01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretation of the bible, Francesco Furini’s St. Agatha, With Footnotes – #173

Francesco Furini, (1603–1646)
St. Agatha, between circa 1635 and circa 1645
Oil and tempera on canvas
64.2 cm (25.2 ″); Width: 50.3 cm (19.8 ″)
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.

This devotional image shows the saint contemplating God while tenderly holding the pincers, the instruments of her sufferings through which she achieved her sanctity. The palm branch is the attribute of martyrs. More on this painting

Saint Agatha of Sicily (231 AD – 251 AD) is a Christian saint and virgin martyr. Agatha was born at Catania or Palermo, Sicily, and she was martyred in approximately 251. 

She is the patron saint of Catania, Molise, Malta, San Marino, and Zamarramala, a municipality of the Province of Segovia in Spain. She is also the patron saint of breast cancer patients, martyrs, wet nurses, bell-founders, bakers, fire, earthquakes, and eruptions of Mount Etna.

Although the martyrdom of Saint Agatha is authenticated, and her veneration as a saint had spread beyond her native place even in antiquity, there is no reliable information concerning the details of her death. According to Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea of ca. 1288, having dedicated her virginity to God,[ fifteen-year-old Agatha, from a rich and noble family, rejected the amorous advances of the low-born Roman prefect Quintianus, who then persecuted her for her Christian faith. He sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel. The madam finding her intractable, Quintianus sent for her, argued, threatened, and finally had her put in prison. Amongst the tortures she underwent was the cutting off of her breasts with pincers. After further dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, represented in a sequence of dialogues in her passio that document her fortitude and steadfast devotion, Saint Agatha was then sentenced to be burnt at the stake, but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison where St. Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds. Saint Agatha died in prison, according to the Legenda Aurea in “the year of our Lord two hundred and fifty-three in the time of Decius, the emperor of Rome.” More on Saint Agatha of Sicily

Francesco Furini (c. 1600 (or 1603) – August 19, 1646) was an Italian Baroque painter of Florence, noted for his sensual sfumato style in paintings of both secular and religious subjects. He was born in Florence to an artistic family. Furini’s early training was by Matteo Rosselli. Traveling to Rome in 1619, he also would have been exposed to the influence of Caravaggio and his followers.

Furini’s work reflects the tension faced by the conservative, mannerist style of Florence when confronting then novel Baroque styles. He is a painter of biblical and mythological set-pieces with a strong use of the misty sfumato technique. In the 1630s his style paralleled that of Guido Reni.

Furini became a priest in 1633 for the parish of Sant’Ansano in Mugello.

Freedberg describes Furini’s style as filled with “morbid sensuality”. His frequent use of disrobed females is discordant with his excessive religious sentimentality, and his polished stylization and poses are at odds with his aim of expressing highly emotional states. His stylistic choices did not go unnoticed by more puritanical contemporary biographers like Baldinucci. Pignoni also mirrored this style in his works.

Furini traveled to Rome again in the year before his death in 1646. More on Francesco Furini

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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretation of the bible, Francesco Furini’s GENEROSITY OR LIBERALITY, with Footnotes – #172

Francesco Furini, FLORENCE 1604 – 1646
GENEROSITY OR LIBERALITY
Oil on canvas
122 x 92,4 cm ; 48 by 36 1/3 in
Private collection

LIBERALITY; broadness or fullness, as of proportions or physical attributes. One who is generous, bountiful, willing and ready to give and to help. 

There is measure in all things: Furini choses Horace’s maxim to evoke Generosity or Liberality. Personified as a nude woman, she leans upon the quotation from the Roman poet inscribed on a stone pedestal. Furini was inspired by the depiction of Generosity as defined by Cesare Ripa in his Iconology, who, in her right hand, ‘holds strings of jewels and pearls, displaying them as if offering them as gifts. More on this painting

Francesco Furini (c. 1600 (or 1603) – August 19, 1646) was an Italian Baroque painter of Florence, noted for his sensual sfumato style in paintings of both secular and religious subjects. He was born in Florence to an artistic family. Furini’s early training was by Matteo Rosselli. Traveling to Rome in 1619, he also would have been exposed to the influence of Caravaggio and his followers.
Furini’s work reflects the tension faced by the conservative, mannerist style of Florence when confronting then novel Baroque styles. He is a painter of biblical and mythological set-pieces with a strong use of the misty sfumato technique. In the 1630s his style paralleled that of Guido Reni.

