20 PAINTINGS WORTH SEEING

My last blog post about art took you on a journey to five museums from Europe which I hope that you enjoyed as much as I liked sharing. This blog post will provide details about five more artworks. Enjoy reading!

6. SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE

“Sacred and Profane Love” is an artwork by Titian, probably painted in 1515. The painting was commissioned by Niccolò Aurelio, to celebrate his marriage. It is a refined allegory of love.

Two similar women sit on a carved Ancient Roman sarcophagus that has been converted to a water-trough, or a trough made to look like a Roman sarcophagus. The broad ledges from the painting are not found in actual sarcophagi. How the water enters is unclear. There is a small, winged boy, who may be Cupid between the two women, son and companion of Venus, or merely a putto. He is looking into the water and splashing a hand in it.

The woman on the left is fully and richly dressed; her clothes are now usually recognized as those of a bride, though in the past they have been said to be typical of courtesan wear. She wears myrtle in her hair, both a flower sacred to Venus and one worn by brides. The clothed woman leans over, but is probably not supported by, a metal bowl whose contents have been described in various ways, despite it not being possible to see them. She symbolizes the Profane Love.

The woman on the right is nude, except for a white cloth over her loins and a large red mantle worn over one shoulder. The nude figure sits comfortably on the ledge of the trough, with one hand resting on it and the other held high, holding a vessel with smoke coming out of it, probably an incense-burner. In contrast the pose of the clothed figure, apparently poised and relaxed, becomes rather strange in the lower part of her body when considered carefully. A shallow metal bowl is on the ledge, nearer the nude figure; some have proposed a meaning for the decoration inside the bowl, such as the arms of Aurelio's bride, but this does not seem to be the case on close examination, after the picture was cleaned. The nude woman is the symbol of Sacred Love.

The landscape on the left, behind the clothed woman, goes uphill to a what seems to be a walled castle or a village dominated by a high defensive tower. There are two rabbits nearby, usually symbols of fecundity or lust in the Renaissance. The landscape behind the unclothed figure stretches downhill, with a village dominated by a church tower and steeple on the far side of water. Two men on horses are hunting a hare or outsized rabbit with fast lurcher-type dogs, and a flock of sheep are apparently tended by a shepherd, with a pair of lovers sitting nearby.

The artwork is exhibited at the Galleria Borghese from Rome, Italy.

7. REVERIE

“Reverie” or “Dream” is a colour lithograph by the Czech painter Alphonse Mucha. Finalized in 1897, it was originally designed as an in-house calendar for Champenois. Due to its popularity, it was later published as a decorative panel by the magazine “La Plume “. The artwork is part of the Art Nouveau movement, depicting beautiful women posed against sensuous, botanical backdrops.

The painting shows a woman dressed in a beautifully embroidered Slavic gown that dreams over a book of decorative designs, possibly printer’s samples. The woman is confronting the viewer with a soft and alluring gaze. The circular halo surrounding her, which seems to be an ornamental circular backdrop decorated with intricate floral motifs, is one of the most elaborate Mucha ever used, as well as one of the largest in terms of its relation to the size of the picture.

The artwork is exhibited in the Alphonse Mucha Museum from Prague, Czech Republic.

8. GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING

“Girl with a Pearl Earring” is a 1665 oil painting by Johannes Vermeer. The artwork is in the collection of the Mauritshuis from The Hague, The Netherlands.

The “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, the most famous painting of Vermeer, depicts a young woman in a dark shallow space, an intimate setting that draws the viewer’s attention exclusively on her. She wears a blue and gold turban, the titular pearl earring and a gold jacket with a visible white collar beneath. Unlike many of Vermeer’s subjects, she is not concentrating on a daily chore and unaware of her viewer. Instead, caught in a fleeting moment, she turns her head over her shoulder, meeting the viewer’s gaze with her eyes wide and lips parted as if about to speak. The subject of the painting is unknown. There has been speculation that she is the artist's eldest daughter, Maria, which has been unfortunately dismissed by art historians.

