#the frick museums and gardens

[appalachiancowboy]

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

[baravaggio]

heyyy i'm visiting new york for the first time in a couple weeks and was wondering if you had any museum recommendations for a first timer? i'm up for anything but art museums would be great! ❤️❤️

Yes absolutely!! If it's your first time in the city these two are the must sees for art, imo:

The Met - ideal art museum for a first visit, it's got a huge & diverse collection! I'd recommend picking a few galleries to visit in advance because you can't do the whole thing in a day (unless you have a lot of energy and want to make that your day). If you're not sure what to go with, my favorites are the sculpture galleries (especially the European sculpture & the Rodins just outside the photography gallery), the Korean and Japanese art galleries, the Temple of Dendur, the costume institute...if the visual storage area is open, that's also very cool to see!

MoMA - obvious if you like modern art, it's also got some really amazing views if you care about that kind of thing. They've got all sorts of cool stuff going on but it's a great opportunity to see pieces by Pollock, Rothko, Agnes Martin, Hilma af Klimt, Picasso, and Van Gogh in person

Other great art museum options are:

The Frick Collection - its original home is still being renovated but the Madison Ave location is well worth visiting

The Rubin Museum of Art - amazing collection of Asian art

The Guggenheim - very cool building, but if you're looking for modern art, the MoMA has a better collection imo

The Whitney - will have expanded their free day options by the time you visit, has some great views of the city, and is conveniently located by the High Line

The Cloisters - it's a hike, but if you like religious art it's a must-see

The New York Earth Room - not really a museum but a single exhibit, I don't see people mentioning this one often though! It's a cool thing to see if you're in the area (and free!)

The Jewish Museum - cool collection of older and new art, free on Saturdays

If you want to go to the outer boroughs...

The Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn) - absolutely incredible collection and always showing something cool!!

The New York Botanical Gardens (Bronx) - it's right by Arthur Ave too, which has some of the best Italian food you can get in the city

Museum of the Moving Image (Queens)

Noguchi Museum (Queens)

Other non-art museums:

Museum of Natural History - self explanatory, crowded but cool to see! Awesome planetarium too, if you're into that kind of thing.

National Museum of the American Indian - haven't been myself yet, but throwing it out there because it's free!

Tenement Museum

The only ones I'd steer clear of are Ellis Island, the Intrepid Museum, Madame Tussaud's, the 9/11 museum, and anything by South Street Seaport. All just too touristy and not worth it to me.

Hope you have fun! If anyone else has recommendations feel free to throw them in the replies of course <3

[pittsburghbeautiful]

The Frick Pittsburgh

The Frick Pittsburgh: A Historical and Cultural Oasis The Frick Pittsburgh is more than just a museum. This cultural and historical complex serves as a testament to the life and times of the illustrious industrialist and art aficionado, Henry Clay Frick. Nestled in the residential East End of Pittsburgh, the Frick complex spans almost six acres of verdant lawns and beautiful gardens, offering an…

[atna2-34-75]

Hubert Robert

Memorial Garden of Lenoir’s Museum of French Monuments

Grotto of the Baths of Apollo

The Frick Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

[ifeellikeiswallowedamagritte]

I just found out the Rubin Museum is going to be closing down in October and that's one of the biggest museums for Asian Art. And it's such a shame. I will be visiting there before it closes down to walk around one last time. Maybe I can visit the one in DC, but the NY location is awesome. Will make its own post for when I visit again.

In light of the museum closing down, I might as well jot some museums worth going to.

I'm not going to write about the really popular museums like the Met, American Museum of Natural History, Guggenheim, and the Whitney. I think those are all good museums and worth visiting once or multiple times but they tend to get really, really crowded. Best to go on weekdays. I will post about the MOMA though because I went to a cool exhibit for Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio. Photos are from a while ago and some of the exhibits from the photos are outdated. I had a period where I was visiting museums every chance I got back before the car. I haven't been going to a lot of museums lately or NYC for fun in general. Also I might be biased because I enjoy more representational forms of art than abstract things.

Worth Visiting Multiple Times >

1) Museum of the City of New York

I went to see the J.C. Leyendecker exhibit. I wish I visited this museum sooner because I'd always walk pass it going to the Met. It was awesome to see one of my favorite illustrators work in person. And they have quality exhibits. In the bottom floor there's the Children's Museum which is pretty small. They also have a whole permanent exhibit on Tiffany Stained Glass.

2) NY Transit Museum - Will be getting its own post because of how it's such a gem.

3) Brooklyn Museum

Was cool looking at pieces I've learned about in my art history classes. One of the famous artworks was "The Dinner Party" by Judy Chicago. I didn't know that piece was at the Brooklyn Museum. I'd also visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens as well while visiting here because they're close to each other.

4) Met Cloisters

Really nice place to see nature. Really gorgeous and lots of cool medieval art. Also pay what you wish depending on where you live.

5) Museum of Moving Image - Will be getting its own post because they had a Laika, Walking Dead, and Jim Henson Exhibit.

6) The Frick Collection

It's near the Met. I went during a not so great time when a whole bunch of renovations were going on. I'd recommend coming here when tickets are half off. It's currently closed right now but there's a lot of Rococo art which is one of my favorite art styles/ movements. I don't know where all my pictures went of this museum 😭.

7) The MOMA

Guillermo Del Toro is one of my favorite directors and it was cool to see all the art and sets behind Pinnochio. Also got to see a James Jean painting in person. "Shape of Water", "Pan's Labyrinth", and "Crimson Peak" are some of my favorite movies. The MOMA always has cool exhibits.

If you're in the area, it's nice to pop in. >

1) NYPL [Bryant Park]

It's free, I love the New York Public Library and what they do. If you're in Bryant Park, it's worth visiting. Also there's a very nice and quiet study room there. Need reservations when you want to see the exhibits though. The 53rd street library is also a nice place to relax.

