Rouen Cathedral in the Morning

by ArtBasil and Elise Goulandris Foundation AthensImpressionismPowerpoints
Claude Monet, 1840 – 1926
Rouen Cathedral in the Morning (Pink Dominant), 1894, Oil on canvas, 100.3 × 65.5 cm, Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Athens
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Claude_Monet_-_La_Cathedrale_de_Rouen_Le_Matin%2C_dominante_rose_-_Goulandris_Museum.jpg

“The subject is something secondary, what I want to reproduce is what lies between the subject and myself” writes in one of his letters Claude Monet and the painting of the Rouen Cathedral in the Morning, a great masterpiece in the Collection of the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation in Athens, helps me explore this idea.

It was 1892, Monet was in Rouen and the city’s Gothic Cathedral, lofty and imposing, captivated, challenged, and stymied him. How can I capture the “invisible” that connects us and constantly “transforms” this amazing building, he probably thought. Can I “trap” that elusive  “light and atmosphere” that “hang” between us… design and create something substantial out of the intangible? Difficult questions to answer and most of all realize. Yet, Claude Monet was a persistent and resilient man. It took him 3 years, countless hours of painting, and over 30 canvases to create the Rouen Cathedral Series, an accomplishment to be proud of.

The artist’s idea was to create yet another series of paintings/studies of how the depicted subject matter, the façade of the Rouen Cathedral, changes under different conditions of light and weather. Monet was familiar with the idea… the famous paintings of the Haystacks in the outskirts of Giverny were created between 1890 and 1891, causing a sensation.

In Rouen, during the early months of 1892, Monet rented a studio space facing the West Façade of the Cathedral, set up multiple canvases, and working long hours, began painting many canvases at the same time, eager to capture the atmosphere corresponding to a particular moment in time. He worked as a dancer swiftly moving from one canvas to the other… but the process was slow and frustrating. Things don’t advance very steadily, primarily because each day I discover something I hadn’t seen the day before… In the end, I am trying to do the impossible… he wrote and by April 1982 he was back at Giverny. https://www.theartwolf.com/monet_cathedral.htm

In 1893 he returned at Rouen struggling, once more, to capture… the moment, the ephemeral, tonal subtleties and nuances of colour. I am furious at myself… he wrote to his wife Alice, I am doing nothing of value: I don’t know how many sessions I have spent on these paintings and do what I may, they don’t advance…it’s depressing. Yet, working and reworking on his canvases, at Rouen but in his Studio at Giverny as well (1894) and creating a very distinctive textured surface, Monet was finally pleased! More so, in May of 1895, to great acclaim, he selected twenty of his canvases and exhibited them at the gallery of his friend and art dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel. His canvases were highly-priced, but eight of them were sold before the exhibition was over! https://www.mfa.org/article/2020/rouen-cathedral-series

As for the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation version, the Museum Experts present the painting as “one of the most complete paintings of the series and probably the one Monet himself appreciated the most…”  and they continue describing how “the colour palette dominated by pink, automatically conveys us (the viewer) to the first minutes of the day. The viewer (the experts proceed) feels privileged before this spectacle, as it is portrayed at a time when few people go out. The sun, which is not yet shining on the façade, diffuses a light that allows us to gaze at it for some time and see all the details of the decoration. The cathedral demands respect regardless of the religious faith of the one standing before it, a fact that reminds us of the variable temporality of the passing time, but enlivens the same emotions daily.”

For a PowerPoint on the Rouen Cathedral Series, please… Check, HERE!

For the PowerPoint Photo Credits, please… Chek HERE!

Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation Room View, Athens
https://www.discovergreece.com/experiences/tour-goulandris-museum-modern-art-athens

Ring of Michael Stryphnos

by ArtByzantiumStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Ring of Michael Stryphnos, late 12th – early 13th century, Enamel and gold, 1.9×3.2×3.2 cm, Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington, DC, USA https://www.doaks.org/resources/bliss-tyler-correspondence/art/bz/BZ.1934.3.jpg/view

“The house of Angelus, which had thus found greatness so suddenly and unexpectedly thrust upon it, was neither old nor particularly distinguished.” Writes John Julius Norwich on page 156 of his book on Byzantium – The Decline and Fall… and continues “…for of all the families who at one time or another wore the imperial crown of Byzantium, the Angeli were the worst. Their supremacy was mercifully short: the three Angelus Emperors – Isaac II, Alexius III and Alexius IV – reigned, from first to last, a mere nineteen years. But each was in his own way disastrous, and together they were responsible for the greatest catastrophe that Constantinople was ever to suffer until its final fall.” The Ring of Michael Stryphnos in the Byzantine Collection of the Dumbarton Oaks Museum reminds me of one such catastrophic decision taken by Emperor Alexius III Angelus and its disastrous outcome.

