Francesco Albani

Francesco Albani specialised in pretty, tranquil mythologies, gardens full of Venus, cupids, and dancing nymphs painted in clear, sweet colour. Admirers called him the Anacreon of painting, after the Greek poet of love and wine, for the graceful, untroubled world his pictures live in.

He trained in Bologna in the busy academy of the Carracci family, the painters who steered Italian art back toward Raphael's balance, and he worked in Rome alongside his gifted fellow pupil Guido Reni, who became both friend and rival. Albani chose the gentler path, leaving grand drama aside for cabinet pictures and airy frescoes.

His set of the Four Elements, painted as round canvases for a Savoy prince, shows him at his most charming. A large family of his own gave him a ready supply of chubby models for his endless cupids, or so the old story goes.