Your Favorite Artists/Artworks?

[cafolini]

Otto Diz, Jankel Adler, Rudolf Bauer, Max Ernst, Paul Klee ................................................

[chrisvia]

Jan van Eyck

I took this picture of the Ghent Altarpiece (also known as Adoration of the Mystic Lamb) while in Belgium last year:

407222_10150550086072863_302994139_n.jpg

Joan Miró

miro-bleu-II.jpg

Edvard Munch

eveOnKarlJohan_3.jpg

Monet

1-monet-impression-soleil-l.jpg

Canaletto

Piazza_San_Marco_with_the_Basilica,_by_Canaletto,_1730._Fogg_Art_Museum,_Cambridge.jpg

Goya
Delacroix
Dalí

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

....Perhaps I'll start a similar dialog by asking:

"What are your favorite portraits?"

I'll wait this out for a while, before posting my own rather lengthy list of candidates.

1 Johannes Vermeer


2 Leonardo da Vinci



3 Leonardo da Vinci



4 Gian Lorenzo Bernini



5 Salvator Rosa




6 Henry Raeburn



7 Frederick Leighton



8 Juan Gris



9 James Whistler



10 Unknown - Velvet Jesus and Elvis
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for velvet paintings in general

[stlukesguild]

Portraits:

One of the primary goals of painting and sculpture has been to record the likeness of beloved or "important" individuals. As such, there are a wealth of portraits from across the span of time and from around the whole of the world. Among some of my favorites are the stunning portraits of Egypt:

King Akhenaten:







His wife, Nefertiti:





The funerary portrait mask of Tutankhamen, the son of Akhenaten:



The colossal portrait of Ramses II:



And then there is the touching... delicate... almost fragile portrait of Queen Hatshepsut, the first known female ruler of any major state:



These just touch on the contributions of the Egyptians. Quite honestly, outside of Egypt and to a lesser extent, the art of Persia and the Islamic world, I am but a novice when it comes to non-Western art. To delve through the endless examples of portraiture from Africa, India, Persia, China, Japan, Korea, the Americas before Columbus, the Pacific Islanders, etc... is far more effort than I am willing to currently put forth. As such, I shall limit myself to exploring what I feel are the finest portraits from within the confines of Western Art History.

1. Funerary Portrait of Mausolus of Halicarnassus



The funerary portrait of Mausolus of Halicarnassus is one of the oldest... and one of the most stunning portraits in the history of Western Art. The sculpture was created as part of the famous Mausoleum at Halicarnassus... a tomb erected in memory of Mausolus by his sister and widow, and one of the "Seven Wonders of the Ancient World."



Mausolus was placed atop the Mausoleum and portrayed in his chariot beside his wife, Artemisia, and behind a team of four horses. The sculptures on the Mausoleum were recorded as having been created by Scopas of Paros, Leochares, Bryaxis and Timotheus. The portrait of Mausolus is one of the first examples of the so-called "Greek Baroque" style, emphasizing realism in the portrait of Mausolus and stressing drama and motion. The deep undercutting suggests that the drapery of Mausolus robes wraps around his body and flutters in the wind as his chariot sallies forth.



Where the Greeks were idealists, the Romans were realists... and as a result we have far more portraits by the Romans. Roman sculptors set out to capture the truth of the appearance of both the high and mighty and the loved ones of those able to pay the price. One of the most interesting developments of Roman art, was that of the portrait bust. In spite of our Romantic admiration for the fragmentary sculptures of ancient Greece...



... the Greeks themselves would have thought these an abomination. The integrity of the human body as a whole was not to be cropped or fragmented. The Romans, however, developed a distinct admiration for portrait busts. Well-to-do Romans filled their homes with portrait busts of their ancestors as we might fill ours with photographs:



The Romans did not avoid the less than ideal features of the people they portrayed:







Of course there are certain portraits that stand out far more than others. Among these, I would include:

2. Augustus of Prima Porta:



(No idea who the woman is. She just happens to be in one of the finest reproductions of the work available online)

The statue was discovered in the villa of Augustus Caesar's wife, Livia Drusilla. It was almost certainly the creation of a Greek artist working in Rome. The sculpture merges elements of Greek idealism and classicism with Roman realism. Augustus face is shown as bearing the signs of age, which the Romans valued as proof of wisdom, yet the body and pose allude to the strength and youth of the idealized Greek art. Here, at the start of the Empire, the Romans wished to draw a connection between themselves and the great achievements of the Greeks... especially those of Alexander the Great.

