Recognized as such by art historians, painting’s ‘great masters’ are very well-represented in The Virtual Wine Museum. “The notion of ‘mastery’ or ‘genius’ suggests an exceptional individual […] Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Dürer are geniuses, as are Caravaggio, Cézanne and Picasso, whether or not they trained students, collaborated with other recognized painters or became known as ‘masters’ through the sheer authority of their art, like Vermeer, Lotto, Chardin and Velázquez.” (Patricia Fride-Carrassat, Les Maîtres de la peinture, Larousse/SEJER 2004, Paris). This does not go to say that such painters produced nothing but masterpieces. Great masters were particularly present in the sixteenth century, illustrating the section ‘From Divine to Sacred’ and in the eighteenth century for the section ‘An Everyday Companion’. These two periods were rich for painters and great masters: in the first case, the effect of the Renaissance, the Counter-Reformation and the rise of the merchant class were all being felt; for the latter, the growth of ‘modern’ painting and realism, strong economic growth and the triumph of the industrial and banking bourgeoisie.