Powerpoints Archives - Page 14 of 24

Saint George and the Dragon by Rogier van der Weyden

February 22, 2022

by admin Art Northern Renaissance Powerpoints Renaissance

**Rogier van der Weyden,** 1399 or 1400-1464
**Saint George and the Dragon**, 1432-1435, oil on panel, 14.3×10.5 cm, NGA, Washington DC
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_George_and_the_Dragon_Rogier.jpg

The legend of Saint George and the Dragon, popular in literature and the visual arts since the 11^th century, has the right measure of Christian faith, fervor, and miracle! It is a joy to read about, and marvel …the king had his daughter dressed like a bride, embraced and kissed her, gave her his blessing, then led her to the place where the dragon was. / When she was there Saint George passed by, and seeing the lady, he asked her what she was doing there. / She said, “Go your way, fair young man, lest you perish as well.” / Then he said, “Tell me why you are weeping.” / When she saw that he insisted on knowing, she told him how she had been delivered to the dragon. / Then Saint George said, “Fair daughter, doubt not, for I shall help you in the name of Jesus Christ.” / She said, “For God’s sake, good knight, go your way, for you cannot save me.” / While they were thus talking together the dragon appeared and came running toward them. Saint George, who was on his horse, drew his sword, made the sign of the cross, then rode swiftly toward the dragon. He struck him with his spear, injuring him severely. / Then he said to the maid, “Tie your belt around the dragon’s neck, and be not afraid.” / When she had done so the dragon followed her meekly. She led him into the city, and the people fled in fear. / Saint George said to them, “Doubt not. Believe in God and Jesus Christ, and be baptized, and I shall slay the dragon.” / Then the king and all his people were baptized, whereupon Saint George killed the dragon and cut off his head… Saint George and the Dragon by Rogier van der Weyden is a marvel to explore! https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/stgeorge1.html

http://www.eliotsofporteliot.com/misc/stgeorgeandthedragon.html

I particularly like Roger van der Weyden’s small painting of Saint George and the Dragon at the National Gallery in Washington DC. Probably the earliest of Roger’s paintings, Saint George and the Dragon is of exceptionally high quality. Some scholars discuss how close the painting is to the art of the International Gothic Style, while others find close affiliations to the Netherlandish tradition of Manuscript Illumination; yet they all agree that Roger’s characteristic linearity is evident, his tendency in depicting courtly chivalric elegance apparent and a microscopic yet realistic and atmospheric landscape all too powerful! https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/early-netherlandish-painting.pdf pp. 264-270

**Rogier van der Weyden,** 1399 or 1400-1464
**Saint George and the Dragon (details)**, 1432-1435, oil on panel, 14.3×10.5 cm, NGA, Washington DC
https://twtext.com/article/1246172930633015296

Rogier van der Weyden is a favourite Flemish artist… thoughtful and insightful, overwhelming yet sincere in his art. According to the National Gallery (London) experts, he was internationally famed for the naturalism of his detail and his expressive pathos. He created a range of types – for portraits and for religious subjects – which were repeated throughout the Netherlands, the Iberian peninsula, and even Italy, until the mid-16th century. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/rogier-van-der-weyden

As is the case with many Early Flemish painters, we know little about Rogier van der Weyden’s life. We know, for example, that for almost five years, between March 1427 to August 1432, he was “apprenticed” to Robert Campin in his hometown of Tournai. He couldn’t have chosen a better teacher/mentor. On the 1st of August 1432, Rogier became a master of the Tournai guild, entitled to undertake work there on his own account, opened his own workshop, acquiring success, and prestige. It is interesting how he maintained workshops in both the cities of Tournai and Brussels whereby 1436, it has been documented, that… he was made painter to the city of Brussels and that… in 1450 he may have traveled to Rome. . https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/rogier-van-der-weyden and https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/artist/weyden-rogier-van-der/2f4ef580-41c0-4756-a74c-d8ebda889668

**Rogier van der Weyden,** 1399 or 1400-1464
**Saint George and the Dragon (detail)**, 1432-1435, oil on panel, 14.3×10.5 cm, NGA, Washington DC
https://twtext.com/article/1246172930633015296

Rogier van der Weyden was a prolific painter and an astute businessman. By 1443, he had acquired two large, adjoining houses in Brussels, in the posh “Golden Street,” in close proximity to the Coudenberg Palace, the residence of the Duke of Burgundy, the Town Hall and the Markt (now the Grand-Place), the centres of civic life and commerce; and the Collegiate Church of Saint Gudula (now the city’s Cathedral). It is believed, by the Prado Museum experts that he ran a busy workshop, and he may have had to feed a large team. One of his two houses could have been the place where he and his assistants worked, where his apprentices, and perhaps other collaborators, lodged, and where pictures were displayed for sale to patrons like Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, foreign princes, as well as for city and church dignitaries. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/rogier-van-der-weyden

The small painting of Saint George and the Dragon has all the characteristics of Rogier’s paintings that I find endearing… an imaginary landscape, rich in detail rendered with the greatest clarity and realism, amazing interest in the depiction of light, as we see it reflecting on George’s armor and the dragon’s scales, elegance, chivalry, and pathos! What more can you ask!

