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Title: The Death of Harmonia (c. 1740-41)
Artist: Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre
Style: Late Rococo
FYI: Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre placed first in the Prix de Rome of 1734 and spent five years in Italy. When he returned to Paris, he rose quickly through the ranks of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. The subject of this painting is unusual. It depicts Harmonia, the daughter of King Gelon II of Syracuse. She risks death at the hands of conspirators who have already killed other members of her family. Her governess tries to save Harmonia by exchanging her clothes with those of an ensl*ved girl of the same age, who dresses as the princess. The young girl is killed, and Harmonia, inspired by the girl’s courage, reveals her identity and is also assassinated. Her death was seen as an emblematic show of heroism in antiquity (the event took place in 214 B.C.). Even though the event took place in the 2nd century, Harmonia is seated in an 18th-century armchair, wearing the white draperies that were thought appropriate for a young Greek or Roman woman. The enslaved girl’s eyes are closed, and her face discolored in death, lies at Harmonia’s feet. The princess’s figure is very large in proportion to the size of the canvas. The soldier in antique armor gestures violently, grasping the dagger that will cause Harmonia’s death.
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#XVIIICentury #JeanBaptisteMariePierre #OilOnCanvasPainting #MetropolitanMuseumOfArt #18thCenturyArt
📷The Metropolitan Museum of Art
📝Baetjer, Katharine. “Jean-Baptiste Marie Pierre: The Death of Harmonia.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437286. by @60sec_arthistory

Title: An Old Woman Dozing over a Book (c. 1655)
Artist: Nicolaes Maes
Style: Dutch Golden Age
FYI: Viewers see an old woman leaning her head on the back of her hand, dozing over her Bible. The book can be identified as a Bible through comparison with a related painting located in Brussels; the same Bible lies open to the first page of the Book of Amos. Her right hand, which is barely visible in the dark, rests on the book and holds her reading spectacles. The mood of the painting is somber and quiet. Maes explored the theme of a sleeping woman multiple times in the mid-1650s after he left Rembrandt’s studio. The message in this painting is not as clear as paintings by Maes located in London and Brussels because the iconographic elements have been greatly reduced. The woman is painted in the same pose of sloth, and the only accessories, other than the Bible and her spectacles, are the keys hanging on the wall. Traditionally, keys suggest responsibility, but left unattended, they indicate a failure to uphold duties. Keys have various metaphorical associations, such as Saint Peter using keys to enter heaven. Falling asleep over one’s Bible is not a means for discovering the keys of heaven. In a metaphorical sense, the Bible provides us with keys for understanding life and guiding us to salvation; when the Bible is open and unread, these keys are neglected.
🤔In the late 1640s, Maes went to Amsterdam and studied with Rembrandt.
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#NationalGalleryOfArt #17thCenturyArt #DutchPainting #NicolaesMaes #DutchGoldenAge
📷National Gallery of Art
📝Wheelock, Arthur K. “Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: An Old Woman Dozing over a Book, c. 1655.” National Gallery of Art, 24 Apr. 2014, www.nga.gov/research/publications/online-editions/dutch-paintings-seventeenth-century-old-woman-dozing-over. by @60sec_arthistory

Title: Clorinda Rescuing Sofronia and Olindo (c. 1660)
Artist: Mattia Preti
Style: Italian Baroque
FYI: Viewers see Clorinda, the Persian warrior-maiden in a plumed helmet, arriving on her white horse to save the lovers Sofronia and Olindo, who are about to be burned at the stake. The subject comes from one of the most popular books of its time, Torquato Tasso’s epic about the First Crusade. Aladine, the king of Jerusalem, threatens to execute the whole Christian community for the theft of a sacred image. Sofronia takes the blame to save others, but her beloved Olindo then claims to be the thief to save her. Aladine condemns them both. Clorinda is impressed by the couple’s courage and saves them from the fire by offering to fight for the king in the coming battle with the Crusaders. Clorinda’s leaning and pointing posture leads the viewer’s eye diagonally up to the figures of Sofronia and Olindo. The figures are pressed close together in the picture plane against a turbulent black, yellow, and orange-streaked sky. Preti used strong chiaroscuro to contrast the partially illuminated, startled faces of the crowd with the determination of Clorinda’s shadowed face. Sofronia and Olindo are brightly lit, perhaps as a way to show the nearness of the fire.
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#17thCenturyArt #BaroquePainting #BaroqueStyle #GettyMuseum #ItalianBaroque
📷Wikimedia Commons
📝https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103R9W by @60sec_arthistory

