#van dyck's apprentice

[angelo-chuck-wagon]

Paintings by court painter A. Chuck Wagon

All paintings commissioned by my ladylord and patron and her betrothed, Sir William.

@lady-lord-cornbury @william-the-ladyfinger

Student and partner of @anthonis-van-dyck

[ssapphos]

sabine wren & shin hati — belonging

ahsoka, ‘fallen jedi’ / orpheus and eurydice, edward poynter / self-recognition through the other, unknown artist / buried light, beau taplin / ahsoka, ‘master and apprentice’ / letters to milena, franz kafta / ahsoka, ‘master and apprentice’ / the creation of adam, michelangelo / william ll prince of orange and his bride mary stuart, anthony van dyck / ring for two people, otto künzli

[anthonis-van-dyck]

Ahem!

Pleased to meet you, @angelo-chuck-wagon.

I received word that you are to be my new apprentice.

I want you to know that I was a painting prodigy and that I expect the same from you. I will not waste my precious time on mediocre dilettantes and dabblers.

Not only was I a child prodigy, my beauty as a twink was clearly outstanding. Both ladies and gentlemen of the court vied for my art and favour.

Portraits of the artist as young twink

Now as a mature artist, I am still extremely handsome.

I pack a punch with both the ladies and the gentlemen. The LadyLord Her Highness Edward Earl of Cornbury @lady-lord-cornbury is very taken with my talent. I was also able to show your patron and benefactor William what a stallion I am.

From my apprentice I expect: devotion, reverence, veneration.

He may pay me his respects tomorrow and bring his washed and fine-tipped paintbrush with him.

You may now kiss my hand.

If you want to prepare yourself somewhat better, please study:

"Flattery will get you far, and Anthony Van Dyck learned to schmooze from the best. Van Dyck began painting in Peter Paul Rubens’ studio in 1613. Van Dyck was 14, but quickly became the master’s right hand. .... Giovanni Bellori, a historian and contemporary of Van Dyke’s, described him cutting an impressive figure with fine clothes and entourage: “…his behavior was that of a nobleman rather than an ordinary person, and he shone in rich garments; since he was accustomed in the circle of Rubens to noblemen, and being naturally of elevated mind, and anxious to make himself distinguished, he therefore wore—as well as silks—a hat with feathers and brooches, gold chains across his chest, and was accompanied by servants.”

The English court loved Anthony Van Dyck, because he made them look awesome. With a careful eye to fashionable dress and impeccable detail, and a causal ease in posture, Van Dyck’s portraits gave their subjects a look of “instinctive sovereignty.”

His success with the court soon required the development of a large studio, where a visitor claimed that Van Dyck outlined the figures and painted only the heads and hands, leaving the clothing and background to a growing team of apprentices and specialists. Working efficiently, Van Dyck built an enormous library of works, and influenced portrait painting to this day. Formal dress, casual attitude, and the confidence of looking like the best version of yourself."

Source: Dandies, divas, and cavalier style

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Gerard Thomas - Painter's studio -

Gerard Thomas (1663–1721) was a late Flemish Baroque painter who specialized in studio and picture gallery interiors. He became a master in Antwerp's Guild of St. Luke in 1688–89, and was dean twice. Many of his paintings reflect a trend in Antwerp painting around 1700 that shows artists—often historical masters from earlier in the century like Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck or Jacob Jordaens—in their studios, surrounded by paintings and sculptures, and teaching the craft to a young apprentice. The masters are often only hinted by the works of art pictured in the painting itself, however.

[paleparearchive]

Beauty Comes from Hard Work!

Van Dyck's initial 2★ story (1/1)

Location: park (day & rainy) | Characters: Van Dyck, Velazquez, Rubens

Van Dyck: (Oooh c'mon! I thought I was going to be alone with Teacher today for an outdoor sketch… Why is Velazquez with us…!)

Velazquez: … What is it? Do you need something, or do I have something on my face?

Van Dyck: Whatever. It's nothing.

Velazquez: I see.

… I thought the brushstrokes seemed disorganized.

Van Dyck: Shut up! Whose fault is it…

Velazquez: Hm. Is it somebody's fault?

Van Dyck: … Sigh.

Rubens: I was the one who invited Velazquez-chan. Please be nice to him, Tony.

Van Dyck: R-Rubens-sensei! O-O-O-O-Of course! … But, but let's definitely go out alone, just the two of us!!

Rubens: Fufu, alright.

Van Dyck: It's a promise, okay!?

Rubens: Yes yes, I got it, now it's time for you to focus on your painting.

Van Dyck: Y-Yes, my apologies!

Uh…? Aah, it's raining!

Rubens: Oh nooo, we're going to get weeet~

—

Rubens: Awww, it poured down in a short whilee~ I'm soaking wet.

Velazquez: Right. It's a relief there was a covered arbor here.

Van Dyck: … Where? What's the relief?

Velazquez: Van Dyck? What's wrong?

Van Dyck: Not beautiful… Rain isn't beautiful, falling down with all the debris in the air. It's like having sewage doused over your head, don't you get it!?

Velazquez: It's certainly not fresh water, but is it really something to be nervous about?

Van Dyck: Of course!? Don't you know how much damage the rain does to your skin and hair? My clothes are soaking wet inside! The hem got dirty from mud while splashing on it!!

For me, having the nicest and smoothest hair is the best thing… It's not attractive at all when it's all wet and stuck on like this!

I... like this... I'm not beautiful like this…!! No… No, not at all! I can't show Teacher that I'm not beautiful…!

(I don't want to be seen... I don't want to be hated!)

Velazquez: Uh? Calm down, Van Dyck. A little wetting won't make any difference for you.

Van Dyck: Shut up! I don't want to hear that from you, you don't know what beauty is! You leave all of your clothes, your belongings, and all of your beauty to Rubens-sensei!

Velazquez: Sure, I don't know much about clothes… But no matter how I dress, I'm still me.

Rubens: That's right. Velazquez-chan, you haven't changed, fufu.

Velazquez: Indeed. It's the same. A little bit of wetness won't change your nature, will it, Van Dyck?

Van Dyck: Does that mean I'm unattractive, no matter what happens!?

