Twenty Famous Nude Paintings
There are many reasons that the female nude is such a popular subject for painting. It is an aesthetically pleasing subject. Most artists and most patrons have been men. It […]
Artists
Ten Spanish Artists
When we study art we tend to concentrate on France and Italy, with the Netherlands, UK and USA forming a second tier. Which is unfair to Spain which through history […]
Francesco Squarcione, Renaissance Hero
You probably haven’t heard of Francesco Squarcione, but he is well worth knowing about. Born in Padua in 1395 he was a member of the painters guild by 1423. Considering that […]
Macchiaioli, Impressionism 10 years before the Impressionists?
The Macchiaioli were a group of Italian painters who predated the Impressionists with whom they had many very striking similarities. Named “Macchiaioli” as an insult by a critical journalist writing in in November […]
An Artist a Day
This is great fun, takes little time and is very interesting indeed. The history of art is like an incredibly complicated jigsaw, with the individual artists as the pieces. The […]
Rogier van der Weyden and Hans Memling compared
Rogier van der Weyden (a.k.a. Roger de la Pasture) (c1399-1464) was born in Tornai in the Burgundian Netherlands and served an apprenticeship there between 1427 and 1432 with the great […]
Berthe Morisot, her Subjects and Reception
Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) spent her entire adult life (except for vacations) living in the Passy district of Paris. She was one of the founders of Impressionism, one of its greatest […]
Gustav Klimt. Three Ages of Woman
This is a square oil painting on canvas, 180cm X 180cm, completed in 1905, when Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was at his artistic peak. It won the gold medal at the […]
Great Artists and Syphilis
Syphilis almost certainly came to Europe from America with Christopher Columbus’ crew. The first written records of syphilis in Europe occurred in 1494/5 in Naples, Italy. Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut Syphilitic Man […]
Art by females
Open a coffee table book titled something like “50 Famous Artists” or “50 Famous Paintings” and you will see that ownership of a uterus is usually grounds for exclusion. Likewise […]