italianoldmasters-jlvieites

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Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1470.

Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1470.

Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1470, oil on oak wood 29 x 22.50 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Petrus Christus (Flemish, Baarle-Hertog, 1420 – Bruges, 1473; fl.1444 to 1473). The Dry Tree, such a lovely name for a Confraternity to which Petrus belonged! It is thought to be one of the most exquisite portraits of the Northern Renaissance, and its influence –in the wake of van Eyck and van der Weyden’s…

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Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1470

Portrait of a Young Woman, c. 1470, oil on oak wood 29 x 22.50 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Petrus Christus (Flemish, Baarle-Hertog, 1420 - Bruges, 1473; fl.1444 to 1473). The Dry Tree, such a lovely name for a Confraternity to which Petrus belonged! It is thought to be one of the most exquisite portraits of the Northern Renaissance, and its influence –in the wake of van Eyck and van der Weyden’s works- was present during several decades in the European portraiture. An intriguing kind of face with even a misalignment of the sitter’s eyes. An exquisitely dressed sort of aristocratic woman is portrayed in Christus’ work. Dark background against which the woman positions herself in front of a wainscotted wall, an element (the wall) that makes the sitter be in the environment of a realistic interior (a kind of triangular space if we take as a point of the triangle her neckline). This clearly contrasted with the more elaborate and detailed backgrounds of van Eyck’s works (many pundits think that Petrus studied with Jean van Eyck, therefore, he was his master in his initial steps). Be this the case or not, our painter had a type of eclectic style which made him use pictorial elements or motifs which had already been seen in the works of artists such as van der Weyden, Campin or van Ouwater. He was the first Flemish artist to have the subject of his works in concrete spatial surroundings, which adds a great deal to the immediacy of their appearance and its realistic character. Jesús Lorenzo Vieites

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Portrait of a woman from Southern Germany

Portrait of a woman from Southern Germany. c.1520s.

Oil on panel, 45 x 34 cm. Mauritshuis Museum. The Hague. [attributed to] Hans Holbein the Younger (b. 1497, Augsburg, d. 1543, London). Holbein is not longer thought to have been his author and the art historians are looking for another candidate to the throne. Whatever their findings, this unidentified woman is smartly dressed with a pleated collared blouse and a type of coif while also wearing a fur-lined jacket or Bürstlein, fastened with a red cord. Great blue background for the portrait. Jesús Lorenzo Vieites

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The Temptations of Saint Anthony Abbot

  The Temptations of Saint Anthony Abbot, 1510-1515, oil on oak panel by the workshop of Hieronymus Bosch. Unknown artist(s). Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Due to his many world-famous paintings housed in the Museo del Prado, leaving aside this one, your visit to this house of the Art has to be a top priority in your travelling to Madrid this summer. A house in the shape of an old woman, rises out of the river. The dovecot perched hat-like on her head, the young nude woman at the door and the swan painted on the signboard (a brothel?) which clearly alludes to the sins of the flesh, and to the temptation which Saint Anthony has resisted. The work is rather “by a follower who was somewhat lacking in imagination and imitated the master to the point of pastiche.”, as Carmen Garrido and Roger van Schoute suggested, back in 2001, in a detailed technical study of the work. It is obviously not the Lisbon nor the Venice versions of it, but I chose to post it today! Jesús Lorenzo Vieites

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Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione, c.1513-15.

Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione, c.1513-15.

Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione, c.1513-15, oil on canvas, 82 x 67 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. RaphaelThis is one of Raphael’s masterpieces of Renaissance portraiture. The great old master shows us his portrait of his friend, the humanist, ambassador and poet Baldasarre Castiglione (1478-1529), whose Il Cortegiano (published 1526) deals with what the ideal courtier should be like.…

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Impression, soleil levant

Impression, Sunrise, 1873. (Impression, soleil levant) 48 x 63 cm. Musée Marmottan, Paris. Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) Unbeknownst to Monet, this painting has gone down into history as being the quintessential symbol of Impressionism. Who could have foreseen that those visible brushstrokes and the minimal representation of figures was to become one of art history’s most influential artistic…

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Portrait of Marten Soolmans, 1634.