Velazquez: Why so? I said that you're beautiful in your essence and that you shine beautifully whether you're wet or not.

Van Dyck: … Huh?

Velazquez: We all know that you work hard everyday to be beautiful.

Van Dyck: Uh, ah… but…

Rubens: That's true, Tony. You're you. You're so beautiful even when you're wet. My beautiful child.

Van Dyck: R-Rubens-sensei… You mean it, really…?

Rubens: I do. You're my precious, sweet, lovely, beautiful apprentice.

Van Dyck: Teacher… Thank you so much!

Rubens: Alright, the rain has subsided considerably. Let's go home quickly, take a bath, wash and dry ourselves. Then your hair will be fluffy and smooth again.

Van Dyck: Y-Yes!

I… I will work even harder to be beautiful!

[thegreenwallrabbit-blog]

Explaining one of VTMB paintings (pt 9)

Cain Killing Abel oil on canvas (Second quarter of 17th century) by Pietro Novelli 

Pietro Novelli (March 2, 1603 – August 27, 1647) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Palermo. He was born in Monreale, and died in Palermo. He initially trained with his father, a painter and mosaicist. His father died in 1625 from the bubonic plague.[2]As a young apprentice he was a fellow pupil with Gerardo Asturino.[3] In 1618, he moved to Palermo and apprenticed with Vito Carrera (1555–1623). His first dated work is from 1626: St. Anthony Abbot for the church of Sant'Antonio Abate in Palermo. The development of his style owed much to Anthony van Dyck, who visited Sicily in 1624 and whose altarpiece, the Madonna of the Rosary in the oratory of Santa Maria del Rosario in Palermo was highly influential for local artists. He was also commissioned works and paintings for many churches in Piana degli Albanesi, and various works to adorn the villas of the Sicilian nobility. Other influences on Novelli were the Caravaggisti or tenebrists active in Naples (for example, Ribera). Novelli also painted for the church of Santa Zita in Monreale, and painted a Marriage of Cana for the refectory of the Benedictines in Monreale.He was injured during the revolution in Palermo in 1647, and died from his wounds.[4] His pupils included Andrea Carreca, Francesco Maggiotto, Francesco Giselli, Michele Blasco, Vincenzo Marchese, Giacomo lo Verde, and Macri da Girgenti. He was also an architect and stage set designer. [1]

The term Baroque probably ultimately derived from the Italian word barocco, which philosophers used during the Middle Ages to describe an obstacle in schematic logic. Subsequently the word came to denote any contorted idea or involuted process of thought. Another possible source is the Portuguese word barroco (Spanish barrueco), used to describe an irregular or imperfectly shaped pearl, and this usage still survives in the jeweler’s term baroque pearl. Baroque art and architecture refers to the visual arts and building design and construction produced during the era in the history of Western art that roughly coincides with the 17th century. The earliest manifestations, which occurred in Italy, date from the latter decades of the 16th century, while in some regions, notably Germany and colonial South America, certain culminating achievements of Baroque did not occur until the 18th century. The work that distinguishes the Baroque period is stylistically complex, even contradictory. In general, however, the desire to evoke emotional states by appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways, underlies its manifestations. Some of the qualities most frequently associated with the Baroque are grandeur, sensuous richness, drama, vitality, movement, tension, emotional exuberance, and a tendency to blur distinctions between the various arts. [2]

Below is an explanation of the Cain and Able story from real life and in the context of VTM. This is the same for all the Explained Cain slaying Able paintings in VTMB posts I’ve done so feel free to skip if you’ve already read this as it’s long.

___________________________________________________________

The tale of Cain murdering his brother Able are nearly identical in Jewish, Christian and Islamic texts with the oldest known version coming from the Dead Sea Scroll from the first century BCE. Cain was the the first born son of Adam and Eve and became a Farmer while Able was the second born son and became a shepherd. Both brothers made sacrifices to God, but God favored Abel's sacrifice instead of Cain's. In Islam the reason for their offerings is to decide which brother would marry Adam and Even’s first daughter who was also Cain’s twin sister. Able also had a twin sister and Adam wanted the brothers to marry the others twin. In multiple religions each brother has a twin sister but there is no consistently with the names as Cain’s twin sister being named Aclima, Kalmana, Lusia, Cainan, Luluwa, or Awan, and  Able’s twin sister is named Jumella, Balbira or to make it more confusing Aclima (though even when she is called this Able’s twin sister is never the one the brothers are competing to marry) depending on the source. In the Islamic text Able’s offers his fattest sheep while Cain offered only a bunch of grass and some worthless seeds. In Jewish and Christian texts the reason for the sacrifices and the exact nature of their offerings are merely described as the first born of Ables heard and products from Cain’s fields.[3] The most description we get is in Genesis when God sees that Cain is upset that his offering was not chosen God tells Cain “: Why are you angry? Why are you dejected? If you act rightly, you will be accepted; but if not, sin lies in wait at the door: its urge is for you, yet you can rule over it.”(Genesis 4:6-7)  Cain then told Able to meet him in his fields where he then murdered his brother out of jealousy by hitting Abel in the head with a stone. When God asks Cain where his brother Cain, “I do not know! he answered. Am I my brother’s keeper?”(Genesis 4:9) to which God replies   “What have you done! The voice of your brother’s blood is calling to me from the ground. From now on you’ll get nothing but curses from this ground; you’ll be driven from this ground that has opened its arms to receive the blood of your murdered brother. You’ll farm this ground, but it will no longer give you its best. You’ll be a homeless wanderer on Earth.” (Genesis 4:10-12)  When Cain objects saying the punishment is to great and that whoever finds him wandering shall kill him which then God says “No. Anyone who kills Cain will pay for it seven times over.” God put a mark on Cain to protect him so that no one who met him would kill him.” (Genesis 4:15). Cain then leaves east of Eden to wander in No-Mans-Land with his wife (who is not named in Genesis but is assumed to be his Twin sister in all tellings regardless of what name is given to her). Their first born Child was named Enoch, and Cain named the first city he built after his son. After Abel’s Death Adam and Eve had a Third son named Seth and when eve gave birth to him Eve said “God has given me another child in place of Abel whom Cain killed.”(Genisis 4:25-26). In some texts Seths wife and sister is named Azura. Their son is named Enosh it is through Seth’s line that humanity stems from, though both Cain and Seth had multiple decedents and confusingly used the same names (see family tree below). None of Cain’s decedents suffered the curse of their father Cain but where still seen as sinful and apart from God and where killed in the great flood. How Cain died is not as an agreed upon topic. He was ether crushed to death by the stone house he built, an irony as he used a stone to slay his brother or in some versions part of the Mark of Cain had him grow horns and his descendent Lamech (not to be confused with Lamech who decedent from Seth and was the father of Noah) who was a blacksmith and had two wives(this is viewed as sinful) killed him mistaking him for a wild animal and killed his own son Tubal-cain in the process.

