Tuesday, December 28, 2010

CD cover

This looks like a detail from an 18th century painting, probably French or Italian. Can anyone tell me who the painter is?

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Kahlil Gibran

Top: Mother Earth

There's an exhibition of Gibran's paintings at the State Library of NSW, Sydney, until the 20th of February. It's well worth a visit. There are some oils in the exhibition but most works are drawings with washes, a medium of which he was a master. Gibran was a truly deep soul in the spirit of Blake and Michelangelo.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Portrait of an Artist

Portrait of an Artist, Circle of Angelica Kauffman, 55.3 x 45.7 cm, 18th century.
German

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Stylisation

Luis De Morales, c. 1520-1586, Virgin and Child.

Something about the graceful stylisation of anatomy in this work reminds me of William Blake - especially the hands.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Carolyn Pyfrom

I like the abstract qualities of the architectural elements.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

John Singer Sargent

14 x 11 inches








There's currently an exhibition of Sargent's portraits of women at the Fenimore Art Museum

Friday, November 19, 2010

Ideology

There's a lot of 19th Century art on this blog. But the intention is not to take sides in the the fight between conservatives and progressives in the art world. For an ideological disclaimer here's a link to one of my other art blogs

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Da Vinci

This is a detail of an angel from The Virgin of the Rocks, which I altered digitally so that it made more sense as a composition in itself.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene, Attributed to the Master of the Mansi Magdalene (Dutch)

The idea that Mary Magdalene was a fallen woman is a complete fabrication by medieval clerics who wanted to make her into an ideal of the penitent  sinner, and so had to turn her life before meeting Christ into something sinful.
She was in fact an incarnation of the Purity of the Divine Feminine, which makes the slurs on her character an even greater wrong.

Mary Magdalene is referred to in early Christian writings as "the apostle to the apostles." In apocryphal texts, she is portrayed as a visionary and leader of the early movement, who was loved by Jesus more than the other disciples.

She is often depicted opening a vessel of ointment (which suggests the vessel of the Spirit, the Kundalini) She is also sometimes shown meditating in the wilderness with a skull in one hand, symbolising the renunciation of the body. These depictions are reminiscent of Indian paintings of Shri Mahakali, the renunciant aspect of the Goddess.

The name Mary occurs in 51 passages of the New Testament. There are several people named Mary in the Gospels. There also are several unnamed women who seem to share characteristics with Mary Magdalene. At different times in history, Mary Magdalene has been confused or misidentified with almost every woman in the four Gospels, except the mother of Jesus. "The idea that this Mary was 'the woman who was a sinner,' or that she was unchaste, is altogether groundless."[ There is no scriptural or historical evidence that Mary’s relationship with Jesus was anything other than that of a disciple to her teacher, definitely not a lover or wife. Although in the past she has suffered from a case of mistaken identity, Mary Magdalene was never reviled, demeaned or dismissed.
-Wikipedia

Monday, October 18, 2010

Monday, October 4, 2010

Charles Courtney Curran

Lotus Lilies, 1888, posted on the painting blog underpaintings.

Friday, July 23, 2010

William Blake

Jerusalem
Not an oil painting, I know, but certainly a beautiful image of the sacred feminine.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Sunday, May 9, 2010

William Bouguereau



The Crab, 81 x 65.5 cm






















Sur la Greve (On the Gravel Beach), 142 x 91.5 cm





















Fardeau Agreable, 112 x 76 cm








Modesty, 160.5 x 72.5 cm

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Lu Cong



















The viewer may initially read these paintings as photographs, and then notice the painting technique behind the production of the image. While I am not a big fan of photorealism, these beautiful works incorporate the artist's individual hand and vision through subtle stylisation. Lu Cong subverts photorealism through barely perceptible distortions.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Frank Benson

Girl Playing Solitaire

















The effect of gold leaf on the screen is beautiful.

Frederic Leighton

Study of a Lady 25.5 x 19 cms

Monday, February 1, 2010

Persian













Persian women gathering around a samovar, 19th-century.

This isn't exactly Western Art but is influenced by it.

Georges Mazilu - Romanian