3. Antinoös

One of the most idealized portraits is that of Antinoös, the "pretty boy" lover of the emperor Hadrian. Antinous drowned in the Nile in October 130. The death was presented as an accident, but it was believed at the time that Antinous had been sacrificed or had sacrificed himself, and Hadrian "wept for him like a woman." Hadrian went through the process of deifying him soon afterwards, a process previously exclusively reserved for imperial family members rather than friends or lovers of non-Roman origin. The grief of the emperor knew no bounds, causing the most extravagant veneration to be paid to Antinous' memory. Cities were founded in his name, medals struck with his likeness, and cities throughout the east commissioned godlike images of the dead youth for their shrines and sanctuaries.



4. Pompey



Once a son-in-law and ally of Julius Caesar, Pompey came to an unkind end during the civil war. This round, chubby face conveys such a sense of smugness. It reminds me of the portrait of the painter Francis Bacon by Lucian Freud which Robert Hughes described as a grenade about to explode. Pompey's face suggest something of this compact tension.

Another favorite Roman portrait is:

5. Portrait of a Patrician Lady



What is especially intriguing about this portrait is the contrast between the simplicity and idealized classicism of the face that echoes the softened "impressionistic" features in the works of Praxiteles, and the drama of the outrageous coiffure. One cannot help but think of Medusa... or the high piled wigs of the Rococo.

Some of the finest portraits are those of some of the most despicable individuals... perhaps proving once again, the aesthetic merits of a good villain. The mannered portrait of Commodus...

6. Commodus as Hercules



... presents the somewhat effete Commodus as the mythological hero, Hercules, wearing the skin of the lion he had defeated.

Commodus was the ultimate megalomaniac. In opposition to the Roman Senate, he proclaimed himself to have god-like powers and physical prowess. He ordered innumerable statues to be erected around the empire portraying him in the guise of Hercules, reinforcing the illusion of him as a demigod, a physical giant, a protector and a battler against beasts and men. As Hercules, he could claim to be the son of Jupiter, the supreme god of the Roman pantheon.

In 191, the city of Rome was extensively damaged by a fire. Seizing upon the opportunity, he declaring himself the new Romulus, ritually re-founded Rome. He renamed the city Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana. All the months of the year were renamed to correspond exactly with his twelve names: Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, Exsuperatorius, Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius. The once proud Roman Senate was now entitled the Commodian Fortunate Senate, while the Roman people themselves were all given the name Commodianus.

Commodus also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a gladiator. The Romans found Commodus's naked gladiatorial combats to be scandalous and disgraceful. In the arena, Commodus always won since his opponents always submitted to the emperor... or would be made to submit by his ever present Imperial Guard. Commodus raised the ire of many military officials in Rome for his Hercules persona in the arena. Often, wounded soldiers and amputees would be placed in the arena for Commodus to slay with a sword. Commodus's eccentric behaviour would not stop there. Citizens of Rome missing their feet through accident or illness were taken to the arena, where they were tethered together for Commodus to club to death while pretending they were giants.

Commodus was also known for fighting exotic animals in the arena, often to the horror of the Roman people. According to Gibbon, Commodus once killed 100 lions in a single day. Later, he decapitated a running ostrich with a specially designed dart and afterwards carried the bleeding head of the dead bird and his sword over to the section where the Senators sat and gesticulated as though they were next. On another occasion, Commodus killed three elephants on the floor of the arena by himself. Finally, Commodus killed a giraffe, which was considered to be a strange and helpless beast.

These outlandish acts of violence went against the Roman code of honor, and ultimately may have spurred on his long overdue assassination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodus

Caracalla was an equally brutal emperor. Following his father's death, he and his brother, Geta, were proclaimed joint Emperors. In 211 at a meeting arranged by their mother Julia, Caracalla had Geta assassinated by members of the Praetorian Guard loyal to himself, Geta dying in his mother's arms. Caracalla then persecuted and executed most of Geta's supporters as well as his ex-wife Fulvia Plautilla, her brother and other members of the family of his former father-in-law. He then ordered a damnatio memoriae pronounced by the Senate against his brother's memory.

Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, describes Caracalla as "the common enemy of mankind". Caracalla had a reputation as a brutal tyrant. In 215 he unleashed the Roman legions of Alexandria, looting and pillaging the city for some days, resulting in a reported 20,000 deaths.

Caracalla was most at home with the military. He increased the pay of the average soldier and lavished many benefits on the army which he both feared and admired, remembering the advice of his father, Septimius Severus, who had told him on his deathbed to always mind the soldiers and ignore everyone else. Caracalla did also attempted to win the trust of the military with popular gestures, such as marching on foot among the ordinary soldiers, eating the same food, and even grinding his own flour with them. He forgot even the proper dignity of his rank, encouraging their insolent familiarity.