Furini became a priest in 1633 for the parish of Sant’Ansano in Mugello.

Freedberg describes Furini’s style as filled with “morbid sensuality”. His frequent use of disrobed females is discordant with his excessive religious sentimentality, and his polished stylization and poses are at odds with his aim of expressing highly emotional states. His stylistic choices did not go unnoticed by more puritanical contemporary biographers like Baldinucci. Pignoni also mirrored this style in his works.

Furini traveled to Rome again in the year before his death in 1646. More on Francesco Furini 

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02 Orientalist Paintings, Adolf Schreyer’s The Chase, with footnotes, #120

Adolf Schreyer (German, 1828-1899)
The Chase
Oil on canvas
51½ x 32¼ in. (130.8 x 82 cm.)
Private collection

The Chase, depicts a group of Bedouin warriors in full gallop charging through the desert landscape. The rapidity and nervous quality of the brushstroke emphasizes the forward momentum of the riders; the vivid red cloak of the rider in the center identifying him as the leader…

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01 Work, CONTEMPORARY Interpretation of the Bible! Kasia Derwinska’s Prayer, with Footnotes – #51

Kasia Derwinska, Spain
Prayer
Digital, Black & White, Manipulated, New Media, Paint on Paper
15.7 W x 15.7 H x 0 in
Private collection

I talk to God but the sky is empty. Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated multiple times with electroconvulsive therapy. She died by suicide in 1963.  More on Sylvia Plath

Kasia Derwinska “Photography is my way of communicating with the world. In my work, I talk about own experiences, thoughts, doubts, fears and hopes trying to reflect my own life’s path. In addition to my experiences, my creations are inspired by night dreams as since childhood I remember most of them and I believe that dreams are the most simbolic language of our subconscious, a guide to navigate in the modern world. I am autodidactic and I don´t recognize myself as a photographer. I use photography as a tool, like a brush for painting or an instrument to play music. My work is an attempt to connect substantiality of the world that surrounds us with elusiveness of feelings and thoughts. For that reason I describe my creations as building a bridge between the visible and the invisible. My works are divided in four basic series: fairytales and fantasies, conceptual black and white, night dreams, and the color serie called “who sings, frightens away his fears”  More on Kasia Derwinska

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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretation the bible, Lidia Wylangowska’s Bohemian Angel, with Footnotes – #129

Lidia Wylangowska, United States
Bohemian Angel
Original Oil Painting
108 W x 80 H x 1.5 in
Private collection

An angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies. In Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism, angels are often depicted as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries between God or Heaven and Humanity. Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out God’s tasks. More on Angels

Lidia Wylangowska: “My art tells my story. It’s a story of my world, of my thoughts and emotions entwined in an internal dialogue. And some of it can be expressed only through painting. It is incredible, how fairy-tales I heard once-upon-a-time, in my childhood actually influenced my life and defined who I am. 

The technique I use in my works is changing and evolving as I do. There is a lot my very own inventions in it but the very base comes from Renaissance Masters. Masaccio, Leonardo da Vinci , Raphael are commonly considered to have pioneered the use of chiaroscuro to create the illusion of relief – notably in the modelling of the human body. Chiaroscuro modeling is supporting the effect of color. In order to use the under painting efficiently, I put the color transparently. The transparent layer of paint spread over the top of an opaque passage that has been given some time to dry. Light travels through the glaze and is reflected back off of the opaque layer below. The light in the painting constructed this way lit the color from the bottom. More on Lidia Wylangowska

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04 Paintings, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, The Islamic Pirate Queen – Sayyida al-Hurra, with Footnotes. #172

