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

[caitlin1214]

Moscow Kremlin Egg - Peter Carl Faberge

The "Moscow Kremlin Egg" of 1904. An enameled gold composition centered on the egg-shaped (removable) dome of the Cathedral of the Assumption in the Moscow Kremlin, in white opalescent enamel, the interior of the church with its carpets, tiny enameled icons and High Altar made visible through four triple windows, surmounted by a gold cupola; flanked by two square and two circular stylized turrets, the former based on the Spassky Tower, bearing the coat-of-arms of the Russian Empire and Moscow and inset with chiming clocks. Standing on a crenelated gold base and octagonal onyx plinth - signed Fabergé, dated 1904, height 14 1/4 inches (36.1 cm). A clockwork music box (with original key) plays Izhe Khveruviny (Cherubim hymn), a favorite hymn of Tsar Nicholas.
Provenance: Presented by Tsar Nicholas II to his wife Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, Easter 1906

 

[caitlin1214]

The Bay Tree Egg - Peter Carl Faberge

The Bay Tree Egg: A Faberge Imperial Easter Egg Presented by Emperor Nicholas II to his mother The Dowager Empress Maria Feodorvna at Easter 1911.

he topiary tree formed as a profusion of carved nephrite, finely veined leaves and jeweled fruit and flowers on an intricate framework of branches, the fruit formed by champagne diamonds, amethysts, pale rubies and citrines, the flowers enameled white and set with diamonds, a keyhole and a tiny lever, hidden among the leaves, when activated open the hinged circular top of the tree and a feathered songbird rises, flaps its wings, turns its head, opens its beak and sings, the gold trunk chased to imitate bark and planted in gold soil is contained in a white quartz tub applied with a gold trellis chased with flowerheads at the intersections and further applied with swags of berried laurel enameled translucent green and pinned by cabochon rubies, the central rubies edged by diamonds, each foot of the tub also applied with chased gold rosettes set with cabochon rubies and diamonds, the corners of the tub with pearl finials, the square carved nephrite base in two steps with a miniature nephrite fluted column at each corner set with chased gold mounts, each column with a reeded gold cap surmounted by a pearl nestled in translucent green enamel leaves, the swinging gold chains between the columns formed as pearl flowers with translucent green enamel leaves, inscribed Fabergé in Cyrillic with the date 1911 on lower front rail of the tub.
First known in 1935 as a Bay Tree Egg, this egg which had since 1947 been incorrectly labeled as an Orange Tree, was given by Tsar Nicholas to his mother the Dowager Empress on April 12, 1911. It has recently been correctly identified as a bay tree, based on the original Fabergé invoice:
“9 April. 1 large egg shaped as a gold bay tree with 325 nephrite leaves, 110 opalescent white enamel small flowers, 25 diamonds, 20 rubies, 53 pearls, 219 rose-cut diamonds, 1 large rose-cut diamond. Inside the tree is a mechanical song-bird . [It stands] in a rectangular tub of white Mexican onyx on a nephrite base, with 4 nephrite columns at the corners suspending green enamel swags with pearls St. Petersburg, June 13, 1911 . 12,800 rubles.”

 

[caitlin1214]

The Renaissance Egg - Peter Carl Faberge

The Renaissance Egg: A Faberge Imperial Easter Egg Presented by Emperor Alexander III to his wife the Empress Maria Feodorovna at Easter 1894, Workmaster Michael Perchin, St. Petersburg

The egg-shaped casket carved of translucent bluish gray agate opening horizontally and raised on an oval gold foot, the hinged cover applied with a white-enameled latticework and set with diamond and ruby flowerheads at the intersections, the top wit the diamond-set date 1894 on an oval reserve enameled translucent strawberry red, the reserve bordered by green-enameled scallop shells interspaced with red and white enameled ovoids, the lower border of the cover with scallop shells enameled translucent strawberry red between white enamel scrolls set with diamonds, the cover opening to reveal interior rims engraved with scrolling foliage on a white enamel ground, the diamond-set rim of the lower half enameled translucent strawberry red, the “straps” of the lower half enameled with blue scallop shells and berried green leaves, each end of the casket mounted with a gold lion mask and loose ring handle, with diamond-set clasp, the foot repoussé with leaves enameled translucent green interspaced by translucent red enamel bellflowers, marked with Cyrillic initials of workmaster, Fabergé in Cyrillic and assay mark of 56 standard for 14 karat gold.

