Tuesday, November 23, 2010

The Fresco painting


Fresco is a way of painting pictures. A fresco is a painting that is ended on a wall. All wall paintings are sometimes called frescoes by mistake. A true fresco is painted onto plaster that is fresh.

The plaster has been laid on the wall that day and is still damp. The word fresco comes from the Italian for "fresh “Advantages and disadvantages of fresco painting.

The good things about fresco painting:

Fresco is a very good way of painting pictures on walls. It is much easier than painting on dry plaster because when paint is put onto dry plaster, it sinks straight in. Painting on fresh plaster means that the artist can spread the paint much easier.

Another reason why it is a good way to paint pictures on plastered walls is that the paint joins with the plaster so that the colors will not rub off. Frescoes last for hundreds of years. If they are reserved clean and dry, the colors will stay bright for a very long time.

Fresco is the "green" method of painting because it doesn't use dangerous chemicals. The water, the calcite and the colors do not cause pollution.

The bad things about fresco painting:

The problems with painting frescos come from the plaster. It must be mixed up and put on the wall freshly every day and left to partly dry before it can be used.

As the plaster begins to dry or "set", the artist can start the picture. The plaster becomes very hot while it is drying, giving off steam, and a psaltery smell.

The artist must work very quickly and carefully. If he/she makes a mistake, the plaster must be scraped off. Unlike most other types of painting, frescos can't be moved from place to place, or rearranged.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Paolo Veronese Paintings


Oil painting is a way of painting pictures with pigments (colors) that are held together by the medium of oil. The most usual type of oil that is used in paint is linseed oil. A picture that is painted using oil paint is called an "oil painting". Oil paint takes a long time to dry.

Artists find this useful because they can keep working on the painting for a long time. People say that Leonardo da Vinci worked on his painting of the Mona Lisa for four years, even although it is not a very big picture. Oils paints and oil paintings are often just called "oils" for short. If someone talks about "painting in oils" they mean that the painting is done in oil paints.

No-one knows when oil paint was first used. Caves in Afghanistan are decorated with ancient paintings in paint mixed with oils. It is believed that this type of paint was used in other countries of Asia as well.

It is believed that oil paint was used in Europe in the middle Ages at first for decorating shields, because oil paint lasted better than the traditional paint of tempera when it was in the weather, or if it was roughly treated. In 1125 a writer called Theophilus gives information for how to make oil paint in his book called On Diverse Arts.

The Renaissance art historian, Giorgio Vasari, said that the art of oil painting came from Northern Europe and the person who invented it was the famous Flemish painter Jan van Eyck.

Artists from the areas of modern Belgium and the Netherlands were the first artists to make oil painting their usual method of painting. This trend spread to other parts of Northern Europe.

A famous painting called the Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der goes arrived in Florence in the 1470s at a time when Leonardo da Vinci was young. Oil paintings at this date were usually done on wooden panels, in the way that tempera pictures were.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Leonid aftermov oil paintings


Leonid Afremov is a Belarus born, Israeli modern painter who creates unique landscapes, cityscape and figures using a palette knife rather than a brush to paint. Here is what he himself says about his work and the technique he uses:

I tried different techniques during my career, but I especially fell in love with painting with oil and palette-knife.

Every artwork is the result of long painting process; every canvas is born during the creative search; every painting is full of my inner world.

Each of my paintings brings different mood, colors and emotions. I love to express the beauty, harmony and spirit of this world in my paintings.

My heart is completely open to art. Thus, I enjoy creating inspired and beautiful paintings from the bottom of my soul.

Each of my artworks reflects my feelings, sensitivity, passion, and the music from my soul. True art is alive and inspired by humanity. I believe that art helps us to be free from violence and depression.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Office at Night


In Office at Night (1940), another “couple” painting, Hopper creates a psychological puzzle. The painting shows a man focusing on his work papers, while nearby his attractive female secretary pulls a file.

Several studies for the painting show how Hopper experimented with the positioning of the two facts, perhaps to amplify the eroticism and the tension. Hopper presents the viewer with the possibilities that the man is either truly unconcerned in the woman's appeal or that he is working hard to ignore her.

Another interesting aspect of the painting is how Hopper employs three light sources, from a desk lamp, through a window and indirect light from above. Hopper went on to make several “office” pictures, but none with a physical undercurrent.

The style is suggestive of many of Hopper's works in that it depicts loneliness in a stark and distinctive fashion.It depicts a man sitting at a desk reading a document in a corner office at night. He is joined by a woman in a blue dress, possibly a secretary, standing at an open file cabinet.