Jean-Étienne Liotard
The Islamic Pirate Queen – Sayyida al-Hurra
Gouache on ivory
height: 10.2 cm (4 in); width: 8.3 cm (3.2 in)
Private collection

Sayyida al Hurra (1485–14 July 1561), was a queen of Tétouan in 1515–1542 and a pirate queen in the early 16th century. She is considered to be “one of the most important female figures of the Islamic West in the modern age”…

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01 Work, Interpretations of Olympian deities, Nicolaus Knupfer’s Theseus Proposing to Phaedra, with footnotes #29

Nicolaus Knupfer, (Leipzig 1603-1660 Utrecht)
Theseus Proposing to Phaedra
Oil on panel
18 ½ x 25 1/8 in. (47 x 63.8 cm.)
Private collection

Phaedra is a tragic play by Roman playwright Seneca. The play tells the story of Theseus’ wife Phaedra and her lust for her stepson, Hippolytus. However, Hippolytus despises women and wishes to remain pure, preferring to hunt and live in the woods. After Phaedra declares her love, Hippolytus lashes out and strikes to kill her for her lustful crime. Phaedra and her nurse accuse him of raping her, and Hippolytus flees. Upon Theseus’ return from the Underworld, Phaedra continues her lie, and Theseus prays to Neptune for Hippolytus’ death. After Hippolytus dies, Phaedra reveals her deception and kills herself out of shame. Theseus mourns his lost son and condemns Phaedra for her betrayal. More on Theseus and Phaedra

Nikolaus Knüpfer (1609 – 1655) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Knüpfer was trained in Leipzig, where according to Houbraken he was apprenticed to Emanuel Nysen. He then moved to Magdeburg where he found work making brushes for artists. He stayed there until 1630, and then moved to Utrecht to work with Abraham Bloemaert. He lived with him for two years and then established his own studio in Utrecht, where in 1637 he became a visiting member of the Guild of St. Luke. He worked on the decorations of the castle Kronborg in Denmark, and painted figures in the landscapes of Jan Both and Jan Baptist Weenix. Knüpfer was a successful teacher, whose students were great painters after him. More on Nikolaus Knüpfer

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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretation the bible, Henri Fantin-Latour’s Stabat Mater, with Footnotes – 128

Henri Fantin-Latour, (French, 1836-1904)
Stabat Mater, c. 1896
Oil on canvas
18 ¾ x 26 ½ in. (47.6 x 67.3 cm.)
Private collection

The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ’s mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III. The title comes from its first line, “Stabat Mater dolorosa”, which means “the sorrowful mother was standing”.

The hymn is sung at the liturgy on the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Stabat Mater has been set to music by many Western composers. More on Stabat Mater

Henri Fantin-Latour (14 January 1836 – 25 August 1904) was a French painter and lithographer best known for his flower paintings and group portraits of Parisian artists and writers.  He was born Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour in Grenoble, Isère. As a youth, he received drawing lessons from his father, who was an artist. In 1850 he entered the Ecole de Dessin. After studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1854, he devoted much time to copying the works of the old masters in the Musée du Louvre. Although Fantin-Latour befriended several of the young artists who would later be associated with Impressionism, including Whistler and Manet, Fantin’s own work remained conservative in style.

Whistler brought attention to Fantin in England, where his still-lifes sold so well that they were “practically unknown in France during his lifetime”. In addition to his realistic paintings, Fantin-Latour created imaginative lithographs inspired by the music of some of the great classical composers.

In 1875, Henri Fantin-Latour married a fellow painter, Victoria Dubourg, after which he spent his summers on the country estate of his wife’s family at Buré, Orne in Lower Normandy, where he died on 25 August 1904. More on Henri Fantin-Latour 

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2 Religious Icons, Barnaba da Modena and Veneto-Cretan Icons of the Madonna and Child, with footnotes #27

Barnaba da Modena (1328–1386)
Madonna and Child, c. 1370s
Tempera on panel
height: 109 cm (42.9 in); width: 72 cm (28.3 in)
Louvre Museum

The panel, probably originally rectangular, was cut at the top following the profile of the moldings in relief. Central element of a polyptych.

