Admiring Baroque Art

The Rijkmuseum's new widgets

2008-07-30T04:57:00.000-07:00

This blog is still officially moribund, but I did want to draw visitors' attention to the Rijkmuseum's new Rijkswidgets--now, for blogs as well as desktops.What is Dutch for "very cool"?

Final post

2008-02-03T11:07:00.000-08:00

Due to professional and personal concerns, I have not been able to return to this blog for some time. And now that I've begun a push on getting an academic blog started on a subject completely different from this one, I simply won't have adequate time that a blog like this deserves. So: this will be the last post here, at least for the foreseeable future. I see, though, that people visit and,

If you have any interest at all in the subject of this blog . . .

2007-11-24T07:45:00.000-08:00

. . . and live in or close to New York and/or can afford a visit there, you'd be foolish not to try and see this.

Two Paintings

2007-11-16T05:19:00.000-08:00

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

Pozzo, (very) up close

2007-10-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Still getting my land-legs from the upheaval of getting the new half-semester started. In the meantime, though, have a look at this: a zoomable image of Andrea Pozzo's magnificent 1685 ceiling painting, La Gloria di Sant'Ignazio.Hat-tip: Clusterflock.

Hiatus

2007-10-04T03:39:00.000-07:00

It indeed has been a while. I'm flattered by the rather directly-expressed hopes for new content here, and a bit embarrassed that I just haven't had a real chance to oblige. I want to, though.Mid-semester tests and grades are next week here. Then a--wait for it--four-day weekend for us. I'll have plenty of time then to look at some pictures and books and think up something to say about

Asparagus and Broad Foreheads: Lost Codes, Sensuality, and "Art"

2007-08-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

Adriaen Coorte (c. 1663-after 1707), Still Life (Asparagus) (1697), Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.Well. A couple of weeks has turned into almost a month, as Robert was kind enough to remind me in comments on the last post--and I am flattered that even one person has missed my posting here. I am not sure that this post will make up for my hiatus from here, but at times one has to work with what one has

Caravaggio, The Fortune-Teller

2007-07-27T05:57:00.000-07:00

(click the image to enlarge it)From Peter Robb's M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio:In the Fortune teller the dynamic . . . was something going on between the boy and the girl inside the picture and left you free to enjoy it. What made the picture delightful, made it sharp as well as sweet, was the poise between the ingenuous boy and the shy girl--the sweet but silly boy with his plumes and his

Velázquez, Juan Martínez Montañés

2007-07-04T09:51:00.000-07:00

Martínez Montañés (1568-1649) was the greatest Spanish sculptor of the Baroque era. His medium was wood; in fact, he was known as "el dios de madera" (the god of wood) because of his skill. Here and here are examples of his work.Velázquez has among his paintings several portraits in which the subject stands before a background so neutral that it very nearly takes on the quality of a void--see,

Another visit with Velázquez' Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

2007-07-02T08:45:00.000-07:00

Visitors here may remember this post from a while back. This morning, while perusing how people found their way to this blog, I learned about an article on it from two years ago, in which two researchers recreate Velázquez's famous and puzzling painting and come to a surprising conclusion:[T]he image of Christ in the background scene is a mental image in the mind of the servant girl. Previous

Grail geometry and Baroque painting: Is there any "there" there?

2007-06-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

An image from Robert A diCurcio's discussion of The Allegory of Painting at Vermeer's Riddle RevealedThis morning while checking the site stats for this blog, I saw that someone from Argentina found us via a Google search for "Baroque Painting Blog." That would be (partly) us, of course, so I went there as well to, yes, see how highly we rank (nicely, by the way, thanks for asking), but also to

Caravaggio and the dangers of the life/art nexus

2007-06-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

Caravaggio, David with the Head of Goliath, 1606Today I just began reading Peter Robb's 1998 book, M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio. I read enough of the reviews to know that Robb's work's authority isn't exactly unquestioned; and, because of my near-ignorance of Caravaggio, I know to be a bit cautious in assessing it. But that's what bibliographies are for, and this book's is 15 pages long.

