Favorite piece(s) of art (by a dead artist)

(I got most of the information of these paintings from my philosopy of beauty textbook: Arts & Ideas by William Flemming).


The Allegory of Spring (La Primavera) by Sandro Botticelli
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Someone else mentioned this painting, but I love it, too. I how diaphanous some of the ladies' outfits are. I love the colors and the folds of the clothes.

It was painted for the instruction of a young cousin of Lorenzo de' Medici who numbered among his tutors the poet Poliziano and the Neoplatonic philosopher Marsilio Ficino.

The eight figures, with Venus in the center, form an octaval relationship, and together they run a gamut of myth and metaphor.

The drama reads from right to left:
  • The gentle south wind, Zephyr, is pursuing the shy nymph of springtime, Chloris.
  • As he impregnates her, flowers spring from her lips and she is transformed into Flora in an appropriately flowery robe. ("I was once Chloris, who am now called Flora." - Roman poet Ovid.) This figure also refers to Florence, an allusion not lost on the citizens of the city of flowers.
  • The blind Cupid is shooting an arrow toward Castitas (Chastity), the youthful central dancer of the three graces. Her partners are the bejeweled Pulchritudo (Beauty) and Voluptas (Passion). Their transparent, gauzy drapery vibrates with the figures of their dance to create a ballet of rhythmic flowing lines. (In his Pagan Mysteries of the Renaissance, historian Edgar Wind sees the dance as the initiation rites of the virginal Castitas into the fullness of beauty and passion.)
  • At the far left stands Mercury, both the leader of the three graces and the fleet-footed god of the winds. As Virgil wrote, "With his staff he drives the winds and skims the turbid clouds." Lifting his magic staff, the Caduceus, he completes the circle by directing his opposite number, Zephyr, to drive away the wintry clouds and make way for spring. (On the philosophical plane, Mercury is dispelling the clouds that veil the intellect so that the light of reason can shine through.)
  • Presiding over the entire scene is the meditating and ameliorating figure of the goddess of love. Pico della Mirandola observed that the "unity of Venus is unfolded in the trinity of the three graces." She also reminds us that love is the tie that binds both the picture and the world together.
 
The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
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When people think of a well-known piece of art, they usually think of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa or The Birth of Venus. I can see why this one is so familiar. I love the way the artist showed Venus's hair, the colors, the folds of the clothes, the pink shell . . . .
  • There are four figures instead of eight, a triad grouped around Venus. Her presence and modest posture express the duel nature of love, the sensuous and the chaste.
  • These motifs are carried out on the left by the blowing winds, which Poliziano called amorous Zephyrs, and the chaste Hora on the right (one of the Hours present at classical births), who is rushing in with the robe.
  • Botticelli's achievement is to produce a picture of great lucidity and freshness. Venus seems to be floating gently across the green sea on her pink shell.
 
The Sabine Women Enforcing Peace by Running Between the Combatants - Jacques Louis-David
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Look at the detail of that sheild!
So many artists have done variations on the rape of the Sabine women, so I love how Louis-David decided to show the other side of the story: when the women intervene to reconcile the warring parties.

David had worked on it from 1796, when France was at war with other European nations after a period of civil conflict culminating in the Reign of Terror and the Thermidorian Reaction, during which David himself had been imprisoned as a supporter of Robespierre. After David’s estranged wife visited him in jail, he conceived the idea of telling the story, to honor his wife, with the theme being love prevailing over conflict. The painting was also seen as a plea for the people to reunite after the bloodshed of the revolution.







(I got this information from wikipedia.)
 
Gersaint's Signboard by Antoine Watteau
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I love the ladies' gowns. I love how it's like it's many paintings inside one painting.

  • This was painted as a signboard for a Paris art dealer named Gersaint. The project was proposed by the artist who was dying of tuburculosis and wanted for a brief period, as he put it, "to get the stiffness out of my fingers."
  • Watteau idealized his sponsor to the extent of showing him as the owner of a gallerylike showroom filled with the fashionable elite of Paris - although this was more wish fulfillment than reality.
  • On the right, Gersaint is praising the virtues of an oval painting in the manner of Watteau to a lady and gentleman who view it through their lorgnettes (hand-held eyeglasses).
  • On the left, the picture being packed away is the portrait of Louis XIV. This implies farewell to the old regime and a salute both to the new age and style and to the name of Garsaint's shop, Au Grande Monarque.
  • The scene (cut in half sometime after 1750) constitutes an elegant stage setting where real characters act out the drama of everyday life in 18th century Paris.
 
The Valpincon Bather - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
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I love how smooth her skin is, I love the folds of the cloth, I love the design of the cloth she's sitting on.


