Non-modern Art

[Kenzie]

I don't know about many of you, but I have a growing interest in non-modern art. Paintings and sculptures from Artists who lived around the 1700's and before that. I find a lot of their stuff incredibly beautiful. So I figured I'd start a thread where we can talk about some favorites and so on and so forth.

Here is one of my favorites from a guy, Antoine-Jean Gros (http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/g/p-gros1.htm) for starters. :p

[Saruman]

I really like the art of the 'old masters', as they are known, like Vermeer and Da Vinci.
My favourite of Da Vinci's work is not the Mona Lisa, but the drawing he did of Mary with the Christchild. Click here (http://www.abcgallery.com/L/leonardo/leonardo6.html) to see it.

[Cuiel Rilwen]

Oh yes that's beautiful! His scetches are really wonderful, I had some on my old comp but it crashed!:(

[Kenzie]

yhea I love it when the colors are muted like that. It's a very natural look. :thumbs:

[Catz]

well even in his paintings Da Vinci ended to use a fairly muted colourscheme.........chiarascuro its called, with that incredibly atmospheric use of shadow and arial perspective
and for that my favourite of his works is the Madonna of the Rocks
:catz:

[Cuiel Rilwen]

Got a link to that one, Catz?

[Catz]

i will do when i upload to the photo forum, but im at work right now Cuiel ;)
ill do it when i get home
:catz:

[Cuiel Rilwen]

Great! I'll try to find mine, think I've got a cd somewhere...

[Catz]

http://www.warofthering.net/photoforum/data/500/33madonna_of_the_rocks_lg.jpg ok there are 2 pictures, both variously called virgin of the rocks, madonna of the rocks and all points in between, both by Da Vinci...........one is held on the Louvre and the other in London
the story is that the first image was commisioned by nuns, but when the painting was complete the religous authorities were unimpressed by several supposedly unchristian references in the piece, so Da Vinci painted another
:catz:

[Cuiel Rilwen]

Interesting hm....which one is this cuz I cannot see anything unapropriate;). It's very beautiful.

Found the cd...but something is wrong with the files. Can't open them anywhere:( Some real nice Botticelli, who knows what's wrong.

[Kenzie]

hmmm, interesting story to it. I always get the two paintings confused. ;)
The painting it's self is beautiful, i don't think it's my favorite da vinci, but it's definatly up there. The rock formations in the background are pretty haunting, but gorgeous.

computer being a pain?.... happens to us all! lol ;)

[Catz]

oh theyre not anything that a modern person would notice unless they had studied a lot of more arcane lore and they were pretty arcane even then....but things like the baby john blessing the christ child were quite heretical, and there are other even more esoteric details like the positions of the madonnas hands and so on
:catz:

[Catz]

ok hers a couple more faves........the ambassadors is by Hans Holbein, best known for his paintings of Henry the 8th and his wives..........the thing that amazes me with this painting is the draughtsmanship.............that odd object on the floor, when viewed at a certain angle, becomes a VERY convincing almost 3D skull, a reminder of mortality
the other is a painting of one of Henrys wives, Anne Boylen, not the Holbein one, which i think everyone has seen, but by another artist, Pourbus, who i know very little about..........i just really like the painting
http://www.warofthering.net/photoforum/data/515/33ambassadors-HHolbein-med.jpg
http://www.warofthering.net/photoforum/data/500/33boleyn-pourbus.jpg

:catz:

[Cuiel Rilwen]

I saw the skull instantly! How weird! The picture of Anne is very beautiful, the collar is exceptionally well done, so transparent lacy!

I'm gonna take that cd to work and try to open the images there...that has worked before. I scanned them from some real big and heavy library books so really hope I don't have to drag them home again phew!

[Gwaihir]

I remember it took me a while for me to see the skull in Holbein's painting. It is so distorted! I love the painting, and all the symbols the things in the painting stand for.

[Kenzie]

yhea, at first glance i didn't recognize it as a skull, but after another look at a different angle i could see it. And anne is gorgeous. The paleness is very striking.
One of my favorite sculptors is Antonio Canova. This is my favorite peice from him, and probably one of his most famous: here (http://80.65.232.176/Photos/00/00/05/25/ME0000052586_3.jpg) It depicts cupid and a dying psyche. I thought it was beautiful.
Another one of my favorites from him was his dancer. Here (http://www.artrenewal.org/images/artists/c/Canova_Antonio/large/Canova_Antonio_Dancer_1812.jpg)

[Cuiel Rilwen]

Something seems to be wrong with the second link or is it just me lol? The cupid statue is beautiful tho!:)