#french art history

[amanufacturedheaven]

Ballerinas by Edgar Degas

1834-1917

[thestarsfightagainstusmyfriend]

"Allegory of the Vanity of Earthly Things," c. 1650, unknown French artist

This is one of my all-time favorite Baroque works, but there's, like, no scholarly works on it, so here's an excerpt from an essay I wrote on its meaning, entitled "Shadow and Light: Tenebrism and Chiaroscuro in Depictions of Femininity in Baroque Art":

"While candles in Baroque art tend to serve a similar purpose regardless of context– a literal and symbolic way to expose some otherwise obscured truth– this is used to wildly different effect throughout varying traditions. For example, the candle became a universally-recognized element of vanitas and memento mori paintings– related genres which utilized carefully-curated still lifes as a way to create physical manifestations of the inevitability of death. Items such as books, candles or lamps, skulls, and timepieces became synonymous with these late Renaissance and Baroque-era genres. Skulls, once again, serve as a constant reminder of death and the limitations of the human body, books as a symbol of the limited use of accruing earthly knowledge, and timepieces as a very tangible representation of the unstoppable, unforgiving nature of existence. While the vast, almost complete, majority of paintings within these genres are still lifes, a handful include human or humanlike (e.g. angelic) figures. One such example is the enigmatic Allegory of the Vanity of Earthly Things by an unknown French artist. This painting, while clearly referencing vanitas and memento mori paintings through the familiar naming convention (i.e. “Allegory of …”) and the direct reference to vanity in the title, as well as the selection of objects, evades direct categorization. The female figure is unnamed and unrecognized. Because of the relation of Mary Magdalene to vanitas paintings, one could make the argument that the figure is meant to be a representation of Mary. However, depictions of Mary Magdalene throughout history nearly universally depict her with long, flowing, curly, often blonde or reddish hair (with Artemisia Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy being a perfect example). Additionally, when Mary Magdalene is depicted as the subject of vanitas paintings, she is generally the one contemplating the macabre items. In this painting, the woman seems to be wordlessly communicating with an individual to the audience’s left. As she tilts the mirror– a symbol of truth, obsession with the self, and most importantly, prediction– towards this phantom audience member and points to the skull with a faint, knowing smirk, she seems to be very intentionally and explicitly indicating the point of the work– death is inevitable. If the predictive, mystical capabilities of mirrors– as well as the truth-revealing properties of the candle– are considered, one could even interpret the woman as a harbinger of death."

If anyone knows anything more about this painting, I would love to hear about it! I've developed a strange obsession with it.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Jean Metzinger

La Femme au Cheval (Woman with a Horse)

1911-12

[cinematic-phosphenes]

An Invitation to The Royal Ball (c. 1880) by Charles Edouard Edmond Delort

[voyage-of-venus]

Jean-Gabriel Charvet and Joseph Dufour et Cie, The Native Peoples of the Pacific Ocean (Les Sauvages de la Mer Pacifique), c. 1804-1805

[abnormes]

Spirit, George Roux (1885)

[die-rosastrasse]

François Martin-Kavel & pink fabrics

French, 1861-1931

[lionofchaeronea]

Falling Stars Observed from the Balloon, illustration by Albert Tissandier for the second edition of James Glaisher's Travels in the Air, 1871

[spleenomane]

Currently obsessed with these naturalistic illuminations from a manuscript of De Proprietatibus Rerum (1447, Bibliothèque d'Amiens, ms. 399). I just know that whoever commisioned this must have hired the nearest artist with an insane obsession for birds before proper birdwatching was even a thing. They hired the nearest De arte venandi cum avibus fanboy.

Like, the fact that despite the stylized drawings you can clearly tell that these are a corvus corax, a corvus cornix?! Hello?!?!

I love you, unknown french artist from the 15th century.

Edit: a couple people made me rightfully notice that what I thought could be a carrion crow, in absence of better candidates, could actually be a coloeus monedula, a jackdaw, and that either way it doesn't even match the text it is meant to represent as it was a total misinterpretation of it. Just to let everyone know!

Still love these paintings and these corvids.

[uhhgoodd]

Young Woman With Sword by Jules-Élie Delaunay (1828-1891)

[kustavglimt]

Alexandre Dubois-Drahonet: detail of Female nude, back view (1831)

[renaissanceoftheremarkable]

Ariadne

(Jean-Baptiste Greuze, c. 1803-1804).

[lesbianarthistory]

Gaetan Henrioux – The Kiss (2012)

[the-cricket-chirps]

Dora Maar

Man Ray, 1936

[cinematic-phosphenes]

L'ébauche (The Sketch) (1885) by Émile Friant

(x)

[gaza-love100]

Help me save my family's life

Hello, I am Abdallah al swusiis ,l am from in the north of Gaza Strip. Despite my feeling of shame, I am writing this letter and appeal after hesitation and confusion.

Fear forced me to tell you that I have been living through a genocidal war for more than 11months. Many times I stayed with my family after the destruction of our home and the martyrdom of my relatives, as we suffered from hunger, poverty, and lack of the minimum necessities of life, and we fled to many places. I am still afraid of losing any member of my family during the journey of displacement and suffering. There is no safety anywhere in Gaza. We have lost everything, our health, our dreams, our future, our ordinary life. I never expected in my entire life to ask for something like this or financial assistance from anyone, but the current situation Disastrous and crazy, as my family and I need this money to escape this nightmare and cross the border at a cost of approximately $49,200 in lives. Now I have no options so I created a GoFundMe link for Your Humanity to support me and my family to survive

This fundraising campaign is a last resort for me to help us escape the war and reunite with the family, finally I am collecting these donations to escape with my family from this war and try to reach safety

Your help and contribution means a lot to us, as it means compassion and solidarity for justice, and any donation from you will enrich our lives.