A sheet of paper has fallen on the floor between the two individuals. There is a sexual interpretation of the relationship between the two individuals.

Josephine Hopper served as the model for the woman. Several titles were proposed for the painting, such as Room 1005 and Confidentially Yours, before Edward Hopper chose "Office at Night."

In a letter to the Walker Art Center, Hopper said the work was "probably first suggested by many rides on the 'L' train in New York City after dark glimpses of office interiors that were so fleeting as to leave fresh and vivid impressions on my mind."

Thursday, November 4, 2010

About Western_oilpaintings


The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from antiquity. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with representational and Classical modes of production, after which time more modern, abstract and conceptual forms gained favor.

Developments in Western painting historically parallel those in Eastern painting, in general a few centuries later. African art, Islamic art, Indian art, Chinese art, and Japanese art each had significant influence on Western art, and, eventually, vice-versa.

Initially serving imperial, private, civic, and religious support, Western painting later found audiences in the aristocracy and the middle class.

From the Middle Ages through the rebirth painters worked for the church and a wealthy aristocracy. Beginning with the Baroque era artists received private commissions from a more educated and prosperous middle class.

The idea of "art for art's sake" began to find expression in the work of the Romantic painters like Francisco de Goya, John Constable, and J.M.W. Turner. During the 19th century the rise of the commercial art gallery provided support in the 20th Century.

Western painting reached its zenith in Europe during the Renaissance, in conjunction with the refinement of drawing, use of perspective, ambitious architecture, tapestry, stained glass, sculpture, and the period before and after the advent of the printing press.

Following the depth of discovery and the complexity of innovations of the Renaissance the rich heritage of Western painting continues into the 21st century.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Cowboy Oil Paintings


Etymologists seem to agree that the word "cowboy oil painting western art," has its origins in the English language. The English language was impacted by Rome and France at some time in their history, but etymologists trace the word Cow to its English/ Germanic rootstock, Middle English coo, Old English cu; Old High German kuo.

The same source that I am using for this phase of the discussion claims that the word "Boy" originated in the 1200's, also English, and meant a male servant, not a male child. The word "Cowboy that one theme of original oil paintings" on oilpaintingfactory.com exists in medieval Ireland according to a PBS article, which also mentions the tracking of the word to the American Revolution and referred to a Tory, or American colonist who supported the British Crown by stealing cattle from the colonial rebels.

Oil painting:

This is where we began with the evolution of the word into American English. As for the evolution of the word "cowboy oil paintings western art, into the titles of U.S. slaves, there is every reason to believe that the word became the widespread address for cattle industry laborers who were conquered or deemed servants of English cattle owners.

Writers mention Slave Cowboy that one theme of original oil paintings" in their studies of South Carolina and Appalachian cattle industries. They also mention slave cattle rustlers working under the direction of their masters.

To perfect is an experienced enterprise specializing in manufacturing various original oil paintings western cowboy. You'll be happy to find us whatever you're in business of oil painting, oil paintings, original oil painting, original oil paintings, cowboy oil painting, cowboy oil paintings, oil painting western art, western oil painting, western art oil painting, western art oil paintings wholesale.

The cowboy is really our only folk identity, in terms of mythology. Throughout the world, there's only one way you identify yourself as an American, and that's if you put on a cowboy hat. When people start to say, 'What does it mean to be an American?' you're eventually goanna confront the cowboy symbol.

People attach all kinds of meaning to it too, from self-reliance to riding off into the sunset to being close to nature to looking at a cigarette ad, so some way or another, if you're an American you're going to have to get that cowboy image a little bit, to understand it.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Different Types Of Related Scapes


The word landscape is from the Dutch, landscape originally meaning a patch of cultivated ground, and then an image. The word entered the English language at the start of the 17th century, purely as a term for works of art; it was not used to describe real vistas before.

Traditionally, landscape art depicts the surface of the earth, but there are other sorts of landscapes, such as moonscapes.