2) Society of Illustrators

Members are free and members get a special floor where they can see some really cool pieces. I went to see the Society of Illustrators competition exhibits (one for students and one for professionals). Nice place to see some cool illustrations.

3) National Museum of the Native American

It's free and there's a lot of cool artifacts and indigenous Art. I would pop in because I'd take the subway to 14th street to go to Chelsea Market and I'd walk and take the citi bike to Battery Park to look at the Statue of Liberty and the ferries (one of my favorite cheap things to do in NYC) and I'd end my walk at this museum.

If you're in the area, it's definitely worth visiting. Battery Park has a lot of stuff to do (World Trade Center, the Oculus, Regal Battery Park, Brookfield Place Mall). Also this museum is not usually packed so you can take your time and walk around.

IDK what happened to the photos I took from here but I got this bad boy from this museum as an impulse buy. I don't really buy from museums unless it's books but I needed this.

Depends... >

1) New Museum (had a good time)

It's worth visiting once. There's a bunch of cool galleries nearby. I stopped at the James Cohan Gallery (pic on left and right) to look at artwork from the father of video art. This museum is mostly contemporary art. Also it really depends on what artist they're showing. I went to see some cool video artists and there was an exhibit that was very interactive, reminded me of Meow Wolf, when I went.

I think this place is actually closed right now. I don't know when it will be open and it's been closed for a while. Over a year I think now.

2) The Morgan Museum and Library (had a good time)

I don't have any pictures of the iconic library because I was too busy taking pictures of the John Singer Sargent exhibit. I remember the day I went it was so crowded. But I was able to see some of his famous charcoal drawings in person. John Singer Sargent is in the top 5 of my favorite artists and I wanted to draw like him so it was awesome.

To be honest, it really depends what kind of exhibits are going on. Free nights are packed but I'd recommend coming on free nights because there isn't much to see for the ticket price.

3) MOMA PS1 (had an okay time)

I think I went here during the worst possible time so I can't say if it's truly worth it or not. Half the exhibits were closed and it's pay what you wish for NY residents. Luckily I didn't have to pay the $10. There was a teen art exhibit going on and to be honest, I think the teen art work was so much more interesting compared to what was going on in the other exhibits. So look at the exhibits beforehand before thinking of coming here because half of it was closed when I went and I was kind of disappointed. But whenever I watch the art21 videos, there's always something going on here and I was just unlucky.

4) Fotografiska (I did not enjoy too much)

To be honest, I felt like I was getting ripped off. Felt like a tourist trap. The tickets were very expensive compared to how many floors were open. I was kind of disappointed because I love photography but when I visited, only two floors were open. And I paid over $20 to see two floors. So in my books, this one wasn't worth it. I went during the time they had the dog exhibit open and these are the only pictures I took of this museum.

I felt like I was getting punked when I saw this.

[any4s]

// Anya's childhood home is located at 163 E. 64th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan near Lexington Avenue. It was built in 1872 and is known as "Versailles on the Hudson." The eight bedroom, 8.5 bath house contains numerous chandeliers and other fixtures that are replicas of those that were found in Marie Antoinette's Versailles. Some of the antique furniture also came from Paris and the walls of the music room (not pictured) contain reproductions of Jean Honore Fragonard paintings found in the Frick Collection.

The house had been owned by numerous millionaires and billionaires before it was purchased by Duke Robert of Bourbon-Parma as a wedding gift for Greg Hirsch and his wife Maria Louisa.

The house is truly one of a kind like Anya herself even though it sometimes feels like a museum due to the antiquity of some of the furniture. However, it is a home that is filled with love, laughter, and music and its wonderful outdoor garden makes it an even more wonderful place for a little girl to grow up.

[gay-jewish-bucky]

#...now i want to write about this. hear me out: #an italian jew gets fricking fed up with the vatican menorah #at the next passover (his friends flew in from around the world) they hatch a plan

#the afro-sephardic jew is the techie guy in the chair. they disable all the cameras and stuff #the convert does the info gathering #the italian and the chasid break in #bonus points if they get caught and one of them has to flirt with a guard to get out of the situation #the comic relief is one persons white christian husband who is very confused but has the spirit. himbo energy. #he just sorta sits with the afro-sephardic jew and makes funny comments

#they get to the room where the menorah is stashed and! oh no! it's the pope! #the pope looks around furtively and is like #listen up i know the church has been super shitty and it would cause an uproar if i just Gave It Away #BUT i am strategically turning my back right now and no real investigation will be made if it happens to go missing #he starts quoting fiddler on the roof. the chasid tells him to shut up.

#they take the menorah and after much debate #find a way to sneak it into a museum collection without anyone noticing #thus comes the second part of the heist #jews breaking into the jewish museum #they escape in the popemobile.

@haunted-stranger-garden omg I am in love with this,

do you ever feel so powerful you think "I could totally steal repatriate the temple menorah back from the Vatican"

[dlgnonprofit]

Across this world, museums have creatively curated ways to help their local and broader communities connect with the arts.

The Dixon Gallery and Gardens of Memphis, TN, responded by creating an handful of virtual classes from art projects for at-risk teens to weekly meditation sessions. One aspect of their online classes that made this organization stand out was their in-person delivery of art supplies to students from the museums painted art truck.

Other museums such as the Frick Collection in Manhattan started “Cocktails with a Curator” series where a Frick curator offers insight on a piece of work from a collection with a complementary beverage.

