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Topic:
Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: Cezanne's "Still Life with a Basket of Apples"
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
8/18/07 10:38pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "The Descent From the Cross" by Rubens
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Next: "The Adoration of the Shepherds"
c. 1612-14, oil on canvas, Prado, Madrid
The book: "In this picture, El Greco has broken nearly every rule...there is almost no prespective, the colours are unnatural and extremely bright, and the anatomy of each figure is bizarrely inappropriate. If the person kneeling in the foreground were to stand up, he would be twice the size of the young man...on the right." The light in the picture comes from the Christ child rather than a source of natural light.
The reasons for this stem from El Greco's training as an icon painter--icons being generally two dimensional, and with a tendency to use perspective to underline a point. This painting looks weirdly modern, more 20th century than 17th.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
8/19/07 8:35pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "The Adoration of the Shepherds" by El Greco
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Next: "Cheat With the Ace of Clubs" by Georges de La Tour
c. 1628-30, oil on canvas, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
This picture is about the fleecing of the the innocent--the kid on the right. The woman in the middle distracts him with her decolletage; the maid with wine, and the cheat has a card in his sash.
They are playing a primitive form of poker called prime.
Always thought the heads have a kind of flatness that looks odd.
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farraday
Registered:
Jan '00
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Date Posted:
8/19/07 9:24pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Cheat With the Ace of Clubs" by Georges de La Tour
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I don't know I think the face of the cheater doess't look all that flat.
In any case if they're playing strip poker that game is going to go on forever.
-----signature-----
Virtvs probata florescit
Omnes aequo animo parent ubi digni imperant
Exceptio probat regulam de rebus non exceptis
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
8/25/07 10:59pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Cheat With the Ace of Clubs" by Georges de La Tour
- Date Edited:
8/26/07 9:33am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Zaz
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Next: "Charles I at the Hunt" by Anthony van Dyck
c. 1635, oil on canvas, Musee du Louvre, Paris
Charles I was a dead loss as a king; what he was good at was artistic appreciation. He assembled one of the greatest collections of art in Europe, which cost a lot of money. Charles could actually tell good from bad, as Rubens found out when he tried to palm off one of his apprentices' work on the king (Charles sent it back and demanded the real thing; he got it). A good portion of the collection was sold off by the puritans, but not all. But that is why this very important English royal portrait is in the Louvre.
Van Dyck was originally from Antwerp, and proved a skillful royal propogandist. Charles was actually small and dour looking; van Dyck, in this portrait, makes him look elegant and aristocratic. This is a change from the usual van Dyck portrait, in which he generally looks melancholy. My favorite of the lot is "The Great Peece"
and the sketch portrait for a bust:
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/3/07 10:13pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Charles I at the Hunt" by van Dyck
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Next: "The Arcadian Shepherds" by Nicolas Poussin
c. 1638-40, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris
Three shepherds and a shepherdess discover a tomb with the inscription: "I, too, lived in Arcadia."
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/18/07 7:56pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "The Arcadian Shepherds" by Nicolas Poussin
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Next: "Portrait of Sephanus Geraerdts"
c. 1650, oil on canvas, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp
This portrait is one of a pair, as shown here...only the man's in the book. It seems to be an engagement portrait duo, which was separated in 1886, when the owner sold them separately.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/19/07 9:15pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Portrait of Sephanus Geraerdts" by Franz Hals
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Next: "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez
c. 1656, oil on canvas, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid
The picture of the Infanta Margarita and her maids of honour (Las Meninas), is a very famous one, a genuine masterpiece in both execution and conception. The child's parents are seen in the mirror; Velazquez is probably painting a portrait of them.
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darth_frared
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
9/20/07 3:06pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez
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dunno... but it really isn't my favourite one of his.
there is the marvellous spanish film 'alatriste' which at soem stages uses velazquez compositions for sets which is awesome. they even got actors that looked like principe pio etc on his paintings.
-----signature-----
illegalise stupidity.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/20/07 3:15pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez
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Goya is my favourite Spanish artist, but there is no doubt Velazquez is brilliant.
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darth_frared
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
9/20/07 3:24pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez
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they are completely different artists, yeah... goya was so bleak towards the end of his life, velazquez just seemd to have been a people person (i hope velazquez doesn't get to read my gibberish  ) and then he wa a proper court painter, wasn't he? goya didn't so much chronicle his time, he was more modern, wasn't he.
-----signature-----
illegalise stupidity.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/20/07 8:53pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Las Meninas" by Diego Velazquez
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Next: "Coutyard of a House in Delft" by Pieter de Hooch
c. 1658, oil on canvas, National Gallery, London
Described in the book as one of the most 'perfectly judged of all Dutch genre paintings.'
It is indeed wonderful, especially the composition.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/21/07 10:30pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Coutyard of a House in Delft" by Pieter de Hooch
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Next: "Self-Portrait" by Rembrandt (also known as "Self-Portrait with Two Circles")
c. 1665, oil on canvas, Kenwood House, London
Rembrandt painted nearly a hundred self-portraits (indeed, he kept a stock of costumes and props to use in them). It's the largest number of any great artist, and no one knows why. This is a later one; he is 62 years old, and the painting is unfinished. The beret isn't coloured, and parts of the portrait are merely sketched in. And the meaning of the circles on the canvas are unknown.
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somethingfamiliar
Registered:
Aug '03
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Date Posted:
9/22/07 12:44am
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Self Portrait" by Rembrandt
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I love that he did so many over his lifetime. You see the continuity of his face through the years, the same big nose and dark eyes always. With photographs I don't get that same sense of continuity; if I see an old photo of someone I know, they look like an entirely different person to me.
-----signature-----
I'm not a quitter, but that human pile of garbage would make Satan weep.
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KissMeImARebel
Registered:
Nov '03
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Date Posted:
9/22/07 4:51pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Self Portrait" by Rembrandt
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Zaz posted:
Next: "Coutyard of a House in Delft" by Pieter de Hooch
Very nice
I like the Rembrandt too - his eyes look very alive.
-----signature-----
Waru's Sword of Truth
RebelMollom of The Kind
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
9/23/07 12:31pm
Subject:
RE: Folio Society's 100 Greatest Paintings: "Self Portrait" by Rembrandt
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At this point in his career, Rembrandt was out of fashion, and in severe financial difficulties...he'd also had some deaths among his family. The expression wavers between stoicism and confidence.
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