Museum Visits

All comments and photos are my own unless otherwise noted.

August 23, 2014

Well, after some sketching of the Finelli and Buzio scultpures yesterday, I realized that I was just not getting into my art groove. The museum was crowded and that particular hallway was a point of departure for the guided museum tours. Within an hour or so, hundreds of tourists browsed Finelli's Cardinel stopping in front of it as I was drawing while they listened to the audio on the guided tour headphone. I was also over-tired from waking up at dawn unplanned. So I decided to walk around the surrounding rooms which feature medieval and nineteenth century painting.

Last month, we accomplished an in-depth eight hour browse through these rooms so I had seen many of the pieces and had taken lots of photographs of all of the ones that fascinated me. I took a second look at a few yesterday.

Continuing my Musings ...

Renaissance period:

Artist: Titian (died 1576)
Title: Portrait of A Man

Photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

Titian is an old favorite painter. Until recently, I had a very eclectic taste in what I liked in art but at least I could always say that there was a common denominator of realism with the exception of my love of El Greco. I did not know or like much after Velasquez but have learned so much since I was young. 

Titian's portraits were always my favorites and still are. He is known for other types of painting but I think he achieved the height of his brilliance in portraiture. The realistic skin tones are what draw my eye along with his draftsmanship in portraiture. With this painting, I see it as a transitional piece hearkening  back to its medieval predecessors but also forward looking in its strive for a more realistic portrayal of the human form by staying true to a more classical rendering. The painting is a masterful example of what could be achieved by direct observation, by careful study of nature and the live model.  Somehow, for me, the eyes remind me of those you find in medieval portraiture and very early renaissance portraiture where perspective is not always carried through in a three-quarter view on the subject's left side. Far be it from me to criticize at all since many an art student still make that mistake. However,my comment is not a criticism; it is an observation that Titian's portraiture emerged in a very fluctuating time where old forms were mutating and transforming into new forms; a time when the old and the new coexisted.

Artist: Giovanni Battista Moroni (died ca. 1578)
Title:: Bartolomeo Bonghi (died 1584), a noted legal scholar.

photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

This painting stands out from across the room. It has such presence. I believe the reason why it has such presence is that Moroni has mastered the realism of the clothed figure so well that the viewer thinks he could get up from his chair and step out from the painting at any moment. What a master of color and lighting!  The background landscape viewed from the window is equally realistic. Perhaps the WHY of why I like it is that it reminds me of a painter that I have loved since I was a pre-teen - Holbein, who captured all of those Tudors and their statesmen so well. Both Holbein's paintings and this Moroni painting have a strong light source so that there is a definite highlighting in key areas. One doesn't think of that kind of light effect in painting until the modern times when a spot light could be used. Or at least that is what the lighting reminds me of, a very modern lighting condition. I have to wonder how they set this up with the lighting sources that they had available in the sixteenth century.  Yet another little research project for me. (This art blog is certainly creating little side research topics for me!)



detail of painting. Photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

If you take a look at the details of the fabric and the fur, the lighting is superb showing the different textures of  satin and sable against the coarser worsted fabric of his coat. Look at the sheen on the reds!

Regarding the flesh tones and turning of the form, he captures the ruddy complexion of the sitter which has the subtle blues underneath.

As with my post on Finelli and Buzio sculptures, I am awestruck at the technical leaps these artists made in developing their representational style in such a sort time and it was due to DaVinci, Titian and later Caravaggio who stressed the importance of painting from life and observation of nature as it was rather than the mannered and idealistic paintings of prior centuries where the artist relied on stock imagery and on imagination as reference. 

I cannot help thinking that, if you did not know that this was painted in the sixteenth century, this painting could very well be painted today with a model dressed in costume. It has such a modern and contemporary feel to it.  These painters, I think, were centuries ahead of their time.