Portrait of Marten Soolmans, 1634.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Rembrandt’s Portrait of Marten Soolmans, 1634. Oil on canvas, 209 × 135.5 cm Rijksmuseum. Holland. Not only did Vermeer use impasto in one of his iconic works, View of Delft (among others) but other Dutch Golden Age painters, like the great old master, Rembrandt van Rijn, made extensive use of it so as to achieve glorious art works composed of dense impastos and thin…

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The Tailor (Il Tagliapanni)  Giovanni Batista Moroni

The Tailor (Il Tagliapanni) c.1565-70. Oil on canvas, 99.5 x 77 cm. The National Gallery, London. Giovanni Batista Moroni (Albino, near Bergamo,1520-1579). One of the best known portraitists at the National Gallery in London. Moroni was one of the more acclaimed portrait artists during the sixteenth century in Italy. Also worked in altarpieces in Bergamo and his native Albino town but it was with portraits like this one, The Tailor, that he was best appreciated. The way he depicted the characters, in a quite psychological way (one might say), gives us an insight into his manner of painting by which he normally executed works directly from life without previous preliminary drawings; part of his success is to be given to the influence of the Venetian color portraits in the paramount figures of both Titian and Giorgione. All in all, in this particular composition we have a well-to-do tailor or cloth merchant who is in a kind of defiant, arrogant gesture toward us with his gazing at us straight. Its vividness and naturalness of the painting is superb in which the tailor is –in a way–interrupted in his daily business (observe his scissors in his hands and cloth) to stare at us, dressed in a cream and red costume which clearly opposes the dark fabric he is working with. Quite baffling to interpret this composition is the fact that the man exhibits a sword belt, something which does not properly fit into the picture; it was perhaps a token regarding his high class? In fact, his class consciousness was already remarked during the 1660s in a poem dealing with a Venetian painting, Le Carta del navigar pitoresco, where the Italian engraver Marco Boschini praised The Tailor as being “so beautiful and well painted that he’s more eloquent than a lawyer.”On the other hand, all of his costume is that pertaining to a wealthy merchant, not a common artisan. Was he a really successful entrepreneur? Most likely.

Jesús Lorenzo Vieites

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Das grosse Rasenstück. Albrecht Dürer The Great Piece of Turf,  (Das grosse Rasenstück) 1503; watercolor; 40.6 x 31.7 cm. Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.

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Portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and His Wife

Portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and His Wife

Portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and Anne Fernely, (detail) c.1560-65. Oil on panel, 90 cm x 75.5 cm. (his), and 88 x 75.5 cm, oil on panel transferred to canvas (hers) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Anthonis Mor van Dashorst, (Utrecht, c.1520-1578). He was one of the leading Netherlandish portraitist and his worked was to be seen in several European courts (he was both King Charles V’s and his son…

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Portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and Wife

Portraits of Sir Thomas Gresham and Anne Fernely, (detail) c.1560-65. Oil on panel, 90 cm x 75.5 cm. (his), and 88 x 75.5 cm, oil on panel transferred to canvas (hers) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Anthonis Mor van Dashorst, (Utrecht, c.1520-1578). He was one of the leading Netherlandish portraitist and his worked was to be seen in several European courts (he was both King Charles V’s and his son Philip II’s court painter in Spain). He probably initiated his painting career under the supervisión of the painter Jan van Scorel in Utrecht. It is in 1547 when he became a member of the guild of painters in Antwerp being, some time later, one of Cardinal Granvelle’s patronees in the city of Arras. A widely travelled artist whose knowledge was to be highly acclaimed by his patrons. One of England’s most active merchants in the Netherlands during his time and founder of the Royal Exchange and of Gresham College, London, Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579). In both paintings, Sir Thomas and his wife, Anne Fernely, appeared depicted expensively dressed in agreement with their social status.

Gresham (renowned for Gresham's law "Bad money drives out good money") was painted with his wife Lady Anne Fernely (c.1520-1596). Neither of the portraits are signed but the attribution to Mor is not doubted and dates from 1792. The Rijksmuseum bought these two portraits from the Soviet Union in 1931 where they had been hung in the Hermitage since 1838. The painting was transferred from wood to canvas. This explains why on the surface of the painting typical craquelures of a panel painting as well as the knots of a canvas can be seen. The result of the last restoration was that an elegant appearance in both paintings is there to be appreciated by the viewers. Jesús Lorenzo Vieites

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Rogier van der Weyden and one of his great paintings (plus his workshop!)

