Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio - Narcissus

Narcissus - 1597-99

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica - Rome

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,(1571-1610) enduring fame stems partly from his extraordinary life and partly from his even more remarkable art. In life he earned a reputation as swaggering brawler, became a fugitive after killing a man over a bet,  and died prematurely at the age of thirty-eight. Yet Caravaggio also produced paintings of breathtaking originality, becoming the most influential Italian artist of his generation. Narcissus belongs to the early part of Caravaggio’s career, and comparatively little is known about his work at this stage – indeed, some critics have even questioned whether this painting is actually by Caravaggio. Nevertheless, some of the artist’s trademarks are already apparent. From the outset, he favored the dramatic device of placing large, boldly lit figures in dark settings, like actors caught in spotlight. He also had a tendency to use sensual young men as his models. More importantly, the composition is simple but eye-catching. Narcissus and his reflection form a loop, revolving around the boy’s illuminated knee. A similar effect can be found in Caravaggio’s Conversion on the Way to Damascus (1601), which focuses on a horse’s hoof. The subject is drawn from Ovid. Narcissus was a handsome youth who fell in love with his own reflection and gradually pined away. At his death, he was transformed into the flower that now bears his name. Here, the doleful expression of the reflection already hints at this fate. Mythological subjects are quite rare in Caravaggio’s work, and the circumstances of any commission are unknown.

Source: Ian Zaczek

Pieter Bruegel The Elder - Children's Games

Children's Games - 1560

Kunsthistorischesmuseum - Vienna

One of the things that I appreciate in masters like Pieter Bruegel the Elder  (1526/30-1569) or later Hendrick Avercamp (1585-1634) is that they succeed, through their paintings, to become true story tellers. From a bird’s eyes view these masters could legibly fit in their work an impressive number of figures which gave us a good perception of the daily life on those days. A common fact to their paintings is that the viewer looks down into a wide square zone where we understand that there’s a transition between an urban and a rural setting at the edges. On this painting “Children’s Games” the view opens, on the right side, to a long street laid out in a central perspective which leads to the city centre, where a church steeple soars into the sky. On the edge of the square towards the city opens into an arcade running parallel to the course of the stream.  At the left edge of the painting, an idyllic village appears on the horizon. I saw this painting, last July 2010, at the Kunsthistorischesmuseum, in Vienna, and I've became fascinated with the impressive number of children in this painting: something like 230 in all (according to the cathalogue), and all of them are occupied with 83 different games. The funny thing here is that all the city seems to be theirs and the observer gets an extraordinary view of the children’s games at the time of this painting. The tininess of the figures and scenes forces the viewer seeking to decipher all the games to study the individual parts of the painting, slowly and minutely, which can turn out to be an entertaining past time. Some modern art school however have refused to accept such a humanistic – oriented interpretation and they claim that Brugels idea was to create through the children’s games a parable for the senselessness and foolishness of human behavior.

Source: Kunsthistorischesmuseum

Johannes Vermeer - Girl With a Pearl Earing

The Girl with the Pearl Earring - 1665

The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis - The Hague - Netherlands

This is one of my Johannes Vermeer's  favourite paintings. It is easy to see why this irresistible image has become one of the painter's best loved work. Here he uses a simple balanced composition, some air of mistery, trademark blue and yellow palette , and delicately pearlized light effects, the so called " virtuoso technique" and subtle rendering of light effects, unique to him and arguably unprecedented. Girl With a Pearl Earing shows Vermeer has being much more than simply a painter of charming small-scale "genre" scenes of everyday life. Vermeer draws the spectator into the painting by making his subject look lingeringly over her shoulder, directly at the viewer. Slighly parted lips add sensuality to the mistery - who is she? Her turban lends exoticism to the enticing mix, but is in fact simply explained. The picture is not a portrait but a study of a woman's head known in Vermeer's day as a tronie. Tronies represented certain emotions or types, with this showing an exotic type. The colors of the paintings are fresh, the brushwork smooth but just lively enough to capture every nuance of light, the unusual composition is powerful but harmonious, and the whole is unified by limpid light effects. The pearl captured in just two main strokes (you may see here in detail) clearly reflects the model's white collar, her eyes sparkle, and tiny dotted highlights play across her turban. Despite of becoming head of the painter's guild in Delft, Vermeer acquired only a modest local reputation in his lifetime, and more widespread recognition had to wait until much later. Vermeer most likely had a patron who bought most of the paintings he produced. In addition to his work as a painter, Vermeer twice served as dean of the painters’ guild and was also active as an art dealer and appraiser of paintings. In the end, despite the extra income from these activities, he could not manage to earn enough. When he died, he left his wife and eleven children with massive debts. His techniques, in particular his mastery of light, have inspired modern artists of all kinds, including Salvador Dali  who was a great Vermeer's admirer, and painted his own version of The Lacemaker and pitted large copies of the original against a rhinoceros in some now-famous surrealist experiments. Dali also immortalized the Dutch Master in one of his famous paintings named The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table dated 1934.