Artist: Federico Barocci (died 1612)
Title: Saint Francis

Photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

Somehow, I cannot escape my background in Medieval history and remember lectures from back in the day about Early Christian and Mediveal art and my twenty year later academic specialization religious thought and comparative religion. Barocci's painting depicts the Franciscan story of Saint Francis receiving the stigmata while meditating on the crucifixion in the cave of Mount Verna. Lest his audience not understand who his subject is and what the theme of the painting is, he leaves lots of clues, e.g., the stigmata on his hand identifies him as Saint Francis. The artist conjures up an image of Saint Francis that is in his head  and in a setting that he contrives to honor the subject. The theme is an old one by Barocci's time. Yet. his treatment of it places his painting firmly in the Renaissance/Baroque period. Religion-centered themes were de rigueur in the counter-reformation period. Uplifting religious themes were sanctioned while self-centered and mundane society portraiture was deemed lacking in piety and vain-glorious.  His lighting and the realism he achieves demonstrate his firm control of anatomy, perspective and current artistic sensibilities. There is such depth in the painting both in the shadows and in the aerial perspective in the distance. Somehow, this piece does remind me of more modern nineteenth and early twentieth century illustration in the way he handles the turning of the form and  in the clothing. His colors seem fresh and lack the muddiness that often stems from over mixing and reliance on earth pigments.

All of these things made me go back and look at this painting again and again. And then, in addition to these things that call me to this painting, it is also Saint Francis. I have liked some of the verse ascribed to Saint Francis since high school. So again I come back to my early days but with a fresh eye and appreciation.


Late Baroque and Early Neo-Classical Period:

Artist: Gaetano Gandolfi (died 1802
Title: Head of a Bishop



Every time I walk by this painting I stop. I write it down as a Tiepolo but it is not. I am surprised. it has such a mark of Tiepolo perhaps in the rendering of the features. The brushwork is also exceptional and departs from the more refined and smoothed textures one typically sees in the Tiepolos and the Gandolfis. I love the diagonal design of the composition and juxtaposition of the hard and soft edges as well as the way Gandolfi moves from warm tones to cool and back to warm color scheme all over the painting. Drama in the design. Drama in the lighting. Drama in the fixed heaven centered gaze. We want to know who he is and what is his call. Is he a martyr and a saint? What turmoil surrounds him and urges him to send a prayer heaven bound? I would love to master what he has mastered here.

Time for a break.... 


August 23, 2014

We made an impromptus visit to the the Met yesterday. I was up at dawn catching up on correspondence and planning to continue my reading on Caravaggio or doing some artwork  - a drawing or a watercolor. But instead my husband wanted to pack up our sketch things and take a jaunt to the museum. Normally my most favorite thing to do lately whether to view only or to sketch. We caught a bit of traffic and did not arrive until about 11:30am. I knew which spot I wanted to go to for sketching in the European Painting section.  There are two statues that I recently discovered that I adore.

The first is Giuliano Finelli's bust of Cardinal Scipione Borghese.

Statue at the Metropolitan Museum photo by Karmen Elsen (C)

 I discovered this bust a month ago and have been studying it ever since...I think about this sculture all the time and since I took dozens of photographs of it last time, I do FEEL this piece, it inspires me and it will become the subject of a piece of my artwork very soon. Anyway, I went to the hall where this is. It is exquisitely carved.  I love the translucency of marble especially this pure white kind without any veins of other colors.

In the biography that I am reading on Caravaggio, there is a photograph of a very similar bust done of the same Cardinal Borghese by Gianlorenzo Bernini.

website: http://www.atlantedellarteitaliana.it/artwork-3784.html




However, to really appreciate Finelli's work, look at the detail. Here is Finelli's Cardinal:



Finelli bust detail. photo by Karmen Elsen (c)

Here is Bernini's bust detail:



