Art Blog - Art In History

Artists all seem to have a common fantasy: that fame and riches will come to them posthumously. We may not really believe it, but it is a well entrenched part of artistic mythology. We could call it the Van Gogh Factor. This raises another interesting question: if our death is the first day of the rest of our artistic lives, what's the best time to die? There is abundant evidence that dying young may be a great career move; there is a similar wealth of examples proving that we should live to a ripe old age. Artists who die young may leave a vibrant and untarnished legacy; on the other hand there are many artists who reach new heights in maturity… Continue reading… 6 comments

In his comment on my post about Rubens, Zander reminded me of his influence on Delacroix, and I decided I should take him up next. Then I realized that before looking at his work, I should set the scene with the generation that preceeded him. Because the fact is, no matter how interesting the work of any one artist at this period may be, the art scene in France as a whole is much more fascinating. I am leading off with the "Oath of the Horatii" by Jacques-Louis David, the "painter of the revolution". Since the work seems "mainstream" and "old-fashioned" to our eyes, it takes a huge effort of empathy to understand what it meant at the time: it was a bombshell! First we need to realize that the classicism we see in the David was long gone in French art… Continue reading… 4 comments

Perhaps the greatest single contribtion made by Leonardo da Vinci to Italian Renaissance painting was the simple pyramidal composition he developed in his seminal "Madonna and Child with Ste. Anne". This compositional idea was later perfected by Raphael in his many Madonnas, and became virtually a trademark of Italian painting for a century. We see a variation of it in the "Resurrection" by Piero della Francesca. The effect of the pyramidal composition is that of the pyramids themselves: stable, massive and timeless. Piero della Francesca uses the pyramid shape to give a feeling total permanance and significance to his subject. Christ is the top of a pyramid of figures, perfectly erect and frontal, looking directly at the viewer… Continue reading… 0 comments