By and large, museums had to go above and beyond to connect with their current audience but also to new and potential audience members from all backgrounds all over the world. Covid enabled, if not forced museums to break barriers and to help end or limit the bourgeois reputation these organizations often carried. Now that art world is living in its new existence, museums and all art institutions need to continue to be mindful of maintaining an openness to all audiences of all backgrounds and ensuring the arts remain approachable both online and in-person to everyone. 💻📲🖼

{Debra Gudema for DLG Nonprofit}

[thepastelprince]

[nativenewyorkerposts]

“Draw and listen to music in the Garden Court!  Artists of all levels are welcome and free materials are provided.” (First Fridays at The Frick Collection)  I would find this inspiring if I had any artistic talent at all:)  Although I didn’t see any Van Gogh paintings at the magnificent Frick Collection, these Don McLean lyrics come to mind: “Sketch the trees and the daffodils/Catch the breeze and the winter chills/In colors on the snowy linen land...”  I love the new version of “Starry Starry Night,” by Lianne La Havas, from the soundtrack of the remarkable “Loving Vincent” movie.  “Weathered faces lined in pain/Are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand...”  (Photo taken on November 2, 2018)

[dosesofglamour]

Doses of Glamour ⚜️

Social Calendar: New York City

January

Winter Jazzfest

New York Boat Show

New York Jewish Film Festival

New York City Ballet Repertory Season

February

New York Fashion week Fall-Winter

amfAR Gala New York

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show

March

Outsider art fair

Scope Art Show

Volta

School of American Ballet winter ball

Playground Partners Winter Luncheon

American Red Cross Gala

April

Bloomberg Wealth Summit

The Winter Show

Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala

Tribeca Film Festival

47th Chaplin Award Gala

Save Venice Masquerade Ball

New York International Auto show

May

Frieze New York

TEFAF New York Spring

NYCxDESIGN Festival

New York City Ballet Spring Gala

Frederick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon

Spring Symposium & Luncheon

Met Gala

Hot Pink Party

High Line Spring Benefit

June

MoMA Party in the Garden

American Ballet Theatre Fall Gala

Belmont Stakes

Leveraged Finance Fights Melanoma

The Conservatory Ball

Museum Mile Festival

July

Vail International Dance Festival

Glimmerglass Festival

Jon Harari’s Annual Summer Party

August

Angel Ball

Jon Harari’s Annual Yacht Party

Guild Hall Summer Gala

US Open Tennis

September

US Open Tennis

The Armory Show

New York Fashion Week Spring-Summer

High Line Art Dinner

New York Film Festival

October

New York City Wine & Food Festival

The Robin Hood Foundation Annual Benefit

Great Sports Legends Dinner

Frick Collection Autumn Dinner (membership required)

November

The Art Show

PCF New York Dinner

Guggenheim International Gala

Search and Care Yorkville Ball

December

New York Philharmonic annual December Gala

Jon Harari’s Annual Holiday Party

[ladyeliot]

Dance with me

Request: Anonymous:  Hi saw your post for the Valentine’s Day request and that’s really cause that’s my birthday too so yay 😀 anyway how abt a tony x reader exes angstfluff thanks

Pairing: Tony Stark x Fem!Reader

Summary: As is customary on Valentine's Day, a charity gala is held by your company to raise funds, but this year you'll have to face it alone - your ex-boyfriend won't be with you, or maybe he will?

Warnings: Angst and a bit fluff.

Word count: 2712

A/N:  Sorry for my spelling and grammatical mistakes, English is not my native language, I am learning.

Valentine’s Day (Prompts)

Your company's annual fundraising party couldn't be more ill-timed. You still didn't understand why it had to be held on 14 February, well you had a pretty good idea. Year after year the upper echelons of New York City and its environs gathered together, more than for a charitable cause, to find the next gossip that would be the most talked about for months to come.

In years past, the only thing that had saved you from the suffering and discomfort you felt every time you walked through the door was your companion, your partner, but that year you had to face all those vipers on your own. The relationship with Tony Stark had come to an end after four years, more than mutually, you took a big part in that decision. Things were becoming difficult for you, it was hard to overcome all the events he was involved in day by day, as well as his constant attempts to save himself from death. You couldn't cope.

It was arguably the most complicated decision you had ever made in your life, there was a long and complex history, your relationship was by no means simple, nor was it easy to begin with, so obviously it wasn't easy to end. You had to endure news that reported Iron Man's disappearance, that he was badly injured and some had even given him up for dead, then everything was solved, but you didn't want to see the day when he really was, you couldn't bear it. It wasn't easy for him either, he was afraid that his actions would put you in danger, so he understood what you were telling him, he accepted your decision and accepted it in the end. You also accepted his decision to go on with his life as a superhero, you could never ask him to do otherwise.

The Frick Collection art museum on Manhattan's Upper East Side was the selected venue for the charity event. It had been ranked for two consecutive years as "one of the most memorable parties of the year" by the New York Times, but your viewpoint was far from those words. Unlike the vast majority of those present you made a rather discreet entrance, you had made the decision to stay calm and leave as soon as possible, so you would have a few drinks, chat with the guests and put the day behind you as soon as possible. After all, it was your duty to get your company's guests to donate as much money as possible to charity.

You could not deny that the atmosphere was not pleasant, visually you found yourself enveloped by numerous pieces of art accompanied by the sweet melody of an orchestra that filled the atmosphere. The architectural elements of the place also generated an escape from the outside world. Generally the conversations were banal, related to work, art, politics or social life, nothing you couldn't cope with, plus the glass of champagne you were holding in your right hand helped with that.

The problem came when they began to notice that you were not accompanied by Mr. Stark on this occasion. Time after time it was your turn to report that the two of you had decided to go your separate ways, and time after time you had to listen to the lamentations, looks of pity, and on several occasions critical remarks about him. What you didn't know was that in the crowd there was a pair of curious eyes watching you.

