Spotlight on Croatian Art and Culture

A new volume of 12 essays on Croatia's art, architecture, history and culture is the first English language book and scholarly study of the nation's heritage. It's about time, too because the country - long part of the former Yugoslavia, has a rich history that many westerners know little about.

Croatia declared its independence in 1991 - following a long past of domination by the Romans, Byzantines, French, Hungarians, Angevins, Hapsburgs and Serbs. The country's Dalmation Coast is synonymous with natural beauty (picturesque islands and rocky inlets are encompassed by the clear blue Adriatic Sea).

The book includes scholarly information on Croatia's current "renaissance" and leading British writers and art scholars (including John Julius Norwich, Sheila McNally, Christopher de Hamel, David Ekserdjian and Timothy Clifford) have contributed essays detailing illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance-era buildings, the centuries-long influence and legacy of Italian art on the territory and other informative topics. Marcus Binney discusses neglected castles and manor houses in Croatia's Slavonia region and Brian Sewell informs readers on the museums of Zagreb, the nation's capital.

As a recent article from the Art Newspaper states, the biggest strength of the volume is its detailing of 19th and 20th century Croatian art and architecture.

For information on current art exhibitions and art venues in Croatia, click here.

Bronzino Finally Gets His Moment at the Met

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting "The Drawings of Bronzino," on display from January 20th to April 18th. The noteworth exhibition will be the first major exhibit devoted to the artist. In the past, it has been difficult to obtain Bronzino's paintings (because most were created on panels or frescoes, which are immobile).

However, the Met has acquired Bronzino's drawings, which have never been properly studied until now. While only about 60 of his drawings still exist, the exhibit is sure to excite those who enjoy Bronzino, Italian Mannerism and 16th Century European art - especially because most of the fragile drawings have never before been exhibited.

As George R. Goldner, chairman of the museum's department of prints and drawings says,

“His drawings have never been properly studied until now, so there are still a number of questions ... One of the purposes of the show is to figure out what is a Bronzino drawing and what isn’t.”

Employing chalk and pen and ink, Bronzino created everything from sketches scribbled in haste, as a way of remembering an idea, to more elaborate, finished compositions that patrons could use as studies for frescoes and other large commissions. “Each drawing tells you something important about the artist and how he worked...”

The drawings, on loan from Florence's Uffizi Gallery, the Louvre, the British Museum and several private collections, have already given insight about Bronzino's methods.

To read more about the exhibition, click here.

To read the NY Times article associated with the exhibition (which discusses specific drawings and the clues they've given us), click here.

Roy Lichtenstein's "I Love Liberty"

Famed pop-artist Roy Lichtenstein's "I Love Liberty" sold for $49,000 at Freeman's Auctioneers in Philadelphia, where Lehman Brothers auctioned off $1.35 million worth of artwork that once adorned its corporate offices.

Some would say it's a bit ironic that "I Love Liberty" was the highest-selling piece of art at the auction (as big banks, like Lehman Brothers, have been chastised for their unjust ways and non-liberty invoking practices). However, the haters should seek some comfort in hearing that Lehman Brothers still owes nearly $250 billion to creditors (and that they are now devoid of their seemingly-priceless art collection).

To read more about the auction, click here.

M.C. Escher

Born in 1892, the Dutch artist M.C. Escher is often associated with dorm-room posters or coffee book tables of his graphic art. Although he has become very "mainstream", I am still often struck by the oddness of hisi work. I remember as a child sitting for hours looking at my Escher book, amazed, and a little disturbed by the twists and turns and optic tricks he was able to create (without the aid of a computer). I realize that I've fast-forwarded a few centuries from my typical posts, but I recently was reminded of his work by a friend and thought I'd take a look at it again:

Gericault's Man Woman

A reader recommended that I check out this Theodore Gericault painting, entitled The Mad Woman with a Mania of Envy. Completed in 1823, the work is one of ten portraits (only five remain today) in which Gericault portrays a subject with a mental disorder. These haunting images make me really wonder what it must have been like to suffer from a mental illness in a time when they just "sent you off to a nut house". So sad, but such beautiful paintings.

Engulfed in flames

Skull with Cigarette by Van Gogh has become a classic image - many a college dorm wall has been adorned with posters of this strange figure. It is believed that Vincent painted this while in school in an anatomy class. Measuring 32 x 24.5 cm and oil on canvas, I can think of almost no other image that gives me a better chuckle. You may also recognize it from the cover of David Sedaris' most recent book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

Michelangelo's Pietà

La Pietà by Michelangelo is one of history's most famous sculptures. The statue was completed in 1499 and depicts Jesus and the Virgin Mary, the latter represented in a very youthful and peaceful state, as a commission for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres.