The 1894 Imperial Egg is described on its invoice as:
“Agate egg, gold mount, decorated in the Renaissance style, with diamonds, rose-cut diamonds, pearls and rubies. St. Petersburg, May 6, 1894 4750 r.”

 

[caitlin1214]

The Rosebud Egg - Peter Carl Faberge

The Rosebud Egg: a Faberge Imperial Easter Egg Presented by Emperor Nicholas II to his wife the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna at Easter 1895, Workmaster Michael Perchin, St. Petersburg

Enameled translucent strawberry red over a guilloché ground and divided into four vertical panels by diamond-set borders, each panel of the hinged top applied with green gold laurel wreaths tied with red gold and diamond-set ribbons, each panel of the lower portion of the egg applied with diamond-set arrows entwined by green gold laurel garlands tied with red gold ribbons and pinned by diamonds, the top of the egg mounted with a table diamond beneath which is set a portrait miniature of Tsar Nicholas II, the base of the egg enameled with the date 1895 below a diamond, the egg opening to reveal a velvet-lined interior fitted with a rosebud with hinged petals enameled yellow and with green enamel leaves, marked with Cyrillic initials of workmaster, Fabergé in Cyrillic and assay mark of 56 standard for 14 karat gold.
On October 20, 1894, Tsar Alexander died. Just a few weeks later, on November 14, his son married Nicholas Alexandra Feodorovna, formerly Princess Alix Victoria Helene Luise Beatrix of Hesse-Darmstadt. The homesick young bride missed, among other things, the roses in her homeland. In Darmstadt, there was a famous rose garden called “Rosenhöhe,” established in 1810 by Grand Duchess Wilhelmine of Hesse, Princess of Baden (1788-1836) and designed by the Swiss garden architect Zeyher. In 1894, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, Alexandra's brother, built the Palais Rosenhöhe there (destroyed 1944) and had the garden redesigned, adding the Rosendom. To this day, the Rosenhöhe remains one of the most beautiful rose gardens in Germany. The Rosebud Egg, then,was an ideal gift for Nicholas to give to his adored wife for their first Easter together.

 

[caitlin1214]

The Cockerel (Cukoo) Egg - Peter Carl Faberge

The Cockerel (Cukoo) Egg: A Faberge Imperial Easter Egg Presented by Emperor Nicholas II to his mother the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna at Easter 1900, Workmaster Michael Perchin, St. Petersburg

.The body enameled translucent violet over a guilloché ground, supported by three slender pilasters enameled translucent oyster, the dial enameled in translucent white with stylized green flowerheads, the diamond-set Arabic numerals mounted on circular reserves enameled translucent oyster on sunburst grounds, the border of the dial set with pearls, above the dial an arch of foliage set with diamonds and pearls, below the dial an openwork apron set with diamonds and hung with tassels and swags of fruit, the shaped circular base applied with gold scrollwork and foliage, the top of the base enameled opaque white, the incurved sides of the base enameled translucent lilac. When a button at the top rear of the egg is depressed the circular pierced gold grille opens and the bird rises crowing on a gold platform, moving its wings and beak, the crowing finished it descends again into the egg and the grille closes, on the top of the grille the date 1900 is inscribed beneath a diamond, marked on side of base with Cyrillic initials of workmaster, Fabergé in Cyrillic and assay mark of Yakov Lyapunov (1899-1903), 56 standard for 14 karat gold.
The Cuckoo or Cockerel Egg is Fabergé's rendition of an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century singing-bird clock, technically related to the singing-bird boxes produced in Geneva in the early nineteenth century. When first published in 1933, the egg was listed as “Clock Egg.” 1 In 1953, the singing bird in the egg was labeled as a cuckoo apparently based on Eugène Fabergé's identification , 2 a misnomer that remained uncorrected for fifty years. More recently the feathered bird has been correctly identified as a rooster or cockerel, as it was originally listed in Fabergé's invoice.

