Painting #C22 - Death and the Maiden

Egon Schiele 

(1890-1918, Austrian)

Death and the Maiden
- Egon Schiele
- oil (150 x 180 cm) 1915
- Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere (Vienna)

Death and the Maiden is a concept ultimately derived from the Medieval "Dance of Death": no matter one's status in life, the Dance of Death unites all. 

     The Great War (WWI) was going on. The figures in the painting are Schiele himself and his lover Wally, before his marriage with Edith.

The embrace (Lovers II)
- Egon Schiele
 - oil on canvas (100 x 170 cm) 1917
- Österreichische Galerie Belvedere (Vienna)

The Family
- Egon Schiele
- oil on canvas (150 x 161 cm) 1918
- Österreichische Galerie Belvedere (Vienna)

In the autumn of 1918, the Spanish flu pandemic reached Vienna. His wife Edith, who was six months pregnant, died from the disease. Schiele died only three days after his wife. He was only 28 years old. The child in the painting was not born.

Seated Woman with Bent Knees
- Egon Schiele
- gouache on paper (46 x 31 cm) 1917
- National Gallery (Prague)

The small town II
(View from Bohemian Krumlov)
- Egon Schiele
- oil on canvas (90 × 90 cm) 1912-13
- Leopold Museum (Vienna)

His mother's hometown.

The Hermits
- Egon Shiele
- oil on canvas (181 x 181 cm) 1912
- Leopold Museum (Vienna)

Schiele (L) and his respected Klimt (R).

Self Portrait Nude 

 - Egon Schiele 

 - Albertina Collection (Vienna)  

(L) watercolor on paper (43 x 27.5 cm) 1910

 

(R) pencil, charcoal, brush & gouache

on paper (56 x 37 cm) 1910

Egon Schiele monument
near the Egon Schiele Museum
 in the Austrian town of Tulln,
where he was born.

Source: Wikipedia

Painting #C21 - The Third of May 1808

The Third of May 1808
- Goya (1746–1828, Spanish)
- oil (266 × 345 cm) in 1814
- Museo del Prado (Madrid)

The execution of the Spanish defenders of Madrid by the French invaders.

Painting #C20 - Mr & Mrs Robert Andrews

Mr & Mrs Robert Andrews
- Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788, English)
- oil on canvas (69 x 119 cm) c.1749
- National Gallery (London)

Painting #C19 - Gin Lane & Beer Street

Gin Lane [1] & Beer Street [2]

- William Hogarth (1697-1764, English)

- copperplate (each 36 x 30 cm) 1751

- British Museum (London)

[1] On the simplest level, Hogarth portrays the inhabitants of Gin Lane as destroyed by their addiction to the foreign spirit of gin, with shocking scenes of infanticide, starvation, madness, decay and suicide.

[2] Hogarth portrays the inhabitants of Beer Street as happy and healthy, nourished by the native English ale, with scenes of industry, health, bonhomie and thriving commerce.

The gin crisis was severe. From 1689 onward the English government encouraged the industry of distilling, as it helped prop up grain prices which were then low, and increase trade, particularly with England's colonial possessions. Imports of French wine and spirits were banned to encourage the industry at home.

Source: Wiki

Painting #C18 - Farinelli and Friends

Farinelli and Friends
- Jacopo Amigoni (1682-1752, Italian)
- oil (173 x 245 cm) c.1750-52
- National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne)
- not on display

At the culmination of a brilliant career, the renowned Italian castrato Carlo Broschi, called Farinelli (1705–82) in Madrid in the early 1750s, sits at the centre of an intimate circle of friends, including Teresa Castellini (the prima donna of the Madrid opera); the Abate Metastasio (lifelong friend and librettist); and the painter himself (standing).

Farinelli sings Lascia Ch'io Planga / Leave Me to Weep, an Italian-language sopranoaria by composer Handel that has become a popular concert piece:

The whole Farinelli movie (1994) (1h):

Painting #C17 - The Centaurs

Battle of the Centaurs
- Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901, Swiss)
- oil (105 x 195 cm) in 1873
- Kunstmuseum Basel (Basel)

Painting #C16 - The Melun Diptych

The Melun Diptych / 雙聯祭畫

- Jean Fouquet (1425–1480, French) c.1452

- oil on 2 wooden panels (each 93 x 85 cm, originally hinged at the center)

- (originally) Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame (Melun)

[LEFT] Etienne Chevalier
with his patron saint St. Stephen
- Staatliche Museen (Berlin)

[RIGHT] The Virgin and Christ child
surrounded by cherubs
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts (Antwerp)

Perhaps the 17-year-old painter did not really know the breasts' shapes and locations.