The Nursing Madonna, Virgo Lactans, or Madonna Lactans, is an iconography of the Madonna and Child in which the Virgin Mary is shown breastfeeding the infant Jesus. In Italian it is called the Madonna del Latte (“Madonna of milk”). It was a common type in painting until the change in atmosphere after the Council of Trent, in which it was rather discouraged by the church, at least in public contexts, on grounds of propriety…

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01 Russian Icon, An icon of St Euthymios the Great, with footnotes #58

Unknown iconographer
An icon of St Euthymios the Great, Greece, first half 17th century
Tempera on panel
90 by 55.5 cm, 35 2/5 by 21 4/5in.
Private collection

St. Euthymius the Great, (born 377, Melitene, Armenia—died January 20, 473, Palestinian desert, northeast of Jerusalem; feast day January 20), ascetic and one of the great fathers of Eastern Orthodox monasticism, who established religious communities throughout Palestine.

Orphaned in his youth, Euthymius was educated and later ordained priest by Bishop Otreus of Melitene. He was charged with the spiritual care of the ascetics and monasteries of the city, but in 406 he left for Palestine in search of solitude. Joining the monastery of Pharan, near Jerusalem, he befriended St. Theoctistus, and about 411 they retired to a cave in the wilderness beyond Jerusalem. On being joined by others, they established a cenobitic (“communal”) monastery, or laura, that integrated contemplative life with other liturgical and intellectual projects and work done in common.

Euthymius moved on with a small band and set up similar communities, one on the west bank of the Dead Sea, another farther west in the desert of Ziph, and a larger community northeast of Jerusalem, toward Jericho. This last foundation was named after Euthymius, and its church was dedicated by Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem in 429.

Euthymius converted many nomad Saracens to the Orthodox Church. He was often consulted on theological questions by the Eastern bishops and participated in formulating the decrees of the Council of Ephesus (431) against the Nestorian heresy. He also contributed to the Council of Chalcedon (451) in refuting the heretical monophysites. Euthymius is credited with disseminating orthodox Christological doctrine throughout Palestinian monasticism, overcoming defamations by his theological adversaries. By his influence the Byzantine empress Eudoxia became convinced that monophysitism was in error and withdrew support from its chief proponent, Abbot Eutyches of Constantinople. More on St. Euthymius the Great

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1 Religious Icon, Bernard van Orley’s THE VIRGIN AND CHILD, with footnotes #26

Circle of Bernard van Orley
THE VIRGIN AND CHILD
Oil on panel
36.2 by 26.1 cm.; 14 1/4 by 10 1/4 in.
Private collection

This is one of a number of versions of the composition, the finest of which is a picture formerly in the collection of Friedrich Glück, Budapest, considered by Baldass to be by Van Orley before 1520.1 A workshop version is in the Royal Collection (L. Campbell, The Early Flemish Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, Cambridge 1985, p. 105, no. 66, reproduced plate 78; inv. 1003). Van Orley’s original is in the Prince of Wied collection, Munic. More on this work
Bernard van Orley (between 1487 and 1491 – 6 January 1541), , was a leading artist in Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, though he was at least as active as a leading designer of Brussels tapestry and, at the end of his life, stained glass. Although he never visited Italy, he belongs to the group of Italianizing Flemish painters called the Romanists, who were influenced by Italian Renaissance painting, in his case especially by Raphael.

He was born and died in Brussels, and was the court artist of the Habsburg rulers, and “served as a sort of commissioner of the arts for the Brussels town council”. He was extremely productive, concentrating on the design of his works, and leaving their actual execution largely to others in the case of painting.

