Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s Spring
Oil on Canvas ~ He was Dutch
A procession of women and children descending marble stairs carry and wear brightly colored flowers. Cheering spectators fill the windows and roof of a classical building. Lawrence Alma Tadema here represented the Victorian custom of sending children into the country to collect flowers on the morning of May 1, or May Day, but placed the scene in ancient Rome. In this way, he suggested the festival's great antiquity through architectural details, dress, sculpture, and even the musical instruments based on Roman originals. Alma Tadema's curiosity about the ancient world was insatiable, and the knowledge he acquired was incorporated into over three hundred paintings of ancient archeological and architectural design. He said: Now if you want to know what those Greeks and Romans looked like, whom you make your masters in language and thought, come to me. For I can show not only what I think but what I know. Alma Tadema's paintings also enjoyed popularity later, when his large panoramic depictions of Greek and Roman life caught the attention of Hollywood. Certain scenes in Cecil B. De Mille's film Cleopatra (1934) were inspired by the painting Spring.
Vincent van Gogh’s Irises
"I can very well do without God both in my life and in my paintings, but I cannot, ill as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life--the power to create." Vincent van Gogh [Dutch]
Art was Van Gogh's means of personal, spiritual redemption, and his voluminous letters to his devoted brother Theo, one of which is quoted here, offer profound insight into the artistic struggle. Van Gogh became an artist in 1881. Although he studied briefly in Antwerp and Paris, he was largely self-taught. He ultimately chose to live in the country, and most of his paintings capture his deep affinity for nature. Theo, an art dealer, introduced Vincent to Paris's most advanced painters, and his work changed under the influences of Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The flatness of color and shape in Japanese woodcuts also inspired him. Van Gogh's color expressed his emotions as he responded to the world. His insistence on color's expressive possibilities led him to develop a corresponding expressiveness in applying pigment. His brushstrokes of thick, opaque paint almost seem drawn. His often violently interacting colors and forms and strong expressive line influenced nearly every artistic movement that came after him: Symbolism, Fauvism, Expressionism, and beyond.
Claude Monet “Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, Morning”
1891 French, Giverny, 1891 Oil on canvas "Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you." --Claude Monet Claude Monet was a successful caricaturist in his native Le Havre, but after studying plein-air landscape painting, he moved to Paris in 1859. He soon met future Impressionists Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Renoir and Monet began painting outdoors together in the late 1860s, laying the foundations of Impressionism. In 1874, with Pissarro and Edgar Degas, Monet helped organize the Sociéteé Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, etc., the formal name of the Impressionists' group. During the 1870s Monet developed his technique for rendering atmospheric outdoor light, using broken, rhythmic brushwork. He received little but abuse from public and critics alike, who complained that the paintings were formless, unfinished, and ugly. He and his family endured abject poverty. By the 1880s, however, his paintings started selling; Pissarro accused him of commercialism, and younger painters called him passé, for he remained loyal to the Impressionists' early goal of capturing the transitory effects of nature through direct observation. In 1890 he began creating paintings in series, depicting the same subject under various conditions and at different times of the day. His late pictures, made when he was half-blind, are shimmering pools of color almost totally devoid of form.
Corregio 
Italian, about 1530 Oil on panel
Born Antonio Allegri, Correggio was named after the town of his birth. His ability to manipulate light and shade to create luminous atmospheric effects resulted in some of the most sumptuous religious paintings of the Italian Renaissance. Giorgio Vasari, a sixteenth-century biographer of artists, wrote, "everything that is to be seen by his hand is admired as something divine." Correggio was profoundly influenced by the style and technique used by the painter Andrea Mantegna. By the age of twenty-nine, Correggio was probably working in Parma, the center of his greatest activity. The frescoes he painted in the dome of the cathedral there served as a model of dome decorations long after his death. Correggio inspired future generations of artists as diverse as the Carracci family, Rubens, and Boucher.
The Way to Calvary
Domenichino
(Domenico Zampieri), about 1610
Italian, Oil on copper
Domenichino spent half his life battling against the increasingly fashionable exuberant Baroque style of Giovanni Lanfranco and Pietro da Cortona. When a friend encouraged him to accommodate others' taste, he replied, "I work for myself alone and for the perfection of Art.” Domenichino's sensibility, subtle composition, and delicate color heavily influenced Nicolas Poussin. The most classical Bolognese painter of his era, Domenichino sought the ideal form and grandeur known as disegno. After studying with a Flemish artist, Domenichino switched to the Carracci academy's classical instruction, then assisted Lodovico Carracci. In 1602 he joined Annibale Carracci and his classmates Guido Reni and Lanfranco, his detested rival, working on the Farnese Palace's ceiling murals. Domenichino painted many of the landscapes, ordering and improving on nature. By 1614 he was Rome's leading painter. He also made easel pictures, sometimes painting on copper to achieve a polished finish. In 1621 he began working as architect for Pope Gregory XV, creating frescoes with a more emotional Baroque style. In 1631, with his popularity in Rome waning, Domenichino traveled to Naples to take over Guido Reni's commission to decorate a chapel in the Naples Cathedral. This was a potentially dangerous project: other non-Neapolitan artists had refused or abandoned this commission after jealous local artists threatened their lives and killed a servant of Reni's. In 1641 Domenichino died with the project unfinished, and Lanfranco succeeded him.
To protect their works from the ravages of time, artists have always looked for materials that promise permanence. Toward the end of the 16th century, copper plates came into use as a new support for painting. Bologna was one of the major centers of this technique. The copper was hammered or rolled into sheets about one-eighth of an inch (3 mm) thick.
Copper panels were also popular for their brilliant visual effect. Because the hard, smooth material does not absorb oil pigments, painters could create intricate details and a glossy surface in jewel-like colors. Meant to be seen up close, they were sought after by collectors for display in small private rooms, and also served as powerful devotional images.
Here, Christ's fallen body contrasts with the violent movements of the guard to create drama. Thrown to the ground, Christ addresses the viewer with his inquisitive gaze and silent cry. Domenichino infused his composition with multiple actions and figures described in the Gospels: Simon of Cyrene tried to ease the load on Christ's body, an attendant carries the ladder later used in the execution, and the curious crowd observes the heightened moment that preceded Christ's execution.
Captured Emotions: Baroque painting in Bologna 1575-1725This exhibition tells the extraordinary story of a small group of artists who changed the course of art history. In the decades after the deaths of the great Renaissance masters, such as Raphael and Michelangelo, the art of painting was thought to have gone into steep decline. But then, in the late 16th century, the Carracci family of painters from Bologna burst onto the scene with tremendous energy and vitality, raising art to new heights. Their heroic achievement set standards that were to remain authoritative for more than 200 years. Here a selection of key works by the Carracci and several generations of their pupils and followers brings this artistic triumph to life. For them, the visible world became their principal source of inspiration, and nature was their teacher. Painting was about to enter a new era of creativity and lavish patronage, resulting in the glories of the Baroque age.
Twenty-seven of the paintings in this exhibition have been generously lent by the museum in Dresden, one of the world's premier collections of old master paintings. Most of these works have never been seen before in North America.
The Carracci Family
Four hundred years ago the Carracci family of painters was as famous as Raphael or Caravaggio. Two brothers, Annibale and Agostino, and their cousin Ludovico challenged the artistic establishment of their day and revolutionized the art of painting. The academy they established in their workshop in Bologna influenced artists of the next generation, including Guido Reni, Domenichino, and Francesco Albani (all represented in this exhibition).
The Carracci and their students remade their art through the observation of nature and by studying the works by great Renaissance painters, especially Raphael. The altarpiece seen here epitomizes Annibale Carracci's ability to depict the human body, diverse textures, and light and shade. Annibale made his figures spring to life in three dimensions by covering the discernible bone and muscle with a veil of soft flesh, as can be seen in the adolescent angel seated at the bottom, and the sun-reddened chest of Saint John the Baptist at right. Annibale masterfully distinguishes various textures, such as the yellow satin over the seated angel's legs and the ragged brown sackcloth habit worn by Saint Francis who kisses the foot of the Infant Christ. The colors appear, as in nature, at full intensity in direct light while gradually darkening into the shadows.
Portrait of the Lute Player Giulio Mascheroni
Annibale Carracci, 1593–1594
Portraiture
This exhibition includes portraits by four of the greatest Bolognese artists—Annibale and Agostino Carracci, Guido Reni, and Guercino. None of them specialized in portraits, yet they possessed the gift of imbuing their works with an acute psychological insight and arresting authenticity that other painters of their day could rarely match. The young Annibale Carracci's skill at portraiture came in handy when he served as his own police sketch artist: he was so successful at recording the faces of some thieves who had attempted to rob him and his father that the men were soon caught and punished.
This portrait by Annibale Carracci depicts a family friend. Mascheroni is elegantly placed within the picture plane; the soberly dressed lute player has been caught at practice, perhaps even writing a score (a quill pen and sheet of music rest on the table in the foreground). Interrupted, he acknowledges the viewer's presence with an attentive but imperious gaze.
The Ideal versus the RealSaint Luke
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), about 1615
Saint Luke is presented to us as real person, lost in thought at his workbench with wrinkled forehead, his paintbrushes and palette in hand. Artists following naturalism cultivated such convincing visual effects that correspond as closely as possible to the experience of the viewer. The goal was to copy nature faithfully, whether it seems ugly or beautiful.
Compare this naturalist painting with a classicist painting below.
Should painters represent objects exactly as they appear, or should they aim to enhance the natural world in order to depict timeless perfection and ideal beauty? These two opposing views profoundly marked the artistic world of 17th-century Italy.
Artists following the direction known as naturalism cultivated convincing and illusionistic visual effects that correspond as closely as possible to the experience of the viewer. The goal was to copy nature faithfully, whether ugly or beautiful.
Compare this naturalistic painting of Saint Luke with an example of the classicist style.
Galatea in Her Shell Wagon
Francesco Albani, about 1635
Esther: note the dolphin at the bottom.Francesco Albani's Galatea in Her Shell Wagon, Right, is emblematic of classicism, which seeks an idealized standard of perfect beauty. Guercino's Saint Luke, on the right, is an example of naturalism, which aims for a faithful portrayal of the real world.With her perfectly proportioned face and body, Galatea floats above the water ~ a model of ideal beauty. Classicism rested on two premises: that the classical art of ancient Greece and Rome (plus the High Renaissance) set the standard for all future achievement, and that the representation of the real world can be improved by eliminating everything irregular, transitory, and inconsequential ~ creating an idealized portrayal of nature not as it is, but as it should be.
The Return of the Prodigal Son
Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri), about 1654–1655 Parable about forgiveness.
Because of his congenital squint (in Italian, guercio), Giovanni Francesco Barbieri became known as Guercino. He never studied with the Carracci, but he was deeply influenced by their theory and practice. In 1621 the Bolognese pope Gregory XV recognized Guercino's talent and summoned him to Rome to paint his papal portrait. The artist moved to Bologna after the death of Guido Reni in 1642 created new opportunities for him there.
This painting is one of several interpretations by Guercino of the Prodigal Son theme. The Gospel of Luke (15:11–32) tells the story of a youth who broke the ancient law of inheritance. He embarked on a sinful life, wasting his money, and then, driven by contrition and filial piety, returned home for forgiveness. The painting is redolent of contemporary theater, which emphasized the emotional encounter between the father and son. The close framing of the central character ~ the loving father trying to embrace his son, who turns away his head to hide his tears ~invites the viewer into the drama, while the servant theatrically pulling the curtain engages the viewer with his direct gaze.
Baptism
Giuseppe Maria Crespi, about 1712
Catholic sacrament.
Bravira Brushwork
Crespi's Seven Sacraments
The seven sacraments (Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Confession, Extreme Unction, Ordination, and Matrimony) are understood by the Roman Catholic Church as a visible form of God's invisible grace. These rites were part of the everyday life of any 18th-century Catholic. Giuseppe Maria Crespi's series The Seven Sacraments—each painting representing one sacrament—is one of the greatest achievements of 18th-century painting. The artist presented the sacraments as he witnessed and experienced them himself, in contemporary dress, without idealization.
Baptism, seen here, represents the sacrament that admits a candidate to the Catholic Church. The priest administers Baptism, usually soon after birth, by pouring water on the child's head and pronouncing a blessing in the name of the Holy Trinity. Many of the immaculately observed details in the series are reminiscent of still lifes, such as the black rosary beads around the woman's wrist in this painting. The somber, almost nocturnal atmosphere of all of these paintings is juxtaposed with shimmering fabrics, faces, and metal liturgical instruments reflecting the light.
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
by Carlo Gignani about 1670-1680
Note Theatrical exaggeration typical ~ abuse of style.
Joseph, the hero of this biblical story (Genesis 39), was sold into slavery by his brothers. His new master, Potiphar, a minister of the Egyptian Pharaoh, promoted the diligent young man to overseer of his household. The handsome Joseph attracted the attention of Potiphar's wife, who pressed him to share her bed, undeterred by his repeated refusals. One day she found him alone in the house. Clutching his cloak, she pleaded with him once again to yield to her desire. Joseph fled, leaving his cloak in her hands. When Potiphar came home, his humiliated and vengeful wife accused Joseph of attempted rape, using the cloak as evidence.
Compare three paintings of the same subject by different painters.
One Story, Three Painters
Joseph and Potipher’s Wife
Simone CantariniItalian, about 1640Oil on canvas
Madonna Enthroned with Saint Matthew
Annibale Carracci, 1588
This painting of the type 'Sancta Conversazione' has great significance in the formation of the Baroque style. The participants of this conversation - beside St Matthew with his attribute of the reclining angel - are St Francis of Assisi and St John the Baptist. The painting is dated and signed as HANNIBAL CARRACTIUS BON F. MDLXXXVIII.
Painted when he was 28, is divided into four equal quadrants
Sprawled at the bottom, an adolescent angel ~ Matthew’s symbol ~ invites you into the scene.
Lower: earthly saints ~ Francis of Assisi & John the Baptist at the right and erudite Matthew at the left, with quill and tablet to write his gospel, which Mary holds in finished form. (Her hand that holds the book appears to emanate directly from the evangelist’s opened mouth.) Matthew’s side of the picture is filled with iconic symbols, including the distinctly plain and un-idealized Virgin dandling her effusive baby; sumptuously crafted tapestries and drapery and, beneath a massive column whose edge splits the scene down the middle, a carving of a winged sphinx, who holds life’s riddle in her wide grin. Appropriately, Francis and John, both rustic saints, stand beneath nature’s expansive landscape. Notice Francis kissing Jesus’ foot anticipating what that foot means later.
Upper half is the realm of paradise. The glowing infinity of sky at the right is matched at the left by the Queen of Heaven, enthroned with majestic pomp
The Christ child = God & man; Heaven & earth!Landscape in the Vicinity of Louveciennes (Autumn)
Camille Pissarro
French
Camille Pissarro was expected to work in his father's shop in the West Indies, not become an artist. After a long struggle, Pissarro arrived in Paris in 1855, where he studied with Camille Corot and met many of the future Impressionists. By 1866 he was painting entirely outdoors and living in dire poverty. On returning from London after the Franco-Prussian War, he discovered that German troops had made a boardwalk out of the three hundred paintings that he had left in storage. In 1874 Pissarro participated in the first Impressionist exhibition. "The humble and colossal Pissarro," as Paul Céézanne called him, was the group's peacemaker, the only painter to exhibit in all eight of their shows, and the one who invited younger artists like Céézanne and Paul Gauguin into the group. When told that someone was making money or had won a medal, Pissarro responded calmly, "Only the painting counts." Pissarro was interested mostly in landscapes and rural life and was enormously prolific in many media: painting, pastel, gouache, drawing, etching, and lithography. From 1884 to 1888 he adopted George Seurat's pointillism. After 1895 he suffered from an eye infection, gave up working outdoors, and turned to painting town views from his windows. He died blind in 1903.
Pissarro used a brighter shade of blue to rework portions of the branches.
Esther: Wow! Remember Standing back ~ Wes, in Central park that day watching that excellent art work a capturing and painting the beauty of the scenes ~ and our seeing it from many perspectives!?
La Promenade
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, Paris, 1870 Oil on canvas
"The artist who uses the least of what is called imagination will be the greatest." Pierre-Auguste Renoir
With Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir helped found Impressionism, freeing painting from having to tell a story. Artists could simply capture what they saw. The son of a tailor in Limoges, Renoir saved the money he earned from painting china, fans, and window shades to move to Paris. Gustave Courbet and the Old Masters in the Louvre were his first major influences. With Impressionism in the late 1860s, Renoir began using broken brushstrokes, his color became lighter, and he composed his canvases in patches of colored light. Unlike Monet, Renoir was interested in the figure. He stopped exhibiting with the Impressionists after 1877, when his portraits were accepted by the Salon, whose wide audience helped him market his work. With success as a portrait painter, Renoir traveled widely. In 1881, having "wrung Impressionism dry," he went to Italy. Under the Renaissance masters' influence, he aimed at classic form while retaining the Impressionist palette's luminosity. In later years, crippled with arthritis and wheelchair-bound, he painted with a brush strapped to his hand. He also created sculptures, dictating to an assistant who worked the clay.
Details from above:
Renoir's signature blends in with the lush greenery of the wooded floor. Renoir thickly applied layer upon layer of paint to create the decorative, light-riddled surface of the woman's hat. Impasto on hat
Albert Cahen d'Anvers
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French, near Dieppe, 1881 Oil on canvas
Albert was a French composer know for light Opera.
Lot and His Daughters
"Lot and His Daughters," painted about 1650 by Il Guercino, is among the works in "Captured Emotions: Baroque Painting in Bologna, 1575-1725." Il Guercino was a follower of Annibale Carracci and two kinsmen who are the focus of the Getty Museum exhibition, which The Times' Christopher Knight finds to be a rich articulation of Bolognese Baroque painting.
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
A tale from the Book of Genesis is the basis for Guido Reni's "Joseph and Potiphar's Wife.".
The 3rd painting from this group about Joseph.
"He had about him a certain air of grandeur and gravity that exceeded his station in life, which produced in everyone, even those of high rank, a hidden veneration and respect."
So wrote an early biographer of Guido Reni. Reni first studied alongside Domenichino in a Flemish painter's studio in Bologna; ten years later he joined the Carracci academy to learn their classicizing style. In 1599 he entered the painters' guild. Reni created easel paintings and large decorations in Rome, Naples, Mantua, and Bologna, for patrons including Pope Paul V and Italy's top royalty. His graceful, classical style featured refined colors, delicate and varied flesh tones, soft modeling, and gentle emotion that owes a debt to Raphael's work. Reni the man was notoriously pious and eccentric. He disliked and feared women, whom he barred from his house even as servants, yet he was devoted to his mother and renowned for his heartfelt Madonnas. "The fear of God was always the first advice that Reni gave his pupils," his biographer wrote. After Lodovico Carracci's death in 1619, Reni's large studio dominated the Bolognese school, and his fame spread throughout Europe. Giovanni Lanfranco and Antonio Carracci were among his assistants.
Thank you Dick & Cathie - I had a fabulous time!!