A self-portrait medallion
is also associated with the two panels
- copper, enamel, gold (6 cm dia.)
- Louvre (Paris)

On the medallion is the name JOHES FOVQVET, where Johes is an abbreviated form of Johannes (a Latin form of John), and Fovqvet meant Fouquet (before letter u was invented to separate from letter v).

Portrait inspired by the Virgin in the Melun Diptych above

Agnès Sorel, favorite of King Charles VII of France
- anonymous
- oil on panel (130 x 97 cm) 16th century
- private collection

 

Tomb of Angels Sorel

at Collégiale Saint-Ours de LLoches

=============
Also by Jean Fouquet:

The Building of a Cathedral
- Jean Fouquet
- parchment (39 x 29 cm) c.1465
- Bibliothèque nationale de France  

Solomon completed the temple at Jerusalem begun by his father David. The temple took 7 years to complete. It was dedicated a year later, in a 7-day ceremony at the New Year festivities.

        It was destroyed by a Babylonian king in 586 B.C.E., rebuilt in 515 B.C.E., and finally destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.


===================
Some other Gothic-style cathedrals:
Note the rib vault ceilings and rose windows (stained glasses)

The Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Amiens 
(or simply Amiens Cathedral)
a Roman Catholic church (Amiens)

Chartres Cathedral
(French: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres)
a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France 

L

The Sainte-Chapelle
a royal chapel within the medieval Palais de la Cité
(residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century)
on Île de la Cité (Paris)

Lady Chapel in Wells Cathedral,
an Anglican cathedral in Wells (Somerset, England)

Source: Wikipedia

Painting #C15 - The Governess

The Governess / The Poor Teacher
- Richard Redgrave (1804-1888, British)
- oil (71 × 91.5 cm) in 1844
- Victoria & Albert Museum (London)

In the Victorian era, many a young educated lady spent n years of her youth as a resident governess to home-educate young girls.
        The painting above shows a sad one, in black, who could not attend the funeral ceremony of somebody close.

The governess is a familiar figure in Victorian literature: Emma, Jane Eyre, Becky Sharp (Vanity Fair), Mary Morstan (who was married to Dr. Watson in The Sign of Four, The Sherlock Holmes series)……

Madame Curie studied hard to become a scientist,
after being a governess for 6 years.

And, of course, forget not Sister Maria .....

Painting #C14 - The Fall of Icarus

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
- copy Pieter Brueghel the Elder ( –1569)
- oil on canvas (73.5 × 112 cm) c.1558
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts (Brussels)

Greek mythology:

Talented craftsman Daedalus and his talented artist son Icarus, imprisoned in a high tower on Crete Island, attempted to escape by flying.

"Icarus succeeded in flying, with wings made by Daedalus, using feathers secured with bees wax. Ignoring his father's warnings, Icarus chose to fly too close to the sun, melting the wax, and fell into the sea and drowned. His legs can be seen in the water just below the ship." (Wiki)

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
- oil on wood (63 × 90 cm) ca.1590-95
- Museum van Buuren (Brussels)

In this version, Daedalus is seen still flying and crying. And he made it.

Icarus died in his attempt to reach an ultimate height. Meanwhile, the farmer, the shepherd, and the fisherman do not care, but continue to do their ordinary chores.

The Lament for Icarus
- Herbert James Draper (1863-1920, English)
- oil on canvas (180 x 150 cm) in 1898
- Tate Britain (London)

Painting #C13 - Medea

Medea about to Kill Her Children
- Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863, French)
- oil (260 x 165 cm) in 1838
- Palis des Beaux-Arts (Lille)
+ reduced to (122 x 84 cm) in 1862
+ Louvre (Paris)

Greek mythology: Medea was about to kill her children, fathered by Jason, who deserted Medea so as to marry another princess.

Medea knew that Jason must be coming back to get her, because not long ago Medea had killed the bride-to-be.

I still recall studying, in secondary school, an abridged version of "The Argonauts", in which hero Jason led the Argonauts to mission completion, going through various great difficuties.

…… and watching the movie with some classmates in one 12:30 PM special holding.

