Objets d'art Intéressants (Interesting Art Objects)

[golfdelta21]

Evaristo Baschenis’s musical silence

 

[golfdelta21]

Music and still lifes by Bartolomeo Bettera

 

[golfdelta21]

Interesting stories behind famous masterpieces ( 1/3)

 

[golfdelta21]

Interesting stories behind famous masterpieces (2/3)

 

[golfdelta21]

Interesting stories behind famous masterpieces (3/3)

 

[gorgik9]

Thanks to golfdelta21 for this beautiful art history post in three parts!!! I just want to give some historical comments on some of the works shown:

Part 1:

1) Jan van Eyck (1390-1444)

What I want to comment on isn't really the Arnolfini Portrait, but the simple historical fact that the use of linseed-oil paint for artistic purposes was NOT an Italian invention, but the invention of painters in early 15th century Flandern, painters like the brothers Jan and Hubert van Eyck, Robert Campin and Rogier van der Weyden.

2) Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Leonardo was comparatively early among artists born and raised in Tuscany to start using the new medium, linseed-oil paint.

Maybe some people on GH will say I'm sacrilegious, but it's my honest opinion that Leonardo's biography & Leonardo as engineer, inventor, architect and anatomist is much more interesting than Leonardo as a painter. It doesn't really matter that "La Gioconda" is still one of the most famous paintings of all times - compared to the works of a genuinely strong painter like Caravaggio, I think that "La Gioconda" is relatively meek and mild. And we should stop talking about "the Mona Lisa" - it's NOT a portrait of a woman named Mona Lisa; it's MONNA Lisa, with MONNA being a title like m'lady or madam.

And the famous "enigmatic smile" is a pure 19th century post-romantic invention. Read Donald Sassoon's book "Mona Lisa: The history of the world's most famous painting", 2001.

3) Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)

If visual art means painting, and if painting means oil painting on canvas or wood panel (not water colour, egg-oil tempera or mural fresco), then the dark, violent and down right dangerous guy from the little town Caravaggio (about 40 kilometers east of Milan) is my Number One!!!

It's absolutely incredible that a man with such comparatively short life made such an impact on European art history - in particular if you consider the fact that academic critics and teachers in the great academies of art made it their special job to blacken and tar his name for generations of young artist-wannabees, going on for about 200 years.

Well, the critics tried and tried and tried, but it didn't work. Why? Just because of his absolutely incredible power as a painter!!! His latest biographer Andrew Graham-Dixon is spot on: there's European painting BEFORE Caravaggio, and there's painting after Caravaggio - and it's a profound difference.

"The Cardsharps" (1594) belongs to a group of paintings made in Rome in 1593-1596, which became his earliest claim to fame. They caught the eyes of a very influential art collector - cardinal Del Monte - who invited Caravaggio to come live in his house.

4) Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656)

Artemisia was the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639) who was one of Caravaggio's earliest followers, and who also followed Caravaggio in painting his version of "Judith and Holofernes" - Caravaggio's version was made in 1598-99, and you actually could say that it became one of the favourite topics among the Caravaggisti.

It's true that Artemisia was horribly raped, but I certainly don't believe in the auto-biographical interpretation of this painting.

5) Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675)

Vermeer's "Girl with a pearl ear ring" is a superb masterpiece in the handling of deep darkness an brilliant light, a masterpiece in "chiaroscuro" - which tells us that Vermeer engaged in deep studies in the original master of chiaroscuro, our grandmaster Caravaggio.

6) Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)

David's "Death of Marat" (1793) is probably one of his most well known paintings, but also a painting to show the spectacularly strong influence of Caravaggio in French art - 180+ years after his death.

Part 3:

Théodore Géricault (1791-1824)

You could say that "The raft of Medusa" (1819) is Géricault's great hommage to Caravaggio - the violent drama, the "chiaroscuro".

So in the end, it didn't really matter that French classicist painter Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) violently shouted his dislike: "-Caravaggio came to the world to DESTROY painting!" All the academy teachers in Paris and Rome agreed with him - but the greatest painters like Vermeer, the Gentileschi's, David, Gericault and hundreds of others knew their true Master, the Second Michelangelo, the boy from Caravaggio.