After the recent restoration of the painting in 1994, the subtle colour scheme and the intimacy of the girl's gaze toward the viewer have been greatly enhanced. During the restoration, it was discovered that the dark background, today somewhat mottled, was originally a deep enamel-like green. This effect was produced by applying a thin transparent layer of paint, a glaze, over the black background seen now.

This video provides more details about this beautiful Dutch Golden Age painting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM_IzEAv5d4 Enjoy it.

9. WHERE DO WE COME FROM? WHAT ARE WE? WHERE ARE WE GOING?

“Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” is a monumental artwork in which the French painter Gauguin is exploring fundamental questions regarding the nature and meaning of life. It is a meditation on birth, life and death in the light of Maori mythology. The painting, the largest Gauguin ever made, has three major sections, showing a different stage of the relationship between the painter and Eve.

Thadée Natanson noted that the painting, although “obscure” and “difficult to grasp”, “invites us to meditate upon the mystery of our destiny.” The questions posed in the title and in the painting itself concern the human condition: origins, identity, purpose, and destiny.

Gauguin poses existential questions that brought him to Tahiti in the “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” painting. He draws together a range of former paintings relating to the fable of Adam and Eve in order to address his ideal vision of Tahiti being an earthly Garden of Eden.

The painting has three major sections, each representing a different stage of Gauguin's evolving relationship with Eve. Beginning at the left side of the painting and moving to the right, the first painting represents Eve in the form of an old woman, holding her head and crouching into her unclothed body. This image represents the Judeo-Christian school of thought and Gauguin's world before Tahiti. This Eve symbolizes his past and assumes the guilt and shame of humanity.

Towards the centre of the artwork, there is a figure picking fruit in a fairly direct reference to the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. In addition to the connotation of Eve tasting the forbidden fruit, the ambiguity regarding the sexuality of the fruit picker represents Gauguin's attraction to the ancient concept of hermaphroditism, related to the Biblical story of how Eve was created from the rib of Adam.

Gauguin highlights Eve's most important role as the original source of life and knowledge, which would not have existed but for the Fall. Her tall posture displays her acquiring knowledge and distributing it to those around her. Eve's height is also symbolic of humanity's high point, the development of the sense of self, and humanity's collective ability to stand up and take control of their own destiny.

The baby from the right side of the painting is the expression of the new beginning which Eve represents for Gauguin.

Gauguin referred to “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” as his "testament," because he planned to take his own life when the painting was finished. Gauguin did not kill himself after completion of the work.

The large painting is exposed at Museum of Fine Arts from Boston, United States of America.

10. CHRIST CARRYING THE CROSS

“Christ Carrying the Cross” is an oil painting made by the Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch in 1515-1516. It is a version with “masks” of carrying the cross.

The artwork is an extraordinary composition for its day and age. The figures are jammed into a small space, leaving almost no room between them. All faces are caricatures except for two: the face of Jesus bearing the cross, and that of Veronica, the only woman in the painting. She holds a towel with an imprint of the face that she has just dried.

Two murderers who were to be crucified together with Jesus appear in the painting. One is in the bottom right corner. The other is the man with the gray face in the top right corner. He repented when he heard Jesus praying on the cross. That is why his face is not as twisted as the one of his colleague.

The background has no sky or landscape, so that the caricatures are emphasized. The figures are shown without bodies and seem to create a compact and chaotic entity. The main colour of the painting is black and it emphasizes the red of the disc, hats and clothes.

The painting is displayed at Museum voor Schone Kunsten, from Ghent, Belgium.

REFERENCES

Mari Pictori, nr. 38, p. 11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_and_Profane_Love

Mari Pictori, nr. 46, p. 12-13

https://www.artbible.info/art/large/380.html

https://aleteia.org/2018/03/20/picturing-the-passion-christ-carrying-the-cross-by-hieronymus-bosch/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Carrying_the_Cross_(Bosch,_Ghent)

Mari Pictori, nr. 53, p. 26

Sarah Mucha, Alphonse Mucha, p. 39

http://www.muchafoundation.org/en/gallery/browse-works/object/78

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/alphonse-mucha-reverie-3