For a PowerPoint on Rogier van der Weyden’s Altarpieces, please… Check HERE!

For a Student Activity, check NGA’s Eye for Art Pamphlet… https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/Education/learning-resources/an-eye-for-art/AnEyeforArt-RogierVanDerWeydenRaphael.pdf

Hellenistic Golden Hairnets

February 8, 2022

by admin Ancient Greek Art Art Exhibitions Hellenistic Art Jewelry Powerpoints

**Gold Hairnet with a relief bust of Athena from Thessaly (Detail),** 2nd century BC, gold, Diam. 0.111 m, Benaki Museum, Athens Photo Credit: https://mobile.twitter.com/tzoumio/status/1413408320489144320

Amarantha sweet and fair / Ah braid no more that shining hair! / As my curious hand or eye / Hovering round thee let it fly. / Let it fly as unconfin’d / As its calm ravisher, the wind, / Who hath left his darling th’East, / To wanton o’er that spicy nest. / Ev’ry tress must be confest / But neatly tangled at the best; / Like a clue of golden thread, / Most excellently ravelled. / Do not then wind up that light / In ribands, and o’er-cloud in night; / Like the sun in’s early ray, / But shake your head and scatter day… wrote Richard Lovelace, back in the 17^th century… no Hellenistic Golden Hairnets for… Amarantha sweet and fair! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/richard-lovelace

**Gold Hairnet with a relief bust of Athena from Thessaly,** 2nd century BC, gold, Diam. 0.111 m, Benaki Museum, Athens Greece
Photo Credit: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/642596

The visitors of the Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom Exhibition in the Science Museum (London, 17 November 2021 – 05 June 2022) will be able to admire a rare, Hellenistic Golden Hairnet from the Benaki Museum in Athens and marvel at its amazing beauty and craftsmanship! This is a real treat as only a handful of such Golden Hairnets survive today scattered around major Museums around the world. https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/ancient-greeks-science-and-wisdom

The Exhibited Hairnet comes to London from Greece, and specifically, the Benaki Museum in Athens. Gold Hairnets were created by exceptional goldsmiths for aristocratic, well-to-do Greek ladies of the Hellenistic period (late 4^th to early 1^st cent. BC), to contain a simple hair chignon at the back of their head. The Benaki Hairnet consists of a central gold medallion with a bust of Athena in high relief, and an intricate, gold net. Goddess Athena is depicted wearing a helmet with three plumes, a laurel wreath, and an oblique aegis with a mermaid. The bust of Athena is framed by concentric bands adorned with ornaments applied in the jeweler’s fine technique of filigree and granulation. The lavish decoration is mostly floral consisting of a wreath of beautifully executed pointed leaves, an exquisite, and complex band of floral designs, and a strip of eggs and tiny rosettes. The central medallion was further embellished with enameling and minuscule beads of garnet. The gold net around the medallion consists of a lattice of chains with intersecting points articulated with tiny rosettes. What an amazing achievement of workmanship! https://www.benaki.org/index.php?option=com_buildings&view=building&id=11&Itemid=533&lang=en and https://www.benaki.org/index.php?option=com_collectionitems&view=collectionitem&id=140287&lang=en&lang=el and https://ellaniapili.blogspot.com/2015/11/blog-post_328.html

**Gold Hairnet with repousse bust of Athena from Thessaly,** 2nd century BC, gold, Diam. 0.111 m, Benaki Museum, Athens Greece
Photo Credit: https://www.myfaveplaces.com/contemp-galleries/2016/7/6/gold-gold-gold-plus-some-bronze-and-silver

Describing the Benaki Museum Medallion Berta Segall writes… The artist of the Benaki medallion wanted to achieve unity. The elements of the ornamental frame are part of a continuous, flowing design, the bust, by taking up as much as possible of the background and touching the border, gives the impression of a full length figure cut off by a wreath. Its modeling is an example of the “impressionistic” technique in relief which uses a soft, almost imperceptible gradation of planes from the high to the very low, and from there to engraving. Thus, the folds of the garment are indicated in low relief, and even shallower, almost disappearing into the background, are the two plumes of the helmet right and left of the face. Berta Segall, Two Hellenistic Gold Medallions from Thessaly, Record of the Museum of Historic Art, Princeton University, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Autumn, 1945), pp. 2-11 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774132?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents

The Benaki Museum Hairnet was part of an unbelievable “treasure” of 44 pieces of jewelry sold to private collectors in Athens, in 1929. The “treasure,” a product of illegal excavations, came from Thessaly, and the exact circumstances of their discovery are not well established. According to one testimony, they were discovered inside a copper vessel near Almyros in Magnesia, according to a source, the “treasure” came from the area of Lamia-Lianokladi. It has also been claimed that the 44 pieces of exquisite jewelry were found in Domokos, while the antique dealer, who sold 35 pieces of jewelry to the collector Eleni Stathatou (today in the Stathatos Collection in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens) and 9 to the Benaki Museum, assured that they were discovered near Karpenisi. https://ellaniapili.blogspot.com/2015/11/blog-post_328.html

For a PowerPoint on Hellenistic Golden Hairnets, please… check HERE!

**Gold Hairnet with repousse bust of Athena from Thessaly,** 2nd century BC, gold, Diam. 0.111 m, Benaki Museum, Athens Greece
Photo Credit: https://twitter.com/AngHellenLeague/status/1464252708806873091/photo/1

The Science Museum in London promises a unique experience to the visitors of their free exhibition Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom (17 November 2021 – 05 June 2022). The Museum experts believe that curiosity and investigation are central to furthering our understanding of the universe today… and suggest that we step back through millennia… and discover how the ancient Greek civilization questioned, contemplated, and debated the natural world. If your steps take you to London, the Science Museum Exhibition Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom, is worth visiting! https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/ancient-greeks-science-and-wisdom and https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/guides for a free guidebook.

La Belle Nani by Paolo Veronese

January 25, 2022

by admin Art Powerpoints Renaissance

**Paolo Veronese**, 1528–1588
**Portrait of a Venetian Woman – La Belle Nani,** circa 1560, oil on canvas, 119×103 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris, France
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010065927

Men were created before women… But that doesn’t prove their superiority – rather, it proves ours, for they were born out of the lifeless earth in order that we could be born out of living flesh. And what’s so important about this priority in creation, anyway? When we are building, we lay foundations on the ground first, things of no intrinsic merit or beauty, before subsequently raising up sumptuous buildings and ornate palaces. Lowly seeds are nourished in the earth, and then later the ravishing blooms appear; lovely roses blossom forth and scented narcissi… writes Moderata Fonte in her book The Worth of Women: Wherein Is Clearly Revealed Their Nobility and Their Superiority to Men, and I think that La Belle Nani by Paolo Veronese is one such Venetian… ravishing bloom, a lovely roses blossom, a scented narcissi! https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/893320.Moderata_Fonte and https://books.google.gr/books?id=AtTGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=Men+were+created+before+women.+…+But+that+doesn%27t+prove+their+superiority+%E2%80%93+rather,+it+proves+ours,+for+they+were+born+out+of+the+lifeless+earth+in+order+that+we+could+be+born+out+of+living+flesh.+And+what%27s+so+important+about+this+priority+in+creation,+anyway?+When+we+are+building,+we+lay+foundations+on+the+ground+first,+things+of+no+intrinsic+merit+or+beauty,+before+subsequently+raising+up+sumptuous+buildings+and+ornate+palaces.+Lowly+seeds+are+nourished+in+the+earth,+and+then+later+the+ravishing+blooms+appear;+lovely+roses+blossom+forth+and+scented+narcissi.&source=bl&ots=LzBLZk1PqE&sig=ACfU3U14hiEGCMR-a1Zp9IywMToXnxIAsw&hl=el&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi37YHOwKb1AhXLgv0HHYiYA1AQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false

What an incredible portrait La belle Nani is! Created by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588), one of the most famous painters of the Cinquecento, it fascinates and fires the imagination. Who is she? Is she a respectable Venetian matron, one of Venice’s famous courtesans, or is she the image of the Venetian ideal beauty? Well, we do not really know… except that back in the 19^th century, it was thought that the portrait was commissioned by the Nani, a patrician family of Venice, and thus, the nickname La Belle Nani was adopted. http://editions.louvre.fr/en/titles/monographs/painting/veroneseune-dame-venitienne-dite-la-belle-nani.html

**Paolo Veronese**, 1528–1588
**Portrait of a Venetian Woman – La Belle Nani (detail),** circa 1560, oil on canvas, 119×103 cm, Louvre Museum, Paris, France
https://www.iefimerida.gr/politismos/ethniki-pinakothiki-loybro-maska-napoleonta-parisi