 

[golfdelta21]

Beautiful pantings by Johannes Vermeer in the mid-17th century part 1

 

[golfdelta21]

Beautiful pantings by Johannes Vermeer in the mid-17th century part 2

 

[gorgik9]

Two beautiful posts on Vermeer - thanks a lot!!!

 

[golfdelta21]

Many thanks

Two beautiful posts on Vermeer - thanks a lot!!!

Thanks Gorgik your remarkable artistic knowledge makes all your notes worthy of consideration.
I will read them carefully and, if necessary, I will confute them after I have read them properly.
Last Saturday, in Milan, I had the opportunity to visit an extraordinary exhibition dedicated to a 17th century master of painting: the French painter Georges de la Tour (1593-1652), a genius in the use of chiaroscuro and light.
More than 30 of his paintings were on display, coming from many museums around the world. The exhibition was made even more interesting by the presence of other masterpieces by contemporary painters at de La Tour.
As soon as possible, I will upload the images of the paintings I saw in this wonderful exhibition held in the Royal Palace of Milan. Ciao G.

Below:
The dice players & The education of the Virgin by G. de La Tour

 

[slimjim]

Well years ago I was on holiday on Malta and whilst spending a day in Valetta I wandered into the beautiful St. Johns Cathedral and in the oratory was Caravaggio's "The Beheading of John The Baptist", considered by those who study such things as his greatest works. I cannot comment on that but it was certainly a most imposing and breathtaking work, and not just because of it's size - 17ft x 12ft

​

 

[golfdelta21]

Well years ago I was on holiday on Malta and whilst spending a day in Valetta I wandered into the beautiful St. Johns Cathedral and in the oratory was Caravaggio's "The Beheading of John The Baptist", considered by those who study such things as his greatest works. I cannot comment on that but it was certainly a most imposing and breathtaking work, and not just because of it's size - 17ft x 12ft



I too, like Gorgik, believe that the painter Caravaggio is the greatest painter of all time. G

 

[gorgik9]

Thanks Gorgik your remarkable artistic knowledge makes all your notes worthy of consideration.
I will read them carefully and, if necessary, I will confute them after I have read them properly.
Last Saturday, in Milan, I had the opportunity to visit an extraordinary exhibition dedicated to a 17th century master of painting: the French painter Georges de la Tour (1593-1652), a genius in the use of chiaroscuro and light.
More than 30 of his paintings were on display, coming from many museums around the world. The exhibition was made even more interesting by the presence of other masterpieces by contemporary painters at de La Tour.
As soon as possible, I will upload the images of the paintings I saw in this wonderful exhibition held in the Royal Palace of Milan. Ciao G.

Below:
The dice players & The education of the Virgin by G. de La Tour

WOW!!! Please tell me all you know about the Georges de la Tour-exhibition - I know enough about this fantastic painter to know that I long to know much more!!!

 

[gorgik9]

Well years ago I was on holiday on Malta and whilst spending a day in Valetta I wandered into the beautiful St. Johns Cathedral and in the oratory was Caravaggio's "The Beheading of John The Baptist", considered by those who study such things as his greatest works. I cannot comment on that but it was certainly a most imposing and breathtaking work, and not just because of it's size - 17ft x 12ft

​

In my opinion, GH is a place with lots of sensible, reasonable people so - there's no big surprise that I'm not the only Caravaggisti on the forum :rofl:

To be a bit more serious: I have engaged in thoughts about starting my own Caravaggio-thread on GH; I'm not totally sure, but I'm thinking about it...(beware...)

 

[golfdelta21]

In my opinion, GH is a place with lots of sensible, reasonable people so - there's no big surprise that I'm not the only Caravaggisti on the forum :rofl:

To be a bit more serious: I have engaged in thoughts about starting my own Caravaggio-thread on GH; I'm not totally sure, but I'm thinking about it...(beware...)

That would be a laudable initiative. I agree 100%

 

[golfdelta21]

Resting Hermes

 

[gorgik9]

That would be a laudable initiative. I agree 100%

I won't give you or anyone else a definite promise - but I am thinking about it very seriously, that's for sure!!! :cheers:

 

[golfdelta21]

Tapestries designed by Raphael go on display at the Sistine Chapel

 

[golfdelta21]

All paintings by Georges de la Tour part 1/4

 

[golfdelta21]

All paintings by Georges de La Tour part 2/4