every work on their walls is real.

Walk this roomRehang this room

Bay 1

  1. The Dance Class, by Edgar Degas, 1874
    The Dance ClassEdgar Degas, 1874Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. The Adoration of the Magi, by Giotto di Bondone, possibly ca. 1320
    The Adoration of the MagiGiotto di Bondone, possibly ca. 1320Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bay 2

  1. Elizabeth Shewell West and Her Son, Raphael, by Benjamin West, c. 1770
    Elizabeth Shewell West and Her Son, RaphaelBenjamin West, c. 1770Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  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. St. Catherine of Siena and the Beggar, by Giovanni di Paolo, 1460s
    St. Catherine of Siena and the BeggarGiovanni di Paolo, 1460sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. Painting
    Ancestral group of Mughal rulersGovardhan, 18th centuryCourtesy of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution

Bay 4

  1. 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
  2. Large painting of woman, in gold and pink dress, placing severed head on platter.
    Salome with the Head of Saint John the BaptistGuido Reni, c. 1639–42Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago