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8:59am
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' The Agony of St: Theresa ' Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini ( Italian 1598-1680 )Marble. 1647-1652.
This large marble statue( 3.5m ) is the centerpiece in the Cornaro Chapel in Rome . Designed to be illuminated by reflected light from a hidden window . The statue depicts a remarkable mystic experience described related by St:Theresa herself . ( see Bernini link pages liked)
Born in Naples , Bernini was an outstanding and exceptional talent from an early age and went on to dominate the art world of seventeenth century Rome. His worked epitomised the Baroque style , and his sculpture , church interiors and exteriors together with his town planning could be seen everywhere. He was also , a painter, costume and theatre designer.
Bernini worked under successive Popes . Pope Gregory XV made him a knight , and Pope UrbanX111 considered him his best friend . He was revered in his time until a fearful and jealous rage caused him to have the face of his mistress slashed after discovering her romance with his brother. His reputation fell even further after his bell towers for the Cathedral of St:Peter started cracking in 1641 . He however managed to redeemed himself and re-started his career with this, arguably his most beautiful and famous work ; 'The Agony of St:Theresa.
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1:51am
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'Jupiter and Io ' Correggio ( Italian 1494-1534 ) Oil on canvas. Circa 1530.
Inspired by the poetry of Ovid's Metamorphoses , Correggio chose Jupiter's liasons as the subject matter for his paintings in the ducal palace in Mantua . One of these is this painting of the beautiful nymph Io ,swooning in the embrace of the god. Jupiter's face and hand , barely visible , emerge tenderly from the grey mist in which he had disguised himself in order to seduce the shy nymph .
Said to be one of the boldest , revolutionary artists of Italy's High Renaissance , Correggios's work can at times be intensely religious and at others , sensual. Born in the small town of Correggio , in Italy's Emilia-Romanga region , the artist was named Il Correggio after his birthplace .
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Jul 4, 4:23pm
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' Une Odalisque ' Jean-Auguste Ingre (French 1780-1867) Oil on canvas . Circa 1814
This painting , Ingre's most famous nude , was commissioned by Carolyn Murat , Napoleon's sister and Queen of Naples . The paintings title means 'Harem Woman' , and the accessories around her conjure up the Orient. This work drew fierce criticism when it was displayed at the Salon in 1819
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Jul 4, 6:22am
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'David with The Head of Goliath ' Caravaggio . Oil on wodden panel . Circa 1606-1607.
Caravaggio's concept of the unequal battle between the boy David and the gigantic Philistine Goliath is emblematic , and his interpretation is intensely personal ( as with all his great paintings) . We see no radiant conqueror over evil , but rather a melancholy victor who seems to be contemplating himself and his victim.
See:
The Incredulity of Thomas (Caravaggios's biography )together with other paintings .
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Jul 4, 1:28am
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'Lot and His Daughters' Hendrick Goltzius (Netherlandish 1558-1617) Oil on canvas. Circa 1616.
A seasoned and lusty old man is seated between two naked young women .In the background a city is burning. The man is Lot ,seduced by his daughters , following the destruction of the city of Sodum . All the inhabitants of the city were killed . Only the righteous Lot was allowed to escape , with his wife and daughters. On condition , however, they did not look back on the burning city. Lot's wife was unable to resist and she instantly turned into a pillar of salt . Lot sought refuge in a cave with his daughters . But the young women feared that they were the only survivors and would remain childless . In order to ensure that they would have children desperate measures were needed . They made their father drunk and seduced him.
Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) was born on the borders the Netherlands and Germany . Goltzius received his earliest training from his father , a glass painter. A fall into burning coals when he was still a child left his right hand crippled , making it impossible for him to extend his fingers fully. Nevertheless he showed a precocious aptitude for drawing , and around 1575 he became an engravers apprentice .He later established a print business in Haarlem (1582) and soon broke the monopoly on publishing prints in Northern Europe .It became one of the largest and most successful of it's day , and played a central role in the spread of the mannerist style.
Goltzius traveled to Italy in 1590-91 - now internationally famous , he traveled incognito in order to avoid being recognised . In Italy he was greatly influenced by the works of Raphael and Michelangelo .It was upon his return to Haarlem that he began a new career as a painter in oils.
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Jul 3, 5:52am
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'The Death of a Gladiator' Joseph Barthelemy ( French 1818-1898) Oil on canvas
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Jul 2, 7:54am
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' Portrait of a Young Lady ' Paulus Moreelse ( Dutch 1571-1638 ) Oil on canvas. Circa 1620
Paulus Moreelse (1571-1638) was born in Utrecht and spent most of his working life in that city.
In 1611 the city founded it's painters guild and made Moreelse it's fist Dean. A gifted and prolific painter his paintings varied in subject matter , including portraiture and religious paintings. Moreelse later became an architect. He designed the since destroyed Catherines Gate.
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Jul 2, 6:35am
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'An Old Woman Reading ' Gerard Dou ( Dutch 1613-1675 )Oil on panel Circa 1630
Gerard Dou ( 1613-1675 ) was born in Leiden . The son of a glass painter,he was apprenticed to an engraver and worked from 1628 to 1631 in the studio of the young Rembrandt . Although he occasionally borrowed Rembrandt's themes , he was more meticulous in his execution . His scenes of domestic , middle class life were tremendously popular and often imitated .
When he painted this portrait , Gerard Dou was 17 years of age and a pupil at Rembrandt's studio: at one time this portrait was falsely attributed to Rembrandt.
Gerard Dou painted this old woman in great detail. He was particularly accurate in his rendering of the various materials: the different types of fur in the cap and collar , the structure of the paper , the cotton and the velvet., the gold of the brooch . Dou delicately depicted the skin of the face and hand , and even the capitols of the book are legible .
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Jul 1, 12:28am
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' Coastal Scene ( La Nuit) Claude-Joseph Vernet (French 1714-1789 )Oil on canvas.Circa 1750
Claude-Joseph Vernet ( 1714-1789) was born in Avignon . When only fourteen years of age he helped his father ( a skilled decorative painter) in the most important parts of his work. The painting of the panels of sedan chairs, however , could not satisfy his ambition, and Vernet started for Rome . The sight of the sea at Marseilles and his voyage thence to Civitavecchia (Papal main port on the Tyrrhenian sea ) made a deep impression on him and immediately after his arrival he entered he studio of a marine painter , Bernardino Fergioni , where slowly at first he began to attract the notice and admiration of the artistic community . For twenty years Vernet lived in Rome to high acclaim . He 1753 he was recalled to Paris : here, by royal command , he executed the most remarkable series of the seaports of France ( now in the Louvre and the Musee national de la Marine ) by which he is best known . On his return he became a member of the academy where he continued to exhibit down to the date of his death , which took place in his lodgings in the Louvre on the 3rd of December 1789.
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Jun 30, 11:19pm
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'The Fortune Teller ' Georges La Tour ( French 1593-1652 ) Oil on canvas. Circa 1652.
When an old gypsy crone tells his fortune , a naive youth is robbed by her accomplices , a subject popular among painters throughout Europe in the seventeenth century .
See:
'Christ and St:Joseph in The Carpenters Shop ' ( biography)
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