The portrait of the “Beautiful Nani” follows, according to the Louvre experts, a very fashionable compositional formula developed by no other than the greatest portrait painter of the Venetian Renaissance, Titian. The model is depicted facing the viewer, in front of a dark neutral background, and is placed next to an element of furniture, in Veronese’s painting, a table covered with a precious carpet of Anatolian manufacture, known as “a la Moretto” style. Portrayed against a sober background the beautiful woman bursts of light and colour reflecting the extraordinary skills of the Venetian Renaissance artist. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010065927

The Louvre Portrait exalts the beauty of a young woman as much as the richness of her dress. It is believed that this is the Portrait of an aristocratic Venetian mother… beautiful and utterly fashionable! Her delicate complexion, for example, is white and pink, indicating that the lady is protecting herself from the sun. Her sparkling hair is blond, a color that was obtained, according to the beauty recipes of the time, by exposing hair to the midday sun, on the roofs of Venetian palaces. Her ceremonial dress, made of luxurious blue velvet and branched brocade on a white background, is fashionably loose, with a fairly wide opening on the chest, a light white gauze coat draped over her shoulders, and sumptuous pieces of jewelry all over her. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010065927

La belle Nani is beautiful, fashionable, and virtuous… She chastely turns her gaze away from that of the spectator. Her left hand, whose ring finger is adorned with a wedding ring, elegantly re-dyes the transparent veil of her coat, while her right hand rests on her heart, as a sign of conjugal fidelity. The portrait must thus signify the exemplary nature of this woman: her high social rank, her physical beauty, and her moral virtue. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010065927

Katerina Sakellaropoulou the President of the Hellenic Republic at the National Gallery of Greece Exhibition *In Search of Immortality – The Art of Portrait in the Louvre Collections* (December 1, 2021-28 March 2022).
https://www.newsit.gr/politikh/katerina-sakellaropoulou-egkainiase-ekthesi-tis-ethnikis-pinakothikis-foros-timis-sto-mouseiou-tou-louvrou/3418282/

In Search of Immortality – The Art of Portrait in the Louvre Collections (December 1, 2021-28 March 2022) is a wonderful Exhibition at the National Gallery in Athens, Greece. La Belle Nani is just one of one hundred portraits from the Louvre Museum Exhibited in Athens. An impressive selection of valuable works of art dating from the period of Pharaonic Egypt to Gericault and Delacroix, the Athens Exhibition explores the genre of Portraiture with stunning examples like… The Death of Mara by Jacques-Louis or Bonaparte at the Pont d’Arcole by Antoine-Jean Gros. This is an Exhibition worth visiting! https://digitalculture.gov.gr/2021/11/ethniki-pinakothiki-anazitontas-tin-athanasia-i-techni-tou-portretou-stis-silloges-tou-louvrou/

For a PowerPoint on Portraits of Renaissance Women by Paolo Veronese, please… Check HERE!

The Princess from the Land of Porcelain by James Abbott McNeill Whistler

January 19, 2022

by admin 19th century Art American Art Impressionism Powerpoints

**James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American Artist,** 1834-1903
Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain (Portrait of Christine Spartali), 1863-1865, Oil on Canvas, 201.5×116.1 cm, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Princess_from_the_Land_of_Porcelain#/media/File:James_McNeill_Whistler_-_La_Princesse_du_pays_de_la_porcelaine_-_brighter.jpg

The sitter’s sister Marie (artist Spartali-Stollman) told Pennell: ‘At first the work went quickly, but soon it began to drag. Whistler often scraped down the figure just as they thought it all but finished, and day after day they returned to find that everything was to be done over again … Mrs. Stillman remembers that Whistler partly closed the shutters so as to shut out the direct light; that her sister stood at one end of the room, the canvas beside her; that Whistler would look at the picture from a distance, then suddenly dash at it, give one stroke, then dash away again … The sittings went on until the sitter fell ill … The head in the “Princess” gave him most trouble … During her illness, a model stood for the gown, and when she was getting better, he came one day and made a pencil drawing of her head, though where it went to Mrs. Stillman never knew. There were a few more sittings after this, and at last, the picture was finished.’ The Princess from the Land of Porcelain by James Abbott McNeill Whistler has more stories to tell… https://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence/people/biog/?bid=Spar_C&fbclid=IwAR0Z8K3QjV1wsba9ee8HPO7ax0Ri9r3uvxu9QKVkwZdKKaVn-PSZ6Bpaca8 (Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 122-25, 130, 157, 203-04; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980.)

