A coffee with Art

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Lawrence ALMA-TADEMA - A good observation point (1895)

on May 13, 2022

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Pieter Paul Rubens - The Arrival of Marie de Medici at Marseille (1622-1625)

Rubens does not have the task of telling historical events of enormous political and European value. Rubens is asked to mythologize a person and an event. So when the arrival of Maria de Medici at Marseille, nymphs and water gods participate, the corner plays the trumpets. Nature and Spirits participate in a whirlwind of actions. A scene that in all respects honors the best film colossal.

Pietro Perugino - Apollo and Marsyas (c. 1495)

The Master from Perugia, who deserves more space in the world of art, was not a trivial and easy to read painter. The first criticism is based on the falcon that seizes the prey to interpret the painting as an Apollo listening to Marsyas, in the competition that obviously will win the beautiful Greek god. Marsyas was a satyr, does the painted one seem a satyr?!? A more current (and perhaps more precise) interpretation sees the young pastor Dafni intent on playing the young (in Greek it means laurel, from laurel comes Lorenzo). A beautiful allegory wanted by Lorenzo the Magnificent? Likely. What is certain is that the two figures are copied from two great works of the past signed by Praxiteles and by the school of Lisippo.

Alexander ARCHIPENKO - Walking woman (1912)

Walking woman 1912 Bronze (67 cm) Private collection ******* By superficially observing this work, one runs the risk of considering it abstract. Obviously this is not the case. The figure of a walking woman is easy to recognize. Archipenko plays with voids to compose her image: her head is made up of the lines that surround and limit the void. We are facing an epochal change, he is probably the first to have interrupted the path of sculpture by introducing the concept of spatial construction. No more lines that create figures and faces but lines that create figures thanks to space. Archipenko adhered to the Cubist method and the work shown here clearly demonstrates this. The characteristics of this new movement that has redefined the art have been declined in a personal way by Alexander Archipenko. Not images seen simultaneously from multiple points of view but the contemporary use of full and empty spaces. His Art of him will undergo an evolution with the use of different materi...

Nicolas Poussin - Landscape with Polyphemus (1649)

An apparent, banal landscape. Art History is full of it. But nobody has the mythical, historical and mythological charm of this. Nicolas Poussin's painting is mythological. Mythical figures hidden in the bushes. A Polyphemus who seems an integral part of the mountain. Without a doubt we are faced with a vision and an invitation. We live in a world that is formed on the myth, let's see it in everyday life. They are not simple stories, it is the explanation of our being.

Claude Monet - Woman in the Garden (1867)

The poetics of the Impressionists have been expressed by many but Monet is the one who makes it more complete and manages to embody it at best. A home painting, where a relative walks in the garden of his home in Le Havre. Nature is rendered in a photographic way in its depth created by a pure and clear light and by bold and well-defined shadows. The center of the composition is on the side, to increase the depth. The white of the woman is the real protagonist, so much so that Monet had an afterthought, on the right of the white dress there was a man, who was removed to give the right prominence.

Andrea Mantegna - Triumph of Virtue (c. 1502)

Another great apotheosis of culture. Minerva makes all the unworthy escape the garden of Virtue: Idleness, armless, is dragged by Inertia (a clear reference to Ovid's Metamorphosis); also the half-naked Venus carried by the Centaur which symbolize lust. The Mother of Virtues is wrapped in the scroll that explains the painting (in Latin, Greek and Hebrew!). On the cloud we find Temperance, Justice and Fortitude.

Paul Cézanne - Still life (1894-1895)

Paul Cézanne has the difficult task of closing an era such as Impressionism and throws the germs for all future painting, with incredible results. Painting becomes a real figurative literature. The founding basis: perspective; is abandoned. The depth and space are no longer created through the lines but each object is responsible for building the space. Each presence on the canvas has its own perspective, this destabilizes our eye a little but creates a unique point of view.