Undoubtedly both works which I here present to your viewing are of high quality, though the first is of the master himself (van der Weyden) and the one at the National Gallery, London, seems to be the work of his circle of disciples. As always, you, my reader, will choose which one you like best; I , in my case, though the eyes of the London painting caught my attention, am inclined to think that -in general- the Washington portrait is the best (superb translucent veil touches, nicely drawn interlocking hands, let alone her smile). Portrait of a Woman, c.1460. Oil on panel, 34 x 25.5 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington. The Flemish painter Rogier van der Weyden, was born in Tournai c. 1399-1400, and would die in Brussels in 1464. It was only in 1432 that Rogier got his professional qualification as a master painter after having been learning and sharpening his technical skill under the direction of Robert Campin for five years, since  his name has already  entered in the books of the guild of St. Luke at Tournai, in 1427.  As was common in the epoch, all of these painters were engaged in executing diptychs, and altarpieces with the occasional incursion in the portraiture mainly to produce portable, small-scale diptychs in which on one panel there was a pious woman or devotee whereas on the other there was a depiction of a Madonna.  Being widely acknowledged as the most influential Northern painter of the 15th century it was this fame who brought him valued commission, especially with at the court of the Duke of Burgundy.

Circa 1449-50 Rogier set out for Italy; where art was in a changing state due to the new paths opened by Giotto and Orcagna, or the work of Lippi in Florence while in Rome, Fra Angelico ‘s seeds were  having its fruit and, Gozzoli, one of his disciples, was already working in Orvieto, Bellini executing his madonnas, etc. In this context it is understandable that Rogier was under the influx of all these masters and, once back in Brussels he started to put into practice, perhaps, all those skills or representation of religious works he had already observed in situ in Italy. Among his masterpieces was the polyptych of the Last Judgment, which he was commissioned to execute for the hospital of Beaune. But it is in the art of the portrait where I want to comment on today's painting: The portrait of a young woman, in which he depicts an elegant Burgundy woman of the upper class (sophisticated Gothic hairstyle, winged bonnet –fashioned at the Burgundian court–, luxurious though plain dress with dark fur which nearly merges with the flat black background, beautifully well-defined belt). Criticised for idealizing his models, yet, Rogier use of an ample range of colors and the expressions portrayed are genuinely his; the light is reflected upon the geometrical shapes of the woman’s veil while making light shadows marking the woman’s fine countenance. There is a sense on deep mental concentration on the sitter, with firmly set lips, as the portrayed woman is in a pose with hands clasped rigidly and her glimpse suggests a kind of nervousness or discomfort to be painted for such a long time, or, perhaps, for being in the sole presence of the artist.

Rogier van der Weyden. Portrait of a Lady. c.1460. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden. Portrait of a Lady. (A Lady of the Court of the Duke of Burgundy) c.1460. National Gallery, London.

Jesús Lorenzo Vieites #netherlandish #dutchmasters #flemish #rogiervanderweyden #rome #italy #oldmasters #secular_diptych #kunstgeschichte #storiadellarte #duchtpainting #burgundy #robertcampin #tournai #maestrosholandeses #maestrosflamencos #bruxelles #tableauxflamands #meisterwerke #niederländischen_malerei #bruges #peinture #pittura #altniederländische_malerei #artflamand #rogerdelapasture

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Raphael and Raimondi’s The Judgement of Paris vs Manet’s Déjénenuer sur l’herbe, and Titian’s Pastoral Concert

Raphael and Raimondi’s The Judgement of Paris vs Manet’s Déjénenuer sur l’herbe, and Titian’s Pastoral Concert

It might look bizarre at first sight but there is always a link to be followed to understand much better the history of Art throughout time. On this occasion I wish to show what possible links might have ever existed between Rafael’s The Judgement of Paris through Marcantonio Raimondi’s engraving of the work (c.1510-20) and Édouard Manet’s Déjeneur sur l’herbe (1863), and Titian’s Pastoral Concert

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Raphael and Raimondi’s The Judgement of Paris vs Manet’s Déjénenuer sur l’herbe, and Titian’s Pastoral Concert

It might look bizarre at first sight but there is always a link to be followed to understand much better the history of Art throughout time. On this occasion I wish to show what possible links might have ever existed between Rafael's The Judgement of Paris through Marcantonio Raimondi's engraving of the work (c.1510-20) and Édouard Manet’s Déjeneur sur l’herbe (1863), and Titian’s Pastoral Concert (1509).