The ring itself is impressive and beautiful. The Dumbarton Oaks experts describe it as having “a heavy gold hoop and a circular bezel with the bust of the Virgin, inscribed in Greek, Mother of God, in cloisonne enamel.”  The master jeweler used more enamel colours to brighten the ring up… pink for the face of the Mother of God, turquoise, green, red, and blue for the rest of the minuscule composition. “Around the beel is an enamelled inscription in Greek, Mother of God, help thy servant, which is continued on the hoop, Michael the Admiral Stryphnos. Michael Stryphnos has been identified as the Admiral of the Byzantine fleet under Emperor Alexius III Angelus (1195-1203). This beautiful, large, and enamelled gold ring, was probably given to Michael Stryphnos by Emperor Alexios III on the occasion of his appointment as the Megas Doux. Handbook of the Byzantine Collection – Dumbarton Oaks,  page 72 https://books.google.gr/books?id=8IlFkJOPYx0C&pg=PA72&lpg=PA72&dq=Ring+of+Michael+Stryphnos&source=bl&ots=KCzeV2w8di&sig=ACfU3U3KMHNMlVldzFqjDg1td6XJXvazpg&hl=el&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjHxrO9x4TwAhVYgv0HHXMkBPIQ6AEwDnoECA8QAw#v=onepage&q=Ring%20of%20Michael%20Stryphnos&f=false

Byzantine Seal of Michael Stryphnos, Megas Doux (1195-1203) (obverse side depicting St. Theodore (left) and St. Hyakinthos standing on either side of a tree), 1202, Lead Seal, 45.0 mm diameter, Byzantine Collection, Dumbarton Oaks Museum, Washington, DC, USA https://www.doaks.org/resources/seals/byzantine-seals/BZS.1947.2.1092

Michael Stryphnos is first recorded in Byzantine sources in 1192 as Sebastos and the head of the Vestiarion (the imperial treasury), under Emperor Isaac II Angelos. He then married Theodora, daughter of Andronikos Kamateros and the sister of the Empress Euphrosyne Doukaina, wife of Emperor Alexios III Angelos, the relationship with the Imperial family became closer and he became Megas Doux and the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine Navy. A lamentable choice for Alexios III because according to the historian Nikita Choniati, Stryphnos was “a man of Ring of Michael Stryphnos extraordinary rapacity and dishonesty of the rare.” Instead of fortifying the Byzantine navy, he used his position for personal gain. His actions “marked the effective end of the Byzantine fleet, which was, therefore, not able to resist the Fourth Crusade a few years later.” His position as Megas Doux, brought him to southern Greece as Governor of the area, visiting Athens ca. 1201-1202 AD. It was during this trip that the local Bishop, Michael Choniates, wrote a Eulogy in his honor and three interesting seals in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection survived time and destruction. https://amp.en.google-info.org/36817230/1/michael-stryphnos.html 

For a Student Activity on the Ring of Michael Stryphnos, please… Check HERE!

The Labours of the Months: June

by ArtPowerpointsRenaissance
By an unknown Venetian artist…
The Labours of the Months: June, about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info

What is so rare as a day in June? / Then, if ever, come perfect days; / Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune, / And over it softly her warm ear lays: / Whether we look, or whether we listen, / We hear life murmur, or see it glisten; / Every clod feels a stir of might, / An instinct within it that reaches and towers, / And, groping blindly above it for light, / Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers; / The flush of life may well be seen / Thrilling back over hills and valleys; / The cowslip startles in meadows green. / The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice, / And there’s never a leaf nor a blade too mean / To be some happy creature’s palace; / The little bird sits at his door in the sun, / Atilt like a blossom among the leaves, / And lets his illumined being o’errun / With the deluge of summer it receives; / His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings, / And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings; / He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,— / In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best? Writes back in the 19th century James Russell Lowell… and further back, in the 15th century, an anonymous painter creates The Labours of the Months: June! https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/june-poems/

The Labours of the Months is a theme that frequently occurs during the Late Medieval-Renaissance Period Art. It attracts our attention in sculptural pieces adorning Churches and Cathedrals of the time, striking Vitreaux Windows, amazingly colourful manuscripts, and paintings, monumental, like the eleven surviving panels in Torre Aquila I presented in 2020 (check: https://www.teachercurator.com/?s=torre%20aquila&cat=plus-5-results), or small, like the paintings in the National Gallery, in London, we explore in 2021… month by month… https://archive.org/details/labormonth00webs/page/n9/mode/2up Webster, James Carson – 1905-1989, The labors of the months in antique and medieval art to the end of the twelfth century, 1938, Evanston, Ill., Northwestern University,     and      https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january

By an unknown Venetian artist…
The Labours of the Months: June (detail), about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info

For The Labours of the Months: June, we have an outdoor scene. “A barefoot young man sits holding a sheaf of corn he has cut in one hand and his scythe in the other. The sleeves of his blue jacket are rolled up and a straw hat shades his face, suggesting that this little painting represents one of the summer months.” The National Gallery of Art experts “think it may be June when grain crops are harvested in northern Italy, where this picture was painted.” https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-june

For a PowerPoint on The Labours of the Months at the National Gallery in London, please… Check HERE!

