COMPLEX NUDES IN TWISTED POSES – Cornelis Van Haarlem and the Mannerist School
During the Eighty Years’ War, he loses contact with his parents, and a painter – Pieter Pietersz – has become his first teacher. In those years, he could not know that he would become a famous painter of the Mannerist school of Haarlem, painting large canvases in biblical or mythological subject, often with stylized characters, and even in grotesque poses. …
Read More »THE RESTLESS RENAISSANCE OF LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER – Altarpieces, court portraits and Protestant Reformers, along a innumerable pictures of women
He is the artist who had created an artistic workshop in Wittenberg, introducing important changes in the pictorial landscape of his time, and with the colors also representing the nude and eroticism, with an extreme attention to detail. His desire to change, become pictorial reality, where everything that is not traditional, sensuality, charm and the pleasure of life, hovering lightly, …
Read More »THE MAN CALLED SWIFTEST OF PAINTERS – Lucas Cranach The Elder: when art become popular, in period of great political upheavals
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 …
Read More »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 …
Read More »CORNELIS VAN HAARLEM (1562/1638), DUTCH PAINTER – The brand of Mannerism: complex nudes in twisted poses, besides mythological and kitchen scenes
THE ELEVENTH SONNET TO BEAUTY – Poetry, by Gerbrand Bredero
THE ELEVENTH SONNET TO BEAUTY O ripe bosom white that steadily before mine eyes, so dearly drifts, like the clear reflection, at the source of the Rhine of the purest snow. Ah but your shimmering, o weak eyes doth impair! With chaste milk appear there laden, two silver covers round, on top of both a ruby, which like small apples …
Read More »THE SHIP OF FOOLS – Introduction, by Sebastian Brant
THE SHIP OF FOOLS, INTRODUCTION Knowledge of trouth, prudence, and iust symplicite hath vs clene left. For we set of them no store. Our Fayth is defyled loue, goodnes, and Pyte: honest maners nowe ar reputed of, no more. Lawyers ar lordes, but Justice is rent and tore. Or closed lyke a Monster within dores thre. For without mede, or …
Read More »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 …
Read More »I LIVE UPON THIS WRETCHED SOLITARY CLIFF – Poetry, by Vittoria Colonna
I LIVE UPON THIS WRETCHED SOLITARY CLIFF I live upon this wretched solitary cliff, like a bird of sorrow that shuns green, branches and clear water: And withdraw, from my worldly loves, and my very self, so my thoughts may fly swiftly to that sun, I worship and adore. And though they fail, to spread their wings as I wish, …
Read More »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 …
Read More »LOVE, I THANK YOU – Poetry, by Angelo Poliziano
LOVE, I THANK YOU For all my pain and torment, and I’m content, for every sorrow. I’m content for all I’ve suffered, Lord, in your lovely kingdom: For, without merit, by your mercy, so great a pledge you’ve granted me, since you’ve made me worthy, of a smile so blessed, my heart it’s carried, to Heaven above. I thank you, …
Read More »MASTERPIECES OF ART IN THE CENTURIES / MILAN – Andrea Mantegna: The Dead Christ
In the iconography of the late lamented of the dead man, it is always expected the presence of the “painful”, characters that are beside. This is what happens even in the “Dead Christ”, a picture of the size of 68 × 81 cm, one of the most famous paintings by Andrea Mantegna, where the Virgin Mary, along with St. John …
Read More »I HAVE PLACED MY HEART – Poetry, by Jacopo da Lentini
I HAVE PLACED MY HEART I have placed my heart in God’s service, so that I might ascend to Heaven, to the holy place where I have heard, there’s always laughter, joy and fun: I’d not want to go without my Lady, of the clear brow, and golden hair, without her I could never be happy, separated from my Lady …
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