His official portraiture marks a break with the detached images of the philosopher–emperors who preceded him: his close-cropped haircut is that of a soldier, his pugnacious scowl a realistic and threatening presence. This rugged soldier–emperor iconic archetype was adopted by most of the following emperors who depended on the support of the military to rule:

7. Portrait of Caracalla:



All that remains of 8. The Colossal Sculpture of Constantine are fragments:









Still these fragments remain undeniably impressive... and evocative. I cannot help but think of Shelley's Ozymandias:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

More portraits to come...

[cafolini]

Thanks so much. Very interesting.

[ftil]

You can limit yourself to 10 each... or go for more if you wish. As an artist and someone who has long studied art history I don't think I could limit myself to less than 50:

39. Tiepolo:

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo is on your list. I don’t like his art. However, his art is interesting as he painted many mythological themes. I know his Apollo and the Continents but I didn’t know about Prince-Bishop Carl Phillip von Greiffenclau and Würzburg. As I said before, your posts are quite inspiring.


Karl Philipp Freiherr von Greifenclau zu Vollraths (1690–1754) was the Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1749 to 1754.

A Prince-Bishop is a bishop who is a territorial Prince of the Church on account of one or more secular principalities, usually pre-existent titles of nobility held concurrently with their inherent clerical office.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince-Bishop

In December 1750, Tiepolo, accompanied by his sons Giandomenico and Lorenzo (1736-1776), arrived in Würzburg where, at the invitation of Prince-Bishop Carl Phillip von Greiffenclau, he was to fresco the large dining room - known as the Kaisersaal, or Imperial Hall - in the newly-built Residence of the Prince-Bishops designed by the architect Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753). The decorative programme of the Imperial Hall comprises the central ceiling fresco - an allegorical portrayal of the Genius Imperii, towards whom Apollo is conducting the Burgundian bride - and two historical scenes, The Marriage of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to Beatrice of Burgundy and The Investiture of Herold as Duke of Franconia by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the Imperial Diet in Würzburg in 1168, on either side of the room.

The Prince-Bishop was so pleased with the finished decoration of the Imperial Hall that, in 1752, he also invited Tiepolo to fresco the ceiling of the stairwell.

In April of that year, Tiepolo presented the Prince-Bishop with an oil sketch, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The sketch outlines the basic essentials of the themes of the work, which would later be realized: the four known parts of the world (Europe, Asia, Africa and America) are arranged along the sides of the picture, with Apollo and the deities of Olympus at its center, representing the sun rising over the world.


Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Apollo and the Continents

Stairwell of the Residenz, Würzburg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...-_WGA22323.jpg




Apollo and the Continents detail

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...-_WGA22324.jpg


Apollo and the Continents (Europe, overall view)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...-_WGA22331.jpg



Apollo and the Continents (America, left-hand side)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...-_WGA22325.jpg


Apollo and the Continents (America, right-hand side)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...-_WGA22326.jpg


Apollo and the Continents (Asia)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...-_WGA22329.jpg


Apollo and the Continents (Africa)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...-_WGA22328.jpg

[chrisvia]

A big thank-you to stlukesguild for introducing me to Odilon Redon a couple years back!

[Cioran]

Here are some, in no particular order:

http://badartistscopygoodartistsstea...ping-woman.jpg

http://playfulpallett.com/wp-content...icasso-527.jpg

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth...randt.1661.jpg

http://www.toledoblade.com/image/201...cream-full.jpg

http://www.reproduction-gallery.com/...1185850670.jpg

http://artspotnyc.files.wordpress.co...-selbst-xl.jpg

http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/ima...he-peasant.jpg

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth...self-orsay.jpg

http://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/...otemsessel.jpg

http://uploads7.wikipaintings.org/im...kolff-1893.jpg

This list could go on forever, I’ll just stop there. I’ve left out all sorts of images I’d include, though. These are some that were quickest to grab.

[stlukesguild]

A big thank-you to stlukesguild for introducing me to Odilon Redon a couple years back!

Your welcome. I first discovered Redon in a small back room at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Pastels are often fragile and placed away from more direct lighting). The painting was that of Ophelia.



I was struck by the poetic as opposed to literal approach to the theme, the brilliant mastery of the medium and color, the almost magical decorative aspects that reminded me of medieval book illuminations or Persian/Islamic paintings.

[stlukesguild]

Portraits... Continued...

Before moving on to later periods I should add a couple great Roman portraits which I forgot to include... as well as a couple of marvelous older pieces. Let's start with the older work first.