This work featuring a bathing woman is generally known by the name of one of its nineteenth-century owners. It was one of the works Ingres sent to Paris in 1808 when he was studying at the French Academy in Rome. This early work is a masterpiece of harmonious lines and delicate light. The woman's superb nude back left a deep impression on the artist; he returned to it in several later works, most notably the Turkish Bath.








The Turkish Bath by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
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I love the details - the folds of the cloth, the womens' hair, the jewelry, the objects, the vase in the background . . . I love how smooth their skin is, I love the lush colors.


At the end of his life, Ingres created the most erotic of all his works with this harem scene. In it he combines the figure of the nude with an oriental theme, taking as his inspiration the letters of Lady Montague (1690-1760), who recounts a visit to a women's baths in Instanbul in the early eighteenth century. Ingres has borrowed figures from some of his previous paintings for this composition full of arabesques. This late masterpiece was only revealed to the public many years after his death.







(I got the information for both of these paintings from The Louvre's website.)
 
La Japonaise by Claude Monet
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I love the colors and the details on her kimono and the fans.

The woman in the portrait is Monet's wife.
At the time, Impressionists were impressed and influenced by the colors and the techniques of Japanese art.








Bar at the Folies-Bergere by Edouard Manet
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I love the contrast between the detailed lace collar and the black jacket. I love the colors and the details of the bottles, the flowers, the marble counter and the oranges.
The barmaid in the picture seems to be waiting patiently to take the customer's order. The real customer is the top-hatted gentleman in the upper right, while her back is turned sideways toward the onlooker.
Manet took poetic license, though because the barmaid would have to stand almost sideways to cast such a reflection.
The barmaid is the only well-defined figure in the painting, all the others are just suggested by a few brush strokes.
 
The Marquise de Pompadour by Francois Boucher
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Look at her outfit! Look at the bows and the silk and the lace!
She is sumptuously dressed mistress of Louis XV reclining elegantly on a couch. Her celebrated beauty is offset by the flowers, ribbons, lace and jewels of her costume, while her considerable intellectual interests are hinted at through the inclusion of the book and her writing desk. Boucher painted a series of portraits of Madame de Pompadour, born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, who became one of the most influential and powerful figures of the French court. This painting is based on a larger full-length portrait completed by Boucher in 1756, now in the Alte Pinacotech, Munich.








The Lover Crowned by Jean-Honore Fragonard
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I love the sumptuous colors.
Like The Swing, this painting looks innocent until you REALLY look at the picture and study it.
In 1771, Fragonard was commissioned to paint a series of panels for the chateau at Louveciennes, the "love nest" of Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV. His assigned theme was "The Progress of Love," and Fragonard selected to illustrate a variety of stratagems and tactics which lovers have always used. Like its companion piece, the "Meeting", this panel is set in a luscious, albeit imaginary garden. Its title is "The Lover Crowned," and while it may describe only the delicate pose which the couple strike for their friend to sketch, the obvious erotic implications are that the young man has received more than just a crown.

These beautiful pictures, however, were returned by Mme du Barry and it seems that artistic taste was already turning against Fragonard's lighthearted style.
 
The Meeting by Jean-Honore Fragonard
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This is another painting in the series commissioned by Madame du Barry.
Obviously, the "Meeting" - usually a secret one and always in a pleasant garden - is a key element.
The painting, with its combination of imaginary landscape and aristocratic dress, is often presented as the epitome of the regime that was in place before the French Revolution.
 
I love portraits of royalty, especially those of the Tudors and of Marie Antoinette. I love the lush colors, I love the outfits and I love the details.

What I love about Marie Antoinette's portraits is that she doesn't seem like the horrible person history has made her out to be. She doesn't look like a monster at all, and yet history portrayed her as one. She was a child practically sold into a loveless marriage, everything she owned in Austria (including her dog) was taken away from her and she was sent to a foreign country where nobody liked her and nothing she did was right. The people there just looked for more and more reasons to dislike her up until the point where they finally executed her.



The same thing with Queen Mary I. She was known as Bloody Mary, because she had so many Protestants burned at the stake during her reign. I'm not excusing her actions, but I can understand them. She was permanently seperated from her mother, disowned by her father until she renounced her Catholic religion, and shoved aside for her younger half sister.


Sorry, I'll get off the soapbox now. Onto the pretty paintings!



Marie Antoinette, Daughter of Emperor Francis I and Maria Theresa of Austria by Jean Etienne Liotard
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Jean-Etienne Liotard was a Swiss miniature painter.
This is a miniature done of the young Marie Antoinette and it's part of a series of minitatures done of Marie Theresa's family.






The Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria by Jean Etienne Liotard
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This is Maria Antonia at seven.
 