Image of the **Peacock Room** featuring the **Princess in the Land of Porcelain** painting by **James McNeill Whistler,** Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M Sackler Gallery, Washington DC, USA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Peacock_Room.jpg

During the 1860s until the final years after the First World War, Japanese Art was all the rage amongst the world of Western Αrt ant Ιntelligentsia. At the time, James Abbott McNeill Whistler was a most fervent Japonist. Inspired by ukiyo-e prints, ancient Greek sculpture, music, and dance, Whistler created works of art of entranced female figures…Japanese and ancient Greek art set the tone. Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain is one such happy consequence. Painted between 1863 and 1865 with Christine Spartali as the model, and described in 1865 as “unready for display and lacking in substance” by the art critic Gustave Vattier, the painting was not an immediate success. Without a direct buyer, the work changed hands for a few years – at one point landing in Dante Rossetti’s studio – before it was purchased by Frederick Leyland for his dreamed porcelainzimmer! In 1903, the painting was bought by Charles Lang Freer, and today Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain can be seen in Washington DC, the Freer Gallery of Art, a much-appreciated part of the Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-behind-the-peacock-rooms-princess-159271229/ and https://artofdarkness.co/post/137432960224/whistler-princess-from-land-porcelain-gigapixel-details

**James Abbott McNeill Whistler,** American Artist, 1834-1903
Sketch for Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain, between 1863 and 1864, oil on hardboard, 61.3 × 35.1 cm, Worcester Art Museum, MA, USA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Princesse_du_Pays_de_la_Porcelaine_-_James_Abbort_McNeill_Whistler_-_Sketch.JPG

Whistler’s painting Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain was part of a series of costume pictures undertaken by Whistler in the mid-1860s in which western models appear in Asian dress, surrounded by Chinese and Japanese objects from Whistler’s own collections. He modeled the princess on Christina Spartali, a young woman of Greek descent who is dressed in a kimono and surrounded by luxurious objects that suggest an imaginary “land of porcelain.” Not intended as a portrait, the painting instead demonstrated a new ideal of beauty, one derived from Japanese ukiyo-e prints and the elongated figures painted on Chinese porcelain. https://asia.si.edu/object/F1903.91a-b/#object-content

Kitagawa Utamaro, Japanese Artist, 1753-1806
Washing and stretching cloth, 1796-1797, Color woodblock print on paper, Triptych: each sheet 38.1 x 25.4 cm, NY Public Library, USA
https://artvee.com/dl/drying-and-stretching-cloth/

When I teach American Art, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler, in particular, I like to compare Rose and Silver: The Princess from the Land of Porcelain to Kitagawa Utamaro’s Washing and stretching cloth print of 1796-1797. The elegant postures of Ukiyo-e Ladies, their body language, grace, style, and refinement captivated Whistler’s imagination, creating… wonderful paintings! https://artvee.com/dl/drying-and-stretching-cloth/ and https://risdmuseum.org/exhibitions-events/exhibitions/women-floating-world

For a PowerPoint on paintings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler depicting European Women wearing Asian costumes, please… Check HERE!

**Julia Margaret Cameron,** 1815-1879
**Christina Spartali (later Countess Edouard Cahn d’Anvers),** 1868, albumen cabinet card, National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/christina-spartali-the-model-for-la-princesse-ca-1865-70-julia-margaret-cameron/qwF4d-HWJ94Gtg

Christina Spartali, the model for Whistler’s Princess from the Land of Porcelain, was Michael Spartali and Euphrosyne Varsini Spartali’s second daughter. Her father, a prosperous London resident merchant, became Consul-General for Greece in 1866. From 1864, the family lived in London at “The Shrubbery” in Clapham Common, and through their relatives, the Ionides, prominent patrons of the arts, became acquainted with members of the contemporary art world, including James McNeill Whistler. The photographer Julia Margaret Cameron was the Spartalis’ neighbor at Sandford, the family’s estate on the Isle of Wight, where photographs of the Spartali sisters were taken. In 1868, Christina married Count Eduard Joseph Cahen D’Anvers, a Jewish banker from Belgium, moved to Paris, and live the life of an upper-class, apparently not so happy, socialite. https://www.costumecocktail.com/2016/09/26/christina-marie-spartali-ca-1870/ and http://fannycornforth.blogspot.com/2018/12/sunday-16th-december-christine-spartali.html

Love of Virtue by François Lemoyne

January 12, 2022

by admin Art Baroque Powerpoints

**François Lemoyne,** 1688-1737
**Study of a head for Love of Virtue in The Apotheosis of Hercules, circa 1733,**
Pastel, trois crayons and stump blending on formerly blue paper, © château de Versailles, France https://en.chateauversailles.fr/news/exhibitions/drawings-versailles-20-years-acquisitions#the-exhibition