While in the lore of Vampire the Masquerade the tale of Cain killing his brother able as told in the Book of Nod stick to the original tale regarding the murder of Able but starts to differ in God’s punishment. "Father" cursed him with a mark, and cast him out to wander in darkness in the Land of Nod alone. There is no mention of a wife or if he was still cursed to be unable to farm however it is clear that Cain was not  yet cursed to be a vampire by God. The Land of Nod was a place of utter darkness, with no source of light, where Caine was afraid and alone. There he found Lilith where they began a relationship and Cain realized that she possessed magical power and begged her to share them with him. While hesitant Lilith prepares an Awakening ceremony by cutting herself with a knife, bleeding into a bowl, and giving it to him so that he may drink. After Caine partakes of Lilith's blood, he is visited by three angels who are agents of God. Each angel offers Caine a chance to repent for the murder of Abel, but Caine rebuffed them out of pride. Michael, when denied, cursed Caine and his childer to fear his living flame. Raphael cursed Caine and his childer to fear the dawn, as the sun's rays would burn like fire. Uriel then cursed Caine and his childer to cling to Darkness, drink only blood, eat only ashes, and be frozen at the point of death, cursed so all they touch would crumble into nothing. A fourth angel, Gabriel, then appeared to offer the way of Golconda, the only way to "light", by the mercy of God. After the experience, Caine becomes officially "Awakened", possessing the following Disciplines: Celerity, Potence, Fortitude, Obfuscate, Dominate, Presence, Protean, Animalism, and Auspex. Caine then became aware of the Path of Blood, the Final Path from which all paths stem. And with all these powers, but now being cursed to be a vampire he breaks his bond with Lilith and leaves her.[3] While Cain never biologically fathers any children it is clear that their names of those he embraced and their decedents are inspired by the biblical names in his line though with massive changes. For instance the first city is founded by Cain in the land of Nod and and called Ubar and is explicitly stated to be settled by “Children of Seth” with the human king being Enoch at the time Cain settles there. Enoch still becomes his son as he is embraced by Cain. Another example of the reuse of a biblical name of Cain’s line is Zillah (which in Hebrew means shade or protection). In the original story she is one of Lamech(decedent of Cain) two wives( the other named Adah). After both wives discover that Lamech unwittingly kills Tubal-Cain(one of Lamech and Zillah’s sons) they both refuse to have sex with him because of the deaths he caused, on the pretext that they do not desire to give birth to cursed offspring. The three go together to the tribunal of Adam; Adam rules that they must obey their husband since he killed unwittingly. This midrashic tradition portrays Adah and Zillah as respected women, whose position is considered in all seriousness by the court. [4] In VTM Zillah was a human woman who lived in Udar so beautiful, Caine could not resist the Embrace. According to Nosferatu Zillah is the one of Cain’s second generation who sired their Antediluvian. Interestingly, even after the Embrace, Zillah did not desire him. It frustrated Caine to the point that he was ripping his hair out of his head. He did anything and everything to make her desire him. Yet, she would not have him. Finally, Caine sought the Crone's magic, who ultimately tricked him into a blood bond, she forced the First Vampire to Embrace her. The Crone sent her new thrall away, telling him that his blood would have the power to bond others as Caine himself was bonded to the Crone. The discovery of the blood bond was what finally made Zillah agree to marry her sire Caine. [3]

[1]“Pietro Novelli .” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Nov. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietro_Novelli. 

[2]“Baroque Art and Architecture .” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., https://www.britannica.com/art/Baroque-art-and-architecture. 

[3] “Caine.” White Wolf Wiki, https://whitewolf.fandom.com/wiki/Caine.

[4] Kadari, Tamar. “Zillah: Midrash and Aggadah .” Jewish Women's Archive, https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/zillah-midrash-and-aggadah#:~:text=Zillah%20was%20a%20wife%20of,he%20unwittingly%20kills%20Tubal%2DCain.

[unhinged-summer-fun]

triptych

The Thief x Marcus Pike x F!Reader (22+)

chapter 1: the heirophant

series masterlist | taglist | previous chapter | next chapter

Summary: A thief, an artist, and the head of the Art Crimes program in the FBI all share a soul-bond. What could go wrong?

Series tags/warnings: Sexual content, art crime, light angst, art history and criticism, soulmate-identifying marks, slow burn, f!reader, a reader who doesn’t always do the right thing.

Chapter warnings: none.

More notes at the bottom! Referenced works linked in the text.

also on AO3.

Special Agent Marcus Pike wasn’t having a particularly good week.

To be perfectly honest, it was less depressing for him to think about this week being not good instead of the more brutally-honest alternative: that things hasn’t been any semblance of good since October, and the fiasco with his ex... well, calling her an ex-fiancee seemed a bit too overstated, considering their engagement lasted for all of three hours and ended over a text message and a blocked number.

Not that he was dwelling on it.

This specific week was a whole other story than his own, however. Thankfully.

Another piece of high-profile Baroque art had been stolen, this time from a gallery in Vaduz. While INTERPOL was investigating on location in Liechtenstein, he was being copied into every break in the case, meaning that by quitting time in D.C., he was still well past his bedtime, and new emails were coming in at one in the morning from the art theft agents on site.

Information about the painting taken kept him awake in addition to the regular bureaucracy of coordinating International Art Theft resources. It was from a lesser-known apprentice to van Dyck, and included studies of Charles I at the Hunt on the back of the wooden board, in addition to a long-debunked smudge which had caused quite a stir when art historians falsely claimed it had been a lipstick kiss. Still, the photographs the Vaduz gallery had supplied caught his interest.