The Ditchley Portrait by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
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This is the most well-known portrait of Elizabeth I. She didn't have that many outfits growing up, so she more than made up for that when she got the throne.
  • This is the largest surviving full-length portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, despite having 7.5 cm cut from each side. It is also one of the earliest works by Gheeraerts.
  • In 1592, Elizabeth's former champion, Sir Henry Lee, sought to regain her favor with lavish entertainment at his home in Ditchley, Oxfordshire. He had retired from court two years earlier, having offended the queen by living openly with his mistress. He commissioned this portrait to commemorate Elizabeth's visit and forgiveness. The queen stands upon a map of England, with one foot resting near Ditchley.
  • As a result of the cutting mentioned above, the sonnet on the 'Ditchley Portrait' lacks the final word of each line. It celebrates Elizabeth's divine powers; a jeweled celestial sphere hangs from the queen's left ear, signifying her command over nature itself. The sphere had been Lee's emblem when he fought as Elizabeth's champion in the annual Accession Day tilts. The background of this portrait appears odd - it is split between blue and sunny sky on the left, and black and stormy sky on the right. This continues the theme of royal authority over nature.
 
Mary I as a Princess by Master John
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  • This portrait is inscribed ANNO DNI 1554 / LADI MARI DOVGHTER TO / THE MOST VERTVOVS PRINCE / KINGE HENRI THE EIGHT / THE AGE OF XXVIII YERES.
  • In 1554, Mary was still considered illegitimate (her father had annulled his marriage to her mother so he could marry Anne Boleyn) but she was reinstated in the line of succession by her father and parliament.
  • The portrait itself was a sign of improved relations with her mercurial father. Since her parents' annulment in 1533, Henry VIII would not allow any portraits to be made of his eldest daughter, despite the requests of foreign ambassadors.
  • But Henry's July 1543 marriage to the kindly Katharine Parr signaled a changed in Mary's status. Katharine deliberately set out to reconcile the king with his two daughters, and she succeeded quite well.
  • Mary's reinstatement in the line of succession, her position as lady in waiting to the new queen, and the creation of this beautiful portrait were welcome changes in Mary's often sad and troubled life.
 
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche
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Even though she's blindfolded you can see the fear in her face.
It's an innaccurate painting because it portrays Lady Jane Grey about to be executed in a dimly lit dungeon, when she actually was executed on the Tower Green in the Tower of London.
Her outfit is inaccurate because it resembles French undergarments, which were laced at the front Lady Jane would've been wearing the English equivalent, which would have been laced at the back).
She was executed because her father convinced Edward to name her as his successor and not Mary. She reigned as uncrowned queen regnant for nine days. Then Mary managed to get the throne and had both Jane Grey and her husband executed.
 
Elizabeth I Coronation Portrait by an Unkown Painter
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This is my favorite.
This is a copy of the portrait made to commemorate Elizabeth's accession in 1558. It is a stunning and beautiful image. Elizabeth is lavishly dressed and holds the traditional orb and scepter. Her hair is loose, as befits her unmarried state, and its color is particularly striking against the white of her skin. And, once again, Elizabeth's much-admired hands are prominently displayed as they rest upon the symbols of her authority.
 
Portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales by Holbein, Hans the Younger
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  • Edward was Henry VIII's only legitimate son. His mother and Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, died 12 days after his birth.
  • Although Edward has traditionally been viewed as a frail child who was never in good health, some recent authorities have maintained that until several years before his death he was a robust, athletically inclined youth. His tutors found him to be intellectually gifted, a precocious student of Greek, Latin, French, and theology. On Jan. 28, 1547, Henry VIII died (he was buried with Jane Seymour) and Edward succeeded to the throne. He died in 1553 at the age of 15.
  • Edward stands behind a parapet and against a monochrome background of bright blue that has turned greeny-brown over the centuries. He raises his right hand in a quasi-majestic wave to the viewer, while in his left hand he holds a priceless gold rattle that is reminiscent of a royal sceptre. The rich, lustrous red gown with gold brocaded sleeves also indicates the princely status of the child.
  • The baby prince looks considerably more mature than his two years would warrant and his pose echoes the regal authority of his father. The gesture of the hands, found in Renaissance depictions of the infant Christ blessing onlookers, has another resonance.
  • Holbein may have intended to legitimize the English Crown's new religious role by endowing it with the forms religious art could no longer pursue in Protestant England.
 
The Tudor Dynasty by Unknown Artist
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I love this one, because Henry VIII has all of his children with him.
(From L to R: Mother Jak, Mary, Edward, Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Elizabeth, and Wil Somers.)
Because Jane Seymour gave birth to his son, she gets to be his queen in the picture.






The Family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of Tudor Succession by Unknown Artist
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This shows Henry VIII with his two daughters. On the left is Mary and Philip bringing war, and on the right is Elizabeth bringing Peace and Plenty. The figure of Peace steps upon the sword of discord. To the left of Elizabeth is her brother, Edward VI, kneeling at Henry's side.