The egg is first mentioned in a letter of Tsar Nicholas II to its intended recipient, his mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, April 5, 1900, who was in Moscow at Easter time that year:
“Forgive me, dear Mama, for not sending you anything for Easter, but Fabergé did not send the present here, as he thought that you would be returning to Gatchina. With all my heart: Christ is risen! I warmly embrace you and the whole family. Your son, who loves you from the bottom of his heart, Nicky.”

 

[caitlin1214]

Echo and Narcissus - John William Waterhouse

This painting, along with Waterhouse's The Siren, has to do with the theme of men dying near water.


'Sweet Echo, sweetest nymph, that liv'st unseen
Within thy airy shell
By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet-embroidered vale
Where the lovelorn nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad song mourneth well:
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle pair
That likest thy Narcissus are?'
John Milton (1608-1674), 'Comus'

Punished by a goddess for her constant chatter, Echo was confined to repeating the words of others. Enamoured of Narcissus, the son of the river god Cephisus and the nymph Liriope, she tried to win his love using fragments of his own speech but he spurned her attentions. Passing by a stream, the beautiful youth caught a glimpse of his reflection is a stream and became transfixed by the lovely image. Believing it to be the form of a nymph, he vainly courted the watery mirage and wasted away through unrequited love. He was transformed into the flower that bears his name and Echo pined away until nothing but her voice remained.

 

[caitlin1214]

Queen Elizabeth I - The Pelican Portrait - Nicholas Hilliard

I love portraits of royalty, and it's fascinating because ten different artists could paint 10 portraits of the exact same royal figure, and they would not be the same.

In this portrait of the queen, aged about 41, she is treated almost like a religious icon. Elaborate symbolism and rich detail show off her status and royal qualities. Her figure is stylised and her face mask-like. She is shown against a flat background with little attempt to convey spatial depth.
The mother pelican on her brooch is a traditional Christian symbol of Christ's sacrifice. It was believed that the pelican fed her young with her own blood. Here such a symbol refers to Elizabeth's role as a mother to her people.

 

[Syntagma]

Mark Rothko (FAVORITE) MUST HAVE ONE!!!! ALL OF THEM

I LOVE ART!

I ABSOLUTELY adore Rothko! His pieces must be seen in person to really appreciate them IMO. The colors and size of the canvas evoke so much emotion. We have The Mark Rothko chapel here in Houston and I just love to sit in there!

 

[caitlin1214]

Henry VIII - Holbein

This is one of the best known and most popular of the Walker Gallery’s pictures.

During his reign Henry used his portraits to further his diplomatic ends by sending them as political gifts and to cement relations and alliances. They were also used by nobility and courtiers to flatter and affirm their loyalty to the King. Only someone with considerable wealth would have the resources or incentive to commission a full-length picture to display in a large room or hall.


This portrait was more than likely commissioned by an important courtier declaring his allegiance to Henry. Unlike many other portraits of Henry, this portrait has specific compositional similarities to the Whitehall mural, which would suggest the copy was intended for someone with access to the palace’s Privy Chamber and would recognize its significance.

(This website goes on to talk about how exactly this portrait got to the Walker Gallery: Walker Art Gallery's Henry VIII)









Perseus and Andromeda - Frederic Leighton

I've seen many pieces of art showing Andromeda and the sea monster, but this is the first one I've seen with Perseus and Pegasus. You can't see Andromeda's face, but you know the poor girl is just terrified, and here comes Perseus and Pegasus bathed in light coming to rescue her.