Title: Eridanus (1984)
Artist: Lynda Benglis
Style: Sculpture
FYI: Lynda Benglis first came to the art world’s attention in the late 1960s with tactile, s*nsual works that were different from the period’s Minimalism. The work’s title comes from a river in Greek mythology, and it is part of a sculpture series that Benglis began in 1972. The earliest of these ‘knot’ sculptures were made of plaster-coated chicken wire covered with paint and glitter. By the 1980s, she had adopted a sleeker aesthetic, plating folded steel or aluminum wire infrastructures with layers of nickel, zinc, copper, and chrome. Her sculptures offer the masterful illusion that the metal has been effortlessly pleated, rolled, twisted, or tied as though made of fabric; in Benglis’ hands, heavy becomes light and hard becomes soft. Benglis’ art is often interpreted within a feminist context. Her focus on decorative forms and the occasional use of craft-type materials demonstrates her interest in redefining mainstream perceptions about femininity. Her knot sculptures were made of metals associated with 1960s and 1970s Minimalist sculpture (which were created almost exclusively by male artists). Benglis was able to manipulate the medium to create forms reminiscent of elements of women’s clothing, such as bows, bustles, ruffles, and fans.
🤔When she moved to New York, Benglis joined a close-knit artistic circle that included artists involved with Minimalism and Process Art. Both styles, along with Abstract Expressionism, influenced her hybridized creative process.
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#Eridanus #ModernSculptures #LyndaBenglis #SculptureArtists #20thCenturyArt
📷National Museum of Women in the Arts
📝https://nmwa.org/art/collection/eridanus/ by @60sec_arthistory

Title: Madonna and Child (1480-81)
Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Style: Italian Renaissance
FYI: Also known as ‘The Madonna of the Book’, this painting shows the Virgin and Child reading a book. The layout and decorations of the pages suggest that it might be a Book of Hours, a devotional manual intended for laypeople (a nonordained member of the church) that gained widespread popularity between the 13th and 16th centuries. Right next to the book, where Mary’s hands rest, are other books and various objects that give the painting a domestic tone. The pyramidal composition of the sacred figures leaves space for an open window, where a warm light comes in. The light enveloping the pair does not have a natural origin, but appears to come from the figures themselves. This transforms the simple interior into a mystical setting. The fruits in the majolica bowl most likely have symbolic meanings; the cherries symbolize the blood of Christ, the plums the sweet affection between Mother and Son, and the figs the Salvation or Resurrection of Christ. The three nails in Jesus’ hand and the crown of thorns on his arm serve as reminders of his future Passion. The painting was probably painted for the private devotion of a very prestigious patron, evident in the extremely high quality of the painting and the use of precious materials such as pure gold for the halos and lapis lazuli for Mary’s mantle.
🤔As a youngster, Botticelli became easily bored at school and was known for his sharp wit and his love for practical jokes.
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#15thCentury #ItalianRenaissance #PoldiPezzoliMuseum #SandroBotticelli #MadonnaAndChild
📷Wikipedia
📝https://museopoldipezzoli.it/en/scopri/collezioni/capolavori/opera/madonna-with-child-sandro-botticelli/
📝https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/sandro-botticelli by @60sec_arthistory

Title: Ethel Page (1884)
Artist: Cecilia Beaux
Style: Impressionism
FYI: Cecilia Beaux was known for capturing the likeness of numerous cultural and political leaders, but her most powerful portraits were the ones that depicted her relatives and friends. Ethel Page came from a distinguished Philadelphia family that traced its lineage to Roger Williams, the founder and governor of Rhode Island. Page and Beaux met in 1876, with this painting being the first of many portraits of Page painted by Beaux. The painting is typical of Beaux’s early style: the painting features a brightly illuminated face set against a dark, unknown background. The only thing that breaks the muted palette is the large bow on Page’s hat. Beaux’s broad handling of paint is shown in the thick brushstrokes visible in Page’s fur cape. The rich, dark tone of the painting, the sense that it’s capturing a moment, and the emphasis of Page’s personality all show the influence of major Philadelphia portraitists, such as Thomas Eakins.
🤔Beaux began as a commercial artist, making sketches of fossils for the United States Geological Survey project and painting portraits on porcelain.
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#CeciliaBeaux #FemalePainters #Impressionists #PortraitPaintings #19thCenturyPainting
📷National Museum of Women in the Arts
📝https://nmwa.org/art/collection/ethel-page/ by @60sec_arthistory