Your limit was coming to an end, so you decided to escape the atmosphere for a few minutes to get some fresh air, you needed a breather if you were to last a couple of hours in this place. The gardens were just as engrossing as the interior. There was not a single leaf protruding from the vegetation, and the singing of the fountain water professed a relationship in your body, no one could tell you were in the middle of the island of Manhattan.

"Have you given up already?" you closed your eyes as you heard that tone of voice behind you. "I was surprised to see you talking so long with Mrs. Fox, at one point I even thought you were going to spill the champagne on her dress."

Without turning around you smiled at his words, for more than once you had thought of throwing your glass of champagne at them and leaving the place.

"You look beautiful tonight," you felt her voice grow closer. "You've always known I love that dress."

Her body was so close to you that you felt her jacket brush lightly against her bare back. At no time had it crossed your mind that Tony would show up there that night, on the contrary, you thought he would be anywhere else but New York. Taking a breath of air into your lungs, giving yourself strength, you decided to turn around and face him face to face. You hadn't seen each other for months and the last time you did, things didn't go so well, so you hadn't spoken to each other again.

"What are you doing here, Tony?" you asked in a serious tone, which didn't surprise him.

"Assuming this is a benefit party," he began holding out his hands, "I'm guessing drinking several dry martinis, Scotch, champagne, putting up with comments I don't care about and letting them praise me to get my money's worth."

"I thought you hated these kinds of parties," you expounded somewhat uncomfortably at the situation.

"And I do," he stated bluntly, taking a sip of his martini. "But you have to think about charity too, don't you?"

You knew him well enough to differentiate his tones in conversations, you knew when he was using his ironic tone, when he was lying, when he was insecure or when he was speaking from within. On this occasion his words contained extra information that he wasn't telling you, so you opted to give up on him, you had to deal with the people inside that building, you couldn't start a war with Tony right now.

"In that case," you started to walk away towards the inside of the museum, "I hope you enjoy your evening, Tony".

You had left Tony and his dry martini behind, now all you had to do was get through a couple more hours without incident and the day could be over. You picked up another glass of champagne from the tray of one of the waiters and before you could look for a target you were already inside a group of investors of your company showing the best of your smiles.

You kept the thought of him being there from your mind, but it was practically unavoidable for you. You didn't want to destabilise yourself, but it was more than evident that you still felt something towards Tony, feelings don't go away overnight and even more so towards a person you had loved with all your being. He knew it, he had an advantage in that sense, you weren't as good as him at hiding feelings, that's why you chose to stay as far away as possible from your ex-partner. But it wasn't possible.

"Mr. Herbert, Mr. Johnson," as if out of nowhere he joined the group you were conversing with. "Oh, Mrs. Johnson, you look splendid tonight."

Tony's compliments fell on Mrs. Johnson, who blushed when she heard them. Who didn't blush when someone like him told you how beautiful you were? He had a superhuman power over people, and he played it really well.

"Would you allow me to steal Miss Y/L/N from you?" he asked flashing a smile on his face.

"Please," they offered.

"Excuse me," you said with little escape. "I won't be long."

As if you didn't have a word in the matter Tony tackled you, walking a couple of feet away from the group with whom you were getting to close a big deal for the future of the company.

"Tony was about to-"

"Dance with me," he said curtly, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"What?" you asked a little puzzled.

His brown eyes stared into yours. You began to get a little nervous at the intensity of his gaze, so you looked around.

"Dance with me."

"I... I don't have time to dance with you," you explained, gesturing with your hands. "I'm here working, you know that better than anyone."

"I know," he nodded his head without taking his eyes off you. "That's why I'm asking you to dance with me. You know I'm the biggest benefactor of the night. So... dance with me." Tony lowered the tone of his voice, more seductive, one you knew perfectly well.

"Are you... blackmailing me? Or, worse, are you buying me with money?" you asked with a somewhat surly frown.

"I wasn't the one who said you were working," he defended himself. "But looking at it that way... there's no one else here who would get the money out of me."

"I thought you were doing this for charity," you attacked him.

"And I am," he said with all the confidence in the world. "But I need you to give your hand out to please me, too."

Tony offered you his hand along with a slight smile slanted across his face. You were playing with fire, you really would be if you decided to take his hand and surrender at his feet. The night would turn around completely, but what you feared most was how it would end. Inside you two opposing parts were fighting to select the best decision, on the one hand your brain was literally telling you to reject him and get out of there as soon as possible, on the other hand your emotions were screaming at you to take his hand and let yourself go. Whatever you did, you were likely to regret it later, so you chose to regret doing it.

You took a breath and released him by placing your hand on his, which amplified his smile even more. Without a second thought, he led you to the dance floor, where the melody coming from a group of musicians could be heard with more effusiveness. It was relaxed, soothing, inviting you to dance in pairs. Tony gently pulled you to his body and placed the palm of his hand on your bare back, too far south for your liking, on the contrary, you placed it on his shoulder.

"Relax," he whispered inches from your face. "We've done this many times."

"I'm relaxed," you lied in a way he couldn't quite believe, so you tried to justify yourself. "I'm just thinking that I should go with Mr. Johnson to-"

"Oh, you're thinking about another man while you're dancing with me?" he asked cutting you off with mock indignation. "Very nice."

You ducked your face with a small smile, which he himself returned along with an intense stare.

"Did I tell you that you look amazing tonight?" he asked, searching your gaze.

"I think you commented on it when we met in the garden," you said, trying not to fall for his charms.

"Then I'll reaffirm it again," his martini breath reached you. "You look beautiful. Plus you're wearing the perfume I gave you."

Discomfort at his words came back to you, and though you avoided showing it your unconscious inspections of your surroundings, avoiding eye contact gave you away.

"Look at me," he demanded.