For as long as he could remember, he’d been drawn to light. Specifically, light in art, until that interest had morphed into a general affection for art itself, and later a career in art theft prosecution. Whether it was a romantic notion, borne from the outline of the triptych shape that made up his soul-mark over his heart, or simply pure personal interest, Marcus didn’t know. But what he did know was that there was something about Baroque and even Rococo art that caught not only his eye, but his breath, at times. When he’d been a child, newly 18 and on a trip around the museums on the East Coast, he’d been... well, lucky wasn’t quite the word for it. He never considered himself lucky, no. He had a strange relationship with timing, is all.

He’d been one of the last people to lay eyes on the works stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum before they vanished five days later. He’d seen them on his birthday, and within a week they’d vanished, with a hundred little traces no one wanted to follow. Maybe that was the push to focus him into art history in college, and then criminal justice for his masters. Perhaps it was the frustration with the lack of real headway or investigation into the heist, and then the overwhelming coverage about the mafia trial happening in Boston following the scandal. Thirteen priceless pieces of art culture, gone forever.

The same helpless frustration had come over him in 2003, just over nine years since his 18th birthday, with the looting of the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. He knew much of the chaos had been brought from fear of American forces invading, which had made him second-guess his intention to get into federal criminal justice, until the FBI stood up the Art Crimes Team in offices across the country. His frustrations then had an outlet.

An outlet, which of course, only served to upset him even more. Most of the recovered works they did find in the ACT were damaged beyond repair, fences having been spooked into destroying the pieces rather than catching heat for selling them. Marcus had stood with his hands full of broken idols, and felt just as shattered a dozen different times.

The only hope he really ever held was looking in the mirror, staring down at the simple shapes that made up his soul-mark. His mother had been concerned about its never-changing status, despite him traveling all over for his job. He didn’t share that one time because he’d rather quite forget it. It never filled itself in, not how her mark had filled in to become brilliant orange poppies when meeting her future husband for the first time. Even after all these years, after he had died, that mark was still just as deep and rich, a garden where her love grew no longer.

His father had described the experience of his mark filling in quite simply: “I met her, and it felt like all the light I’d looked for had finally been let into my soul.”

It was no wonder he was so obsessed with artwork that focused on the play of light across stones, through trees, between clouds. It was no wonder he didn’t mind the east-facing windows in his tiny D.C. apartment, nor the heat which came with it. He kept crystal light-catchers and stained-glass art in the windows, sending rainbow prisms across his room, across his skin every morning. He’d look where the colors filled in the mark over his heart, and he’d hope and dream and pretend until he could get out of bed in the morning.

All this being said, the painting was that of a sunrise.

Two lovers had been painted over in the long grass at the focal point, hidden by paint strokes to keep their morning rendezvous a secret, even by this apprentice. For a piece of Baroque art, it wasn’t stingy with the colors, adding an almost-anachronistic hint of Impressionism to the scene. It was the kind of piece that Marcus knew he’d need a chair to look at, which made it a shame that he was sitting in a desk chair, looking over details on his laptop, while the painting could have been anywhere in the world.

At least his French wasn’t as bad as it had been before.

“The canvas dimensions match those of common briefcases, I doubt there’d be many opportunities at border checkpoints to uncover it, unless we asked every man in a suit in Europe to show us his paperwork.” The INTERPOL agent on the other line barked a laugh at his logic.

“Perhaps not that paperwork, no.”

Their teleconferences occurred several times a day with high-profile cases such as these. Most of the time, curators had no idea something had been taken from their galleries. The smarter burglars came prepared with forgeries, counterfeits ready to go while the actual art left with them out the door. The fact that this piece was noticed missing so soon gave the team an advantage, the theft having taken place less than a week ago - the start of the not a very good week.

Marcus may not have been a behavioral analyst, but he could tell when Jean-Pierre was frowning over something else.

“What is it? Something else come up?” Marcus asked, sipping his coffee.

“Yes,” Jean-Pierre said slowly, like he was still turning over the thought in his head. The fact he’d switched to English wasn’t a good sign. There was a brief moment where the INTERPOL agent didn’t speak, which made the hairs on the back of Marcus’s head stand on end. Jean-Pierre was typing in their WhatsApp thread, alleviating none of the anxiety which had sprung up in a particular office in D.C.

JP Benoit: Veduz had a Bernini.

Those four words made too much sense in their shared line of work, and Marcus sighed, rubbing at his temples. He tapped out a response back.

M Pike: Which Bernini.

JP Benoit: David.

“Fuck,” Marcus muttered to himself, standing from his desk but keeping an eye on his phone. No wonder Jean-Pierre couldn’t say anything out loud. “Fuck,” he repeated, realizing that he didn’t have enough coffee for this. Jean-Pierre still had that look of I haven’t gotten to the worst part yet, which made Marcus frown even deeper. “You think it’s him.”

“I don’t know why, it’s... smells like him.”

Marcus let out a dry laugh. “He doesn’t leave enough for us to smell.”

There was a crack theory among international art theft investigators, some kind of urban legend responsible for most of the unsolved thefts in the last thirty years. Marcus didn’t know if he believed it - most gangs and thieves were caught within a decade or so, braggarts all. This list of unknowns had sprouted legs and walked off with some of the most beloved paintings galleries had to offer. Fragonard’s The Swing. Francesco Hayez’ watercolor Il Bacio, and all three pieces of his Vendetta triptych. Aivazovsky’s Constantinople Sunset. Van Gogh’s unsigned but popularly-attributed Cafe Terrace at Night. Several Ladell still-lifes. A metric fuck ton of Henry Fox Talbot photographs. All of these pieces had several things in common - scenes of love, and scenes of light. Hell, Jean-Pierre had once told him the thief had walked off with five of Monet’s Charing Cross Bridge paintings. The most popular attribution was that of the thirteen pieces from the Gardner.

That last theory had been enough for Marcus to dismiss the concept entirely, and Jean-Pierre kept his conspiracies to himself after that.

Until this week, though.

“When can you get on a secure line?” Marcus asked, wanting to know more about the missing six-and-a-half-foot sculpture.