Amphora showing Athena and Hermes

by Ancient Greek ArtArtPotteryPowerpoints
Berlin Painter, ca. 500–ca. 460 BC
A:  Athena – B: Hermes, ca. 480 B.C. Athenian Red-Figure Terracotta Amphora, Height: 33.20 cm, Yale University Art Galler, New Haven, CT, USA https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/1726 

The Orphic Hymn to Athena is an exuberant celebration of the goddess with intriguing images of her qualities… “Mother of Art in all your abundance, catalyst of progress! / You bring folly to the corrupt and a sense of purpose to the pure! / Indeed, you are male and female in one, / Patron of war and wisdom, / You are fluid of form, a dragon, / Infused with inspiration of the Gods! / Rightly-honored One, who brought Phlegran giants down to defeat, / You driver of steeds, Tritogeneia, save us from evil, bearing Victory in your arms! / Day and night, eternally, in even the loneliest hours, / Hear my prayer, and grant us an abundant peace, fulfillment, good health. / Make prosperous the hour, gray-eyed One, inventor of Art, / The object of the people’s ceaseless prayers– / My Queen!” I like it… and I will use it as an introduction to my BLOG POST Amphora showing Athena and Hermes. http://commonplacebook.com/journal/inspiration/ancient-greeks-hymns-to-athena/

Amphora showing Athena and Hermes comes from Yale University Art Gallery and is attributed to the Berlin Painter. It was purchased for Yale University by Rebecca Darlington Stoddard in 1913 and today, the Amphora is considered one of the Museum’s Highlights. Rightly so, as the Berlin Painter is one of the finest artists of Athenian 5th-century pottery painting.

We know nothing about him… the name we use today, Berlin Painter, is conventional, given to this talented Attic Greek vase-painter by Sir John Beazley based on the “system of forms” technique he used to identify ancient Greek pottery-painters. All scholars can attest, is that the Berlin Painter was most talented, a rival to the Kleophrades Painter, a prominent member of the Pioneer Group, who introduced red-figure painting… and more! The Berlin Painter introduced new principles of style and design. He set his figures free of frames and side pattern bands, allowing them to dominate the composition as they stand majestically against the black background. The Berlin Painter is the master of refined grandeur! https://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/tools/pottery/collection/johnbeazley1.htm and https://www.britannica.com/biography/Berlin-Painter

As the Yale University Art Gallery experts write for the unprecedented 2017 Exhibition The Berlin Painter and His World at Princeton Art Museum “The Berlin Painter’s style is distinguished by a suave elegance and a palpable tension between shape and decoration. His figures, and the ornament accompanying them, are executed with taut, dexterous precision, whether on water jars (hydriai), large wine bowls (kraters), or smaller shapes such as jugs (oinochoai) and oil bottles (lekythoi). The single figures on either side of his amphorae frequently share the same conceptual space. Accompanied by little or no ornament and spotlighted against the black ground, they are framed only by the contours of the vessel itself.” https://cfileonline.org/exhibition-athenian-vase-painting-makes-its-formal-debut-with-first-solo-show/

Berlin Painter, ca. 500–ca. 460 BC
A: Athena – B, Herakles, ca. 500–490 B.C. Athenian Red-Figure Terracotta Amphora, Height: 79 cm, Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwi, Basel, Switcherland  https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/1656

References on the Berlin Painter… https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/1726 and https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/1656 and https://static.artmuseum.princeton.edu/berlin-painter/ and http://artimage.princeton.edu/files/ProductionJpegs/BerlinPainter-web.pdf

For a PowerPoint on Berlin Painter Amphoras, please… Check HERE!

Gold Coin Pendant of Constantine the Great

by ArtByzantiumStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Constantine the Great Gold Coin Pendant, 321 AD, Gold, Diameter: 92 millimetres, British Museum, London, UK
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1984-0501-1

…it was becoming clear that Constantine was determined to put an end to Diocletian’s disastrous division of the Empire and to rule it alone. From 320, in defiance of recent tradition, he did not even include an easterner as one of the two annually elected Consuls, naming instead himself and his younger son; in 321 both his sons were named. The same year he began to gather together a huge war fleet, and to enlarge and deepen the harbour of Thessaloniki in readiness for its reception… writes John Julius Norwich in Byzantium, The Early Centuries, (pp. 47-48) and I think of the Gold Coin Pendant of Constantine the Great in the British Museum that commemorates the 321 Consulship and the ten years ahead that will change our world!