  • Vedute is the Italian term for view, and generally used for the painted landscape, often cityscape
  • which were a common 18th century painting thematic.
  • Sky capes or Cloudscapes are depictions of clouds, weather forms, and atmospheric conditions.
  • Moonscapes show the landscape of a moon.
  • Seascapes depict oceans or beaches.
  • Rivers capes depict rivers or creeks.
  • Cityscape or towns capes depict cities.
  • Hard capes are covered over areas like streets and sidewalks, large business complexes and housing developments, and industrial areas.
  • Aerial landscapes depict a surface or ground from above, especially as seen from an airplane or spacecraft. This genre can be combined with others, as in the aerial cloudscapes of Georgia O'Keeffe, the aerial moonscapes of Nancy Graves, or the aerial cityscapes of Yvonne Jacquette.
  • Ins capes are landscape-like artworks which seek to convey the psychoanalytic view of the mind as a three-dimensional space.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

The Art Of Hudson River School


In olden period art, around the world depict little that could really be called landscape, although ground-lines and sometimes indications of mountains, trees or other natural features are included. The earliest "pure landscapes" with no human figures are frescos from Minoan Greece of around 1500 BCE.

In early Western medieval art interest in landscape disappears almost entirely, kept alive only in copies of Late Antique works such as the Utrecht Psalter; the last reworking of this source, in an early Gothic version, reduces the previously extensive landscapes to a few trees filling gaps in the composition, with no sense of overall space.

A revival of the interest in nature initially mainly manifested itself in depictions of small gardens such as the Hortus Concuss or those in miller Fleur tapestries. The frescos of figures at work or play in front of a background of dense trees in the Palace of the Popes, Avignon are probably a unique survival of what was a common subject.

In the United States, the Hudson River School, prominent in the middle to late 19th century, is probably the best-known native development in landscape art. These painters created works of mammoth scale that attempted to capture the epic scope of the landscapes that inspired them.

The work of Thomas Cole, the school's generally acknowledged founder, has much in common with the philosophical ideals of European landscape paintings — a kind of secular faith in the religious benefits to be gained from the consideration of natural beauty.

Some of the later Hudson River School artists, such as Albert Bierstadt, created less encouraging works that placed a greater emphasis on the raw, even terrifying power of nature. The best examples of Canadian landscape art can be found in the works of the Group of Seven, prominent in the 1920s.

Although certainly less dominant in the period after World War I, many significant artists still painted landscapes in the wide variety of styles exemplified by Neil We liver, Alex Kate, Milton Avery, Peter Doig, Andrew Wyeth, David Hackney and Sidney Nolan.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Spring Morning in the Han Palace


China, Japan and Korea have a strong tradition in painting which is also highly attached to the art of script and printmaking.

Far east traditional painting is characterized by water based techniques, less realism, "elegant" and stylized subjects, graphical approach to depiction, the importance of white space (or negative space) and a preference for landscape as a subject. Beyond ink and color on silk or paper scrolls, gold on gloss was also a common medium in painted East Asian artwork.

Although silk is somewhat so expensive medium to paint upon in the past, the invention of paper during the 1st century AD by the Han court eunuch Cain Lun provided not only a cheap and widespread medium for writing, but also a cheap and widespread medium for painting.

The earliest examples of Chinese painted artwork date to the Warring States Period (481 - 221 BC), with paintings on silk or tomb murals on rock, brick, or stone.
They were often in simplistic stylized format and in more-or-less elementary geometric patterns. They often depicted mythological creatures, domestic scenes, labor scenes, or palatial scenes filled with officials at court.

Artwork during this period and the subsequent Qin Dynasty (221 - 207 BC) and Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) was made not as a means in and of itself or for higher personal expression.

Rather artwork was created to symbolize and honor funerary rights, representations of mythological deities or spirits of ancestors, etc. Paintings on silk of court officials and domestic scenes could be found during the Han Dynasty, along with scenes of men hunting on horseback or partaking in military parade.

There was also painting on three dimensional works of art on figurines and statues, such as the original-painted colors covering the soldier and horse statues of the Terracotta Army.

During the social and cultural climate of the ancient Eastern Jin Dynasty (316 - 420 AD) based at Nanjing in the south, painting became one of the official pastimes of Confucian-taught bureaucratic officials and aristocrats.

Painting became a common form of artistic self-expression, and during this period painters at court or amongst elite social circuits were judged and ranked by their peers.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The Art of Chic ester canal’s


Turner's talent was recognized early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterized by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint.
For example, Chic ester canal’s is one the best art making paintings in the world.

Suitable vehicles for Turner's imagination were to be found in the subjects of shipwrecks, fires natural catastrophes, and natural phenomena such as sunlight, storm, rain, and fog. He was fascinated by the violent power of the sea, as seen in Dawn after the Wreck (1840) and The Slave Ship (1840).

Turner's major venture into printmaking was the Libber Studio rum (Book of Studies), a set of seventy prints that the artist worked on from 1806 to 1819. The Libber Studio rum was an expression of his intentions for landscape art.

