Arts of the Month

  • Lady with an Ermine is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, from around 1489–1490. The subject of the portrait is identified as Cecilia Gallerani, and was probably painted at a time when she was the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Leonardo was in the service of the Duke.

    The painting is one of only four female portraits painted by Leonardo, the others being the Mona Lisa, the portrait of Ginevra de' Benci and La belle ferronniere. It is currently displayed in the Wawel Castle, Kraków, Poland. When exhibited in The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, it was described as "signal[ling] a breakthrough in the art of psychological portraiture.

    (source: wikipedia)

  • The Lonely Cedar features a whole lot of stuff I normally can’t abide in painting: a strong scent of mystical symbolism; dry, tempera like application of oil paint; and things that look to deliberately like other things. For instance, in the painting (6 ½ -feet square), a major part of the tree, on the right, looks kike it has a huge four-legged, giraffe-necked woodpecker clinging to it. The base of the tree resembles some kind of animal foot. A mountain in the distance to the left is topped by what seems to be a nipple.

    (source: wikipedia)

  • Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine (Summer), depicting two prostitutes under a tree, as well as the first of many hunting scenes Courbet was to paint during the remainder of his life.

    (source: wikipedia)

 

Csontváry weeks

  • The Lonely Cedar features a whole lot of stuff I normally can’t abide in painting: a strong scent of mystical symbolism; dry, tempera like application of oil paint; and things that look to deliberately like other things. For instance, in the painting (6 ½ -feet square), a major part of the tree, on the right, looks kike it has a huge four-legged, giraffe-necked woodpecker clinging to it. The base of the tree resembles some kind of animal foot. A mountain in the distance to the left is topped by what seems to be a nipple.

    (source: wikipedia)

  • The picture one of the most puzzling Csontváry company's image. However, the painting animation, dynamic composition, the landscape and figural elements versatility of color because of all the ways Csontváry reproduced works of popular and much in between places.

    (source: wikipedia)

  • In the summer of 1907 Csontváry two cedar picture painted in Lebanon. The lone cedar dominates the landscape, the pilgrimage cedar is also higher than the mountains.

    (source: wikipedia)

  • Csontváry spent spring 1903 in Herzegovina and Bosnia. Spring in Mostar and Roman Bridge in Mostar were inspired by Mostar itself. The view of a bridge over the Neretva, a river of emerald colour water, recalls a dream. Its desolation and silence without a person around symbolise the loneliness and solitude of the artist who attempts to make preterhuman efforts. It is all vain to stick to topographic fidelity or to amalgamate two different approaches in order to create a characteristic picture: the world of fantasy defeats objectivity and the peculiar atmosphere of contours lures one to dream. The bridge, which took 9 years to build from 1556, was exploded in a flash at the end of the 20th century. Csontváry Kosztka was wrong to term it Roman as it was built by Hairudin, a famous Turkish architect. The waterfall, another typical motif of the picture, had a more important role in the view of Jajce. In fact, Csontváry often painted waterfalls. The immense power of water, this element, falling from above, served as a symbol of nature.

    (source: wikipedia)

 

Realism in painting

Courbet: Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine

Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine (Summer), depicting two prostitutes under a tree, as well as the first of many hunting scenes Courbet was to paint during the remainder of his life.

(source: wikipedia)


Munkácsy: Yawning Apprentice

Knaus amicably accepted the young painter and undertook his education. The first genre Munkácsy painted here was the Yawning apprentice, which shows a yawning apprentice just rising from bed and stretching himself. The work, which was unfortunately destroyed and is known only from reproductions, well demonstrates the effect of the German genre painting, telling anecdotes and jokes. The study of the head of the yawning apprentice (picture No. 34.) was prepared from the painting. The head, free of adornments and idealization, represents the haggard face of a fatigued young man, one who perhaps has emerged from the less cheerful memories of his youth. The preparation of the picture, perhaps, gave impetus to the young painter who – as is clear from his letters – was dissatisfied with himself and feverishly looked for further direction.

(source: wikipedia)


Munkácsy: Woman carrying faggots

In 1873, five of Munkácsy’s works were exhibited at the World Expo of Vienna. In the fall of that year, at the invitation of his friend László Paál, Munkácsy travelled to Barbizon, famous for its colony of artists. Here he painted the Woman carrying faggots which reflects, in its lyrical realism and intimate view of nature, the influence of the great master and greatest artist of the colony, Jean-François Millet.

Mihály Munkácsy is the most well known artist in Hungarian history of art both at home as well as abroad. His reputation was based on his unprecedented international success and his near-romantic biography.

(source: wikipedia)


Munkácsy: The Last Day of a Condemned Man

In 1869, Munkácsy painted his much acclaimed work The Last Day of a Condemned Man. This is considered his first masterpiece. The picture was rewarded with the Gold Medal of the Paris Salon in 1870.[1] It made Munkácsy a popular painter in an instant. Ironically enough this work summarises torture caused by oppression, moral uncertainty and reactions to an impending tragic end in visual form. However, it aptly captures the capabilities of the Hungarian master in painting.

(source: wikipedia)

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