As you complied with his request, you realised that you didn't know if you would be able to go through with it. The proximity you were having created an intimate situation that was causing numerous memories and feelings to come to your mind and body. For Tony it might have been easy, but for you it wasn't, mostly because you knew that when it was over you were going to go home, to face the reality that he was no longer present. You were not as strong as he was. You hadn't seen him for months, since you broke up, and you knew that it was going to end up hurting you, so you decided to put an end to that dream.

"I think..." you dropped your hand from his shoulder. "I can't go on."

With a calm step you walked away from him, leaving him alone among the other dancing couples, forced a small smile to dedicate it to those people who waved at you as you passed them and headed back outside, finding a place under the night to regain lost strength, praying that Tony wouldn't show up there again. But he wasn't giving up so easily.

"Are you okay?" his figure appeared behind you.

A lump took over your throat as you heard his voice again. You took a deep breath and told yourself to be as nonchalant as possible about the situation.

"Yeah, I just needed to get some air," you commented impassively.

"Okay, I thought you looked a little uncomfortable," he commented, moving to your left side. "You know, it was just a dance."

"Are you kidding me, just a dance?" you said somewhat offended that he barely noticed. "Okay, fine, maybe it's just a dance for you, but it wasn't for me." You had already started to blurt out everything you were thinking, so now you decided not to stop. "These last few months have been horrible, but I was finally starting to take charge of my life completely, and this is a step backwards, I don't want to fall."

"Fall?" Tony cocked his head to one side, clicking his tongue a little. "Do you...do you think these past few months have been easy for me? Because I reckon you think it has been, that I've been 'enjoying the freedom', as you called it."

Tony reminded you of some of the words that came out of your mouth the last time you met at his house, when you went to pick up your things, a fact that embarrassed you greatly.

"I don't think that," you defended yourself by turning away.

"It seems so," his words were firm, as was the step he took towards you. "Listen, I think you know me better than anyone, and just because I don't have the facility you do to show how I feel doesn't mean I'm not affected by things. In case you're interested to know, I haven't left the lab in five months."

The expression on Tony's face had hardened, as had his words.

"I came here with the sole intention of seeing you, of feeling something again," he clenched his jaw.

"And what position does that put me in?" you asked raising your tone as he did and boring your eyes into his. "You come here, you see me, you feel something and you disappear..."

"Who said anything about disappearing?" he frowned lifting his chin.

"Tony, I don't know with what intention you came here tonight or what you expected to happen," you said, feeling more vulnerable, with a tone of sadness, "but what is clear is that we made a decision and no matter how hard it is, we must accept it. It is clear that there are still feelings, at least on my part, but let's put the past behind us," you paused under his watchful gaze. "I'd better get going."

Saying those words and checking the stiffness in Tony's countenance you opted to continue on your way.

"Wait," Tony stopped your steps by grabbing your arm. "You think I can let you go after what you just said?"

"Enjoy your night, Tony."

That's how for the first time you were brave enough to take back the reins of your life, closing the door to the past and opening a window to the future.

Taglist Open (DM)

MAIN MASTERLIST

[kahtookmylife]

Amelia x Artist! Fem! Reader:

Hey, I have no idea who asked for this because tumblr decided to eat the ask. I’m so sorry for that! 

I think this was the request, but I’m not that sure... Hope you like it, though! ^^

Let me tell you how much she likes your drawings/paintings. (Spoiler alert: A LOT)

Whenever you make something, she’ll stick her head over your shoulder and watch how you draw/paint. If it annoys you, just tell her and she’ll try to find a way to look at you drawing from the distance. That’s the only way she will be satisfied. 

If you draw or paint something with planes, clouds, the sky or just generally anything that has to do with being a pilot, she wants to keep it. Maybe she’ll even go as far as stealing it. Amelia will give it back, of course, but she still needs it. 

You need a model for drawing? Even just for the pose? CAN SHE POSE FOR YOU? Most likely she won’t stay in one place but she really tries. You get bonus points if you have a unique art style (she thinks everything is unique, so don’t worry). 

Maybe you need some inspiration of how the night sky looks like or something like that and she steals an airplane, so you can see how beautiful it is. Amelia loves the look on your face when you watch the dark sky above you with a few flickering stars and the gorgeous moon. 

However, if you’re scared of heights, she’ll try to find the best picture for you. If you teach her how to, maybe you can get her to take some pictures for you. And if that doesn’t work either, you can just search it up on google but she doesn’t have to know that. 

Amelia absolutely loves it when you take a picture of her when she is not looking and you draw/paint that picture. She just hugs you thightly when you do that. This woman appreciates you so fricking much! 

If someone (mostly Kah or Al) decides to criticise (not constructive criticism) your perfect drawing just because they can, she’s not afraid to kick their ass. Even if you ask her not to, she will try to attack them. Amelia doesn’t like when people are unfair, especially if it’s about her s/o. 

The same about homophobic comments. She does not tolerate them. 

She is very helpful when you have an art block. Amelia tries to give you an idea of what you should draw/paint. Sometimes it doesn’t work and she’ll take you on a tour around the museum, so you can take your mind off the current problem. And who knows, maybe you’ll find something that you want to draw/paint. 

You two can go inside a painting and look around there too! Maybe she will take you on a date in the mysterious world of The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh or explore The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch. 