Loosely based on Claude Lorrain's Libber Veritatis (Book of Truth), the plates were meant to be widely disseminated, and categorized the genre into six types: Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic Pastoral.

His printmaking was a major part of his output, and a whole museum is devoted to it, the Turner Museum in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1974 by Douglass Montrose-Graeme to house his collection of Turner prints.

Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity on the one hand, but its susceptibility and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on the other hand.

'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God–a theme that artists and poets were exploring in this period.

The significance of light was to Turner the emanation of God's spirit and this was why he refined the subject matter of his later paintings by leaving out solid objects and detail, concentrating on the play of light on water, the radiance of skies and fires.

Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding primarily to optical phenomena.

Monday, September 13, 2010

The Techniqes of Impressionist


Prior to the Impressionists, other painters, notably such 17th-century Dutch painters as Jan Steen, had focused on common subjects, but their approaches to composition were traditional.

They arranged their compositions in such a way that the main subject commanded the viewer's attention.

The Impressionists relaxed the boundary between subject and background so that the effect of an Impressionist painting often resembles a snapshot, a part of a larger reality captured as if by chance.

Photography was gaining popularity, and as cameras became more portable, photographs became more candid.

Photography stimulated Impressionists to capture the moment, not only in the fleeting lights of a landscape, but in the day-to-day lives of people.

The rise of the impressionist movement can be seen in part as a reaction by artists to the newly established medium of photography.

In spite of this, photography actually inspired artists to pursue other means of artistic expression, and rather than competing with photography to emulate reality, artists focused on the one thing they could inevitably do better than the photograph – by further developing into an art form its very subjectivity in the conception of the image, the very subjectivity that photography eliminated".

This allowed artists to subjectively describe what they saw with their "tacit imperatives of taste and conscience".

Photography encouraged painters to exploit aspects of the painting medium, like color, which photography then lacked; "the Impressionists were the first to knowingly offer a subjective alternative to the photograph.

Another major influence was Japanese art prints which had originally come into France as wrapping paper for imported goods.

The art of these prints contributed significantly to the "snapshot" angles and unconventional compositions which would become characteristic of the movement.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The White House at Night


The White House at Night shows a house at twilight with a prominent star surrounded by a yellow halo in the sky. Astronomers at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos calculated that the star is Venus, which was bright in the evening sky in June 1890 when Van Goth is believed to have painted the picture.

More or less acquainted with Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist techniques and theories, Van Goth went to Aries to develop these new possibilities.
But within a short time, older ideas on art and work reappeared: ideas such as series on related or contrasting subject matter, which would reflect on the purposes of art.

As his work progressed, he painted a great many Self-portraits. Already in 1884 in Niemen he had worked on a series that was to decorate the dining room of a friend in Eindhoven.

Similarly in Arles, in spring 1888 he arranged his Flowering Orchards into triptychs, began a series of information that found its end in The Rollin Family, and finally, when Gauguin had consented to work and live in Arles side-by-side with Van Gogh, he started to work on the .

Most of his later work is involved with elaborate on or revising its fundamental settings. In the spring of 1889, he painted another, smaller group of orchards.
In an April letter to Theo, he said, "I have 6 studies of spring, two of them large orchards. There is little time because these effects are so short-lived.

The art historian Albert was the first to show that Van Gogh—even in seemingly fantastical compositions like Starry Night—based his work in reality.
The paintings from the Saint-Remy period are often characterized by swirls and spirals.

The patterns of luminosity in these images have been shown to conform to Kolmogorov's statistical model of turbulence.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

A Claude glass paintings


A Claude glass (or Black Mirror) is a small mirror, slightly convex in shape, with its surface painted in a dark color.

Bound up like a pocket-book or in a transport case, black mirrors were used by artists, travellers and connoisseurs of landscape painting.

Black Mirrors have the effect of abstracting the subject reflected in it from its surroundings, reducing and simplifying the color and tonal range of scenes and scenery to give them a painterly quality.

They were famously used by artists in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as a frame for drawing sketches of picturesque landscapes.
The user would turn his back on the scene to observe the framed view through the painted mirror—in a sort of pre-photographic lens—which added the aesthetic of a subtle gradation of tones.
A Thomas west in his A Guide to the Lakes (1778) explained "The person using it ought always to turn his back to the object that he views. It should be suspended by the upper part of the case…holding it a little to the right or the left and the face screened from the sun."