The great humanist of the Renaissance, Pietro Bembo, was responsible for putting the perfection of Nature and Raphael’s art on the same level; the epitaph in Raphael’s tomb reads something like “Here lies Rafael. While he lived, Nature saw herself defeated. Now that he is dead, she is afraid to die with him."

His genius, indeed, was unique, so much so that many ulterior artists of all centuries strove to imitate or, at least, to be influenced by the artistry of the great old master: The classicist Baroque had him as his guide, from Annibale Carracci to Carlo Maratta and Velázquez, who resided for a time at the Vatican; or the Flemish masters, like Rubens and Van Dyck; and even the great Rembrandt. We could continue with Ingrès (in his portraits) to the compositions of Géricault and Delacroix, and to Édouard Manet, whose Breakfast on the grass was inspired by the stamp of Marcantonio Raimondi depicting the Judgement of Paris (as designed by Raffaello). Well, Rafael was the teacher to whom painters like Goya, or Picasso looked at.

In fact, our great old master, Raphael, was considered for centuries to come as the great teacher everyone studied and whose spatial conquests, grouping of figures and capturing of emotions and characters had to be thoroughly understood in order to achieve success themselves.

At the age of 17 Rafael was already signing as an independent artist, admired for the perfect imitation of his teacher. His painting stood out for the elegance and serenity or the delicacy and sweetness of the figures in the manner of Perugino, as well as for the beauty of the landscape backgrounds inspired by the Umbrian mountains; Rafael also achieved expressive depth and emotional vibration, which would increase in later years.

Being in Florence to learn from the great masters Leonardo and Michelangelo, Rafael, although he leaned towards Leonardo's proposals, since he would be attracted by his technique, color and chiaroscuro, and would not, however, be interested in delving into his sfumato nor did he use Michelangelo's pure white light with a sculptural effect. His command of space was overwhelming, as proved in his work School of Athens.

 Collaboration in Renaissance arts is best seen in this engraving of Marcantonio Raimondi with the design of Raffaello. The Trojan war lies at the centre of this historiated engraving: Paris being forced to decide which goddess—Juno, Minerva, or Venus—was the most beautiful. He chose Venus, seen receiving the golden apple upon promising to help him woo the most beautiful woman alive, Helen of Troy.

It is assumed that Marcantonio’s copperplate is executed from drawings that were produced for a Vatican fresco.

Due to the difficulty of distinguishing between the work of the two artists –Giorgione and Titian– who started to forge a kind of partnership in artistic terms, this painting was first attributed to Giorgone (1671) and then opinions on the author have been changing back and forth many times. Today, it’s commonly assumed to be the work of a young Titian. After the death of Giorgione in Venice because of the plague in 1510, the only true master left was Tiziano Vecellio as, perhaps, Giorgione’s natural heir.  

A most mysterious work in terms of allegorical interpretation (are the female nudes muses, or nymphs? Do they refer to Poetry? Is the composition a sort of Pastoral Poetry in painting?) which, perhaps, lacking in enough referents for the audience of the XXI century, however, there would probably be clues enough to the educated spectators of the Titian’s time to interpret the painting in the context intended by the artist and his time. In this regard, the setting of the whole composition evokes a kind of Arcadian context in which both man and nature lived in perfect harmony (see Theocritus, Virgil, Jacopo Sannazzaro). Thus, the two men figures, sitting on the grass surrounded by a great landscape –a shady hillside overlooking sunny glens and a distant mountain vista–, are accompanied by a couple of nude females who (supposedly) cannot be seen by either of them. And this seems so since the two men are amicably speaking to one another, oblivious to the two female nudes representing the idealized Renaissance beauty. This type of recourse has its origin in classical Roman times where it was a usual artistic tool in that art. Technically, Giorgione’s subject matter and style left his impromptu on Titian’s works; Giorgione would be the first Venetian to put aside Giovanni Bellini’s oil glazes in favour of a straightforward oil painting, that was to be apply with different densities and even allowing for the thick impasto seen in some canvasses, something that was followed suit by Titian.

