A coffee with Art

Sit down with me, just for the time of a good black espresso. Let's have a quick chat about Art.

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Matthias Stomer - Esau and Jacob (1640-1650)

on May 06, 2020

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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.

David BOMBERG - The mud bath (1914)

The mud bath 1914 Oil painting on canvas (152,5x224 cm) Tate Gallery, London ******* At first glance, it seems that this painting does not have the slightest figurative intention. In truth, the work is intended to represent a public bathroom frequented by the Jewish community of Whitechapel in London. The blue and white lines and figures make up the jumping figures that gather around the pool, represented by the red rectangle and seem to surround the dark central pillar. The angular forms are used by our painter to express the vitality and dynamism of the twentieth century and the enthusiasm for recent industrial development. Bomberg, the son of Polish immigrants, was one of the founders of the London Group, an association founded in 1913 for the organization of shows and exhibitions. Although Bomberg kept his distance from Cubists, Futurists and Vorticists, groups active at the time, his work can easily be identified with some of their theories. By 1920 Bomberg moved from geomet...

Lorenzo Lotto - Portrait of two spouses (1523-1524)

A nice portrait of a couple to celebrate a union. That it is also a happy union is a bit difficult to say, but from the faces it would seem serious. When you want to insert a symbol in a portrait, then you must expect the doors of guess and meaning hunt to open. The man points to a squirrel that remains in the dark and one must struggle to see it. What is represented? You do: lust, according to a medieval legend when the food is scarce the squirrel drives out the female or domestic prudence. The possibilities are not lacking. But man holds a sheet of paper where it is written in Latin: man never. The hypotheses are and will remain open, the solution is a certainty only for the couple.

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin - Still life with the attributes of Art (1766)

His hunger among contemporaries was impressive, all thanks to his still lifes. Hermes is a statue with a signature (Jean-Baptiste Pigalle) and dominates all the attributes of art: painting (palette, brushes and colors), architecture (plants, tools and commemorative medal for the foundations and completion of the buildings), a medal to the order of San Michele (awarded to Pigalle in 1756). A still life that not only speaks of art but also of biography.

Claude Monet - Pond in Montgeron (1876-1877)

Monet breaks all the rules of painting based on light, shape and color; sets the hues of Nature without asking which real object they belong to. We begin to lose the hegemony of the object; only the sensations that are imprinted on his retina are reproduced. The brush strokes are as vigorous as only light can be. A decorative work in terms of size, shape and subject. With a surprise: cherchez la femme!

Vincent van Gogh - Arlesians (1888)

Van Gogh in his being rude is poetic and creates realistic visions. The canvas is filled with colors, with traits that condense and transforms space and colors into shapes. The faces of women are made with a strong and rough trait but do not lose anything of their history and their sweetness. Tradition and popular vision acquire an almost feverish vitality that transmits energy from any brush stroke.

Andrea del Sarto - Assumption of the Virgin (about 1526)

Assumption of the Virgin about 1526 Oil painting on canvas (379x222 cm) Palazzo Pitti, Florence ******* The painting is divided in a physical and spiritual way, two large rooms characterize it: sky and earth. The Virgin ascends to heaven, surrounded by angels, while on earth the apostles watch the scene with great amazement. St. Thomas is characterized by his scientific spirit: I must ascertain and prove that Mary is no longer in her tomb and that she is actually taken up into heaven even with her body. In front of the scene two important saints: Nicola and Margherita; the patrons of the donor and of the city for which the altarpiece was designed. The painting is somewhat rigid, a typical aspect of the Italian Renaissance. The Florentine painters enjoyed the fame of great draftsmen and Andrea del Sarto no less; there is no doubt that he made several preparatory drawings to achieve the desired balance. Andrea del Sarto received many commissions in life, especially frescoes and was known...