9. Etruscan Sarcophagus Lid Portrait of Married Couple from the Tetnies Family:



This is an absolutely unprecedented work of sculpture. There is nothing similar to this portrait until the tomb sculpture of the European Middle Ages. The Mausoleum of Mausolus presented an image of Mausolus and his wife, Artemisia, as husband and wife rulers for all time...standing side by side... but lovers clasping one another beneath the sheets...? The Etruscan artist offers us something quite new... and unexpected in ancient art: an intimate and touching image of a husband and wife... bound together as lovers... for all eternity. The middle-aged couple press close together... their feet poking out from beneath the sheets. A relief on the side portrays a wedding procession with the couple at the center... stressing the concept of eternal love. Undoubtedly, the fact that the Etruscan women were far more liberated... and seen far more as equals with men... than they were by the Greeks and Romans allowed for such an image.

The son of the man in the above sculpture had a similar tomb sculpture created for himself and his wife, although this later sculpture shows a greater influence of the Greeks. Here, the man and wife are shown younger... more idealized... with Greek hairstyles. The relief sculpture on the side is also less intimate or personal... portraying battles of the Greeks and Amazons.



The husband and wife sarcophagi sculpture became something not wholly uncommon to the Etruscans:





This image of an older couple lying in bed together is quite unique.

Perhaps the greatest of the Etruscan sarcophagi of couples... if not the greatest work of Etruscan art period... is the

10. Terra-Cotta Sarcophagus of Married Couple:



This tomb portrait presents an intimate image of a husband and wife reclining upon their couch. His arm is around her shoulder and both husband and wife exhibit hand gestures that suggest the couple is engaged in a discussion. Like the earlier portrait of the lovers beneath the sheets, this portrait suggest a true intimacy... and a relationship that speaks of equality or a partnership quite unique.

The terra-cotta or clay shows traces of paint suggesting that the image was likely brightly colored... like Etruscan painting:






11. The Equestrian Portrait of Marcus Aurelius

Among the Roman works I forgot is the brilliant Equestrian Portrait of Marcus Aurelius. Nothing like this equestrian portrait would be again achieved until Verrochio and Leonardo da Vinci... and unfortunately Leonardo's equestrian works were either never realized in bronze... or destroyed. The Marcus Aurelius sculpture might have suffered the same fate at the hands of the Christian heirs of Rome. A great many Roman sculptures of the pagan gods and goddesses were destroyed, and endless bronzes melted down and turned into something new. Bernini's Baldacchino in St. Peters was famously made from bronze looted from the ceiling of the Roman Pantheon:



The Equestrian Portrait of Marcus Aurelius combines the best of the Greek and Roman tradition. The portrait conveys a classicism and elegance worthy of the finest Greek bronzes... or even the portrait of Mausolus. The portrait itself suggests the honest realism of the portrait busts of the Roman Republic merged with the drama of late Roman statuary such as the Portrait of Commodus as Hercules:






12. Portrait of an Aristocratic Boy







Another marvelous Roman portrait... in bronze... Honestly, I must say I am somewhat surprised at the number of Roman portraits I have included among my list of favorites, considering I have never been overly fond of Roman art. MortalTerror should be quite pleased. To be fair, I should note that the apparent weakness of Roman art owes much to the loss due to destruction by the early Christians... and we can certainly understand the Christian's aversion to humanist art of the Romans... as well as their lack of desire to preserve the memory of a culture that had brutally persecuted their ancestors. As a result, a good deal of what has survived is second rate (at best) mechanical copies... often of Greek originals. Looking upon brilliant original bronze works such as the Portrait of Marcus Aurelius or the Portrait of an Aristocratic Boy suggests just how much was lost.

[ftil]

Originally posted by stlukesguild
To be fair, I should note that the apparent weakness of Roman art owes much to the loss due to destruction by the early Christians... and we can certainly understand the Christian's aversion to humanist art of the Romans... as well as their lack of desire to preserve the memory of a culture that had brutally persecuted their ancestors.

Could you please provide the references based on which you have made your opinion. Very interesting indeed but very different from what I have been studying.

[Adolescent09]

I imagine the gist of this thread is to post artists that have redefined the foundation of artistic creativity at its core.

The title of this thread does not imply that we should post work of big names only, so I would like to diverge from the overall trend this topic has taken.

My particular fascination lies in ultra-current digital art. My personal favorite artist deals in vector design, abstract digital paintings, surrealism, and transcendentalist pieces. He goes by the 'street' name of Wiki and the only thing that stuns me besides the face that he isn't famous is that he is 2 years younger than me! (20)

Here is a very small glimpse into his impressive catalogue of work:

http://stwiki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0

[stlukesguild]

SLG- To be fair, I should note that the apparent weakness of Roman art owes much to the loss due to destruction by the early Christians... and we can certainly understand the Christian's aversion to humanist art of the Romans... as well as their lack of desire to preserve the memory of a culture that had brutally persecuted their ancestors.

