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| Peter Paul Rubens St Francis ca. 1615 oil on panel Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Capture of Samson ca. 1609-1610 oil on panel (sketch) Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Jusepe de Ribera St John the Baptist 1650 oil on canvas Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London |
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| Anonymous Artist The Annunciation 17th century oil on panel Guildhall Art Gallery, London |
Over the course of the past millennium (and more) the traditional Annunciation scene – angel-messenger rushing with his news toward the seated and unsuspecting Virgin – was painted uncountable times throughout Europe. Yet the anonymous example above is a bit singular. There exist relatively few examples like this, with the angel approaching from the viewer's right (Mary's left). Since earliest Christian days, the iconographic norm placed the winged figure on the left.
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| Alessandro Turchi Virgin and Child before 1649 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Jacob van Oost Holy Family with St Elizabeth and St John the Baptist 1643 oil on panel Ulster Museum, Belfast |
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| Jan van Bijlert St Matthew and the Angel ca. 1625-30 oil on canvas Ulster Museum, Belfast |
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| Francisco de Zurbarán The Crucifixion 1627 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Cornelis van Poelenburgh The Crucifixion with the Fall of the Rebel Angels ca. 1627-67 oil on panel Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London |
Another iconographic oddity is van Poelenburgh's Crucifixion, combined in one image with the Fall of the Rebel Angels. Both representations were conventional, but blending them together was not.
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| Eustache Le Sueur Christ on the Cross with the Magdalen, the Virgin, and St John the Evangelist ca. 1643 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
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| Rembrandt The Good Samaritan 1630 oil on canvas Wallace Collection, London |
The Good Samaritan story was usually represented at the moment when the Samaritan discovered the robbed and beaten traveler helpless upon the ground, or slightly later when the Samaritan lifted the victim onto his own horse. Rembrandt most unusually shows seven figures (plus the horse) participating in the pair's arrival at the inn, where the Samaritan opens his purse to pay the innkeeper for the injured man's care. This act of bourgeois kindness takes place in the dim doorway at rear, while the light (and the viewer's scrutiny) falls upon the small patient horse and two servants of the inn (unmentioned in the Biblical narrative) performing the literal work of charity which the Samaritan's money is paying for.
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| attributed to Alessandro Salucci St Paul and St Barnabas at Lystra ca. 1640 oil on canvas National Trust, Kingston Lacy, Dorset |
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| Giovanni Battista Langetti Ecce Homo ca. 1650-60 oil on canvas Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, Manchester |
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| Johann Carl Loth after Pietro da Cortona Adam and Eve ca. 1656 oil on canvas National Trust, Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire |
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| Daniel Seghers Cartouche of the Virgin and Child with St Anne embellished with a Garland of Flowers ca. 1655-60 oil on canvas Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |