Friday, November 16, 2007

Two Paintings

The blog lives! A new post! And, to boot, the revival of what I'd hoped would be a weekly feature of this blog!

(Well, a variation on the feature.)

Though the subject matter in each of these paintings is different, I hope it will be immediately apparent why each appears here. Also, the selection is a way of beginning a response to Robert's comment in the previous post regarding the influence of Caravaggio on Dutch painting.

As always, click on the image to see a larger version.

Caravaggio, The Crucifixion of St. Peter, 1600-01


Dirck van Baburen, Prometheus Being Chained by Vulcan, 1623

I look forward to being a bit more regular in posting here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't have a ton of time at the moment, but . . .

I find the expressions on Peter and Prometheus interesting. Both appear stunned/incredulous at what's happening. I can see that for Prometheus who helped Zeus defeat the Titans but was then sentenced to be bound with onions and bacon. (Sorry.)

But certainly, Peter knew where he was ultimately headed. Indeed, he asked to be crucified in an inverted position.

Second, we cannot see the faces of the Peter's executioners. We can't determine how they feel about this, if they feel anything. Perhaps their feelings are irrelevant.

With Prometheus, however, Hermes is clearly smiling. He's happy.

More later, after I've had a chance to think about this. (I don't do any research here. I just go with the flow, so if I'm full of crap, please say so.)

Glad you're back here and

Cheers.

Robert said...

In the middle of an exhibition at present but will be back soon!

Anonymous said...

Just came across the blog surfing, pretty great art blog...

Jacob
Ping Blog