Rembrandt van Rijn's "Jan Lutma the Elder"

Seven works of art I would like to see at the Frick

I recently visited New York and seeing the Frick was part of my plans, but due to time constraints I couldn't do it.  Anyway, in an effort to turn lemons into lemonade, I'm going to post seven works of art from the Frick that I wish I could have seen.  

Nationality: Dutch

Born-Died: 1606-1669

Creation Date: 1656

Size: 7.75 x 5.825  in (19.7 x 14.9 cm)

Media: Etching ink on paper 

Location: The Frick Collection, New York City, New York, USA

Diego Velazquez's "Philip IV at Fraga"

Nationality: Spanish
Born-Died: 1599-1660
Creation Date: 1644
Size: 51 x 39 in (129.8 x 99.4 cm) 
Media: Oil on canvas 
Location: The Frick Collection, New York City, New York, USA

Gerrit van Honthorst's "Samson and Delilah"

Nationality: Dutch

Born-Died: 1590-1656

Creation Date: c. 1621
Size: 50.75 x 37 inch (129 x 94 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas

Location: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

This scene appears to be quite tender despite the maliciousness of the act.

White Artists Painting 25 Beautiful Skin Tones

This post is a response to recent controversies involving the racist professor, Derrick Bell, and numerous discussions I have had with artist-friends of mine regarding the topic of race.  There is a horrible and utterly ignorant view in the minds of many that all white people are automatically racist.  Some even hold that all members of all races are automatically racist--that we are all tainted with the "original sin" of racism from birth.  These are views that only racists can hold and there is no excusing such views under any circumstances.  Lack of education does not make such views "okay" and neither do PhD's.  These days, anti-white views are unfortunately all-too-common in the arts industry.  Such views reveal an ominously "concrete-bound" mentality in a group that prides itself on independent, rational thinking.  I would like to draw attention to this disconnect.

Racism is a concept, and as such it's meaning is communicable and it's application can be appropriate in many contexts independent of historical, cultural and economic factors.  The concept "racist" is appropriately applied to anyone of any race independent of any other factors about his own race.

To contrast the false views above I am posting 25 details of paintings all made by white artists that show an incredible appreciation for--and even love for--skin tone variety.  Many of these paintings are well over 100 years old. The oldest is about 400 years old.

It is more than okay to appreciate these skin tones.  It is more than okay to think, "I love the look of this very dark skin" or "I love the look of this very pale skin" and everything in between.  It is no more necessary to criticize pale skin as "pasty" or "blindingly white" than it is to criticize some other skin-tone for being it's shade. 

I can only hope that this post will help combat those hurtful, irrational and indefensible ideas.

I hope you enjoy these beautiful skin-tones as much as I do!

All the best,
- Justin 

Greek Sculptor's "Piping and Dancing Satyr"

Nationality: Greek
Creation Date: 300-100 BCE
Size: 8.5 inch (21 cm)
Media: Bronze
Location: The Cleveland Museum of Art

The first photo (the inferior one) is by me.  I like the idea of depicting someone who is dancing, perhaps playing music and essentially rocking out. 

Giovanni Boldini's "Count Robert de Montesquiou"

Nationality: Italian
Born-Died: 1842-1931
Creation Date: 1897
Size: 45.5 × 32.5 inch (115.5 x 82.5 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Osman Hamdi Bey's "The Tortoise Trainer"

Nationality: Turkish
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date: 1906Size: 87.2 × 47.2 inch (221.5 x 120 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey

This wonderful painting seems to have some kind of message and I wish I knew what it was.

Starting the Year with Johannes Vermeer: "Christ in the House of Martha and Mary"

Since there are only 30+ paintings attributed to Johannes Vermeer along with a handful of disputed works, I thought it would be fun to post one every day to start out the new year. I will post the ones I like the least first and the ones I like the best last. 

Nationality: Dutch
Born-Died: 1632-1675
Creation Date:  before 1655
Size: 63 × 55.9 inch (160 × 142  cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

This is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, known Vermeer works. Unfortuately, it is really nothing special as Vermeer paintings go. I have seen this work in person several times and it has never impressed me when I compared it to similar works from the same time period. It is quite large and the vivid, lush surface distinctive of Vermeers later work isn't there. Scenes of this kind, called "history paintings," were considered the loftiest subject for an artist tackle and it is believed that an ambitious, young Vermeer sought to tackle it as well. The theme of Jesus in the house of Mary and Martha was one that many artists in Vermeer's region and time period painted as well.

Rand described Vermeer as a "Naturalist" and this is one of the many Vermeer paintings that doesn't really fit that categorization.