The Doors of the Versailles Exhibition… Drawings for Versailles, 20 years of Acquisitions… closed for the interested visitors, but the preparatory drawing of a head for the Love of Virtue by François Lemoyne has become a favourite! The exhibition displayed acquisitions that have joined the Palace of Versailles Graphic Arts Department over the last 20 years. On display, in Madame de Maintenon’s apartments, visitors were able to admire pastels, gouaches, watercolours, and other works that are often kept in storage because of their great fragility. Portraits and scenes from life at court, such as Louis XIV portrayed as a Roman emperor or Charles Perrault drawn by Charles Le Brun, plans, architectural drawings, and preparatory sketches for the major painted decors of the Palace of Versailles were on display and greatly admired! The visitors traveled through four centuries of graphic creation, discovering a Versailles as envisioned by great artists like Charles Le Brun, Charles de la Fosse, François Lemoyne, Richard Mique, Jacques Gondoin, and Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer… a place of great wonders! https://en.chateauversailles.fr/news/exhibitions/drawings-versailles-20-years-acquisitions#the-exhibition

Around 1733, while François Lemoyne was painstakingly working for the Apotheosis of Hercules ceiling decoration of the Versailles Hercules Room, a small preparatory drawing of a head for the Love of Virtue was quickly drawn… and if I may humbly say, the finesse of French Baroque Art turning to Rococo comes to fruition.

**The Hercules Room-View of the Ceiling and the Paolo Veronese Painting of the Feast in the House of Simon, Palace of Versailles**
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Feast_in_the_House_of_Simon_by_Paolo_Veronese_(Versailles)#/media/File:Le_salon_d’Hercule_(24302264315).jpg

Part of the King’s (Louts IV 1638-1715) State Apartment, the Hercules Room was lavishly decorated in the Italian-style with exceptional marble wall paneling, splendid chimney bronzes, a monumental painting by the Venetian Paolo Veronese depicting the Feast in the House of Simon and the largest painted ceiling, representing the Apotheosis of Hercules by François Lemoyne. The decoration of the Hercules Room initiated in 1712, was interrupted by the death of Louis XIV in 1715; it resumed in 1729 and was completed in 1736. The Hercules Room is undoubtedly one of the finest in the palace. https://en.chateauversailles.fr/discover/estate/palace/king-state-apartment#the-hercules-room and https://en.chateauversailles-spectacles.fr/tag/hercules-room_t50/1

**The Hercules Room, Palace of Versailles**
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Salon_d%27Hercule_du_Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Versailles#/media/File:Panorama_of_the_ceiling_of_Le_salon_d’Hercule_(24275994646).jpg

The Room’s pièce de resistance is Lemoyne’s Apotheosis of Hercules. This vast, impressive, allegorical work, depicting no fewer than 142 persons, can be considered on a par with masterpieces by Italian fresco painters. It was created, however, using the marouflage technique, that is the scenes were painted on canvas and then stuck onto the ceiling. When the painting was finally cleaned and restored in 2000 the composition’s drama and bright colours were justly revealed and the room was once more lit up enhancing the other great exhibited masterpiece, the Renaissance monumental painting of the Feast in the House of Simon by Paul Veronese. http://www.versailles3d.com/en/over-the-centuries/xxie/2000.html

François Lemoyne was a hard-working and ambitious artist of the early 18^th century, aspiring to be seen as the new Charles Le Brun. He was admired by his contemporaries for covering vast spaces with bold mythological scenes, graceful figures, and elegant, pastel colours. In 1728, he was awarded a royal commission to paint the ceiling of the Hercules Room at Versailles, at à ciel ouvert style. The Apotheosis of Hercules painting (finished in 1736) received unanimous praise, Voltaire complimented the artist’s talent, and Lemoyne was appointed 1^st painter of King Louis XV. It was a short triumph. Six months later, Lemoyne committed suicide exhausted by work, court intrigue at Versailles, the death of his wife, and psychological instability. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/artists/3473/francois-le-moyne-french-1688-1737/

For a PowerPoint on François Lemoyne, please… Check HERE!

Simon Bening’s January

January 1, 2022

by admin Art Powerpoints Renaissance Student Activities Worksheets

**Simon Bening** (d. 1561) and his workshop
**Book of Hours, known as the *Golf Book,* January (f. 18v),**c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/01/a-calendar-page-for-january-2013.html

It’s the 1^st of January 2022… It is time to start a new Calendar Presentation… and Wish you ALL a Happy New Year, Health, Love, and Prosperity!!! Let’s start the Year with Simon Bening’s January, our new BLOG POST.