The Claude glass is named for, a 17th-century landscape painter, whose name in the late 18th century became identical with the picturesque visual.

The Claude glass was supposed to help artists produce works of art similar to those of Claude. Reverend, the inventor of the picturesque ideal, advocated the use of a Claude glass saying, "they give the object of nature a soft, mellow shade like the coloring of that Master".

Black Mirrors were widely used by tourists and amateur artists, who quickly became the targets of satire.

The Davis observed their facing away from the object they wished to paint, commenting: "It is very typical of their attitude to Nature that such a position should be desirable".

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

About Antonello da Messina


In 1442 Alfonso V of Argon became ruler of Naples, bringing with him a collection of Flemish paintings and setting up a Humanist Academy.

The painter Antonella DA Messina seems to have had access to the King's collection, which may have included the works of Jan van Yuck.

He seems to have been exposed to Flemish painting at a date earlier than the Florentine, to have quickly seen the potential of oils as a medium and then painted in nothing else.

He carried the technique north to Venice with him, where it was soon adopted by Giovanni Bellini’s and became the favored medium of the maritime republic where the art of fresco had never been a great success.

Antonella DA Messina painted mostly small meticulous portraits in glowing colors. But one of his most famous works also demonstrates his superior ability at handling linear perspective and light.

This is the small painting of St. Jerome in His Study, in which the composition is framed by a late Gothic arch, through which is viewed an internal, domestic on one side and minister on the other, in the centre of which the saint sits in a wooden corral surrounded by his possessions while his lion prowls in the shadows on the covered floor.

The way that the light streams in through every door and window casting both natural light and reflected light across the architecture and all the objects would have excited Piero Della Francesca.

His work influenced both Gentile Bellini’s, who did a series of paintings of Miracles of Venice for the Scuola di Santa Croce, and his more famous brother, Giovanni, one of the most significant painters of the High Renaissance in Northern

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

In Style Of Gothic

During the later 14th century, International Gothic was the style that dominated Tuscan painting.

It can be seen to an extent in the work of Puerto and Ambrogio Lorenzetti which is marked by a formalized cuteness and grace in the figures, and Late Gothic flexibility in the draperies.

The style is fully developed in the works of Simone Martini and Gentile da Fabriano which have elegance and a richness of detail, and an idealized quality not compatible with the starker realities of Giotto's paintings.

In the early 15th century, bridging the gap between International Gothic and the Renaissance are the paintings of Fra Angelica, many of which, being altarpieces in tempera, show the Gothic love of amplification, gold leaf and brilliant color.

It is in his frescoes at his convent of Santa Marco that Fra Angelica shows himself the artistic disciple of Giotto.

These devotional paintings, which adorn the cells and corridors inhabited by the friars, represent episodes from the life of Jesus, many of them being scenes of the Crucifixion.

They are starkly simple, restrained in color and intense in mood as the artist sought to make spiritual revelations a visual reality.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

About Famous Oil painting


The paintings are the expressions of artists of all ages. Famous Paintings gives a long lasting remembrance in minds of people.

The artists with their honest effort and imagination power marked the birth and growth of many famous paintings.

These paintings touch the heart of the viewer and leave an indelible impact.

The famous paintings like Mona Lisa, has attracted the millions of hearts. It is popular for its great looks and the mysterious smile of the poser.

These paintings show the insight and insight of the art, and are listed under categories, so that the works of other deserving masters are not lost.

Also, the famous paintings show the characteristics, different thoughts and the creativity of the artist.

These paintings that come from various schools of painting are really remarkable and outstanding. They show the same language of art with high unbridled creativity.

Famous Paintings like "Ajanta murals" had become one of the tourist attractions in the world. The walls of the caves depict the scenes of devotional, ornamental and instructive and immemorial. Moreover, it has brought lot of revenue for the nation.

His usage of watercolors, oils, and acrylics gives a viewer an idea to increase his/her imaginative borders.

Many techniques are used to describe the style of art.

Most of the used technique in the painting is fresco, which is done when the plaster is still wet to make the colors intermingle permanently with the plaster and becomes permanent.


Some of the Famous Paintings are Mona Lisa Painting, The Last Supper Painting, Michelangelo Paintings, Salvador Dali Paintings, Leonardo Da Vinci Paintings, Picasso Paintings, Gogh Paintings, Atlanta Painting, and Ajanta Murals.

These famous paintings are of incredible quality. Even the photographs of these paintings have a realistic look. Some of famous paintings are reproduced as art cards, framing services, and worldwide shipping.