The British Museum Gold Coin Pendant of Constantine the Great is indeed spectacular! It is one of four or five similar Pendants, part of an impressive necklace, a very popular jewelry design of the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods. Coin-set pendants were often of hexagonal shape, with a golden coin (solidus) placed in the center, and intricate pierced work, opus interrasile, for further ornamentation. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collectio n/object/H_1984-0501-1

Constantine the Great Gold Coin Pendant (obverse), 321 AD, Gold, Diameter: 92 millimetres, British Museum, London, UK
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1984-0501-1

According to the British Museum experts “…In the centre of the pendant is a double solidus of Constantine the Great. On the obverse, (depicted is) a bust of Constantine… wearing a radiate diadem and cuirass and paludamentum, (with his) right hand upraised (while) around the bust, a Latin inscription reads D N CONSTANTINVS MAX AVG. On the reverse, (depicted are) two confronted laureate busts of Constantine II and Crispus, both wearing imperial costume and holding eagle-topped sceptres. Around and below them, a Latin inscription reads CRISPVS ET CONSTANTINVS NOB CAESS COSS II. In each angle of the hexagon (the artist of the pendant created) a bust in high relief: from top left moving clockwise (a) female bust with elaborate coiffure (is depicted) looking to (the) right, (then a) female bust (is depicted) looking to (the) left. (A) bearded bust (follows) looking to (to the) left, (a)female bust looking to (the) left (as well), (a) bust of Attis (follows) wearing (a) Phrygian cap looking to (the) right (and finally a) female bust (is depicted) looking to (the) right. Each bust is framed by a circlet of beaded gold wire and a plain collar of gold sheet. The interstices between the busts are decorated in opus interrasile, the design comprising a heart-shaped motif in plain reserved gold from which emanate two vegetal scrolls which in turn form a larger open-work heart; running scroll tendrils fill the spaces between the collars and inner and outer borders; the scroll tendril design is less skilfully replicated on the suspension loop.” An inscription in Latin, SIRM, confirms that the Medallion was minted in Sirmium. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1984-0501-1

For a Student Activity, please… check Here!

Garden in Corfu by Angelos Giallinas

by 20th century ArtArtGreek ArtStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Angelos Giallinas, 1857-1939
Garden in Corfu, early 20th century, Watercolour on Paper, 39×72 cm, Averoff Museum, Metsovo, Greece https://www.averoffmuseum.gr/garden-in-corfu/?lang=en

“…Tell me, the open codes of flowers, / Lick up the glance to pocket a whole mind. / Nothing precipitates, is left behind, / The island is all eyes. / The silence ponders, notes, and codifies. / We discover only what we set out to find.     /     I am at a loss to explain how writing / Turns this way this year, turns and tends – / But the line breaks off as voices do, and ends…” writes Lawrence Durrell about a One Grey Greek Stone, but somehow I think of the gloriously colourful Garden in Corfu by Angelos Giallinas… My mind plays games… https://poem-today.tumblr.com/post/184801455775/a-poem-by-lawrence-durrell

Angelos Giallinas, an accomplished representative of the Watercolour medium and the genre of Landscape, is one of my favourite modern Greek painters. A Corfiote by birth, Giallinas first studied in his native Corfu at the private art school of Charalambos Pachis (1872 to 1875) but continued his studies in Venice, Naples and Rome, where, exposed to the medium of Watercolour, he decided to adopt it and excel in its intricacies. By 1878, he was back to Corfu busying himself travelling extensively to Constantinople, Asia Minor, Egypt, Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland, participating in the Panhellenic Exhibitions in Athens and presenting his first solo showing in 1886 at the Athenian Club. His talent was noticed by the British Ambassador to Greece, Clare Ford who commissioned Giallinas to paint for him seven albums of landscapes from Venice, Spain, Rhodes and Istanbul. Ford also arranged exhibitions in Athens and in London, which ran from 1891 to 1892, and introduced Giallinas to the European Court nobility. “Giallinas worked for King George I of Greece, and through this connection was patronised by George’s sister, Queen Alexandra, and King Edward VII when Prince and Princess of Wales. Later, Queen Mary, as Duchess of York, visited three exhibitions of Giallinas’s work in London.” https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/painting-permanent-exhibition/painter/giallinas-angelos.html and https://www.rct.uk/collection/929332/garden-in-greece-or-corfu