I can totally see Amelia doodling in your sketchbook. Maybe it’s just a simple lovely message or a cartoony drawing of you two. One day you just go home and see that in your sketchbook. (I think it would be cute-)

[habituallychic]

Stuck my phone through the fence of the @frickcollection for this photo and luckily didn’t drop my phone. It’s sad that the Met Breuer won’t reopen again since i missed the Gerhard Richter exhibition. The Met Breuer will transition to a temporary location for the @frickcollection while they undergo an unpopular renovation. I still don’t know why they didn’t buy the townhouse that’s still for sale next door to the garden but when one museum gets a fancy new glass building, they all want one. If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that maybe we should all be a lot more grateful for the things we do have right now. #grateful #nyc #uppereastside #frickcollection #flowers (at The Frick Collection) https://www.instagram.com/p/CDXcLVbHFwH/?igshid=v7ii9au4qhry

[studiesinconnoisseurship]

Balkanising Bellini – part one

Quests in connoisseurship begin most usefully with the juxtaposition of a painting and a drawing. Here is such a juxtaposition: the famous portrait, labelled IOANNES BELLINUS, Giovanni Bellini, depicting the Doge of Venice, Leonardo Loredano, in the London National Gallery; and next to it, a portrait drawing of an Unknown Man, ascribed to the Venetian School, in the museum at Besançon.

Portrait of Doge Loredano (National Gallery London) ; Unknown Man (Musée des Beaux-Arts Besançon)

To my eye it is a certainty that the same artist was responsible for these two items. What the above pairing establishes is that he was an artist with characteristics equally visible in his painting and his drawing. In either case we can observe the long sealed mouth with a thin upper lip, noticing how it ends on each side with  a bracket-like crease. We can consider the modelling of the upper, bonier part of the nose, shadowed on its right flank, and move on to the eyes, each with an upper and lower lid forming two parts of a  convex cover that has opened so far and could close and seal up the eye itself. This convex form, the eye and its lids, is set deep within the concave socket described by the eyebrow above, the embankment of the nose, the cheekbone, and the bone where the temple comes down at the eye’s edge and the ‘crow’s feet’ lines appear in sitters of this age.

What is most apparent, and most to be emphasised, is the manner in which the skin, modelled in light and dark, is drawn tightly over a fine bone structure. In the painting there is particularly strong lighting round the cheekbone and temple, but in both the drawing and the painting we apprehend immediately where the hard bone is; we feel that we could tap, and hear, the chin, the cheekbones, the top of the nose and the temple of each man. A bonus of such modelling is the beautiful profile to the edge of the face: the taut line from the forehead in towards the eye, out to the cheekbone, in again at the level of the mouth, and out again for the last time before shelving in towards the chin.

With all this tight clothing of flesh over bone goes a distinctive expression: a calm, steady appraisal by someone who holds himself erect and still, whose lips are sealed but whose eyes are open, surveying us and the world with a judicious gaze reflecting, one infers, a mind not swayed by recklessness or sudden passion. In both cases the line that runs down the middle of the face, through nose, philtrum and chin, continues to descend, below the neck, in the line of the dogal toggles and in the stronger edge of the Besancon man’s lapel. These men are anchored.

The man in the drawing appears to be the same as the subject of a portrait once in the Marchwood collection at Ashford in Kent, that Bernard Berenson ascribed to Lotto.

Unknown Man ; Portrait of a Venetian Dignitary (Marchwood poss Charnwood Collection, Kent)

What, if anything, could we now add to this pair, and be similarly sure of the same hand being at work?

Doge Loredano (National Gallery London ; Portrait of a Man in a Beret (Goudstikker Collection Rotterdam)

At Rotterdam, from the Goudstikker collection, comes a fine portrait of a younger-looking man wearing a beret. He has a lot of hair on and around a face that bears an expression similar to that of the Doge and the man in the Besancon drawing. As he looks at me with that calm, appraising  eye, I feel no doubt that he was the product of the same hand. Particularly interesting, however, is the resemblance of this face to that of another man in a beret, the one whose head we see behind the standing figure of Saint Mark Preaching in the painting of that title in the Brera Gallery at Milan. This is an extremely helpful connection because it leads us away from single heads, painted and drawn, to a big crowd scene that is full of heads, and therefore a valuable source of comparisons as we proceed.

Top – St Mark Preaching ‘Predica di San Marco’ (Breara Milan) ; Centre and Bottom Left – Details from St Mark Preaching ; Bottom Right – Portrait of a Man in a Beret (Goudstikker Collection)

If we turn to the far left of the Brera picture, we find among the ranks of men in berets some who might have sat for the artist singly. In Berlin there is a drawing of a man looking three-quarters to our right. His nose is similar to that of a monk, in a painting from the Houston-Boswell collection in London, and formerly at San Diego, California (since sold), is a painted portrait of a man seen above a parapet with a background of sky and clouds.

Clockwise from Top: Detail from St Mark Preaching ; Portrait of Paolo Morisini (ex-San DIego) ; Portrait of a Monk (Private Collection) ; Portrait of a Man (Kupferstichkabinett Berlin)

Over on the right of the Saint Mark Preaching we see bearded Turkish elders in tall ‘busby’ hats, one of them wearing a robe with a pattern broadly comparable with what we see in the Loredano portrait. These conversing men call to mind a drawing, Three Turks, at Windsor. That drawing is related to a group at the left of another ceremonial scene, the Reception of the Venetian Ambassadors at Cairo. The character of the drawing and the structure of the faces are all of a piece with what we have already discussed.

Top Left: Three Mamluk Dignitaries (Royal Collection Windsor) ; Top Right, Centre Right: Details from St Mark Preaching ; Bottom: Detail from The Reception of the Ventian Ambassadors at Damascus or Cairo (Louvre)

We are starting to see connections between the Loredan portrait, various individual male portraits and portrait drawings, and at least one large crowd scene containing numerous other male portraits. The Saint Mark Preaching is said to have been finished by Giovanni at the request of his brother, Gentile Bellini. Are we entitled to conclude that Gentile, having painted (with or without help all the architecture at the back and sides of the Square, and thus set the stage, left his brother to put in the crowds that form such a distinct and stylistically coherent band across the lowest third of the picture? This is what our links with figures in that band begins to suggest. An oeuvre is building here that seems to connect with Giovanni Bellini, yet not at all with many famous pictures that bear his name in books and on gallery walls. Nothing, so far, indicates that we are looking at the work of the painter of The Madonna of the Meadows, for example, or the (different) painter of The Agony in the Garden; both of those paintings hang near the Loredan portrait, and both are assigned, like it, to Giovanni Bellini.