Accordingly, his many surviving works (somewhat depleted in number by Reformation iconoclasm) vary considerably in quality. His paintings are generally either religious subjects or portraits, these mostly of Habsburgs repeated in several versions by the workshop, with few mythological subjects. More on Bernard van Orley

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01 Work – Paintings from Norse mythology, Stepan Fedorovich Kolesnikoff’s Mythological scene, with footnotes – #04

Stepan Fedorovich Kolesnikoff, (Russian,1879-1955)
Mythological scene
Mixed technique paper glued to cardboard, tempera, oil
101 x 138 cm
Private collection

Stepan Fedorovitch Kolesnikoff (1879, Russian Empire – 1955, Belgrade, Yugoslavia), was a distinguished Realist painter.

Kolesnikoff was born in a peasant family in a southern province of the Russian Empire. His artistic potentials were recognized early. In 1897 he started attending an artistic school in Odessa, one of the topmost of its kind in the country. In 1903, Kolesnikoff was accepted into the Imperial Academy of Arts, where his paintings regularly won prizes in the annual Spring exhibitions.

In 1919 he and his family emigrated to the Balkans, and in 1920 he settled in Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, (Yugoslavia after 1929) where he spent the rest of his life as an immigrant. Kolesnikoff was promptly welcomed in the royal court of his new country. Among others, he was given a state assignment to lead the restoration works on numerous paintings and frescoes.

The last twelve years of his life Kolesnikoff suffered from Parkinsons’ disease. His remains are buried in the Russian Necropolis, a section of the Belgrade New Cemetery. More on Stepan Fedorovitch Kolesnikoff

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Salvador Dalí’s 12 Apostles (Knights of the Round Table) Suite of 12 Lithographs c. 1972, with footnotes

Salvador Dalí
The Twelve Apostles (as Knights of the Round Table) (F. 180-81; M. & L. 1504-1515), c, 1977
lithograph in colors with embossing and foil on Arches paper
Private collection

Though there is some discussion surrounding the identification of the figures, they are accepted to be: Christ, James the Lesser, James the Greater, “The Watcher” and Saints Andrew, Mark, John, Peter, Thomas, Jude, Matthew, and Phillip

Identification has been made by examination of the images for symbols associated with each of them. More weight has been given to tradition than to theological scholarships because Dali would not have been aware of the latter…

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04 Icons from the Bible, Mother of God Znamenie, Madonna del Parto, Christ is carrying our cross, Mother of God “Surety of sinners” and the Mandylio, with footnotes, #18

Mother of God Znamenie
Russian icon, first half of 19th c.
38 x 30,5 cm
Private collection

The Icon of the Mother of God, named the “Sign” (“Znamenie”), shows the Most Holy Mother of God seated with prayerfully uplifted hands. On Her bosom, against the background of a circular shield (or sphere) — is the Divine Infant giving a blessing.

The Mother of God, known under the name “Znamenie-Sign”, appeared in Rus’ during the XI-XII Centuries, and were called such after a miraculous “Sign” from the Novgorod Icon, which occurred in the year 1170, the year the allied forces of the Russian appanage princes, marched to the the very walls of Great Novgorod…

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1 Religious Icon, DUTCH MASTER’s Crowning of Mary, with footnotes #25

DUTCH MASTER
Crowning of Mary
Oil/tempera on oak. Parqueted
78 x 51cm.
Private collection

Surrounded by a cloud aureole God the Father (to the left) and Christ (to the right) are sitting on a throne bank with high rests. God the Father is dressed in a coat of brocade and has a tiara on his head. Christ wears a green-lined red coat and holds the globe in his left hand. Together they hold the crown above Mary’s head who is kneeling in between them, her hands clasped for prayer. In this way she is crowned Queen of Heaven. Behind the throne bank there are two angels observing what is going on. In the upper margin of the painting there is the dove of the Holy Spirit which, together with God the Father and Christ represents the Holy Trinity. All of the flesh tones are overall in a good condition. The background shows a condition, which makes presume a former pressed brocade application. The rather curious rests of the throne also support this presumption, because they would fit more organically into such an original context. The entire colouring of the work shows a harmonic character which is typical for this time. The painting might be a section of a formerly large retable. More on this work

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01 Work, CONTEMPORARY Interpretation of the Bible! Joel-Peter Witkin’s Ars Moriendi, with Footnotes – #50

Joel-Peter Witkin, (American, 1939-)
Ars Moriendi, c. 2007
Tirage argentique
66 x 71 cm
Private collection

Joel-Peter Witkin is known for his grotesquely beautiful photographs that explore themes of death, religion, and the experience of being socially outcast. Witkin stages surrealistic scenes with cadavers, skeletons, and dismembered body parts so they recall Classical paintings and religious imagery. More on this work

The Ars moriendi (“The Art of Dying”) are two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death, explaining how to “die well” according to Christian precepts of the late Middle Ages. It was very popular, and was the first in a western literary tradition of guides to death and dying.

