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While the area at the exact center of the canvas, just below Mary’s feet, is completely empty, it is the focal point of the painting because of what goes on around it. Its environment creates in it a single point of energy that propels the virgin upward from the realm of man into that of God.
This is a remorseful St. Peter after denying Christ. I would think he might be younger at that time. The artist's interpretation of that emotion associated with remorse the viewer can judge for himself or herself.
Bartolomeo Manfredi began his Roman career by producing copies of celebrated works by Caravaggio. From this practice, he assimilated elements of the master's innovative style, including the naturalistic portrayal of studio models in mythological roles and the dramatic use of light and shadow. In 1613 Manfredi created this work, a free variant of Caravaggio's now-lost Divine Love, also entitled Disdain.
Widely considered Manfredi's finest painting, the picture uses familiar figures from classical mythology to elaborate an allegory of disdain for sexual passion. Mars, the god of war, punishes Cupid for having embroiled him in an embarrassing affair with the boy's mother, Venus, the goddess of love. We have already seen quite a bit of naughty Cupid. Only a god dare punish Cupid - here we have one of his possible fathers - Mars. But wait, if Cupid is his son, how could he involved Mars with his mother Venus? Clearly, we need some sort of time-travel introduced into mythic relationships.
If we can get past Mars/Cupid father/son, I think the painting is bringing out what many men of the time would like to do to Cupid for embroiling them in painful love affairs. Venus is there trying to make the man stop, much as remembering the good times from a bad relationship sometimes help one recover. Of course, an open blouse always helps to eventually mitigate wrath.
This work, along with the numerous images of musicians painted in Rome at the same time, also accords with the concurrent rise of musical theater there. The original owner of The Lute Player was surely a member of the Roman literati, someone completely conversant with the pleasures derived from both the visual and musical arts. With its dramatic play of light and dark, which calls attention to the enigmatic figure in the immediate foreground, and the careful attention given to the instruments and music books on the table, The Lute Player demonstrates Orazio Gentileschi's indebtedness to the innovative style of his Roman associate Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. I just like the comforting colors along the bottom half and the young woman among a collection of instruments. Again, how do painters learn to paint folds in clothing so well? Look at the detail of the clothing in the rightmost picture.
There are various pictures around famous art museums's with this theme. The early Roman's didn't have enough marriageable women, so they went and grabbed the Sabine women from the next tribe over. Later on, I think the story is that the women accepted the men as their husbands. It was popular for rich European princes to keep a rape painting or two around the palace to show their good taste, I guess.This is some of my worst photography, but I include it because, unlike the other Sabine paintings I've seen, everyone depicted here seems homely -male and female.
I like all the brown color everywhere, with only a hint of color on the cheeks of the young woman, in the red of her necklace, and in the hint of dull red in her dress.
Giuseppe Maria Crespi made this ambitious painting for Giovanni Ricci, the patron who financed the Bolognese painter's artistic education. Depicting the wedding feast where Christ performed his first miracle, the work balances the luxuriant accessories of the wedding banquet with a telling narrative on the left, the conversation between the Virgin and Christ and, on the right, the exchange between the astonished host and his servant as they taste the water miraculously transformed into wine. Even in this early work, Crespi achieved a synthesis of the Venetian tradition of color and grandeur with the observation of the figure characteristic of his native Bologna.
Again we get Renaissance dress for 30 A.D. timeframe. I like Christ's feet draped over the dog, too. Look at how many people are detailed everywhere in the painting.
The theme of this painting is "The meek shall inherit the earth". I can't get over the precision of the geometric backdrop of the painting or the way the wool of the lamb looks.
The subject of this painting told the artist she could only pay one-half the usual rate for a portrait. He produced this after only one sitting. When she paid only what she promised to, it ended their friendship.
Morning is one of a series of four works of similar size that represent times of day. In this harbor scene, Vernet dramatically silhouetted the figures against the silvery backdrop of the early morning sky, enveloping the entire scene in a misty haze. I marvel at how many side scenes with small figures he includes in the landscape.