“Sometime tonight,” Jean-Pierre sighed, rubbing a hand over his face wearily. “You need some more sleep if you’re going to hear about this from me.”

“That I do.” Marcus sighed in the same manner, shaking his head. “Alright. If... if you think he’s taken what he’s taken, then I trust you. It’s your case. Send me everything you have on him and I’ll get spun up.” He didn’t apologize for his initial brush-off of the concept of such a prolific thief, but if they were going to catch them, they needed to be on the same page.

Jean-Pierre wisely didn’t send any of the profile for several hours, knowing Marcus was a light sleeper and practically lived on his phone in the middle of a new case. This allowed the agent to get at least a few hours of sleep in, shoddy as they were, what with the neighbor’s new baby being extremely displeased at existing most hours in the day.

Me too, kid, Marcus thought dryly, before passing out.

With at least the pinpointed moment of his bad week in the calendar, Marcus watched his bad week extend to a bad month. The Bernini, and Lovers at Sunrise, and now three more pieces from a private collector had all vanished, traceless save for the conspiracy. The photos provided by the collector - a rather unpleasant man from Menlo Park, New Jersey who considered federal investigations, in his words “gauche” - only made Marcus more suspicious. It felt like he was seeing things in a new light, when applying this masterful thief theory to the story.

He was good, Marcus knew. Too good. He didn’t pay off guards, didn’t break down doors or windows, he instead breezed past tripwires and security protocols with little more than a small gasp in the security system. Whoever it was, they were a real thorn in his side, and a walking migraine for all involved.

JP Benoit: We obviously can’t follow him. We have to trap him.

Marcus smoothed down the mustache he’d grown out of stress, too distracted to trust his normally-steady hands.

M Pike: I might have an idea.

He did more research, and didn’t bother querying online, or even over the phone. An agreement like this was bound to be sniffed out sooner or later, so keeping things on paper or simply in the air would be safest. He got approval from his superiors, and drove to a little loft in Shaw.

He almost missed the building three times, the colorful brick buildings and decorated industrial edifices catching his eye in the early-morning light. He was quite-but-not-quite undercover for this venture, a suit and jacket replaced by a hoodie and jeans, his briefcase now a worn blue backpack, and his shoes one of the pairs that still fit him from grad school. He still felt too exposed, like this. Everyone knew that feds walked every street in D.C., a fact he was a bit too aware of as he pressed the buzzer next to the...

What?

Next to the buzzer for number 313 was an empty triptych.

“Hello?” your voice came through, and Marcus found himself freezing up on the sidewalk. “Uhh did I order food?”

Marcus scrambled to respond. “No, no. This is uh.” Oh Jesus, why did he use his middle name for this? “Ithas.”

A few seconds passed in silence, presumably with you laughing behind the mute button on the speaker. “Come up, O Prometheus, and bring your thefted flame.”

He had no time to recover before the buzzer for the door sounded, and he caught it before it locked again. The inside of the building was just as... interesting as the outside. It must have been some kind of artist collective, common in the artsier enclaves in D.C. He was a little sidetracked, when ascending the tiled stairs, he caught sight of a massive and detailed mural of The Swing, though with considerably less clothes, and the mistress in a sex swing. He blushed furiously, and went up to the third floor.

The door to 313 was propped open by a large cement frog, and as Marcus drew closer, he heard a grunt and something dragging across the floor. Warily, he knocked on the spot below the numberplate, and poked his head in. “Hello?”

“Prometheus? That you?” You walked around the corner, dusting your hands off on a dirty blue apron. Your hair was in some kind of style that may have once been a bun, and your makeup looked left over from the previous night. Maybe meeting a creative type on a Monday morning wasn’t the best idea he’s had. You looked him up and down, expression morphing from curiosity to intrigue in a few seconds. “You don’t look like an Ithas.”

“It’s a, uh, it’s a middle name.”

Your eyebrows pushed up. “Ooh, codenames before coffee. You must be a fed.”

Marcus didn’t have too good of a poker face, especially around people as beautiful as you. You take in his nonverbal answer and laugh, throwing your head back.

“Oh, wow. Please, come in.” You disappeared around the corner you came from, and he stepped in. The murals on the walls in the hall bled into - or perhaps from - your apartment, which was an open-plan loft with lots of windows and natural light streaming in. Several canvases and half-formed clay sculptures sat around the space more like clutter than actual decor, but Marcus found his eyes distracted, bouncing from one beautiful thing to another, yet always skipping back to you. “Do you drink coffee, fire-stealer?”

Marcus grimaced. “You can just call me Marcus. And yeah, if you’re offering.” He sits at your counter, at the safest place that wasn’t covered in sketchbooks, supplies, and a slightly-terrifying pile of bills. He didn’t like knowing so much about people all at once, but his training had another idea.

“Marcus,” you said, tilting your head to the side and considering him again. He fought the urge to shiver at the way his name sounded on your tongue. “Yeah. Marcus. You seem more like a Marcus to me.”

“...Thank you?” he said, unsure how to respond. You barreled through with the rest of your train of thought.

“Sometimes people grow into their names, and sometimes their names become them. Middle names are a bit of a mystery, though. In Ancient Rome, middle names, or cognomen, were related to the branch of your family line you were raised by. Well, unless you were a woman. Over time, it became a means of honoring deceased relatives, or providing individuality in an aristocratic family that just named everyone John. Yet somehow, my mother came upon Titania, and decided that I needed to fill the shoes of Shakespeare’s queen of the faeries.” You pushed the coffee cup over to him, with a small tray of cream and sugar in little mismatched cups.

“You’d think fairy shoes would be small and thus easy to fill,” Marcus said, recovering and adding in probably a little too much cream and sugar to qualify his drink as coffee. He won a small smile from your lips, like he’d passed a test of some kind.

“Surely none as large as Prometheus.” You drank from your own mug, smiling as you sipped.

“I don’t think I ever let my name determine my path in life. I’m certainly no thief.”

“Certainly,” you echoed, before setting down your drink, a serious glint catching in your eye. “Now, to what do I owe the pleasure of Uncle Sam at my door? The tax thing was handled years ago.”

“I’m-I’m not that kind of fed,” he stuttered, fishing his badge out of his pocket. “Special Agent Marcus Pike, FBI Art Crimes Team. I’m the head of the International Art Theft squad, and it’s a bit of a story.”