Could you please provide the references based on which you have made your opinion. Very interesting indeed but very different from what I have been studying.

Outside of my use of the word "weakness" in describing our perception of Roman art based largely on second-rate copies and second/and third-rate originals, I expressed no opinion in the above statement. I think if you did a bit of your own research you would not have to look far to discover comments by critics and art historians concerning the relative poor quality of many Roman sculptural copies vs the originals that have survived. The fact that a great deal of Roman art was destroyed by the Christians who inherited the city is not opinion. Neither is my statement of the early Christian's aversion to the humanism of Roman art or their desire to preserve the memory of their persecutors.

[stlukesguild]

My particular fascination lies in ultra-current digital art. My personal favorite artist deals in vector design, abstract digital paintings, surrealism, and transcendentalist pieces. He goes by the 'street' name of Wiki and the only thing that stuns me besides the face that he isn't famous is that he is 2 years younger than me! (20)

Here is a very small glimpse into his impressive catalogue of work:

http://stwiki.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0

My own personal interest lies with traditional painting, drawing, print, sculpture, architecture, etc... I'm not overly interested in digital art because unfortunately so much of it looks the same... and too often relies on softwear generated imagery than on any real creativity. There are, as always, exceptions. You might be interested in San Base:

http://www.sanbasestudio.com/

http://www.sanbase.com/

http://www.sanbase.com/demo/demo.htm

You might also like Ray Caesar, who creates what appear to be traditional paintings... in a sort of dark and twisted Neo-Victorian/Neo-Rococo manner... using the computer:

http://www.raycaesar.com/

[mortalterror]

Another marvelous Roman portrait... in bronze... Honestly, I must say I am somewhat surprised at the number of Roman portraits I have included among my list of favorites, considering I have never been overly fond of Roman art. MortalTerror should be quite pleased. To be fair, I should note that the apparent weakness of Roman art owes much to the loss due to destruction by the early Christians... and we can certainly understand the Christian's aversion to humanist art of the Romans... as well as their lack of desire to preserve the memory of a culture that had brutally persecuted their ancestors. As a result, a good deal of what has survived is second rate (at best) mechanical copies... often of Greek originals. Looking upon brilliant original bronze works such as the Portrait of Marcus Aurelius or the Portrait of an Aristocratic Boy suggests just how much was lost.

I'm always pleased to see the Romans get their due share of glory. Even though you and I have different favorites for the period we can both agree that the bronzes of Aurelius and the aristocratic boy are remarkable. Besides the sculpture and the architecture, how wonderful are the Portland Vase and the murals at Pompeii? Roman painting and glassware get even shorter shrift than the sculpture, but as you say it is a shame so little has survived. There's actually a passage in Polybius where he mentions the looting of a city and the destruction of it's art, though in this case it was the Romans sacking Greece.

"The incidents of the capture of Corinth were melancholy. The soldiers cared nothing for the works of art and the consecrated statues. I saw with my own eyes pictures thrown on the ground and soldiers playing dice on them; among them was a picture of Dionysus by Aristeides---in reference to which they say that the proverbial saying arose, "Nothing to the Dionysus,"---and the Hercules tortured by the shirt of Deianeira. . . "

It's a miracle as much Greek pottery survives as it does, though that might be due to the habit of burying them with the dead. Historically, those sorts of things don't make it out of wars intact. I'm reminded of how in relatively recent history Leonardo's Lady with an Ermine was found with the boot print of a Nazi soldier across it. The Last Supper suffered from bombing even though it was covered and shielded, and the top of the Ludovisi sarcophagus was destroyed the same way. So I don't think that we can lay all of the blame on Christians and their bonfire of the vanities. A lot of the spoilage has to do with the fragile and flammable nature of paintings in general. Christians didn't set fire to the Camposanto frescoes in Pisa. Meanwhile, we fish another Apoxyomenos or Riace warrior out of the sea every couple of years.

Not quite as durable as the sculpture, but some of the mosaics do tend to hold up well.


And one other thing. I remembered you used to play that mystery masterpiece game before reverse image searches took all the fun out of it. Well, I've had this photo of a cherub and a satyr playing under a fountain for years which I've never been able to identify. I found it in the Julio Claudian art group on flickr. The pic only mentioned that it was taken in Rome, and part of me wonders if it's actually ancient Roman at all or if that style is more baroque. Thought I'd run it by you and get your opinion on it.


Also, how do you smallerize your pictures?