Angelos Giallinas was never idle. Throughout his artistic career, he exhibited both in Greece and in Europe. His participation at the Exposition Universelle of 1900 in Paris was one such important affair while his grand solo exhibition at the Galerie D’Art Geo of 1918 is another. In 1902 he founded his own private Art School at Corfu. In 1907/8 he was commissioned to decorate with murals the Achilleion Palace in Corfu, built by Empress Elisabeth of Austria as her country residence. https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/painting-permanent-exhibition/painter/giallinas-angelos.html

Averoff Museum, Metsovo, Greece
https://epirus.travel/listing/averoff-art-gallery/

According to the Averoff Museum experts “Angelos Giallinas expressed himself primarily in watercolor. A large portion of his oeuvre comprised landscapes from the island of Corfu, his birthplace and home following his studies in Rome, Naples, and Venice. An extensive traveler, Giallinas made a multitude of watercolor renderings of views and scenes of the places he visited, work that he exhibited repeatedly in Greece as well as abroad. He was associated with the Scuola di Posilipo, founded in Naples by the painter Giacinto Gigante and the best-known school of watercolor technique. Giallinas brought images to paper with a sensitivity and spontaneity particular to this medium, without neglecting the careful attention to detail, which he rendered with an expert knowledge of drawing and the precise arrangement of areas of pure, bright color.” https://www.averoffmuseum.gr/garden-in-corfu/?lang=en

Garden in Corfu by Angelos Giallinas in the Averoff Museum in Metsovo is typical of the artist’s style. A poetic image of springtime, this colourful watercolour echoes the artist’s training in a Classicistic style of Romanticism and presents a well-balanced composition, attention to detail, sensitivity to light rendering and colouristic nuances. What is it not to admire…

For a Student Activity on the BLOG POST Garden in Corfu by Angelos Giallinas, please… Check HERE! https://www.teachercurator.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Giallinas-CorfuGAG-StAct.docx

Corfu Garden http://www.mediterraneangardensocietyarchive.org/87-corfu.html

Teaching with Antonello da Messina

by ArtPowerpointsRenaissanceStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Antonello da Messina, 1430-1479
Portrait of a Man (detail), about 1475-6, Oil on poplar, 35.6 x 25.4 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/antonello-da-messina-portrait-of-a-man

“Now there was one Antonello da Messina, a person of good and lively intelligence, of great sagacity, and skilled in his profession, who, having studied design for many years in Rome, had first retired to Palermo, where he had worked for many years, and finally to his native place, Messina, where he had confirmed by his works the good opinion that his countrymen had of his excellent ability in painting. This man, then, going once on some business of his own from Sicily to Naples, heard that the said King Alfonso had received from Flanders the aforesaid panel by the hand of Johann of Bruges, painted in oil in such a manner that it could be washed, would endure any shock, and was in every way perfect. Thereupon, having contrived to obtain a view of it, he was so strongly impressed by the liveliness of the colours and by the beauty and harmony of that painting, that he put on one side all other business and every thought and went off to Flanders…” Teaching with Antonello da Messina is a set of student activities and worksheets inspired by a very curious Italian artist, a daring creator and an amazing innovator! A few years back in Palermo, in front of his Virgin Annunciate, all I could do was, silently whisper “Ἁγνὴ Παρθένε Δέσποινα, Ἄχραντε Θεοτόκε, Χαῖρε Νύμφη Ἀνύμφευτε. / Παρθένε Μήτηρ Ἄνασσα, Πανένδροσέ τε πόκε, Χαῖρε Νύμφη Ἀνύμφευτε.     /     Ὑψηλοτέρα οὐρανῶν, ἀκτίνων λαμπροτέρα, Χαῖρε Νύμφη Ἀνύμφευτε. / Χαρὰ Παρθενικῶν Χορῶν, Ἀγγέλων ὑπερτέρα, Χαῖρε Νύμφη Ἀνύμφευτε…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiK8wHm4JGM and https://www.saint.gr/236/texts.aspx and http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/giorgiovasari/lives/antonellodamessina.htm

Antonello da Messina, 1430-1479
Portrait of a Man, about 1475-6, Oil on poplar, 35.6 x 25.4 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/antonello-da-messina-portrait-of-a-man 

