Pompeii No.19: Finding the Muse

In my last three postings, we looked at the trophy as an ornament, as well as my interpretations of the trophy, which now decorate both sides of the dining room window.

Now it's time to decorate the three panels that are x'd above. My thought all along was that these areas should have figures, as so many Pompeian murals did.

Italian Frescoes: The Flowering of the Renaissance  |  Roettgen

Originally, I was planning on three figures posed heroically, like this image by Domenico Ghirlandaio. If I used centurions, it would be a nice continuation of the trophy theme.

www.bythegods.net   |   Antiques in Italian Interiors, Verbavolant

I also considered using statues of Roman gods, like this one of Jupiter with his lightning bolts, and maybe putting them in alcoves like the image on the right. There were certainly a lot of Roman gods from which to choose!

Pompeii, Riverside

Another thought was to paint what I would call vignettes, figures on plain backgrounds. The painting on the right you might call a celebrity portrait; it's of the Greek playwright Menander, who authored more than a hundred comedies.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel: An Architecture for Prussia  |  Rizzoli

In Pompeian decoration — and its numerous revivals — such figures often float in the center of a panel, but in the back of my mind . . .

. . . I really liked the look of the grounded figures shown above. This is a screen-save from a video on British royal palaces. Fiona Bruce is walking through the Venitian lodging of the 18th-century British consul, Joseph Smith. (If you are like I am, you're always admiring the wallpaper at the very moment in a movie when someone gets killed!) I like those pedestals, and if I had figures at the bottom of the panels, there would still be room for ornamentation between the figures and the garlands.

click to enlarge  |  academicnudes19thcentury.blogspot.com

In my wanderings through the Internet, I came upon these engravings by a 19th-century German illustrator named Hugo Bürkner (1818-1897). What struck me about these images is that Bürkner obviously studied Michelangelo. You can see that especially in the central engraving, in the musculature and draping of cloth. I would make some changes, but I think these muses of painting, sculpture and architecture would make dandy Pompeian motifs.

100swallows.files.wordpress.com  |  photo by Wkinght94

And it would also be a nice nod to Michelangelo, whose tomb coincidentally bears the three muses of painting, sculpture and architecture. Michelangelo's tomb, by the way, was designed by Vasari, remembered today primarily for his biographies of other artists.

So it's settled.

Next week I'll unveil the first panel figure,

the Muse of Painting!

.

10 Noteworthy Portraits of Women

My blogging friend Yvette of In So Many Words recently posted on 10 female portraits she'd love to own. I don't have enough wall space for 10 more portraits, but I thought today I'd share 10 portraits of women that I enjoy studying (the portraits, I mean!). We'll look at them in the order they were painted.

topofart.com

This is a portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, painted by Ghirlandaio in 1488. Giovanna was a young noblewoman who died in childbirth that same year. The painting is rich in detail, and yet has a flatness that appeals to me for its very graphic quality. The beautifully modeled face contrasts with straight lines and simple shapes that could make a cubist's heart skip a couple of beats. I view this as a very modern painting, along the line of an early work by David Hockney.

en.wikipedia.org

Leonardo da Vinci painted Cecilia Gallerani circa 1490, about two years after Ghirlandaio's portrait of Giovanna. Cecilia was the 16-year-old mistress of the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, for whom Leonardo produced many designs ranging from battlements to party decorations. The ermine is most certainly symbolic — as well as representing purity, it was the Duke's heraldic animal. I like this portrait for that graceful hand, and it's interesting that Leonardo mirrored the ermine's paw with equal grace. Few people have painted more beautiful hands than da Vinci, though, as one looks more closely at the painting, it really isn't the hand of a 16-year-old!

nga.gov

Lady With a Red Hat was painted by Johannes Vermeer in 1666, and came to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. through the collection of Andrew Mellon. I have a hunch that Vermeer was an alien time-traveler who ended up in the Netherlands with a knowledge of light from beyond our own time. His incredible highlights and diffused edges suggest that he studied optics and perhaps even used optic devices to which his contemporaries were not privy.

painting-palace.com

Here's a portrait of Mrs. Ezekiel Goldthwait (Elizabeth Lewis), painted by John Singleton Copley in 1771. This painting has special meaning for me because as a young artist I came to the realization, through copying it, that colors always appear more vibrant when they are juxtaposed with dark neutrals. Copley's finest portraits consistently feature bright spots that leap out of very muted palettes.

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

As I look back over the portraits included so far, I notice a lot of fine fabrics. What can I say — I like luxe! And few excelled at that as well as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, who painted this portrait of Princess de Broglie in 1853. Ingres' detailed rendering of satins, paisleys and jewelry made him popular in the French court, and yet he regarded portraits as the lesser of his work. Compare this image with the one of Mrs. Goldthwait, and you see that both artists rendered luxury in the bottom half of the painting and then reserved the top half for the face to pop out of simplicity. In each case, the painting is divided almost exactly in half.

sightswithin.com

By contrast, Franz Xaver Winterhalter's 1859 portrait of Countess Lamsdorff is busy-ness through and through. And yet, we are drawn — despite all the detail — to the sitter's face. How does that happen?

First, Winterhalter paints many lines in both the dress and the natural elements that converge on the face. And if that were not enough, he creates a spiral of movement around the face, sort of a visual vortex.

See how the shadow around the bottom of the dress forms an arc that moves up into the tree and around the head? Brilliant!

bob520.wordpress.com

Alphonse Mucha painted Zodiac in 1896. His compositions are interesting because he used layers of decorative detail to form essentially solid blocks of color. Lush background detail is outlined in lighter colors or thinner lines, while the portrait itself gets a heavy black outline. But even here, that outline modulates to lightness as it moves down the neck and into the neckline. Isn't it interesting to see the different ways that artists simultaneously lavish and curb detail?

click to enlarge  |  wikipaintings.org

Carl Larsson's 1906 portrait of his wife Karin is interesting in that the center of the composition is her azalea. Looking at Larsson's work, one can appreciate what a natural drawer and superb draftsman he was. It seems to me as though he must neither have used an eraser nor ever blotted a line.

Pinterest  |  Robert Sobsey

Tamara de Lempicka is one of my favorite artists — I've linked to her biography because it's such interesting reading. I've always been intrigued (and a little jealous) of artists who attain such a recognizably distinct style. This is a 1928 portrait of Arlette Boucard, daughter of Dr. Pierre Boucard, also painted by Lempicka (and an interesting story in itself). Tamara de Lempicka's work is sometimes described as "soft cubism," and I'd be hard-pressed to name anyone who surpasses in that genre. It's as though Ingres meets Leger in the form of one person.

artandopinion.tumbler.com

My final choice for this posting is this stunning portrait by Pietro Annigoni (1910 – 1988). I'm sorry to say that I can't identify the sitter — perhaps a reader can help me fill in the blank. Annigoni was highly influenced by the Italian Renaissance, and his paintings seem more a continuation of that period rather than a reinterpretation. His work often reminds me of Hans Holbein, and so it seems fitting that Annigoni was made famous worldwide by his 1956 portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

.

The Annunciation Template

Fra Angelico   |   c. 1440   |   San Marco, Florence

I've been studying books of Renaissance art lately and I've noticed that the angel depicted in the Annunciation goes through an evolution that becomes increasingly stylized. That shouldn't be too surprising, since the artists shown in this posting either taught each other or competed with each other. In any event, they were setting standards for each other. It's interesting to see a progression in the rendering of the angel, and that it finally settles on an iconic pose and gesture.

We begin with Fra Angelico's angel. Fra Angelico painted the Annunciation numerous times, and while his angels did not kneel, they bowed before the Virgin. The angel above, painted in Fra Angelico's own monastery, comes closest to kneeling, with what might be interpreted as a curtsy.

Filippo Lippi   |   c. 1440   |   Martelli Chapel   |   San Lorenzo, Florence

Filippo Lippi's angel was painted around the same time as Fra Angelico's. The rich detail, and especially the folds of cloth, make Filippo Lippi's work seem much later. Filippo Lippi has his angel kneeling and holding a lily, the symbol of purity.

Leonardo da Vinci   |   1475   |   The Uffizi   |   Florence

Leonardo painted his Annunciation angel when he was 20 or 21. Now the angel kneels, carries a lily, and makes the gesture of a blessing. So far, all of the angels have been wearing red garments. Red was a favored color in altarpieces, in part because the pigment was more expensive; it was literally a richer color, worthier of holy subjects.

 

The youthful Leonardo sets himself apart by representing the halo as an actual burst of light, rather than a static plate of gold.

Domenico Ghirlandaio | 1482 | Cloister of the Collegiata | San Gimignano

Ghirlandaio — who is credited with being a teacher to Michelangelo — painted this Annunciation angel, which follows the pattern of holding a lily, kneeling and blessing.

Pinturicchio | 1479-85 | Baglioni Chapel, Santa Maria Maggoire | Spello

Pinturicchio's angel follows the pose, lily and gesture ...

Sandro Botticelli   |   1490   |   The Uffizi   |   Florence

... as does Bottecelli's angel, which now seems to both kneel and bow.

I find the progression interesting. Did the pose become a standard because it was seen as more aesthetic? Did it better please religious clients? Or perhaps these artists recognized that the pose contributed to a stronger composition. Notice that each one of these angels takes the shape of a triangle that leads the eye towards the space occupied by the Virgin. We can dwell on the folds of cloth, but which artists have most successfully lead the eye to the right through strong body movement and gesture? Leonardo and Bottecelli.

.