My search for the perfect Calendar for the new year is a long process, and starts during summer! I want each “Calendar under Focus” to embrace and present every month in a comprehensive way… to make me wonder how effectual it can be. I search for information on the artist who created it and the patron who commissioned it. I want to explore and present you with Calendars of different mediums… For example, the 2000 Calendar presentation was on the Maestro Venceslao Fresco Calendar in Torre Aquila, Castello del Buonconsiglio in Trento, Italy. In 2021 I focused on a Venetian Set of Doors presenting the Twelve Months created by an anonymous Venetian artist in the National Gallery in London. This year it is time to turn to an Illuminated Manuscript, a medium I love, and present you a 16^th century famous Book of Hours with an interesting name… the Golf Book! https://www.teachercurator.com/art/the-month-of-january/ and https://www.teachercurator.com/art/the-labours-of-the-months-february/ and http://searcharchives.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?docId=IAMS032-002031376&fn=permalink&vid=IAMS_VU2

Some of the greatest paintings and drawings of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, according to Wendy A. Stein, are not displayed on church and museum walls; instead, they shine forth from the pages… of very special illuminated manuscripts known as Books of Hours. Thousands of Books of Hours made between 1250 and 1700 survive today in libraries and museums, a testament to their popularity in their heyday, especially in northern Europe. They were functional prayer books made for the nonordained, and the paintings in them were intended to foster reflection and devotion. Each Book of Hours was unique, serving the spiritual needs of its patron. Book of Hours were devotional books containing prayers to be recited at set times of the day. By the 15th century, the norm was to contain the Hours of the Virgin, a Calendar, a set of Gospel lessons, Hours focusing on the Cross, a group of Psalms, and prayers to saints called Suffrages. It is interesting how most Books of Hours begin with a Calendar, to help the owner keep track of saints’ days and other feasts. Each month gets a page with listed days, holy days are often written in red (the origin of the term “red letter day”), and significant feast days are written in gold letters. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hour/hd_hour.htm

**Simon Bening** (d. 1561) and his workshop
**Book of Hours, known as the *Golf Book,* January (f. 18v – f. 19f ),**c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/01/a-calendar-page-for-january-2013.html

The 16^th century Book of Hours, known as the Golf Book, is a very unique and special manuscript in the Collection of the British Library. Unfortunately, the Golf Book is not, in its present state, a complete manuscript as most of the text is now missing. Thirty parchment leaves, however, remain, twenty-one pages of which, are full-page miniatures, in colours and gold, surrounded by a historiated border (12 pages are part of the Calendar section). The remaining forty pages feature historiated borders as well, that incorporate medallions, architectonic decoration, and cameos in grisaille and semi-grisaille. The text pages present large and small initials and line-fillers, in colours and gold. Simon Bening (d. 1561), with the assistance of his workshop, was the artist from Bruges responsible for this amazing manuscript. Bening’s accomplishments will feature in the Month of February Presentation. http://searcharchives.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?docId=IAMS032-002031376&fn=permalink&vid=IAMS_VU2

**Simon Bening** (d. 1561) and his workshop
**Book of Hours, known as the *Golf Book,* January (details of f. 18v),**c. 1540, 30 Parchment leaves on paper mounts, bound into a codex, 110 x 80 mm (text space: 85 x 60 mm), British Library, London, UK
https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/01/a-calendar-page-for-january-2013.html

The miniatures for the Month of January (ff. 18v-19r) cover two pages facing each other. Folio18v is a full-page miniature of a winter landscape with peasants busy with their chores or simply relaxing, and enjoying the pleasures of a cold, snowy day. The protagonists of the composition are the couple in the foreground chopping and collecting wood. Next comes the couple inside the house behind them – one wall of which is conveniently missing to show the indoor scene. The room, showing signs of certain wealth, is warm and cozy with a linen-covered table, set with food and drink – the fruits of their hard work. The Lady of the house is breastfeeding her baby in front of a raging fire, the Lord of the house is relaxing… talking to her, I want to imagine, planning their family future! A busy landscape completes the composition… a windmill on a promontory with a peasant carrying his load towards it, a church with a person coming out of it, and other people talking or simply strolling about wrapped up in capes or warm clothes to protect themselves from the cold. Several bare trees with snow-lined branches, birds resting on the roof-top, a smoking chimney, and a clear, blue sky, complete the full-page composition. The historiated borders of both folios presenting to the Month of January (ff 18v and 19r) include depictions, in cameo fashion, of children or youths pulling sleds. What an amazing scene Simon Bening’s January is! https://www.moleiro.com/en/books-of-hours/the-golf-book-book-of-hours/miniatura/156

For a PowerPoint on the Golf Book, please… Check HERE!