“…Having arrived in Bruges, he became very intimate with the said Johann, making him presents of many drawings in the Italian manner and other things, insomuch that the latter, moved by this and by the respect shown by Antonello, and being now old, was content that he should see his method of colouring in oil; wherefore Antonello did not depart from that place until he had gained a thorough knowledge of that way of colouring, which he desired so greatly to know. And no long time after, Johann having died, Antonello returned from Flanders in order to revisit his native country and to communicate to all Italy a secret so useful, beautiful, and advantageous. Then, having stayed a few months in Messina, he went to Venice, where, being a man much given to pleasure and very licentious, he resolved to take up his abode and finish his life, having found there a mode of living exactly suited to his taste. And so, putting himself to work, he made there many pictures in oil according to the rules that he had learned in Flanders; these are scattered throughout the houses of noblemen in that city, where they were held in great esteem by reason of the novelty of the work. He made many others, also, which were sent to various places. Finally, having acquired fame and great repute there, he was commissioned to paint a panel that was destined for S. Cassiano, a parish church in that city. This panel was wrought by Antonio with all his knowledge and with no sparing of time; and when finished, by reason of the novelty of the colouring and the beauty of the figures, which he had made with good design, it was much commended and held in very great price. And afterwards, when men heard of the new secret that he had brought from Flanders to that city, he was ever loved and cherished by the magnificent noblemen of Venice throughout the whole course of his life…” I think… let Vasari “speak,” he is probably the best to introduce to my students, Antonello da Messina’s contribution to Italian Renaissance Art… http://www.travelingintuscany.com/art/giorgiovasari/lives/antonellodamessina.htm

Antonello da Messina, 1430-1479
San Cassiano Altar (detail), 1475-76, Oil on panel, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
https://artinwords.de/antonello-da-messina-pala-di-san-cassiano-sacra-conversazione/

Teaching with Antonello da Messina References – References, a PowerPoint and Activities…

For a List of ONLINE References on Antonello da Messina TeacherCurator put together, please… Click HERE!

For my PowerPoint on Antonello da Messina, please… Click HERE!

I always feel confident discussing an artist with my students when I prepare my Steps to Success Lesson Plan Outline…

For Student Activities (3 Activities), please… Click HERE!

I hope, Teaching with Antonello da Messina, will prove easy and helpful. Do you think it justifies my BLOG name Teacher Curator?

Antonello da Messina, 1430-1479
Virgin Annunciate (detail), c. 1476, Oil on wood, 45 x 34,5 cm, Galleria Regionale della Sicilia, Palermo
https://eclecticlight.co/2019/08/02/the-first-italian-master-in-oil-antonello-da-messina-2/

Mother’s Day

by 19th century ArtArtImpressionismPowerpoints
Mary Stevenson Cassatt, 1844–1926
Maternal Caress, 1890-91, Drypoint, aquatint and softground etching, printed in color from three plates, 36.5 × 26.8 cm, the MET, NY, USA
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/364213

“Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome / Has many sonnets: so here now shall be / One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me / To her whose heart is my heart’s quiet home, / To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee / I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome; / Whose service is my special dignity, / And she my loadstar while I go and come. / And so because you love me, and because / I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath / Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honoured name: / In you not fourscore years can dim the flame / Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws / Of time and change and mortal life and death.” I miss my mother… and on Mother’s Day, I think of her with Art and poetry, because my heart and thoughts are … full of love. https://poets.org/poem/sonnets-are-full-love-and-my-tome (Christina Rossetti’s (1830-1894) Sonnets are full of love)

For the Mother’s Day BLOG POST two Works of Art from two different parts of the world… yet, Mary Stevenson Cassatt’s Maternal Caress, and Kitagawa Utamaro’s Mother and Sleepy Child, have so many similar stories to tell… https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/364213 and https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/51137

Mary Stevenson Cassatt, 1844–1926
Maternal Caress, 1890-91, Drypoint, aquatint and softground etching, printed in colour from three plates, 36.5 × 26.8 cm, the MET, NY, USA
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/364213
Kitagawa Utamaro, 1753–1806,
Midnight: The Hours of the Rat; Mother and Sleepy Child, Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1790, Polychrome woodblock print, The MET, NY, USA
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/51137

Mary Stevenson Cassatt (1844 – 1926) was a fortunate lady! Born into an affluent family in Pennsylvania who believed it was important for women to receive an education, she grew up attending school in Philadelphia and travelling to Europe where …Art kept changing. Reaching adulthood she persuaded her parents that her life’s destination was Europe and professional pursuit will be painting! It was not easy for her father to accept it, but after serious deliberation, it was decided… in 1866, with her mother and family friends acting as chaperones, she settled in Paris and was accepted to study Art in the private studios of Jean-Léon Gérôme, Charles Joshua Chaplin and Thomas Couture. She expanded her training with daily copying in the Louvre and trips to the French countryside where she drew from life. Two years later, in 1868, her painting A Mandoline Player, was accepted for exhibition in the Paris Salon. She was noticed as a professional painter, but she was not fully content!