The piece was originally placed in the Chapel of Santa Petronilla at Saint Peter's in Rome; however, it was moved several times throughout the years to accomodate renovations, causing substantial damage to Mary's fingers. In a highly infamous move in 1972, a geologist attacked the sculpture with a hammer, after which La Pietà had to undergo major restoration.

The piece now resides inside a bullet-proof box, once again at Saint Peter's.

Holbein's Dance of Death Alphabet

Last week I posted about Hans Holbein the Younger's Dance of Death. I feel like I left out a significant, and much acclaimed, section of the work - the Alphabet. Each letter measures only 2.5 x 2.5 cm, but is so full of detail that is even difficult to see in an enlargement. Below is a random sampling of some of the letters...

Dance of Death

Perhaps Hans Holbein the Younger's most well-known work of art is the Dance of Death. The group of 41 woodcuts was created in 1526, and published over a decade later. The chilling macabre images were revolutionary at the time - depicting death as an ever-present figure, intertwined with daily life.

I. The Creation

XXVI. The Physician

XXXV. The New-Married Lady

Giacometti

I have always been a major admirer of the work of Alberto Giacometti. His elongated, brittle forms are beautifully haunting and always conjure up images of post-war thoughts of loss and desperation, for me. The Swiss artist currently is the subject of a major show at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel.

Click here to see information about the 2001 Giacometti show at the MoMA

Henri Cartier-Bresson - photograph of Giacometti, 1961

Three Men Walking II, 1949, bronze

Dog, 1951, cast 1957, bronze

James Ensor at the MoMA

Skeletons Fighting Over a Pickled Herring, 1891 - image via the Museum of Modern Art, New York

Among all of the really great current shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the James Ensor exhibition is one of my favorites. The show features 120 works "examining Ensor's contribution to modernity, his innovative and allegorical use of light, his prominent use of satire, his deep interest in carnival and performance, and his own self-fashioning and use of masking, travesty, and role-playing".

I have always loved Ensor's work, and this is the first time I got to see such a large collection of the haunting, yet comedic images. As Jerry Saltz says in his review of the show, Ensor "let his freak flag fly."

El Greco

El Greco, one of history's most talented artists (and one of my personal favorites) was born in 1541. His expressionistic, slightly disturbing style and elongated forms - just look at those fingers - brought confusion to his contemporaries, but have become heralded today.

Christ Carrying the Cross, ca. 1580s (?), oil on canvas

Portrait of a Cardinal, 1600, oil on canvas

Paul, the Apostle, 1606, oil on canvas

The Ugly Dutchess

This image of The Ugly Dutchess has become a sort of icon of gross humor and symbol of absurdity, but the truth may not be so funny...

From the Guardian:

"She is one of the most popular paintings in the National Gallery, whose rather unfortunate looks inspired illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. But one question has always puzzled: did the poor lady really look like this?

Today the Guardian can reveal that she did and was suffering from an exceptionally rare form of Paget's disease - an abnormality of the metabolism that enlarges and deforms the bones.

The portrait, An Old Woman, painted by the Flemish artist Quinten Massys in 1513, is popularly known as The Ugly Duchess and will be part of the National Gallery's eagerly awaited exhibition Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian, which opens next Wednesday.

Curators are particularly excited about this painting because two important discoveries have been made in recent research: firstly, the portrait is truthful and she almost certainly looked like that, and secondly, a long held historical theory that the painter was copying Leonardo da Vinci is wrong.

The medical research shows that she was suffering from an advanced form of Paget's disease - osteitis deformans - which enlarged her jaw bones, extended her upper lip and pushed up her nose. It also affected her...."

click here to keep reading

Anybody worried about their mortality?

Above is Hans Baldung Grien's version of Death and Beauty, and it really isn't that pretty. Like I wrote previously, religion played a large role during the Renaissance, so on the few occasions that secular imagery was painted, it generaly had to do with daily fears and frustrations of the public. Grien has painted four stages of life on the panel, with the last stage of Death holding an hour glass above all the other's heads. Clock is ticking!

So why has there been such a long fear of death and decay?  Did the fear exist before the time of Christianity?  

Getting Started: Creepy Art

The Northern Renaissance is famous for its luscious and sensual use of oil paint, idealized fair skinned Virgin Mary's, and profusely ornamented and detailed paintings.  Beauty is undeniable with these elegant paintings. Yet, you can't know good until you know evil.   Likewise, you can't know beauty until you know ugly, which is why the depictions of what is 'not beautiful' was so common during the 15th and 16th centuries.

 

Perhaps it is the irony that appeals to me most: the most talented artists painting the grotesque, the odd, the other, with the most valuable materials that were known to exist.   Considering the role Christianity played in daily life--- it seems most likely that painting what was 'not beautiful' was more of a way to cope with a fear of going to hell......