Your once-open and playful expression had shadowed some. Marcus wished he could take back the words that dulled your sunshine. He floundered a little more. “I’m not here to arrest you for anything. In fact, I need your help. Oh, this is all backwards.”

“Hey,” you said softly, reaching over and stilling his flustered hands from where they were trying to pull on the stuck zipper of his bag. He looked up at you, all big brown eyes and pouty lips. It floored you for a moment, how little he tried to hide of his feelings. It made your fingers twitch, and something near your heart burn. “It’s okay,” you reassured him. “I’m not worried about all that. You work in art theft. I’m an artist. You’re trying to catch someone.”

He deflated, relieved you could infer as much. “Yes,” he said simply. The bag finally opened. “There’s been this... anomaly.” He scrunched his face up at the word, which you found endearing. His face made a lot of different and interesting lines, and you loved it instantly. He explained the theory about the thief, and pointed out the pieces attributed to him. There was a shadow investigation coordinated among INTERPOL, Scotland Yard, the FBI, and the Ministry of Intelligence in England. As he was the only one in the U.S., aside from the Director, who knew about this squad, he couldn’t tell you, but he could tell you what he needed, and hope that smart mind did the rest.

“So why come to me? I know it doesn’t look it, but I’m not a thief.”

The paintings and sketches and sculptures you were working on, or kept stored and in sight, all shared styles with other master painters. A cubist recreation of a blue sedan could have been a Picasso, if he’d ever seen a Honda Civic. The short wax ballerina flipping off the viewer was so close to a Degas sculpture that Marcus had to take another look just to be sure. The lovingly recreated and cheekily altered Fragonard in the hall had your mark on them as well. You were a painter of styles not your own. Your hands remained ill-at-ease unless they were mimicking another, rhyming with the past.

“I know that,” Marcus said. “What I’m asking is... I’d like to commission you. Three pieces, inspired by the pieces we think he took. To be safe, probably a sculpture, a scenic painting, and whatever other media you think would attract him.”

“You want me make art with the goal that it will be stolen,” you deadpanned, lacing your fingers together and resting your chin on them. “Am I getting this right?”

“We’ll have trackers built into the frames, the paint you use, the materials you need. If he takes them, we’ll be able to track him a lot better than the historic masterpieces he’s nabbed before.” You looked at him like he’s grown another head, because the idea was so obviously crazy that you had no idea how it would even work.

“I have rates,” you said after a moment, and he grinned. “I’m charging more because it’s the government.”

“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t,” he said joyfully.

“And my process is unique and important to me. I’m not going to half-ass art that’s doomed to be hidden forever.”

“Of course.” He nodded, smiling so hard the corners of his eyes crinkled up.

“You really wanna catch this guy, don’t you?” you asked, tilting your head the other direction than before. Marcus didn’t correct you, but you could tell this was getting a bit personal for him, just by his reaction. “Alright, I’ll... I’ll see what I can do. Give me a week to think it over, and I’ll meet up again to see what you think.”

“We can’t meet at the office, unfortunately. This is a very off-the-books kind of investigation, and we’ll need to make it look like a legitimate commission.”

“Then breakfast.”

“What?” he asked, losing the thread for a moment.

“Then we’ll meet for breakfast next Monday. For all intents, it’ll look like two friends meeting for pancakes. You like pancakes, right?”

“I love pancakes...” he said, some kind of faraway look in his eye. He wanted to ask about the symbol on your call box, but the words died on his tongue at your sweet smile.

“This is my number,” you said, writing it on a scrap of paper nearby. “I’m awake pretty much all the time except when I’m not.” He exchanges your number for the envelope of pictures he’d brought for reference.

“This is all the pieces we know of, in case you need some inspiration.”

“Thanks.”

“There’s also $3,000 in there.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” He got up and looked around a little more, before awkwardly waving and making his goodbyes. He was nearly out the door when the mark on his chest surged and burned. He turned to look at you. You were watching him with another strange, curious look in your eye. He almost asked, again, but chickened out once more. “Did you—? Did you paint the—”

“Les Hasards heureux de la sex swing?” you answered, smugness apparent on your lips. “Yeah, about four months ago. You a fan?”

“I think I could be.”

“Have a good day, Marcus Ithas Pike.”

“And to you, Queen Titania.”

Authors Notes:

- I have only watched the Marcus Pike crumbs of the Mentalist. I don't give half a shit about the rest lmao. - Some of the pieces I reference are actually stolen, but not all. A lot of them come from @moodsworks​'s art she made of the Thief among his hoarde, which is the main inspiration for this whole nonsense. Please please go look, I'm eternally in awe and I'm hanging this piece in my home as we speak. - Prometheus was nicknamed Ithas or Ithax by a 5th century grammarian Hesychius. It's where the placename Ithaca comes from! - Titania is the name of the Queen of the Faeries in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Her husband's name is Oberon. You can tell where I'm going with this. - All the drivel about middle names is true. - The real-life FBI Art Crimes Team was stood up in 2004 because of the looting at the National Museum of Iraq in 2003. I'm pretty sure it's currently run by the same woman who started it then. I don't think there's an actual International Art Theft department, but governments often help one another out in these kinds of high-profile incidents. - Learn more about why the Gardner heist was such a headache in the Netflix docuseries This is a Robbery. - The referenced stolen painting in Vaduz is made up, as is the sex swing painting. - We meet the Thief in next chapter, and he's going to eventually have a name, sorry. If you want a fic where we don't ever know his name, I've got one of those too.

[paulriedelposts]

Alte Pinakothek Munich

One of my favorite museums in Bavaria is the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. It is an art museum that houses great painting collections from past centuries. If you are a lover of art like I am, you will definitely fall in love with everything about Alte Pinakothek. The museum is not only one of the oldest in Europe, but it is also one of the oldest in the world. The name derived from century collections that the museum covers. Alte means old, while Pinakothek refers to collections that cover the span of the 14th to 18th centuries. Alte Pinakothek is also a perfect venue for tourists in Bavaria. Personally, I like hosting a tour guide of this magnificent edifice. However, there are a lot of backstories you should know about Alte Pinakothek.