Andromeda, daughter of the Queen of Ethiopia, was tied to the rocks as a sacrifice to the sea monster sent by Neptune to ravage the country. She was rescued by Perseus, who eventually married her. Perseus is shown riding on his winged horse Pegasus, having already shot an arrow into the monster.

 

[caitlin1214]

I love paintings depicting scenes from Shakespeare's plays. It's fascinating to see how a particular artist chooses to portray that particular scene.

(For the record, I prefer Shakespeare's tragedies just because there's much more depth to the characters, although I really liked A Midsummer Night's Dream. I also really liked Romeo and Juliet, Titus Andronicus and Hamlet. I haven't read Twelfth Night or The Taming of the Shrew, but I am familiar with them.)




Cordelia's Portion - Ford Madox Brown

The subject is based upon Act 1, Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’. Lear had dispossessed his youngest and favorite daughter Cordelia. Her honesty in answering that she loved her father ‘according to her bond’ rather than vying with her sisters to suggest that she loved them the most, had led to Lear depriving her of the third of his kingdom that was rightfully hers. Her sisters Goneril and Regan, and their respective husbands, the Dukes of Albany and Cornwall , are shown grasping the crown that Lear has passed to them.

The artist suggests the malevolent intent of these sisters by their mutual gaze. On the right, the King of France looks heavenward and swears love for his future wife, the dowerless Cordelia. The Duke of Burgundy, who will no longer press his suit for Cordelia now that she has been disinherited, stands pensively biting his finger beside Lear’s throne. Lear is shown in the grip of vain rage and already appears slightly crazed.
Behind the throne stands the Duke of Gloucester, Lear’s fool and three spearmen. To the far left, a small figure gazes back into the room with an arm extended downwards in a distraught gesture. It is likely that he is the Duke of Kent who has suffered banishment for trying to persuade Lear to revoke his foolhardy plans.

 

[breakfast lover]

Georges Seurat

 

[caitlin1214]

Ophelia - Henrietta Rae

This painting shows the moment in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' (Act 4, Scene 5) when Ophelia, mad with grief, symbolically recites the names of and scatters rue (a bitter herb), rosemary, pansies, fennel, columbine, daisies and violets.

'There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies, that's for thoughts.'

. . .

'There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died: they say he made a good end.'​

Juliet and her Nurse - John R.S. Stanhope

This is a scene we do not actually see on stage. In Act III, Scene ii, Juliet has prepared for her bridegroom's arrival with ropes for him to climb into her room. When she learns that Romeo has killed Tybalt and that the Duke has banished him, she despairs; she tells the Nurse that now they will not need the ropes.

Take up those cords: poor ropes, you are beguiled,
Both you and I; for Romeo is exiled:
He made you for a highway to my bed;
But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed.
Come, cords, come, nurse; I'll to my wedding-bed;
And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!​

The Nurse consoles her and says:

Hie to your chamber: I'll find Romeo
To comfort you: I wot well where he is.
Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night:
I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell.​

Juliet takes comfort in knowing that she will see Romeo one last time before he goes into exile.

O, find him! give this ring to my true knight,
And bid him come to take his last farewell.​

This painting shows her sometime after this scene and before Act III, Scene v, when she and Romeo part at morning. With the ropes on the floor behind her, she waits impatiently, looks out the window, and anticipates the arrival of Romeo.

 

[caitlin1214]

Romeo and Juliet - Frank Dicksee

(Does anyone else have the theme from Romeo and Juliet running through their heads when they look at this painting? Or is that just me?)

The scene is the parting of Romeo and Juliet after their wedding night and the last time they will see one another alive. As one critic pointed out, the painting perfectly conveys the tenderness and the passion of this poignant moment when Romeo says, "Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and I'll descend."