Everything changed in 1877 when paintings she submitted to enter the year’s Salon were rejected by the committee. Disillusioned with academic painting and eager to experiment, Cassatt met Edgar Degas, an artist she greatly admired, who invited her to collaborate with the Impressionists and exhibit with them in 1879, at the 4th Impressionist Exhibition. She was finally happy in an artistic environment that suited her needs… plein air painting, ordinary subjects, vibrant, metallic in some cases, colour, in short, dancing brushstrokes, flat space, the discovery of Japanism…

On the 9th of May, celebrating Mother’s Day, a tribute to Mary Cassatt as “…in her clear-headed treatment of mothers and infants, (she) was, for her time, entirely alone. The bunch of English and French daubers have put them in such stupid and pretentious poses! complained the critic J.-K. Huysmans, contrasting them with Cassatt’s irreproachable pearls of Oriental sweetness.” I couldn’t agree more! https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/364213

Kitagawa Utamaro, 1753–1806,
Midnight: The Hours of the Rat; Mother and Sleepy Child, Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1790, Polychrome woodblock print, The MET, NY, USA
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/51137

One of my favourite classroom games, teaching my students the accomplishments of Impressionist artists like Mary Cassatt, is to present them with Japanese Woodblock prints and assist them to draw comparisons and conclusions. The MET experts present Kitagawa Utamaro as “one of the most prolific artists of the genre of the portrayal of beautiful women… extremely interested in images of mother and child in daily life.” Midnight: The Hours of the Rat; Mother and Sleepy Child “belongs to a series entitled Fuzoku Bijin Tokei (Women’s Daily Customs). To illustrate midnight, Utamaro has chosen a mother who sleepily emerges from her mosquito net to attend to her child, who rubs the sleep from his eyes. The personal, quotidian nature of the subject exemplifies the new interest in the individual that emerged during the Edo period.”

For a PowerPoint on Mary Stevenson Cassatt and Japanism, please… Check HERE!

The Labours of the Months: May

by ArtPowerpointsRenaissance
The Labours of the Months: May, about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info

Pink, small, and punctual, / Aromatic, low, / Covert in April, / Candid in May,     /     Dear to the moss, / Known by the knoll, / Next to the robin / In every human soul.     /     Bold little beauty, / Bedecked with thee, / Nature forswears / Antiquity. Writes Emily Dickinson, but for The Labours of the Months: May small painting in the National Gallery in London, the feeling is different.  https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/may-flower/

Starting the 1st of January 2021 and for every month so far, I “travel” to the National Gallery in London and present one, out of twelve, small picture, “painted on canvas and then… glued to a wooden panel. It is possible that (these twelve pictures) were made to decorate the recessed panels of a pair of doors. The paintings seem to have been planned in pairs with the figures facing each other and are currently displayed in two frames in groups of six. They show the ‘labours of the months’ – the rural activities that take place each month throughout the year.” This set of painted Doors combine simplicity in execution and extravagance in visual effect! The paintings, very small in size, about 13.6 x 10.6 cm, were achieved in vivid, bright, luxurious colours, like “ultramarine blue for the sky, strong vermilion and red lake for the clothing, with rich greens and yellows in the landscape. The restricted and repeated use of colour gives the group of little pictures a charming, decorative simplicity. All but one of the scenes show a man working outdoors on what appears to be the estate of a large villa, seen in several of the paintings, at the foot of the distant blue mountains.”     https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info

The Labours of the Months: May (detail), about 1580, oil on canvas, 13.6 x 10.6 cm, National Gallery, London
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-january#painting-group-info

The panel that represents the month of May, according to the National Gallery experts, “is the most puzzling picture of the series.” Observing the picture’s composition the viewer will see a seated young man, he seems alert and ready to stand up, holding “two rods, with one crossing the other at the top.” He is simply dressed, barefoot but wearing a broad-rimed straw hat, looking, as if he is expecting a nod, coming from someone straight in front of him, to continue the task he is planning to finish. “ It looks as though (the young man) might be making a supporting frame for vegetables or fruit,” the experts suggest, as there seems to be “a tradition in Italy for one of the spring months to be represented by a youth holding crossed branches, often in bud…” ttps://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/italian-venetian-the-labours-of-the-months-may

Whatever our Venetian young man is about to do… Whether or not this is the correct attribution… Enjoy an unpretentious Renaissance painting and Best Wishes for the Month of May!!!

For a PowerPoint on The Labours of the Months: May at the National Gallery in London, please… Check HERE!