There was originally a “long version” and a later “short version” containing eleven woodcut pictures as instructive images which could be easily explained and memorized. More on Ars moriendi

Joel-Peter Witkin (born September 13, 1939) is an American photographer. His work often deals with such themes as death, corpses, and various outsiders such as dwarves, transsexuals, intersex persons, and physically deformed people. Witkin’s complex tableaux often recall religious episodes or classical paintings.

Witkin’s parents divorced when he was young. In 1961 Witkin enlisted in the United States Army with the intention of capturing war photography during the Vietnam war. However, Witkin never saw combat in Vietnam and spent his military time at Fort Hood, Texas, and was mostly in charge of Public Information and classified photos. In 1967, he became the official photographer for City Walls Inc. He attended Cooper Union in New York, where he studied sculpture, attaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974. Columbia University granted him a scholarship for graduate school, but his Master of Fine Arts degree is from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque  More Joel-Peter Witkin

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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44 Paintings, RELIGIOUS ART – Paintings and Stories of The Angels; Saint Michael, Archangel, and Chief Commander, with footnotes, #22

Spinello Aretino, 1345-52; died 1410
Saint Michael and Other Angels, c. 1408-10
Arezzo Fresco Fragments
Fresco (with areas of secco) transferred to canvas
116.2 x 170.2 cm
The National Gallery, London

This and other fragments in the Collection are from a large fresco of the ‘Fall of Lucifer’ which was painted for S. Michele Arcangelo in Arezzo, Italy. The scene shows Saint Michael and other angels fighting a war in heaven. The battle took place before God who was originally shown enthroned above, while Lucifer’s agents plunge to earth below. More on this fresco

Spinello Aretino, (born c. 1346, Commune of Arezzo — died March 14, 1410, Arezzo) late Gothic Italian painter noteworthy for his vigorous narrative sense. His style anticipates the realistic painting of the early Renaissance of the 15th century. Early in his career he came under the influence of Orcagna and Nardo di Cione, whose style shows in his first major work, a fresco cycle in San Francesco at Arezzo…

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01 Painting, Olympian deities, Francesco Furini’s Hylas and the nymphs, with footnotes # 39

Francesco Furini, (1603–1646)
Hylas and the nymphs, c. 1630
Oil on canvas
Palazzo Pitti

Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians. After Hercules killed Hylas’s father, Hylas became a companion of Hercules. They both became Argonauts, accompanying Jason in his quest on his ship Argo in seeking the Golden Fleece. During the journey, Hylas was sent to find fresh water. He found a pond occupied by Naiads, and they lured Hylas into the water and he disappeared. More on Hylas and the nymphs

Francesco Furini (c. 1600 (or 1603) – August 19, 1646) was an Italian Baroque painter of Florence, noted for his sensual sfumato style in paintings of both secular and religious subjects. He was born in Florence to an artistic family. Furini’s early training was by Matteo Rosselli. Traveling to Rome in 1619, he also would have been exposed to the influence of Caravaggio and his followers.

Furini’s work reflects the tension faced by the conservative, mannerist style of Florence when confronting then novel Baroque styles. He is a painter of biblical and mythological set-pieces with a strong use of the misty sfumato technique. In the 1630s his style paralleled that of Guido Reni.

Furini became a priest in 1633 for the parish of Sant’ Ansano in Mugello.