Title: The Fable of Fox and Heron (1657)
Artist: Frans Snyders
Style: Animalier
FYI: This large painting (~5 x 4 feet, 152.4 x 121.92 cm) is framed by an ornately carved gold frame. Its colors are true to life, yet somewhat muted with darker overtones, except where Snyders used white and tan on the main animals. Along the bottom edge of the painting is a small pond surrounded by a grassy shore where a fox sits and two herons stand side by side. A mallard duck swims in the water, looking at the fox while the fox is looking at the two herons. Between the fox and the first heron is a tall, translucent glass jar that has a long, narrow neck with a narrow mouth at the top and a large bowl at the bottom. The bowl is partly filled with water, and one of the herons has stuck its bill down the long neck of the vase, grabbing an eel. A large, gnarled tree takes up about ¾’s of the left side of the painting, while the background is filled with the rolling countryside. To the right of the large tree and above the fox, viewers may notice a much smaller version of the central image of the fox and one heron; between them is a shallow bowl. This painting depicts one of Aesop’s fables. The fox invites a heron to dinner and serves food in a shallow, flat bowl. The fox easily eats from it, but the heron, with its long beak, cannot reach. The heron then invites the fox to dinner and serves food in a tall, slender-necked jar. The heron can easily eat the food, while the fox cannot. The moral of the story can be interpreted as ‘one bad turn deserves another’ or ‘people will treat you the same way you treat them’.
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#AesopsFables #17thCenturyArt #AnimalierStyle #AnimalPaintings #MemorialArtGallery
📷Wikipedia
📝https://mag.rochester.edu/wp-content/uploads/large-files/multimedia/audio-descriptions/FoxHeron-transcript.pdf by @60sec_arthistory

Title: The Age of Innocence (?1788)
Artist: Sir Joshua Reynolds
Style: Fancy picture
FYI: This portrait was not a commissioned portrait but a character study, or ‘fancy picture’ as the genre was known in the 18th century. The current title was not created by Reynolds, but comes from an engraving of 1794. It has been thought that the painting was done in 1788, but it is probably a work exhibited by Reynolds at the Royal Academy in 1785, titled ‘a little girl’. On the 8th of April in 1785, The Morning Herald previewed Reynold’s proposed exhibits for the forthcoming Royal Academy exhibition and noted, “‘An Infant Girl’, disposed on a grass plat in an easy attitude. The companion to it is a girl fondling a bird. These subjects are fancy studies of Sir Joshua’s and do him honour’. Recent examinations of this painting by the conservation department at Tate revealed it was painted over another celebrated fancy picture by Reynolds titled ‘A Strawberry Girl’. X-radiographs show that only the hands of the original Strawberry Girl remained unaltered by Reynolds. The identity of the young model is uncertain. According to a Victorian descendant of Reynolds, Sir Robert Edgcumbe, the child was the artist’s great-niece, Theophila Gwatkin, who would have been three years old in 1785. It has also been suggested that she is Miss Anne Fletcher, but she was married around 1791, making this identification incorrect. Lastly, it has been asserted that she is Lady Anne Spence, the youngest daughter of the 4th Duke of Marlborough, who was also featured in Reynolds’ group portrait of ‘The Marlborough Family’. There is a facial similarity between the child in this painting and Lady Anne Spencer.
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#TheAgeOfInnocence #18thCenturyArt #JoshuaReynolds #18thCenturyStyle #TateMuseum
📷Tate
📝Postle, Martin. “‘The Age of Innocence’, Sir Joshua Reynolds, ?1788.” Tate, Nov. 2000, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/reynolds-the-age-of-innocence-n00307. by @60sec_arthistory

Title: Carcass of Beef (c. 1925)
Artist: Chaïm Soutine
Style: Expressionism
FYI: Chaïm Soutine was inspired by Rembrandt’s ‘Slaughtered Ox’ and began a series of carcass paintings during the 1910s. This subject had been done by other modern artists, such as Daumier and Slevogt, but Soutine gave it an emotive interpretation, covering his canvases with intense and saturated colors. Soutine was known for his eccentric personality, befriending the employees of slaughterhouses and often painting the cuts of meat he purchased from them. When Soutine moved to a larger studio in 1925, he would get an entire steer carcass and haul it back to his studio. Over several weeks, he executed at least four similar canvases, sketches, and smaller paintings (all while the meat was decomposing). It is believed that when swarms of flies masked the colors of the flesh, Soutine paid a model to sit beside the carcass and fan them away. The process of painting this subject had intense psychological ramifications for Soutine, who was raised in a home that strictly observed kosher. Soutine remarked to his friend and biographer Emil Szittya ‘Once when I saw a butcher cut the neck of a goose and drain the blood out of it. I wanted to cry out but his joyful expression made the cry stick in my throat…This cry, I alays felt it…When I painted the beef carcass, it was still this cry that I wanted to liberate’.
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#20thCenturyArt #ModernArtPainting #ExpressionismArt #RembrandtVanRijn #ChaimSoutine
📷Buffalo AKG Art Museum
📝Label from Sincerely Yours: Treasures of the Queen City, July 5–September 14, 2014. https://buffaloakg.org/artworks/rca1939132-carcass-beef by @60sec_arthistory