Anastasis at the Monastery of Hosios Loukas

by ByzantiumStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Anastasis, 11th century, Mosaic, Monastery of Hosios Loukas, Greece https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hosios_Loukas_(narthex)_-_East_wall,_right_(Harrowing_of_Hell)_03.jpg

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that, He was seen of above five thousand brethren at once.” 1 Cor. 15:3-6… The culmination for the Holy Week in the Orthodox Church comes with Anastasis! Happy Easter and… Rejoyce!https://www.goarch.org/-/holy-week-in-the-eastern-orthodox-church

This year’s Anastasis scene comes from the Narthex of the Katholikon Church in the Monastery of Hosios Loukas near the town of Distomo, in Boeotia, Greece. Along with the mid-11th century Nea Moni (“New Monastery”) on the island of Chios and the late-11th century Monastic Church at Daphni, in Attica, the visitor of these three Monasteries, will get an informative glimpse of monumental architecture and mosaic-work in Byzantium of the Macedonian Dynasty. A  glimpse that is impressive and awe-inspiring.  

Monastery of Hosios Loukas, founded in the early 10th century, Katholikon (1011-12) and the Church of the Theotokos (959-963), near the town of Distomo, in Boeotia, Greecehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosios_Loukas

The location where the Monastery of Hosios Loukas was founded, is perfect… the slopes of Mount Helicon, a scenic valley and an olive grove. The founding father, Luke of Steiris… was respected and much loved by the local population. Retaining its authenticity, still, a vibrant Monastic Community with spiritual vigour, the Monastery of Hosios Loukas shows us today, how perceptive the 11th century Byzantines were!

The pilgrim/caller to the Monastery of Hosios Loukas is expected to visit three Churches, all of them unique in their own right.

Built under the great domed Katholiko Church, the Burial Crypt is decorated with remarkably well-preserved frescoes painted shortly after 1048 AD. Little damaged, with the exception of the apse, the iconographic programme of the Crypt is complete… an almost perfect example of how the interior of a Byzantine Church of the 11th century should be adorned.

Monastery of Hosios Loukas, founded in the early 10th century, Interior of the Church of the Theotokos (959-963), near the town of Distomo, in Boeotia, Greece

During the second half of the 10th century, the monastic community of Hosios Loukas built a remarkable Church, dedicating it to the Theotokos. Less visited by tourists, this is a place for serene contemplation. It is considered a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture, featuring the cross-in-square type architectural plan, similar to that of the Lips Monastery in Constantinople. Very little interior decoration survives but the beauty of the Church’s masonry is astounding. The cloisonne-style masonry is made of brick, stone or marble and curious pseudo-Kufic patterns are intricately displayed. Whenever I visit the Monastery of Hosios Loukas this is where I spent most of my time!

Monastery of Hosios Loukas, Interior of the Katholikon Church, 11th century, near the town of Distomo, in Boeotia, Greece
https://gallerybyzantium.com/unlocking-the-secrets-of-hosios-loukas/

The 11th century Katholiko Church of the Monastery, impressive and imposing, stands next to the church of the Theotokos. Its purpose was to house the relic of St. Luke, which is “…said to have exuded Myron, a sort of perfumed oil which produced healing miracles.” This newer church, dedicated to St. Luke, is of the octagonal cross-in-square architectural type, with coloured marble panels on the walls and mosaics on the surfaces above them. The result is a unique, rich and luminous interior. Standing in the middle of the Katholikon Church is a unique experience to “feel.” https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/hosios-loukas and https://gallerybyzantium.com/unlocking-the-secrets-of-hosios-loukas/

Monastery of Hosios Loukas, Katholikon Church Floor Plan, 11th century, near the town of Distomo, in Boeotia, Greece – The black-coloured star marks the location of the Anastasis mosaic http://papierdoreille.blogspot.com/2014/01/green-beautiful-byzantine.html

The amazing mosaic of the Anastasis in the Narthex area of the Katholikon Church of Hosios Loukas is a fine example of the early 11th-century style in Byzantine Art. It depicts the Resurrection of Christ, or in true Byzantine style, the Descent of Christ into Hades, according to the occult gospel of Nicodemus. Christ is depicted in the centre of the composition, unobstructed and enveloped by golden light, stepping at the gates of Hades and lifting Adam from within an open sarcophagus. Behind Adam is Eve and on the opposite side Biblical kings like Solomon and David. This is a mosaic of outstanding artistic quality, the product of a workshop whose practice goes back to Hellenistic times, stark and austere in essence but monumental, direct and highly spiritual.

Some Considerations on the Eleventh-Century Byzantine Wall Mosaics of Hosios Loukas and San Nicolò di Lido is an interesting article by Irina Andreescu-Treadgold to read.  aninterestinghttps://www.academia.edu/7926757/Some_Considerations_on_the_Eleventh_Century_Byzantine_Wall_Mosaics_of_Hosios_Loukas_and_San_Nicol%C3%B2_di_Lido?email_work_card=view-paper

For a Student Activity please… Check HERE!

Monastery of Hosios Loukas, Interior of the Katholikon Narthex, 11th century, near the town of Distomo, in Boeotia, Greece