Art I Hate and Why: Lovis Corinth's "Samson Blinded"

Nationality: German
Born-Died: 1858-1925

Creation Date: 1912

Media: Oil on canvas

Location: Nationalgalerie, Berlin , Germany

This is not merely an illustration of Samson, a character from the Old Testament.  Its value as art lies in the fact that what it represents is much more fundamental: a view of man—an opinion about the nature of all men embodied in the image of one man.  The view of man offered in this painting is the following: man is weak, groping blindly, crushed, sickly, incapable, brutish, and (at best) formerly powerful. 

(Possibly) Arnolfo di Cambio's "St. Peter"

Nationality: Italian
Born-Died: 1240/c. 1300-1310

Media: Stone

Location: St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City, Rome, Italy

This is a detail photograph that I took of a sculpture in St. Peters in Rome.  In my various travels I have seen a lot of sculptures with noses, feet, etc. that have been polished smooth by the countless touches of human hands, but this sculpture is the most worn away I have ever seen.  It looks like the feet have melted--like they have actually lost material.  It's a shame that the work has been damaged in this way, but it's also quite amazing to think of stone being polished and literally eroded away by millions upon millions of soft, human hands over the course of centuries. 

Michael Sweerts Week: "Self Portrait"

Nationality: Flemish Born-Died: 1618-1664

Creation Date: c. 1656
Size: 37.4 x 28.7 in. (95 x 73 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, USA

I like it.

Peter Paul Rubens' "Perseus and Andromeda"

Nationality: Flemish
Born/Died: 1577-1640

Creation Date: 1639-1640
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Prado, Madrid, Spain

Raphael's "Self Portrait with a Friend"

Nationality: Italian
Born/Died: 1518-1519

Creation Date: 1518-1519
Size: 39 × 33 in. (99 × 83 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Louvre, Paris, France

Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello

I was chatting with a friend about which of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' namesake was the best artist--I found it challenging to say. Which do you like best? Which do you like least? With this in mind, I thought it would be fun to show my favorite piece by each of these artists (in no particular order.)

Raphael's La Fornarina

Nationality: Italian
Born/Died: 1483-1520

Creation Date: 1518-1519
Size: 33 in × 24 in. (85× 60 cm)
Media: Oil on panel
Location: Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy

(This picture doesn't do this painting justice)



Michelangelo's Lybian Sybil

Nationality: Italian
Born/Died: 1475-1564

Creation Date: 1508–1512
Media: Frescoe
Location: Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome, Italy



Donatello's St. Mark

Nationality: Italian
Born/Died: 1386-1466

Creation Date: 1411–1413
Size: 93 in. (236 cm)
Media: Marble
Location: Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy



Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine

Nationality: Italian
Born/Died: 1452-1519

Creation Date: 1489-1490
Size: 21 in × 15 in. (54× 39 cm)
Media: Oil on panel
Location: Czartoryski Museum, Kraków, Poland

Xavier-Alphonse Monchablon's "Victor Hugo"

Nationality: French
Born/Died: 1835-1907

Creation Date: 1883
Size: 54 x 25.25 x 37 in. (14.2 × 10.2 cm)
Media: Photogravure of an Engraving (?)

So awesome. You can buy prints of this image on eBay for very little money.

Rembrandt van Rijn's "Aristotle with a Bust of Homer"

Nationality: Dutch
Born/Died: 1606-1669
Creation Date: 1653
Size: 56.5 × 53.7 in. (143.5 × 136.5 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA

Diego Velázquez's "Juan de Pareja"

Nationality: Spanish
Born/Died: 1599-1660
Creation Date: 1650
Size: 32 × 27.5 in. (81.3 × 69.9 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA

Hippolyte Jean Flandrin's "René-Charles Dassy and His Brother Jean-Baptiste-Claude-Amédé Dassy"

Nationality: French
Born/Died: 1809-1864

Creation Date: 1850
Size: 68.25 x 52.75 in. (173.5 x 134 cm)
Media: Oil on canvas
Location: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, USA



Below photos by me.

Michelangelo Buonarroti's "Moses"

Nationality: Italian
Born/Died: 1475-1564

Creation Date: c. 1513-1515
Size: h: 92.5 in. (h: 235 cm)
Media: Marble
Location: San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, Italy

Unknown Bust by Unknown Scottish Artist

Nationality: Scottish

Media: stone
Location: The National Portrait Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK

I took this photo on my first trip to Edinburgh.



I would like to take a moment to point out some minor annoyances I have with the website for the National Galleries of Scotland. Since I lived in Edinburgh for two years I have grappled with this website a great deal and I have never had a chance to communicate these little irritations.