Venuses: Three paintings

2007-06-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

To compensate for not having posted the usual Two Paintings back on Friday, today I want to post Three--one of which, admittedly, is not of the Baroque era but which seems to belong here.As always, I invite comments on correspondences and differences between/among the paintings; I also want to encourage the especially-inspired to write me about posting something here and, in so doing, begin to

Pacheco, his famous pupil, and some comments on "influence"

2007-05-31T14:25:00.000-07:00

(cross-posted at Blog Meridian)Yesterday I was surprised to learn that Peter Harrup, the administrator for the Facebook group "The Genius of Diego Velázquez," named me as an officer for that group: Francisco Pacheco. Wonderful, I thought . . . but, who is he? Way leads on to way in the Internets, and what follows are the results of that wandering, along with some speculation and musing.I

Yet more housekeeping

2007-05-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

Velázquez, The Surrender of Breda, 1634This still-young blog continues to attract visitors (most of them brought here via Google Images searches--which is fine) and/but more significant, some regular readers, too, as evidenced by the subscriptions to this blog's feeds via e-mail notifications and RSS feeds. Thank you, whoever you regular readers are. As this site increases its content and, yes,

Two views of Delft, optical devices, and "art"

2007-05-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

Over at this blog's Facebook group page (which, by the way, all of you with Facebook accounts are welcome to join), the matter of the camera obscura has risen in a couple of discussion threads; it is the topic of one, in fact. I figured, then, that via this week's Two Paintings post we could initiate a discussion of the implications the use of such devices may or may not have on the nature of

Women reading letters--two paintings

2007-05-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

Dutch Baroque painters were drawn to the theme of letter-writing and letter-reading. Their evocation of intimate communication between sender and recipient makes the viewer simultaneously curious and, perhaps, a bit like an intruder as s/he enters the painting's space. Despite the sense of intimacy, though, the theme of letters also paradoxically expands the space depicted: in each of the

Exploring the ambiguities in Velázquez's Christ in the House of Martha and Mary

2007-05-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

Click on the image to see a larger version of it.Since posting this painting a while back, I've spent more time than is perhaps prudent thinking about it. Its title could not be more straightforward, but what is depicted in it is considerably less so. It is filled with ambiguities, as though it's an early proving ground for Velázquez's later, greater paintings and their ambiguities. And the

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha--two paintings

2007-05-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

As with last week's pairing, the intent here is to invite commentary and, if you are so inclined, a full-blown post on these paintings (which I will be more than happy to post here), their similarities and differences.Here is Luke's account of the scene depicted.by Velázquez, 1618by Vermeer, 1654-1656

Defining the Baroque I

2007-05-01T21:14:00.000-07:00

From Ruth Gambles, "Redeeming the Sound . . . "The Baroque signifies an attempt to bridge the gap between man and things implemented by the mechanism of the scientific revolution[.]The Baroque as a proto-Romanticism, then? Or, perhaps, a proto-Modernism? Either makes sense within the context of the passage quoted here.But is this in fact true of the Baroque as a philosophy? Was there at that

2007-04-29T23:15:00.001-07:00

Go here for more information.

Judith and Holofernes--two paintings

2007-04-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

An experiment:When the weekend rolls around, I'll post depictions of the same subject by two different artists and ask for comments or (even better!!) submissions for posts regarding their similarities/differences.Something provocative, I sense, should kick things off. It's difficult to think of two more provocative works than these. Click on the images to enlarge them:Caravaggio's Judith and

National Gallery online exhibitions of Baroque art

2007-04-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Jusepe de Ribera, The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 1634The homepage of the National Gallery in Washington, DC, currently features an online exhibition of paintings from 17th-century Spanish painters. In addition to the Ribera you see above, the exhibition features works by Juan van der Haben y León, Zurbarán, Velázquez, and Murillo. All these paintings are presented beautifully and are well

Rijkmuseum desktop widget

2007-04-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

Amsterdam's home of some of the greatest paintings of the Dutch Baroque has what it calls the "Rijkswidget": it allows Mac and PC users to see a different painting from the collection each day.Nifty . . . or it would be if, that is, my computer and the museum were on speaking terms--which they aren't, at the moment.Correction: It's working now, and the first image is this one, Rembrandt's The

Art, or art history? Painting, or sculpture?

2007-04-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

Top: Bernini, Bacchanal: A Faun Teased by ChildrenBottom: Poussin, Bacchanal before a Statue of PanThough not about Baroque art per se, Conrad Roth of Varieties of Unreligious Experience has up a thoughtful, closely-argued post addressing just these questions. Roth arrives at a couple of (for me) surprising conclusions, the money quotes of which are below.Roth notes that, traditionally, painting

Rembrandt, Portrait of a Young Man

2007-04-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

In its gallery, it is not front and center on the wall directly opposite the entrance, as you might expect. It hangs on one of the shorter walls, and then not even in the center of that wall. It's in a semi-shadowy corner, in fact, the sitter's white collar being the first thing to catch the visitor's eye there in its penumbra. (Note: the actual painting is not quite this dark.) You almost

Jonathan Janson, Lover of the Baroque

2007-04-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

Randall Sherman of Musings from the Hinterland has up a friendly nod toward this blog (thank you, sir) and a pleasant remembrance of an exhibit of Rembrandt etchings at the St. Louis Museum of Art from last year. His choice of Rembrandt etching reminds me that I should probably be walking my dog instead of posting this. But never mind that.Randall also posts a link to REMBRANDT:life, paintings,