Bernini detail from wtfarthistory.com


While impressions are often subjective, I find Finelli's treatment much more sensitive and refined. Look at the way he sculpted the strands of hair and the emotion he captured. I am sure that both captured a likeness. How could they not as both works are almost carbon copies of each other! But Bernini captured an aloof, imperious Cardinal who exudes haughtiness and a bit of coolness. Finelli, by lowering the head and treating the brow area the way he did, gives the Cardinal what can be an introspective look but yet a look that says do not trifle with me. I do not see imperiousness and the haughtiness in this one. Here, I see power and determination but the lines are so different to me than those on the Bernini's Cardinal. With the subtleties of the form Finelli created while fleshing out the face in the cheek bone area and the jowl area, it is so tenderly and gingerly done but yet the sculpture screams - Power. There is an unbridled intensity of emotion behind the facade. Bernini's Cardinel seems to me to hide behind the cool exterior showing none of the intense emotion that I see in Fernini's Cardinal.  I haven't yet done any reading or real research on the two busts or Cardinal Borghese himsef but have just expressed my own impressions of them. I will do more scholarly research and get back to you on the two from an art history standpoint at a later date. In the meantime, I cannot wait to work on my own piece based on Fernini's Cardinal.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 8, 2014: Two developments on my entry on Finelli's Cardinal Scipione Borghese. First, I looked up  who he was and he was a student of the same Bernini who did the other famous bust of Cardinal Borghese.  The Wikipedia article on Finelli discusses the two busts but unfortunately the article's author did not hold Finelli's work in high regard. All of the negative things that he mentioned of Finelli's work are why I like it better than Bernini's. Finelli's exquisite attention to detail, the subtleties he finds in molding the face, the nuances of expression all make his work far superior in my opinion. BUT taste is very subjective and all I can say is that I adore Finelli's bust.

Check out the Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuliano_Finelli

Second, I finished my own painting inspired by Finelli's bust. I think it will be the first of many. It was just that inspiring to me.  Here's a link to my Painting. 



The other sculpture that I re-visited yesterday that has inspired me  is Ippolito Buzio's Luisa Deti.  I cannot wait to work on a piece of artwork based on it but it will have to wait while Fernini's Cardinal muse calls me!




Buzio Bust photos by Karmen Elsen (c)


I cannot say why this bust mesmerizes me exactly but I could look at it for hours.  It speaks on so many levels and is certainly multi-layered from a figurative and emotional standpoint. What immediately draws one in is a face, totally enveloped in shadows. You must walk closer to see who is behind those layers and layers of veils and pieces of fabric. She appears to be in deep mourning and sorrowful. At first she appears to be a Roman or Greek but on close inspection, the hairstyle and clothing around the neckline tell us it is a woman of a later period. Who was she? A cursory google search only pulls up the sculpture. So more dogged research will ensue on my part. Back to my impressions of this stature. The only facial feature that emerges from the deep shadow is her nose no matter what your angle is. She is not a classic beauty but that is not the story that this artist wants to tell.  The haggard lines, the blank stare in front of her, the very heavy fabric on top of her head all reveal a woman weighted down by her situation. There is not one glimmer of happiness or hope that I see... just despair, numbness, tiredness... All of this emotion jumps out at me from pure marble stone.

Another thought on these Renaissance sculptures: they have such a modern feel and strive for a realism most find awe-inspiring. It is hard to imagine that a century or two before these artists, few European artists of that time had re-discovered perspective,or worried about correct human proportions. Realism was not their goal. But more on that later....  

UPDATE OF NOVEMBER 2, 2014: Well, I finally found out who Luisa Deti was. She was the mother of Pope Clement VIII (of the noble Aldobrandini family) and died in 1557. The bust was commissioned of Buzio to be included in the Aldobrandini family villa. The Aldobrandini family wanted sculptures of the Pope's parents. At the last minute, instead of a bust of the mother, they installed a reclining sculture of the mother instead of Buzio's bust. For the interesting history of the sculpture and how they identified the artist and subject, here is a link to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's article on the sculpture.


What I find interesting as well is that these two sculptures Fimelli's Cardinal Borghese and Buzio's Luisa Deti are placed near each other at the Met and that subjects that were intimately connected. The Borghese family was a branch of Aldobranini family. They were currant at the same time.  AND since I have been reading about Caravaggio these past six months:  the Aldobrandini family was in power at the time of Caravaggio as well. What coincidence: my chance discovery of these two inspiring sculptures at the time when I am reading about Caravaggio.

My two current muses "side-by-side:"....


I will continue this post...

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