Friday, July 23, 2010

The Intelligence of Chinese Ancient Women’s…



The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts from pre-historic humans, and spans all cultures, that represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from Antiquity.

Across cultures, and spanning continents and millennium, the history of painting is an ongoing river of creativity, that continues into the 21st century.

Zhou Fang (c. 730-800 CE, Chinese: Wade-Giles Chou Fang) was one of two influential
painters during the mid-Tang dynasty.

He was also known as Zhou Jung Xian and Zhong Lang.

Zhou live in the Tang capital of Changan, which is now modern Xian, during the 8th century.

He came from a noble background and this was reflected in his works, which included translated as Court Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers.

He was influenced by the pure and detailed style of Gu Kai-zhi and Lu tan-wei from the Six dynasty in his work.

The late Tang dynasty art critic Zhu Jing Xuan said: "Zhou Fang's Buddha, celestial beings, figures, and paintings of beautiful women are all incredible masterpieces.").

In this Paintings shows :The Intelligence of Ancient Women’s…

Monday, July 12, 2010

ABOUT OIL PAINTINGS


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  • Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of particle of pigment suspended in a
  • Drying oil, commonly linseed oil.
  • The thickness of the paint may be customized by the addition of a solvent such as turpentine or white spirit, and varnish may be added to increase the glossiness of the dried film.
  • Oil paints have been used in Europe since the 12th century for simple ornamentation, but were not widely adopted as an creative medium until the early 15th century.
  • Common modern applications of oil paint are in finishing and protection of wood in buildings and exposed metal structures such as ships and bridges.
  • Its hard-wearing properties and brilliant colors make it desirable for both interior and exterior use on wood and metal.
  • Due to its slow-drying properties, it has recently been used in paint-on-glass animation.
  • Thickness of coat has considerable manner on time required for drying: thin coats of oil paint dry relatively quickly.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Beautiful oil painting of 16th century

  • Raphael, “Woman with a veil (La Donna Velata)”, painted 1516. Size: 82 by 61 cm (32 by 24 inches). Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy.
  • La velata, or La donna velata ("The woman with the veil"), is one of the most famous portraits by the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael.
  • Portrait of a Woman - La Velata, 1516, oil on panel transposed on canvas, 85x64 cm, Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Firenze.
  • With this masterpiece (La Velata), Raphael achieves the peak of the "portrait of woman" of all the times.
  • The artist realize a very wealthy, flowing and dynamic pictorial development and also an fluent gesture expression and a subjective composition - that gives the model an strong spirit along with a burning vitality.
  • A series of paintings and drawings are put together to rejoice the work of one of the greatest artists in the Italian Renaissance: Raphael.
  • The subject of the painting appears in another portrait, La Fornarina, and is traditionally identified as the foramina (bakers) Marguerite Luti, Raphael's Roman mistress.
  • The opportunity is hence given to exemplify, through the portraits, the stylistic evolution of the work of Raphael, in which not only the formal, but also the symbolic and expressive pictorial possibilities are constantly explored in the ideal of an aesthetic and spiritual perfection.
  • The work of Raphael realizes one of the most extraordinary parables of the Western art.
  • This unique collection of twelve paintings and eight drawings of Raphael show how the painter breathed the grace and the humanism of the rebirth into his portraits.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Highly fashioned, elegant Victorian Art


When most people think of the Victorian era, high fashion, gilded age, rich with elegance, splendor, and romance, strict manners, and rich or eclectic decorating styles come to mind - but it was so much more than that. Victorian era covers Classicism, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism.

Paintings of the Romantic school were focused on spontaneous expression of emotion over reason and often depicted dramatic events in brilliant color.

Impressionism, a school of painting that developed in the late 19th century, was characterized by transitory visual expressions that focused on the changing effects of light and color.

Post-Impressionism was developed as a response to the limitations of Impressionism.

Victorian art was shown in the full range of creative developments, from the development of photography to the application of new technologies in architecture.

Victoria from 1837 to 1901. British Empire became the most powerful, and England the most modern, and wealthy country in the World.

The faith that science and its objective methods could solve all human problems was not novel.

The idea of human progress had been gradually maturing. The world was truly progressing at break-neck speed, with new inventions, ideas, and advancements - scientific, literary, and social - developing.

Prosperity brought a large number of art consumers, with money to spend on art.

Classicism, with the accurate and apparently objective description of the ordinary, observable world, was specially viewed as the opposite of Romanticism.