Sandro Botticelli - Birth of Venus

Birth of Venus - 1482-86

Galleria degli Uffizi - Florence

Birth of Venus is one of the most famous paintings in the world. It was painted by Alesandro di Mariano Fillipepi (1445-1510), known as Sandro Botticelli, who was an italian painter of the Florentine School. He served an apprendiceship under Fra Filippo Lippi, the best Florentine painter of that time. Botticelli made his name with his painting Allegory of Fortitude (1470), and he was subsequently commissioned to paint, Birth of Venus for Lorenzo de Medici “The Magnificent” from the wealthy Medici family. In mythology, Venus was conceived when Titan Cronus castrated his father, the god Uranus, whose severed genitals fertilized the sea. Birth of Venus depicts the moment when, having emerged from the sea in a shell, Venus lands at Paphos in Cyprus. She is attended by two winds who blow her towards the shore, while a nymph is poised to wrap a cloak, decorated with spring flowers, around Venus to cover her nudity. The stance of Venus is believed to be based on classical statuary, which was highly prized in Florence at that time. Despite the strange proportions of the body - the elongated neck and her overlong left arm - Venus is an arrestingly beautiful figure with her delicate skin and soft-flowing curls fresh from the sea. She is born to the world as the goddess of beauty, and the viewer is witness to this act of creation. She steaps off a gilded scallop shell, the winds shower her with roses - each with a golden heart - and the orange blossom on the tree behind her is also tipped with gold. Historically, this is the most important depicted nude, since classical antiquity and although it was charged by the Inquisition as being a vehicle of dissemination of paganism, it was miraculously saved from the holy fires because it was inside Villa Medicea di Castello, protected under the supervision of the Medici family.

Vincent Van Gogh - Midday Rest after Millet

Midday Rest after Millet - 1890

Museé D'Orsay - Paris

After staying only 3 days in Paris, in May 1890, Vincent left the bustling, restless city for the rural quiet of Auvers-sur-Oise. One of the residents of this village, thirty kilometres northwest of Paris, was doctor Paul Gachet. A physician and amateur painter Gachet had been a friend of Montecelli and had assembled an art collection that included works by Paul Cézanne, Renoir and Pissaro. It was Pisarro who had suggested to Vincent's brother Theo to contact Gachet and ask him if he could take Vincent under his wing. Gachet did take an eye on Vincent encouraging him in his work. Three weeks after arriving in Auvers, Vincent wrote that he had found a true friend in Gachet. The artist liked Auvers, where he felt a tranquility à la Puvis de Chavannes. This gave him the sense of calm which he needed to produce many works in a a short time,  such as landscapes. Vincent wrote to his brother Theo:

"Auvers is very beautiful. There were many old thatched roofs, something that is becoming rare (...) It is entirely rural, distinct and picturesque. (...) I am almost sure that on these canvas I have articulated what I cannot express in words, namely how healthy and heartening I find the countryside".

The fields and countryside around Auvers became the subject of many of his paintings. He discribed them in his studies, in many of his letters to his brother Theo,  which can be explored here , in a fabulous site where you will be able to read many of the artist's thoughts, fears, anxieties and states of mind. You can read more about Van Gogh's letters on my blog Manifesto and about his life here.

Sofonisba Anguissola - The Chess Game

The Chess Game - 1555

Muzeum Naradowe - Poznan - Poland

Sofonisba Anguissola (1535-1625) was a fortunate young italien woman in that her enlightened father endeavored to educate all seven children - including the girls - in the best humanistic tradition. Although several of her sisters also painted, it quickly became clear that Sofonisba was a prodigy. She trained with the eminent masters Bernardino Campi and Bernadino Gatti, and - quite unusual for a woman - gained an international reputation. "The Chess Game" is probably her most famous painting and signals a departure in portraiture. She dispenses with stiff formal poses and instead depicts three of her sisters - Lucia left, Europa middle, and Minerva on the right with someone generally considered to be a servant - in a relaxed, informal game of chess. The servant might appear as a chaperone to suggest the virtue of the girls, however, she also presents a contrast in both class and age to the three girls of noble birth. Chess was considered a masculine game requiring logic and strategic skills, rarely the attributes ascribed to females. In spite of the good humour of the painting, it is clear from Europa's impish delight in Lucia's imminent victory that she took the game seriously. Acess to nude models was denied to woman artists at the time, so this restricted the available subject matter. Anguissola focused on bringing life to the genre of portraiture. Her achivement was recognized by Giorgio Vasari who rated her above other female artists, writing that:

"Anguissola has shown greater application and better grace than any other woman of our age in her endeavors at drawing; she has thus succeeded not only in drawing, coloring and painting from nature, and copying excellently from others, but by herself has created rare and very beautiful paintings."