Clockwise from Top Left: Doge Loredano ; Madonna del Prato (National Gallery London) ; Agony in the Garden (National Gallery London)

Looking again at the Loredan portrait, at the modelling around the eyes, the lined temple, the general structure of the face, I think of a Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome in the Castelvecchio Museum in Verona, in particular the head of Saint Jerome, but also in the face of the Virgin: the same strongly hooded eyes of the Doge either side of a straight, narrow nose, and a definite chin. I see, in the naked body of the Christchild, that tight covering of flesh over bone; and in the brocade backdrop the large pattern now familiar from the Loredan portrait and certain robes in Saint Mark Preaching.

Juxtaposition from Top – Madonna and Child with St Jerome (Castelvecchio Verona) ; Centre – Pencil Drawing of the Madonna (Mueller Sale Amsterdam 1929) and Detail of the Madonna and St Jerome ; Bottom – Doge Loredano and Detail of St Jerome

Portrait of Doge Loredano with Venetian Lagoon (possibly since restored)

I detect our master’s hand, not Mansueti’s, in this picture, and I see no ‘Florentine master’s hand, but his Venetian one in a drawing for a Madonna’s head – so like the Verona one – sold by Mueller in Amsterdam (21 Nov. 1929, Lot18) which has a sketch for a Christchild’s leg, lower left, all in a style compatible with the other drawings we have considered.

From that drawing and that Verona painting we can move to another painting – again, alas, only known from a Sale catalogue – a Portrait of a Lady in a Rich Dress. The facial type in this portrait (Medlycott Sale, Sotheby, London 3 July 1929, Lot 27) is that of the Madonna, but note should be taken also of the pattern across her bust which is closely paralleled in the horned cap of both Doge Loredano and Doge Mocenigo, the latter as seen in profile in a  portrait from the Howard Young Galleries in New York and another Loredan  (now definitely an old man) in  a painting sadly destroyed by fire at Dresden in 1945. Set beside the latter a drawing in the Uffizi, and one can see what time does to a face.   Compare at this point the nose of Mocenigo and that of an Unknown man  in a drawing at the Uffizi. Compare also the head of Saint Peter in a panel ascribed to Giovanni da Udine at a Berlin sale (Kaufmann, 4 Dec 1917) with that of London’s Loredano; and thirdly, the head behind St Peter with the head of the Lady in a Rich Dress.

Clockwise from Top Left: Portrait of a Lady in a Rich Dress (Sothebys 1929) ; Head of a Man (Uffizi) ; Saint Peter with John the Evangelist and St Paul (last sold Berlin 1917) ; Doge Giovanni Mocenigo (Frick Collection New York) ; Doge Mocenigo (last sold Howard Young Galleries New York)

Returning to the Verona painting, but with a focus on the Child I  see a connection with a Crucifixion panel from  a Florentine collection (Count Niccolini da Canugliano). This work has the blue-white-bronze palette characteristic of the artist; but in the figure of Christ there is the same spare physique as the Child has, considerably elongated but with no fat on it, the flesh stretched over the skeleton in that rather Ghiberti-like manner of modelling. Something of this recurs in another Crucifixion in the Corsini gallery at Florence and in a Christ in the Tomb at Stockholm.

Crucifixion (Palazzo degli Alberti Prato) ; Crucifixion (Corsini Collection Florence) ; Christ Crowned with Thorns (National Museum Stockholm)

A drawing that I have omitted, in the Louvre, is relevant at this point. It shows a Saint in the habit of a monk, holding a tall slender cross in his right hand. Comparison should be made with the Windsor drawing of the three men conferring: the strong black-to-white transition from one side of the cheek-bone to the other, and from the lit to the shadowed side of a fold, links these and other drawings and paintings by this artist. Note also how he favours a tall figure – here emphasised by being seen sotto in su – and the tall stem of the cross, tall as the cross, and the figure on it in his Crucifixions. The Louvre Saint is – and here comes the climax of our investigations – the type of St Francis in what is perhaps the artist’s surviving masterpiece, the great Saint Francis in Ecstasy in the Frick Collection in New York.

Clockwise from Top Left: St Francis in the Desert (Frick Collection) ; St Francis (Louvre) ; Background detail from St Francis in the Desert ; Doge Loredano

The Frick Saint Francis returns us to London in the sense that, for all its complicated organisation, it is built in the same chromatic range (present also in the Niccolini Crucifixion), the colour-scheme of a golden autumnal landscape of brown earth and pale rock, that has not seen rain for many days but been baked under a blue sky. Here it is the flesh of the Earth itself that is stretched tight over rock, and the rock, showing through it, is as hard as the cheekbone or temple or chin of the Doge. Here ecstasy is not ecstatic in any outward show;  a vision of the world is seen out of an eye deep-set in its cavern, a socket in the rock and bone of the earth. It is a vision, but one of creatures like the Saint living at the base of a far taller world, tall as the sky.

Clockwise from Top Left: St Jerome Reading in the Countryside (National Gallery London) ; St Jerome Reading in the Countryside (National Gallery Washington) ; St Jerome with Stone and Crucifix also attrib Cima da Conegliano (Kress Washington) ; St Jerome Reading (Berlin Print Rooms) ; St Jerome Reading (Ashmolean Museum Oxford)

The colour-scheme and the bare-rock landscape that we see in the Frick Saint Francis are evident in several versions of Saint Jerome Reading, notably the one in Washington’s National Gallery and another in London’s. The consistent adoption of this blue-bronze palette does seem to be a defining factor in distinguishing this artist from others labelled as ‘Bellini’.