Year of Construction

In 1862, King Ludwig I of Bavaria gave an order to commence the construction of Alte Pinakothek. The city needed a building for famous artworks. These included canvasses painted by Rubens and artworks from the Wittelsbach family. The construction of Alte Pinakothek at that point in time was the modern-day standard. Due to this, a lot of later built museums in Germany and other European nations modeled after the Alte Pinakothek. Alte Pinakothek closed when World War II started in 1939. All the artworks stored away to prevent destruction. The idea was profitable as the building was extremely damaged during the war.

After War Reconstruction

After the war, a reconstruction of the building took place. It was then reopened in 1957 with president Theodor Heuss in attendance. The reconstruction process was such that the new building did not look completely different from the previous one, especially the exterior features of the building. Also, to leave a mark of the damage caused by the world war as part of history, some holes on the exterior walls were not entirely fixed. Instead, they were filled with bricks.

Architects from Alte Pinakothek

After the order of King Ludwig, I, Leo Von Klenze (1784-1864) was the first architect to begin work on Alte Pinakothek. He studied building and architecture in Berlin, under the tutelage of Friedrich Gilly. From Berlin, he moved on to Paris where he worked as an apprentice under some masters. Leo Von Klenze later came back to Germany, but this time he moved to  Bavaria. He began working for king Ludwig in 1816. He is responsible for buildings like the Monopteros temple and Konigsplatz. In 1862 he designed the architectural style for the famous Alte Pinakothek. The second architect responsible for the reconstruction of Alte Pinakothek after the world war was Hans Dollgast (1891-1974). While other architects clamored for total destruction and rebuilding, he was smart enough to devise a plan for reconstruction to make the building just like its former state. Even though Dollgast wasn’t internationally famous as an architect, his work and influence on the reconstruction of Alte Pinakothek were regarded as a masterpiece. He had a very modest architecture career. He worked with Peter Behrens to design a Munich housing estate. Around the 1930s, he became an academician, teaching at Munich’s Technical University. He also worked on the building of churches.

Alte Pinakothek Building Styles

After the first construction, the museum was not only the largest in the world, it had modernized architectural settings. One of its stand out feature was the Neo-Renaissance exterior that made it different from any other museum in that century. It was clearly one of a kind. When Alte Pinakothek was opened to the public in 1836, a lot of people from far and near came to witness it. Hence other galleries and museums were modeled after it. They include Russian’s Hermitage Museum located in Saint Petersburg, and other famous galleries in Italy, Belgium, etc.   After the reconstruction in 1957, some interior features that existed prior to the war, like the ornate and the large loggia on the floor were not replaced. Gradually, remodeling also took place. In 2008 the walls in all the rooms on the upper ground of the building were covered. The material used for this was woven silk manufactured in Lyon. An interior part of the building that has not been altered is the red and green colors used to design the walls in the room. These colors are traditional, right from the time of King Ludwig I, and this remains the same even in some of Europe’s famous galleries.

Famous Collections in the Alte Pinakothek

All activities of the Alte Pinakothek museum is under the regulations of the Bavarian State Painting Collections. This body is also responsible for a wide array of collections ranging to thousands of paintings in Europe, gathered from various centuries. However, Alte Pinakothek only house collections from the 14th to 18th centuries. Collections from the 19th century are in the Neue Pinakothek museum. On the other hand, modern-day collections are housed in the Pinakothek der Moderne. Alte Pinakothek is rich in a lot of early days’ artworks. These include collections from Italy, Old Netherlands, Old Germany, France, Spain, Flemish schools, etc. It is inarguably the most important gallery in Germany and arguably the most important in the world. Some famous artists who have their paintings featured in the museum include. William IV, Albrecht Durer, and Rubens from the 1500s. Actually, Alte Pinakothek has more Ruben collections than any other gallery in Europe. German Painters that dominate the gallery are Durer, Altdorfer, Grunewald, Holbein, etc. Dutch painters that have their works featured include Rembrandt, Bosch, Bouts, etc. Some of the Flemish collections have works from Memling, van Dyck, etc. For the Italian collections, there are works from Da Vinci, Giotto, Tintoretto, etc. The collections in Alte Pinakothek is over 800 artworks and paintings. As a matter of fact, the museum cannot contain all of them, hence more paintings were moved to other galleries in Bavaria.

Renovation of the Alte Pinakothek

The renovation 2014 closed some parts of the museum. This lasted till 2017. Subsequently, artworks and paintings were not available for viewing in that period. The renovation of these parts added to the beauty of the museum. So, if you have not seen the new look of Alte Pinakothek, you are missing out on a lot.

Fazit

One more important part is having a tour guide with in-depth knowledge on these artworks take you through Alte Pinakothek. I promise that you are going to have a great time with me on this tour. So what are you waiting for?

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[william-the-ladyfinger]

Jesus Christ!! I am handsome!

William twirls his moustache. His feelings are a mixture of pride, vanity - he is very vain, very very vain - and embarrassment that Chuck has devoted so much time and talent to him while he himself....

You are very talented, Chuck! I mean I knew about your talents, but not in that... area.

You know our court painter Anthony van Dyke Dick Dyck? He might accept you as apprentice... Maybe my Ladylord could appoint you as court painter, too!

I am quite intimate with Anthony... If you get my drift ....

Anthonis Van Dyck

@angelo-chuck-wagon

My William,

I done painted a portrait of ya. Angelo told me not to make it a centaur like I wanted, but I’m still really lovin’ this! A gift for ya, sos you can think of me when ya see it in your fancy manor house.

@neo-of-sporin

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Pieter Thijs - Bathsheba - 

Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, according to the Hebrew Bible. She is most known for the biblical narrative in which she was summoned by King David, who had seen her bathing and lusted after her. She was the mother of Solomon, who succeeded David as king, making her the Queen mother.

Pieter Thijs, Peter Thijs or Pieter Thys (Antwerp, 1624 – Antwerp, 1677) was a Flemish painter of portraits as well as religious and history paintings. He was a very successful artist who worked for the courts in Brussels and The Hague as well as for many religious institutions. His work was close to the courtly and elegant style of Anthony van Dyck and his followers.