I always wondered why the 'great difficulties' did not recur on the return trip.

Painting #C12 - The Nightmare

The Nightmare
- Henry Fuseli (1741-1825, Swiss in Britain)
- oil (101 x 127 cm) in 1781
- Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit)

"It shows a woman in deep sleep with her arms thrown below her, and with a demonic and apelike incubus crouched on her chest."

"The early meaning of 'nightmare' included the sleeper's experience of weight on the chest combined with sleep paralysis, dyspnea, or a feeling of dread." --- 被鬼壓/俾鬼責

To the top left, a mare in the dark night: night+mare=nightmare.

Painting #C11 - Self-Portrait with Masks

Self-Portrait with Masks
- James Ensor (1860-1949, Belgian)
- oil (120 x 80 cm) 1899
- Menard Art Museum (Komaki, Japan)

Painting #C10 - The Head of Medusa

The Head of Medusa
- Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640, Flemish)
- oil (68 × 118 cm) c.1618
- Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)

Medusa
- Caravaggio (1571–1610, Italian) c.1597
- oil on canvas mounted on wood (60 × 55 cm)
- Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence)

Painting #C09 - Beatrice Cenci

Portrait of Beatrice Cenci
- Guido Reni (1575-1642, Italian Baroque)
- oil (65 x 49 cm) c.1600
- Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica of Palazzo Barberini (Rome)

Beatrice Cenci (1577–1599, Italian noblewoman) was famous as the protagonist in events leading to a lurid murder (patricide) trial in Rome ..... and her execution by Papal authorities.

In those days, she was stripped upper-half-naked before the execuion. The execution ground was over-crowded, and some spectators were trampled to death.



In a similar pose:

Girl with a Pearl Earing
- Vermeer (Dutch, 1632–1675)
- oil (44.5 × 39 cm) c.1665
- The Mauritshuis (The Hague)

Painting #C08 - The Bad Mothers

The Bad Mothers
- Giovanni Segantini (1858–1899, Italian)
- oil on canvas (105 × 200 cm) in 1894
- Austrian Gallery Belvedere (Vienna)

The 'bad' mothers, entangled in difficulties, could not provide for their children. Seems that painter Segantini could not accept and forgive his poor mother and poor family that he was born to.
        "Segantini spent his early years with his mother, who experienced severe depression ..... marked by poverty, hunger and limited education due to his mother's inability to cope. In the spring of 1865 his mother died after spending the past seven years in increasingly poor health."  

Giovanni Segantini

(1858–1899, Italian)

Self-portrait, 1893

 

Segantini Museum (St. Moritz, Switzerland)

Ave Maria on the Lake
- Giovanni Segantini
- oil on canvas (120 x 93 cm) 1886
- San Gallo, Fondazione Otto Fischbacher

 

Kissing the Cross

- Giovanni Segantini

- pastel on board (86 x 48 cm) c.1886-88

- Segantini Museum (St. Moritz)

Return from the Woods
- Giovanni Segantini
- poster (50 x 70 cm) 1890
- Segantini Museum (St. Moritz)

Midday in the Alps,

- Giovanni Segantini in 1891

- Segantini Museum (St. Moritz)

 

Harvesting hay

- Giovanni Segantini in 1891

- oil on canvas

A brown cow at a water trough

- Giovanni Segantini

- oil on canvas (74 × 61cm) 1892

- Museum of Art (Saint-Gall)

 

Dead Roe-Deer

- Giovanni Segantini

- oil on canvas (56 x 97 cm) 1892

- Segantini Museum (St. Moritz)

The Angel of Life
- Giovanni Segantini
 - watercolour, oil, gold, silver powder,
bronze powder, charcoal & tempera
on paper (60 x 48 cm) 1894-95
- Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest)

Alpine Triptych《自然三部曲》

这三幅神秘的画，包含了醉心于阿尔卑斯山的这位画家的一切。

Alpine Triptych - Life, Nature, Death
- Segantini Museum (St. Moritz, Switzerland)

Life
- Giovanni Segantini
- oil on canvas (190 x 320 cm) 1898-99
- Segantini Museum (Switzerland)

Nature
- Giovanni Segantini
- oil on canvas (235 x 400 cm) 1898-99
- Segantini Museum (Switzerland)

Death
- Giovanni Segantini
- oil on canvas (190 x 320 cm) 1898-99
- Segantini Museum (Switzerland) 

- Wikipedia