Left to Right: Head of a Man (Uffizi) ; Doge Loredano (M.H. de Young Museum San Francisco) ; Doge Loredano (National Gallery London)

Our artist would appear to be the official painter of the Doge, and Leonardo Loredano is portrayed again, much older, more gaunt, in a panel at the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco. The  burnt brown colouring, relieved only by a creamy white, is expressively autumnal and sad.

We can begin to imagine that for the artist as well as for us Leonardo Loredano was more than an individual with unique facial features. In London his head, chest and shoulders rest on a parapet, like a bust on a marble shelf; as such he is an icon (much as a Madonna is), – yes a, not the – but an icon, I suggest, of Good Government. In reality the Doge of Venice did not have much power, but what is historically true seems of little relevance in front of this image. I could be told that he was a weak and ineffectual head of state, I could even be told that he was a cruel tyrant, and my reaction to the portrait would not change, because the effect of it is to remind us that, for all the evidence of misgovernance in so many parts of our own world, the possibility of good governance is still with us, as it was in the time of the artist. And there is the face of it: shrewd, wise, calm, just. Ambrogio Lorenzetti had found his own, allegorical, way to depict Good Government for the city of Siena. Giovanni Bellini did it another way for his, by portraying a ruler who just looks as if he would act wisely.

The above remarks prompt an interesting question: what difference would it make to our response if we were presented with Loredano’s head only? The answer must surely be that in this special case – a portrait of a ruler – we would lose a sense of the head ruling over the body, not just personally but politically. A bust gives us convergence from two sides as we follow the majestic line of the shoulders going upwards to the neck and the head. This is the Venetians looking upwards to their Head of State, a fount of authority that flows back down again, as down the neck of a flask, except that the flow is cut off by the barrier of the parapet; the people are kept at a distance, the very dignity of his position removes him from them – as indeed it did. A pictorial convention much favoured in the Bellini workshop for Virgin and Child pictures and portraits of lesser mortals has, in this case, a particular expressive connotation.

We are left with the cartellino, the same lettering on the Frick Saint Francis as on the Doge Loredano in London.

Cartellino details from Saint Francis in the Desert (Left) and Doge Loredano (Right)

If we are to believe that Gentile got his brother to finish the Saint Mark Preaching, then it follows from my connoisseurship argument and its trail of comparisons that the Doge Loredano in the National Gallery is an authentic work by Giovanni Bellini. The point  that I wanted to make in calling this essay Balkanising Bellini – Part One was to suggest that not all the works with ‘Bellini’ labels, whether painted into the images or affixed beside them on gallery walls, are by Giovanni. It will need future Studies to demonstrate this, but if we agree to say that Giovanni is the author of the Loredan portrait, we have to question, and sooner or later deny, his authorship of many other paintings and drawings attributed to him, including most, if not all, the ‘Bellini’s in the London National Gallery. The corpus of all attributions to Giovanni Bellini (as to Rogier van der Weyden) is in reality no corpus, no coherent body of work, at all; it is a very unsatisfactory miscellany, a territory, as it were, that needs to be split up into separate states, each with the sort of identity that unites, I now think, this Loredan  Master’s output.

Scholars accept that there was a workshop system, and they know a lot more about it than I do; but when they come to the task of attributing works,  they are often affected by the ‘famous name syndrome’ that is rife among curators. The label ‘Giovanni Bellini’ becomes as prestigious for the modern museum as it was for the original Venetian clientele. It is known intellectually, but forgotten in practice, that ‘Giovanni Bellini’ means a firm named after the head of it, an individual called Giovanni Bellini, of the Bellini family, who worked in the shop alongside an unknown number of other artists. The commissions came in, work was allocated, in whole or in part, to this artist or that artist, and when the work was finished, it went out, duly labelled with the name of the firm.

The connoisseur – this one anyway – is understandably daunted by the huge task of sorting out the different hands responsible for these ‘Bellini’ products, but it needs to be undertaken if we are not to live with confusion and misapprehension. Pictures labelled with a name will have to be replaced with no name, an anonymous master of extant work that nevertheless has some stylistic coherence. I chose the Loredan portrait as a starting point because I admire it. Perhaps it really was painted by Giovanni Bellini and the label tells the truth; but if so, I have only begun a ‘balkanising’, distributive process that must go on and do justice to all the other excellent artists who worked in Bellini’s shop and whose artistic identity has been so long subsumed under his name.

[strwbryjam]

types of people — pastries

tag yourself;

eclair: gazing at the eiffel tower out an apartment window, petting a fluffy cat, rose gardens in the spring, going to that new café to see how it is, visiting an old friend, millennial pink, iced tea, fluzzy blankets, always listening to edith piaf

cannoli: picnics in the countryside, light linen, trips to sicily, greek statues, always lost in a daydream, soft bunnies, art museums, outside cafés, likes nuts on everything, has good ideas, can accomplish anything they put their mind to

mille-feuille: bike rides on rainy days, collared shirts, wears browns and blacks, only lets certain people in, hot coffee, sweaters, sensitive, cobblestone streets, short hair, sketching statues in the louvre, boat rides on the seine

macaron: walks on the champs-elysees, knee-length skirts, wants to dye their hair, extroverted, everyone loves them, polka dots, kate spade bags, sweet tooth, twirling in the street, can binge watch the entire show in a day, loud laughter, space buns

cinnamon bun: messy buns, huge cups of hot chocolate, rosy cheeks, chubby, adorable as FRICK, short, scared of their own shadow, thick glasses, wants to try new things, studying in cafes, warm sweaters, sweetest person you’ll ever meet