Pieter Thijs was born in a modest family as the son of a baker. Thijs had three masters. He trained with Artus Deurwerdeers as a cabinet painter, in the style practiced in the workshop of Frans Francken the Younger, the father-in-law of Deurwerdeers. It is only after moving to the workshop of Anthony van Dyck that Thijs learned portrait and history painting and started copying the great masters. He is considered to be van Dyck's last pupil.

Everything suggests he completed his training with Gonzales Coques, a leading painter of portraits and history paintings who was known by the nickname 'de kleine van Dyck' ('the little van Dyck'). Thijs continued working in Coques' workshop for more than three years after becoming a master of the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1644–45. Thanks to the presence of the collection of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, in Antwerp, Thijs was able to study the paintings of the Cinquecento.

After leaving Coques' workshop Thijs started out on a career that was successful despite the prevailing dire economic situation in Antwerp. He maintained a busy workshop that employed about twenty apprentices in the course of his career. In the 1660s he had enough work to keep six assistants busy. He obtained many commissions for altarpieces in churches in Flanders and Brabant as well as for portraits, and allegorical and mythological paintings from patrons in both the Southern Netherlands and the Dutch Republic. Through the international business connections of his father-in-law who ran a large import-export business in Antwerp with offices in the major ports and cities of Europe, he was able to sell his paintings to an international clientele and get commissions for altarpieces in Vienna and Croatia as well as for the Cologne Cathedral.

Thijs enjoyed royal patronage. From 1647 onwards, he became a portrait painter as well as a tapestry designer for Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, then the Governor of the Southern Netherlands, while at the same time taking on commissions from the rival House of Orange in The Hague. He collaborated on the decorations in Huis Honselaarsdijk, the palace of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange near The Hague (now lost).

Thijs married Constantia van der Beken on 19 March 1648. The couple had six daughters and four sons. His son Pieter Pauwel Thijs (1652-1679) followed in his footsteps as an artist but died young. After the death of his first wife he married Anna Bruydegom on 2 July 1670.

Thijs played a major role in Antwerp’s cultural life. He served as deacon and treasurer of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke and was the driving force behind the further development of the Chamber of rhetoric Violieren of the Guild. He was able to persuade the local playwright Willem Ogier to compose several works for the theater.

Thijs trained his son Pieter Pauwel and was the teacher of Jan Fransicus Lauwereyssens.

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Peter Snijers - Still Life with Tistle and Nest - 

Pieter Snyers or Peter Snijers (first name also written as: 'Peeter' and nickname 'De Heilige' or 'The Holy One') (30 March 1681 – 4 May 1752) was a Flemish art collector, painter, draughtsman and engraver. He practised a wide variety of genres, including portraits, genre painting, still life and landscape painting.

He entered on 17 August 1741 into an agreement with five other artists to provide free tuition at the directors of the Antwerp Academy. The Academy would eventually replace the Guild of Saint Luke.

The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (Dutch: Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten van Antwerpen) is an art academy located in Antwerp, Belgium. It is one of the oldest of its kind in Europe. It was founded in 1663 by David Teniers the Younger, painter to the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and Don Juan of Austria. Teniers was master of the Guild of St Luke — which embraced arts and some handicrafts — and petitioned Philip IV of Spain, then master of the Spanish Netherlands, to grant a royal charter to establish a Fine Arts Academy in Antwerp. It houses the Antwerp Fashion Academy.

Shortly after the founding of Antwerp Academy, three large paintings were executed for its meeting hall. Antwerp, Nurse of Painters, by Theodoor Boeyermans (1665; 188 x 454 cm), promotes the city's recent artistic past. Portraits of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck watch over students as they practise the arts. At the centre is the allegorical Antverpia pictorum nutrix ("Antwerp, nurse of painters"). Chronos accompanies other young students who present their artwork. The river god Scaldis, a personification of Antwerp's river Scheldt, symbolises with his cornucopia the wealth and bounty of the city's artistic heritage.

The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was identified by John of Damascus as having painted the Virgin's portrait.

One of the most famous such organizations was founded in Antwerp. It continued to function until 1795, although by then it had lost its monopoly and therefore most of its power. In most cities, including Antwerp, the local government had given the Guild the power to regulate defined types of trade within the city. Guild membership, as a master, was therefore required for an artist to take on apprentices or to sell paintings to the public. Similar rules existed in Delft, where only members could sell paintings in the city or have a shop. The early guilds in Antwerp and Bruges, setting a model that would be followed in other cities, even had their own showroom or market stall from which members could sell their paintings directly to the public.

The guild of Saint Luke not only represented painters, sculptors, and other visual artists, but also—especially in the seventeenth century—dealers, amateurs, and even art lovers (the so-called liefhebbers). In the medieval period most members in most places were probably manuscript illuminators, where these were in the same guild as painters on wood and cloth—in many cities they were joined with the scribes or "scriveners". In traditional guild structures, house-painters and decorators were often in the same guild. However, as artists formed under their own specific guild of St. Luke, particularly in the Netherlands, distinctions were increasingly made. In general, guilds also made judgments on disputes between artists and other artists or their clients. In such ways, it controlled the economic career of an artist working in a specific city, while in different cities they were wholly independent and often competitive against each other.

[dutch-and-flemish-painters]

Joseph van Lerius - Self-portrait - 1852

Joseph Henri François Van Lerius (23 December 1823 – 29 February 1876) was a Belgian painter in the Romantic-Historical style.

In 1838, he was already an apprentice draftsman at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. From 1839 to 1844, he was a student of Gustave Wappers. He took a study trip through Germany and Italy in 1852. Two years later, he was appointed to a position as a painting instructor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp). Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Aloïs Boudry, Gerard Portielje, Henri Van Dyck  and Piet Verhaert were among his students.

In 1861, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Leopold and in 1869 became a Knight in the Order of St.Michael.

In 1875, he was diagnosed with meningitis. The following year, he died in Mechelen, where he had gone for treatment.

[william-the-ladyfinger]

One more roll in the hay??

Paintings by court painter A. Chuck Wagon

All paintings commissioned by my ladylord and patron and her betrothed, Sir William.

@lady-lord-cornbury @william-the-ladyfinger

Student and partner of @anthonis-van-dyck