Titian's poem to rural escape is famous for being parodied by Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe.

"Insults pour down on me like hail," Manet complained to Baudelaire after seeing the hostile reception of his work at the Salon des Refusés in 1863.

Manet’s painting introduces a motif the impressionists would love – the bourgeois picnic – but with a tough irony all its own. Manet deliberately evokes Renaissance paintings of sensual leisure – Raimondi’s engraving and Titian’s painting – but updates the idyll to show bohemian gents of his own class accompanied by women who may be prostitutes (what is a naked woman doing sitting in the company of two supposedly clothed gentlemen?) It's a scene of the outskirts of Paris daily life disguised as a rustic fantasy. Therefore, what Manet reflects is not any classical myth nor religious topic, just an ordinary scene but with the eyes of a XIXth century artist and a particular social milieu which love such representations.

As was the case at the time, female nudes were highly sought after and really appreciated, as long as they represented mythical personae or just goddesses; many viewers loved to contemplate the paintings that included nudes as if they were voyeurs; the point is, however, that Paris society (or French or European in general!) perceived the public exposure of  the naked body of a known woman (in real life or in canvas) as being a prostitute;  something which our main female character seems not to give importance to the voyeuristic gazes that she might be attracting; her pose is quite natural and she does not seem to be bothered or untroubled by the look of it. Furthermore, both she and the man are looking straightforward to the spectator in a certain nonchalant and confident way. One could even say that the naked woman (one of Manet’s most famous models, by the way, called Victorine Meurent) is nearly challenging the spectator’s gaze with her serene, jolly and carefree manner.

The Judgement of Paris, c. 1510-20. Engraving (29.1 x 43.7 cm). The MET. New York. Marcantonio Raimondi (c.1480-c.1534)

Pastoral Concert or Fête champêtre, c.1508-10. Oil on canvas. 105 x 137 cm.  Musée du Louvre, Paris. Tiziano Vecellio, (Pieve di Cadore, 1488/1490 - Venice, 1576)

 Le Déjenuer sur l’herbe, 1863 Oil on canvas. 208 x 264.5 cm. Musée d’Orsay. Paris. Édouard Manet (1832-1883)

 Jesús Lorenzo Vieites

#titian #tiziano #titien #leconcertcampêtre #fêtechampêtre #pastoralconcert #louvre #art_lovers #museum_lovers #landscape #venetian_school #venetian_painting #peinture_italienne #kunstgeschichte #mount_parnassus #poesie #giorgione #arthistorian #édouard_manet #manet #impressionism #marcantonio_raimondi #engraving #art_history #kunstgeschichte

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Idealised Beauty in Renaissance Italy

Idealised Beauty in Renaissance Italy

Idealised Renaissance beauty? Most probably; still these are some of the women / madonnas which have been more widely acclaimed by spectators of all times! Lots more female beauties could have been included but…just this picked selection may suffice!

Jesús Lorenzo Vieites

Portrait of a young woman *tempera on panel *44 x 32 cm *circa 1490 – 1494

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Vandalism is the same whoever does it.

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The Sick Woman

The Sick Woman, c.1663-1666. Oil on canvas, 76 x 63.5 cm. Rijksmuseum. Jan Havicksz Steen (1626-1679) Is she perhaps lovesick? Is she pregnant? The theme of lovesickness was a popular one in the Dutch lands of the 17th century in painting and theatre. Genre painting was peculiar of the Dutch Golden Age and they represented a kind of lore and of traditional wisdom disguised under moralistic meaning, which was favoured by the citizens. There were lots of quacks who were interested in gaining money from these situations such as the one depicted here where the young woman seems to be sick and is resting her head on a pillow while the “quack” is trying to diagnose his patient. His clothes are even old-fashioned at the time which leads experts to think of him as another character of the theatrical versions of lovesickness representations. Jesús Lorenzo Vieites

 #dutch_golden_age #jansteen #netherlandish #genre_painting #baroque

#arthistory #kunstgeschichte #het_zieke_vrouwtje #rijksmuseum