Juliet - Philip H. Calderon

"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"

This is one of the first paintings where you can see Juliet as a 14 year old girl (because in the play, Juliet was 14).





The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets over the Dead Bodies of Romeo and Juliet - Frederic Lord Leighton

The whole painting is dingy and dark, except for the brightly painted figures and the draperies of Juliet and her mother, who lies grieving across Juliet's body.

(This is a watercolor version of the exact same painting:Leighton. Reconciliation )

 

[caitlin1214]

The Young Lord Hamlet - Philip H. Calderon

This imaginative scene is based on Hamlet's meditation on the skull of Yorick, old Hamlet's jester. In the graveyard (Act V, Scene i) the gravedigger hands the skull of the King's jester to Hamlet, who says:

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rises at it. Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols? your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to mock your own grinning? quite chap-fallen? Now get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come; make her laugh at that.​

In this typical family scene, so popular with the Victorians, young Hamlet rides on the back of Yorick, with Gertrude sitting near by. The woman holding the child might possibly be the wife of Polonius with her baby Ophelia.









The Play Scene in Hamlet - Daniel Maclise

At the beginning of Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet's father reveals that he was murdered by his own brother, Claudius, who is now king. Claudius had killed the king by pouring poison into his ear while he was asleep in his garden. Later in the play, Hamlet arranges for some strolling actors to put on a play in which the murder is re-enacted. Maclise shows the scene in the hall of Elsinore Castle during the performance. Claudius is about to leap to his feet and thereby expose his guilt.

 

[caitlin1214]

Ophelia - John Everett Millais

This painting shows Ophelia singing while floating in a river just before her death by drowning, as described in the play in a famous speech by Hamlet's mother Gertrude.
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come,
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indu’d
Unto that element; but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.







Juliet - John William Waterhouse

The Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester - Edwin Austin Abbey

In Act II, Scene iii, of Henry VI, Part 2, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, is accused of witchcraft. Her supposed co-conspirators are to be executed, but she is exiled to the Isle of Man. In Scene iv she is forced to do public penance. The directions say, "Enter the Duchess barefoot in a white sheet, with verses pinned upon her back and a taper burning in her hand, with the Sheriff and Officers and Sir John Stanley. A crowd following." She gets no help from her husband Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the uncle of Henry VI and the Protector of the young king; Gloucester advises, "Be patient, gentle Nell; forget this grief." Eleanor then foretells the fall of her husband through the machinations of his enemies Suffolk, York and Cardinal Beaufort. Abbey, with his usual attention to the text and to historical detail, captures the poignancy of the moment when Eleanor, frail, humiliated and abandoned, prophesies:

Ah, Gloucester, teach me to forget myself!
For whilst I think I am thy married wife
And thou a prince, protector of this land,
Methinks I should not thus be led along,
Mail'd up in shame, with papers on my back,
And followed with a rabble that rejoice
To see my tears and hear my deep-fet groans.
The ruthless flint doth cut my tender feet,
And when I start, the envious people laugh
And bid me be advised how I tread.
Ah, Humphrey, can I bear this shameful yoke?
Trow'st thou that e'er I'll look upon the world,
Or count them happy that enjoy the sun?
No; dark shall be my light and night my day;
To think upon my pomp shall be my hell.
Sometime I'll say, I am Duke Humphrey's wife,
And he a prince and ruler of the land:
Yet so he ruled and such a prince he was
As he stood by whilst I, his forlorn duchess,
Was made a wonder and a pointing-stock
To every idle rascal follower.
But be thou mild and blush not at my shame,
Nor stir at nothing till the axe of death
Hang over thee, as, sure, it shortly will;
For Suffolk, he that can do all in all
With her that hateth thee and hates us all,
And York and impious Beaufort, that false priest,
Have all limed bushes to betray thy wings,
And, fly thou how thou canst, they'll tangle thee:
But fear not thou, until thy foot be snared,
Nor never seek prevention of thy foes.​