kunst.

"No man can ever make a beautiful image out of his private imagination unless he has replenished his mind by much painting from life.  That can no longer be called private study but has become Kunst acquired and gained by study, which germinates, grows and becomes fruitful of its kind."
      - Albrecht Durer

Kunst, a sort of marriage between knowledge and art....I think I've found myself a new favorite word!

And may I please apply Durer's ideas about art and observation from nature to my last post on Bach's Inventions?  (Oh discipline...)

Praying Hands, 1508

(I love hands...)

I posted a few of Durer's self-portraits here.

guess who!

today's subject of scrutiny is skinny scarf man.

Quite a contemporary looking figure, yes?

Well, here's the full image.

date: 1764
artist: Angelica Kauffmann
subject: Johann Joachim Winckelmann, German art historian and archaeologist

not so young (or particularly alive) anymore then, eh?

the detail...

Hans Memling - Portraits of Tommaso Portinari and Maria Portinari, 1470

albrech durer; 3 self-portraits

interesting to see the progression of self-portraiture by albrecht durer, at different stages of his life.

1493, a marriage portrait - given to his fiancee

1498 - after his return from Italy - dressed as a Venetian nobleman.

1500 - an unusual self-portrait for the time, as he is directly facing forward.

for an interesting bit on this, see The Moment of Self-Portraiture in German Renaissance Art, ch 4 - The Artist as Christ by Joseph Leo Koerner (University of Chicago Press, 1993).

on a completely random and unrelated note, i need to stop listening and singing along to "all i want for christmas is you" from the celtic thunder christmas album.  it's such a happy song!  i can't wait for christmas :)

age old art history topic of discussion; judith and holofernes

Caravaggio - Judith and Holofernes, 1599

Gentileschi - Judith Slaying Holofernes, c. 1612

Art history class, question of the day - Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? (article by Linda Nochlin, 1971).

Why, social conventions, to put it simply (she takes about thirty pages to explain this, of course).

But this leads to the curious case of Artemisia Gentileschi, the female painter and her life story, her rape and trial, her paintings...

And why she is/was underrated/forgotten.  Certainly not technical skill, I'm sure.  Perhaps her work doesn't have the same effect as Caravaggio's (and Caravaggio was sadly misunderstood in his time), but it is certainly striking.  Like the expression on Judith's face, and the action involved in the painting.  Pent-up rage.  And a hand pushing down on his head.  Rather than squeamish disgust.  And a creepy old lady in the background.

But I'm probably overspeculating.

On another vaguely related topic, I came across two more depictions of Judith and Holofernes - by Gustav Klimt.  A fascinating artist and interesting interpretation.

Klimt - Judith and Holofernes, 1901-2

Klimt - Judith, 1909

below the surface thoughts #2, on corsetry and below-the-surface-ness

Gregor Reisch, (c. 1467-1525), Margarita
Philosophica. 

the harmful effects of the corset, from la vie normale et la sante

Elisabeth (Sisi) of Bavaria, 1837-1898, Empress of Austria, etc after she married Francis Joseph I in 1854 (this 1865 painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter).  another one of those tragic stories of women who should not have had to deal with becoming royalty...i.e. the stiff and oppressive viennese court, personal issues...

a note on that - The Reluctant Empress: Elisabeth of Austria is a very good book. a very good book...did i mention that it is a very good book?

I never saw a purple cow;

I never hope to see one;

But I can tell you anyhow;

I'd rather see than be one!

let's do this!

augustus of prima porta

as i rewrite my roman history paper on augustus (tacitus v. suetonius v. augustus himself) i will think of the authoritative stance of rome's first unofficial emperor.

augustus was a smart cookie by pretending to be a republican ruler (he wisely learned from the mistakes of his great-uncle, julius caesar) and this statue is exactly the kind of image of himself that he would have wanted to project.  his stance and expression underscore his authority, but his clothes are plain - with the title "princeps" rather than "emperor," he is "first among equals."  sure, he's got a fancy breastplate on, but that's just there for more propaganda; it depicts a scene emphasizing augustus' diplomacy.

there's also the clever insertion of cupid riding a dolphin at the bottom.  it asserts his family's claim as descendants of venus...and also serves to support the statue!  the romans had to put supports in the statues, or else they would be unbalanced and collapse (i am supposing this is because the stances they often assumed? the greek kouros statues didn't need supports, but then again, they were just boys standing with one foot forward, completely in balance).

anyway, point being, i need to take charge of my studies as augustus took charge of rome.