Author Travels

SUMMER’S DAYS AND NUDE WOMEN – Ten expressive shades of Danish painters

C.W. Eckersberg /A nude woman doing her hair before a mirror 1841 – In the cool light and with classical serenity Eckersberg underplays an erotic message. The picture with the mirror crosses what is seen with what one is not allowed to see, exposure with concealment, repetition of forms with shifts in balance. With simple effects he has used the …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / THE HAGUE – Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring

Regarded as Vermeer’s masterpiece, this canvas is often referred to as the Mona Lisa of the North or the Dutch Mona Lisa. The Girl with a Pearl Earring (or girl with a turban), is one of the most famous paintings by Jan Vermeer, probably painted around the year 1666. The girl in this painting is believed to be Vermeer’s eldest …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / PARIGI – Leonardo da Vinci, La Gioconda

Lisa was born in Florence on June 15 1479. She was named Lisa, like a wife of her paternal grandfather. In 1538, her husband Francesco died of plague. Four years later, she became sick and was taken to the convent of St. Ursula, where she died and was buried July 15, 1542, at the age of 63 years. In the …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / CHICAGO – George Seurat: A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

The painting has precise geometric rules, but the most important is symmetry with respect to the central axis, determined by the woman with the little girl. That painting was lent to The Art Institute of Chicago, where you can go to admire it. Imagine being inside a Sunday afternoon on the island of Grande-Jatte. Imagine that on that day you …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / AMSTERDAM – Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn: The Night Watch

No, it is not a picture. Almost like a photographer, a famous painter has captured an image, without people he aware of it. The Night Watch (also known as the Civic Guard marching, or as The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq), is an oil painting on canvas on canvas 363 x 437 cm, made in 1642 by Rembrandt Harmenszoon …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / ROME – Raphael: The School of Athens

Fifty-eight are the characters depicted in the fresco. Plato and Aristotle are in the center of the composition. Even your eyes – is instantly attracted to these figures, but not randomly, because they are the lines of the floor and the prospect of the building to make possible this colorful magic. As you have observed, the center of the scene …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / PARIS – Lucas Cranach The Elder: Three Graces

Lucas Cranach the Elder, was friends with all of the big hitters of his Renaissance Germany: painter Albrecht Durer, reformist Martin Luther, and the various Electors and Emperors for whom he painted. Apart from being a very successful painter, he was a estimable businessman. The Three Graces (small tempera on panel, which measures 37×24 cm), was painted by him around …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / AMSTERDAM – Cornelis van Haarlem: Bathsheba at her bath

Cornelis van Haarlem, Dutch Golden Age painter and draughtsman, was one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in The Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals as a portraitist. There was the year 1594, and he painted an oil on convas (height 77.5 cm, width: 64 cm), writing on the left, monogram and date: CCH 1594. It was born …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / MILAN – Leonardo da Vinci: The Last Supper

“The Last Supper” is a mural painted on plaster, in tempera, chalk, glue and pitch. In Milan, around 1495, Leonardo da Vinci has embellished a large wall (460 × 880 cm), in the former refectory of a convent, adjacent to the sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie. What you see, you are inspired by a Gospel passage of John, the …

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MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / FLORENCE – Sandro Botticelli: The Birth of Venus

The “Birth of Venus”, is not only a tempera painting on linen canvas, a result of the creativity of 172 × 278 cm. Around 1485, Sandro Botticelli realized that wonder for the Medici villa of Castello, but now you can see in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, as an icon of the Italian Renaissance. When you observe that painting, the …

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