Freedberg describes Furini’s style as filled with “morbid sensuality”. His frequent use of disrobed females is discordant with his excessive religious sentimentality, and his polished stylization and poses are at odds with his aim of expressing highly emotional states. His stylistic choices did not go unnoticed by more puritanical contemporary biographers like Baldinucci. Pignoni also mirrored this style in his works.

Furini traveled to Rome again in the year before his death in 1646. More on Francesco Furini

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

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01 Orientalist Painting, Edwin Lord Weeks’ Three Moorish princesses, with footnotes, #119

Edwin Lord Weeks (American, 1849-1903)
Interior of La Torre des Infantas, illustrating the legend of the three Moorish princesses, c. 1881-82
Oil on canvas laid down on board
32 x 39½ in. (81.3 x 100.3 c
Private collection

One of the best known legends of the Alhambra was that of the three captive princesses, in which a tyrannical Moorish king fathered beautiful triplet daughters, Zayda, Zorayda, and Zorahayda, by his young Spanish wife, whose Christianity he had forced her to renounce. To protect them from suitors when they became of “a marriagable age,” as Irving describes it, the king imprisoned the three princesses in a tower in a palatial room, connected to the world beyond only by a window with a view across a ravine toward the gardens of the Generalife on a nearby hill. Entranced by three captive Christian Spanish cavaliers, whom they could see from their window, the princesses eventually conspired with their duenna to elope with the virile and handsome young men, as they themselves fled their Muslim captors. At the last moment, one princess decided to remain behind, as her two sisters lowered themselves out of the great window on a rope ladder and galloped off with their suitors to a new life in Christian Spain. Tragically, the third princess, too timid to join her sisters in escape, pined away in the tower and died at an early age. More on this painting

Edwin Lord Weeks (1849 – 1903) was an American artist. Weeks was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1849. His parents were affluent spice and tea merchants from Newton, a suburb of Boston, and as such they were able to finance their son’s youthful interest in painting and travelling. As a young man Weeks visited the Florida Keys to draw, and also travelled to Surinam in South America. His earliest known paintings date from 1867 when he was eighteen years old, although it is not until his Landscape with Blue Heron, dated 1871 and painted in the Everglades, that Weeks started to exhibit a dexterity of technique and eye for composition—presumably having taken professional tuition.

In 1872 Weeks relocated to Paris, becoming a pupil of Léon Bonnat and Jean-Léon Gérôme. After his studies in Paris, Weeks emerged as one of America’s major painters of Orientalist subjects. Throughout his adult life he was an inveterate traveler and journeyed to South America (1869), Egypt and Persia (1870), Morocco (frequently between 1872 and 1878), and India (1882–83).

Weeks died in Paris in November 1903.[2] He was a member of the Légion d’honneur, France, an officer of the Order of St. Michael, Germany, and a member of the Munich Secession. More on Edwin Lord Weeks

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

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01 Work, CONTEMPORARY Interpretation of the Bible! Fiona Maclean’s Madonna, With Footnotes – #47

Fiona Maclean, Australia
Madonna
Watercolor, Pastel, Pencil on Paper
11.5 W x 16 H x 0.1 in
Private collection

A Madonna is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is from Italian ma donna, meaning ‘my lady’. 

The term Madonna in the sense of “picture or statue of the Virgin Mary” enters English usage in the 17th century, primarily in reference to works of the Italian Renaissance. In an Eastern Orthodox context, such images are typically known as Theotokos.  More on Madonna

New Zealand born Fiona Maclean is a Painter and Visual Artist. After studying Art, Design and Production in New Zealand & Australia she continued her studies in Fine Art and Painting at Parsons School of Art in New York City. A family tragedy cut her studies short in New York where she had to move back to Australia. Fiona was chosen as an Artist to watch and amongst a strong emerging talent of Artists in the ‘One to Watch’ series released by Saatchi. “I am interested in layers, and what it is to be human, sensuality, sexuality and what it is to be female in the world.” As a Fine Artist her paintings and artworks hang in private collections around the world and appear in International reference books and publications. Fiona has exhibited in Australia, London and New York. More on Fiona Maclean

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.