Source: Stephen Farthing

Egon Schiele - The Embrace

The Embrace - 1917

Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere - Vienna

When we watch this painting we immediately understand that it exhales a reflection of harmony between both lovers, Egon Schiele and his wife Edith Harms. They got married in 1915 and Schiele’s paintings, on the months that followed the wedding, became less tortured and depressive. In this large canvas they lie on a rumpled white sheet over a yellow cover with their arms interlocked. The woman’s hair tumbles over the pillow, her face is turned away and her hand in placed on the man’s shoulder in a manner reminiscent of Klimt’s The Kiss, which Schiele, as a friend and protégé of Klimt, knew well. The man, who must be Schiele himself, is gaunt and contorted but less so than in previous self-portraits. Schiele’s drawings and paintings have frequently drawn the accusation of pornography but, as other have pointed out, they are imbued with humanity, which sets them apart from such works. His obsession with sexuality, however, is akin to religious fervor, and he is reported as saying that he wanted his works to be experienced in that way. The tender unity of “The Embrace” marks a distinct change from the explicitly sexual paintings and drawings that preceded it and reflects Schiele’s growing contentment in married life. However, at six month pregnant Edith died in the Spanish Influenza epidemic that swept through Europe after the war. Schiele died three days later, at the age of twenty-eight. If you care to read more about Schiele’s life please visit here my blog "Manifesto".

Source: Stephen Farthing - Paintings at Belvedere

Claude Monet - Poppie field at Argenteuil

Poppie field at Argenteuil - 1873

Musee D'Orsee - Paris

Argenteuil is a small town, not very far from Paris where many painters from the Impressionist movement converged looking for the quietness and beautifulness of extended poppies fields which ended up on the banks of the river Sean. But Argenteuil would become also famous, among the artist community, because of the industrial booming that arised on its suburbs giving an interesting contrast on a wide palette of colors which varied between the intense country sight colors and the grays which so well characterized the industrial suburbs from the 19th century. These contrasting sights were extensively explored by artists and Argenteuil was very much looked not only because it aggregated these unique contrasts but also because it was on Paris ' s vicinities. Claude Monet was no exception among his colleagues and he also explored the colors of Argenteuil in a very fresh and vivid way, matching perfect stokes with beautiful blue skies and charming fields of scarlet poppies. This painting is one of my favorites and I absolutely agree with Emile Zola when he refers to Claude Monet’s style saying that “like a true Parisian Monet brings Paris to the countryside. He simple can’t help painting a landscape without including well-dressed ladies and gentlemen. Nature seems to lose Monet’s interest if it is not complemented with our references”. In fact, this is absolutely true and if we take some of Monet’s countryside paintings we always find lovely ladies, charming dresses and colorful umbrellas among peaceful and harmonious landscapes. Many of his paintings look like if they were the result of an instant photograph which immediately embraces the viewer placing us among the characters. On a later stage of his work we’ll realize that Monet will tend to the abstractionism focusing his imagination exclusively towards nature abandoning those graceful characters in his pictures. If you’d care to read about Monet's abstraccionism, you'll find here my impressions about the Madrid's exhibition, last June 2010.

Jan Brueghel "The Elder" - Flowers in a Wooden Vessel

Flowers in a Wooden Vessel - 1606-7

Kunsthistorisches Museum - Vienna

I saw, for the first time, "Flowers in a Wooden Vessel" , last year, at the  Kunsthistorisches Museum, in Vienna and it immediately captured my attention for its poetic composition and the perfect brush strokes made by master Brueghel The Elder. It was painted for Archduke Albert VII, the sovereign regent of the Spanish Netherlands, and became one of the most famous floral still lifes in European art. The grand format, the perfect painting technique and the highly successful composition make it a characteristic piece for an art collection of the time. It’s interesting that the references usually found in floral still life related with the transitoriness of earthly things occurs here in an incidentally way: we can see that some flowers that have fallen are wilted or have been damaged by insects but in the all picture they aren’t relevant enough to caught our attention. This painting also has another curiosity which is to aggregate flowers associated with different seasons of the year. Here they all bloom at once, a situation only found in the “eternal spring” of Paradise. In a letter written by Brueghel The Elder it’s interesting what he says about this painting:

”when winter approaches, covering everything in ice, I take pleasure in the view – and in my imagination even in the scent – of flowers, if not the real ones then the artificial kind found in the painting”.

Source: Masterpieces of the Picture Gallery - Kunsthistorisches Museum - Vienna by Cecilia Bischoff