Baroque art and architecture in Latin America

2007-04-17T21:37:00.000-07:00

The cathedral in Mexico City, begun in 1567.Those interested in an introductory discussion of how the Baroque manifested itself in Latin America will benefit from reading "The Angel with the Arquebus: Baroque Art in Latin America" by Miguel Rojas Mix. The whole piece is well worth reading, but the following, the concluding paragraph, sums up nicely:Baroque art in Latin America is not a mere

Why the Baroque? One response

2007-04-15T18:37:00.000-07:00

I'm one of those I-know-what-I-like-but-can't-quite-tell-you-why kinds of writers, but it seems to me that if I am going to have a blog devoted to one style of art I should try to articulate in some way why I want one--and why for Baroque art, a whole ocean and 300 years removed from my degree-conferred area of expertise (20th-century American literature). So, it seems appropriate to post some

Caravaggio as "underworld painter"

2007-04-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

Rather than merely torture visitors to this blog with my own insipid observations about great works of art, I'll also be pointing them to folks much better at writing about these things than I am. One of those is John Berger, in this piece on Caravaggio. Below is his comment on one of my favorite Caravaggios, The Calling of St. Matthew (which Berger would later rewrite a bit for his book Ways

Las Meninas: Some places to visit

2007-04-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

It's easy to become obsessed with Velázquez's magnificent painting. Speaking for myself, it first fascinated me on an intellectual level when I was introduced to it via Foucault's intricate discussion of it (here is an abstract) in the opening chapter of The Order of Things). The emotional connection came later: One day I realized that my younger daughter, when she was younger, is (or was) the

Housekeeping

2007-04-15T06:03:00.000-07:00

Welcome to visitors to this site, first and foremost. We hope you feel welcomed here and will feel that you have a home where you can indulge your tastes in these wonderful artists and their works. The virtual fatted calf is out back; we'll be bringing him round directly.Two things: The first is that, through trial and error, I think we have a Labels system that makes sense. As the blog grows

"Blinded by the Light"

2007-04-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Via Raminagrobis, this brief, sharply-observed post on two paintings by Rembrandt, Anna and the Blind Tobit and A Man Seated Reading at a Table in a Lofty Room, which hang in the same room in the National Gallery in London. Solitude is the unifying theme of these two paintings. Tobit's blindness isolates him from his wife Anna, and he prays for death ("for it is profitable for me to die rather

"Art to See Before You Die"

2007-04-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Via Crooked Timber comes news that the Guardian has started a blog on the arts. In its inaugural post on art, Jonathan Jones has a post called "The works of art that matter most," its intention being the generation of a list of the 50 works of art one must see in person before dying. Jones kicks things off with his personal list of 20 works (the list and an accompanying slideshow are below

A quick visit with Las Meninas

2007-04-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite personal blogs is 327 Market, which I seem to recall having learned of via Ariel's blog, Bittersweet Life. The writer may or may not be named Camille, but for convenience's sake we'll assume it is. She lives and teaches art and publishes her own work in a place that in some way corresponds to the Bay Area but to which she's assigned her own place names. And she often

Velazquez, The Supper at Emmaus

2007-04-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

As an option for their research papers, students can write about some paintings of their choosing by a painter of my choosing: the idea (the hope, actually) is for them to choose paintings that have something in common and offer and support an opinion about what they think the painter wants to convey via this whatever-it-is that recurs in the paintings they've chosen. So today, I talked through

Doorsien, and why Vermeer doesn't employ it

2007-04-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

I should alert you from the beginning that what follows probably isn't going to set the art history world ablaze. It's just one of those "ah-ha!" moments that, for me at least, gives me a handle on thinking about a painter whose works I love and, as long-time readers know, have posted about before. Doorsien is a Dutch word that literally means "plunge through." Here is a description of how

Velazquez, Venus at Her Mirror

2007-04-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

I have been surrounded by art these past few days. On Friday, I led the discussion on the topic "The 'Work' of Art" that I mentioned a couple of posts below this one. Mrs. Meridian and I have begun to frame some posters that I've had for a couple of years and were threatening to become permanent cylinders. And a couple of days ago, Mrs. Meridian and I spent an enjoyable couple of hours at

First post

2007-04-14T10:46:00.000-07:00

Greetings.I think this blog's title is self-explanatory as regards what its purpose is. The goal, though, may be less obvious. I hope this place will attract readers and (even better) contributors who know a little something about the subject and are willing to join in whatever conversations might emerge here. The first few posts will be from my "home" blog, Blog Meridian, where I've shared