Diego Velázquez, The Maids of Honor (Las Meninas), 1656, oil on canvas, 10’5” x 9’, Museo del Prado, Madrid, via Wikimedia Commons
This huge portrait of Princess Margarita, daughter of Philip IV, King of Spain, is a virtuoso performance in paint. With his flickering brushwork, Diego Velázquez created a scene filled with glowing light and brilliant textures. The painting is as complex as … Continue reading
Claude Monet, London, Houses of Parliament, 1904, oil on canvas, 32.1” x 36.4”, Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Claude Monet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Avant-garde (noun) A military term meaning, “advance force,” that was adopted by French artists and critics in the nineteenth century to describe innovative art. The Impressionists were the first avant-garde artists. Their colorful and sketchy paintings were radically new.
Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930, oil on canvas, 20”x 20”, Collection of Kunsthaus Zurich, Photo by William Cromar under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
Following the devastation of the First World War, Dutch artists Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg founded de Stijl (The Style), a utopian art movement intended to create works of art that communicated spiritual harmony. Both artists were Theosophists and … Continue reading
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Conversion of Saint Paul, c. 1601, oil on canvas, 7’6” x 5’7”, Cerasi Chapel, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
Chiaroscuro (noun) Italian word that refers to the shading (or modeling) in a work of art. Caravaggio is well known for his highly developed chiaroscuro. Sally Coleman | The Art Minute
Exterior, Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, c. 1480-1515, oil on panel, center 7’2½” x 6’4½”, wings, each7’2½” x 3’2”, Museo del Prado, Madrid. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Like many titles given to works of art, The Garden of Earthly Delights does not describe the subject of this painting at all. Artists normally did not give titles to their creations. Other people suggested titles, sometimes centuries later, and … Continue reading
Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503-1519, oil on poplar wood, 30” x 21, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
This is arguably the most famous portrait in Western art; nevertheless, it remains shrouded in mystery, which may be the reason the image is so alluring. Of course, it also is appealing because it is a magnificent and beautiful object. … Continue reading
Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931, oil on canvas, 9 ½” x 13", Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image from Koiart71 (Flickr) available under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
The Paranoid-Critical Method Many people are surprised to learn that this powerful work of art is somewhat small; it’s only a little larger than a sheet of notebook paper. It’s an intimate painting of an intimate subject. Dalí was a … Continue reading
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Grand Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas, 37 ⅞” x 63”, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
It appears that deep down, we humans are a sentimental lot. The Daily Mail Online published news of a study by Professor Semir Zeki, chair in neuroaesthetics at University College London, that indicates that looking at paintings by John Constable, … Continue reading
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and the Dying – Typhoon Coming On (The Slave Ship), 1840, oil on canvas, 35 ¼” x 48”, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
The Romantic art movement in European art endured approximately sixty years, from the late eighteenth century until the middle of the nineteenth century. This horrific image by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner betrays this artist’s engagement with the … Continue reading