Title: Allegory of the Catholic Faith (c. 1670-72)
Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Style: Baroque, Dutch Golden Age
FYI: This painting represents an allegory of Vermeer’s adopted religion and was most likely made for a private Catholic patron or a schuilkerk, a hidden Catholic church. It is unlike other works by Vermeer, but it has compositional similarities to ‘The Art of Painting’ (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). The choice and interpretation of the imagery would have been discussed by Vermeer and his patron. For many allegorical motifs, Vermeer would have turned to Cesare Ripa’s emblem book, ‘Iconologia’. The female figure represents the Catholic Faith. She wears white, a symbol of purity, and blue, the ‘hue of heaven’. A hand raised to the heart shows the source of living faith, and her foot rests on a globe, illustrating Ripa’s description of Faith with ‘the world under her feet’. In the foreground, Vermeer paints the ‘cornerstone’ of the Church (Christ) crushing a serpent (Satan). The apple nearby, which has been bitten, symbolizes original sin. The table has been transformed into an altar with a chalice, crucifix, and Bible, or, more likely because of its proximity to other objects used for Mass, a missal. The glass sphere hanging from a ribbon was a popular decorative curiosity. In this context, it can be viewed as a symbol of heaven or God. The room’s high ceiling, marble floor, and large altarpiece are based on a work by Jacob Jordaens. The room was meant to be recognized by contemporary viewers as a private chapel installed within a large house or some other secular building.
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#17thCenturyArt #BaroquePainting #DutchGoldenAge #JohannesVermeer #TheMetropolitanMuseumOfArt
📷The Metropolitan Museum of Art
📝https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437877 by @60sec_arthistory

Title: Breakfast of the Birds (1934)
Artist: Gabriele Münter
Style: Expressionism
FYI: This painting demonstrates Münter’s expressionistic style: thick, rapid brushstrokes, heavy, dark outlines, simplified forms, and compressed space. Here, viewers see a woman sitting indoors at a table with a meal. Viewers share her view of the snowcapped trees and a host of birds through the window. The heavy-looking draperies that frame the window add an element of cosiness or claustrophobia, depending on one’s perspective. The interior has been interpreted as one of solitude and quiet reflection or entrapment and emotional isolation. The woman’s back is to the viewer and has been identified by some scholars as Münter. In 1911, Münter and other artists, such as Franz Marc, Alexei Jawlensky, and Vassily Kandinsky, founded Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). This progressive group was based in Munich, and Münter’s work is often associated with the expressionistic style practiced by members. But she demonstrated a sense of self-awareness and individuality that she applied passionately to her paintings.
🤔Münter attended Munich’s progressive new Phalanx School, where she studied sculpture and woodcut techniques.
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#1900s #ExpressionismArt #ExpressionismPainting #GabrieleMünter #20thCenturyArt
📷National Museum of Women in the Arts
📝https://nmwa.org/art/collection/breakfast-birds/ by @60sec_arthistory

Title: Poppy Field (1873)
Artist: Claude Monet
Style: Impressionism
FYI: After returning from England in 1871, Monet moved to Argenteuil and lived there until 1878. Supported by his dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, Monet found the region around his home filled with bright landscapes that allowed him to explore the potential of plein-air painting. ‘Poppy Field’ was shown to the public at the first Impressionist exhibition held in photographer Nadar’s disused studio in 1874. Now considered one of the world’s most famous paintings, it calls to mind the vibrant atmosphere of a stroll through the fields on a summer’s day. Monet diluted the contours and created a colorful rhythm with blobs of paint, starting from the sprinkling poppies. The disproportionately large patches in the foreground show the importance he put on visual impression. A mother and child are seen in the foreground, and another pair in the background is merely a pretext for drawing the diagonal line that structures the painting. Two separate color zones are established, one dominated by red, the other by a bluish green. The young woman with the sunshade and the child in the foreground are probably Camille, Monet’s wife, and their son Jean.
🤔When he was living in London, Monet stayed at the famous Savoy Hotel. Two of his favorite rooms, 610 and 611, are named The Monet Suite in his honor.
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#ClaudeMonet #ImpressionismPainting #19thCenturyPainting #1870s #MuseeOrsay
📷Wikipedia
📝https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/poppy-field/xQGTinA-MPxcVg?hl=en by @60sec_arthistory