For a Student Activity on Simon Bening’s January page, please… Check HERE!

Santa Maria foris portas at Castelseprio

December 24, 2021

by admin Art Byzantium Powerpoints

**Nativity,** **Church of Santa Maria foris portas in Castelseprio, Italy**
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Maestro_di_castelseprio%2C_storie_dell%27infanzia_di_cristo%2C_datazione_incerta_tra_l%27830_e_il_950_dc_ca.%2C_15_nativit%C3%A0_1.jpg

I have been fascinated by the Castelseprio frescoes since I was a student, and I was introduced to their unique beauty and… ‘mysteries!’ When I finally visited Castelseprio in 1988, inside this amazing Church, enveloped in their splendor… I was transfixed, spellbound, awe-struck, entranced… forever. Years passed by, and I yearn to visit Castelseprio once more… stand in the middle of the Church, and experience… moments of the sublime.

**Church of Santa Maria foris portas in Castelseprio, Italy**
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Santa_Maria_foris_portas2.JPG

When the extraordinary Mariological programme of paintings on the walls of the church of Santa Maria foris portas at Castelseprio was first uncovered, and then quickly made known to the art historical community in an exemplary publication, historians of early medieval art were transfixed. Here was the missing link, the key which would provide the key which would provide the means to unlocking and understanding the role that the classical Byzantine tradition of art, played in the evolution of elite artistic developments in the various theatres of state formations in post-Roman western Europe, from papal Rome to Carolingian Aachen and Northumbrian Lindisfarne, in the early medieval centuries. The artists responsible appeared to be masters of an almost undiluted tradition of Greco-Roman painting, testifying to the enduring existence of a strain of what has been designated by Ernst Kitzinger as ‘perennial Hellenism’, continuing unbroken in one or more centers in the eastern Mediterranean and potentially available to the artist in western Europe, minded to recover some of the elements of ancient classical practice in an age in which overt classical form and subject-matter were valued at a high premium in the rival courts of Europe… write John Mitchell and Beatrice Leal… and I can not think of a better introduction to my Christmas POST on Santa Maria foris portas at Castelseprio Nativity Scene. https://www.academia.edu/13897079/_Co-authored_with_John_Mitchell_Wall_pantings_in_S._Maria_foris_portas_Castelseprio_and_the_tower_at_Torba._Reflections_and_reappraisal._In_Castelseprio_e_Torba_sintesi_delle_ricerche_e_aggiornamenti_ed._Paola_Marina_de_Marchi_2013

**Nativity** (detail), **Church of Santa Maria foris portas in Castelseprio, Italy**
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Maestro_di_castelseprio%2C_storie_dell%27infanzia_di_cristo%2C_datazione_incerta_tra_l%27830_e_il_950_dc_ca.%2C_15_nativit%C3%A0_3.jpg

The Church of at Castelseprio is so special and unique, many great scholars of Byzantine Art wrote about it… one way or another, more or less. I am fascinated by the surviving frescoes within the Church, the “ambiance” they create, their “Hellenistic” origin, stylistic characteristics (brushwork, colour, light), and drama in their compositions. I find it irresistible how the unknown “Greek” painter of the time, used diagonal perspective, a three-quarter view of both persons and objects, and a constant search for depth of space, to enhance his brilliant style. In compositions like the Nativity scene, I admire the portrayal of illusionistic forms within a deep, open landscape, and how the master artist used illusionism to enhance and at the same time, transfigure reality. I like… everything!

Merry Christmas

Preparing for this POST (this is the most important part for every BLOG POST of mine)… wondering how “Hellenistic,” in rendering and mood, the Castelseprio frescos are… I reread The Hellenistic Heritage in Byzantine Art, by Ernst Kitzinger, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 17 (1963), pp. 95-115 (37 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291192?seq=13#metadata_info_tab_contents , and Castelseprio and the Byzantine “Renaissance,” by Charles R. Morey, The Art Bulletin Vol. 34, No. 3 (Sep. 1952), pp. 173-201 (37 pages), https://www.jstor.org/stable/3047419?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

For a PowerPoint on Castelseprio’s Nativity Scene, please… Check HERE!

David with the Head of Goliath by Andrea del Castagno

December 17, 2021

by admin Art Powerpoints Renaissance

**Andrea del Castagno,** c. 1419-1457
**David with the Head of Goliath,** c. 1450/1455, tempera on leather on wood, H. 115.5 cm, width at top: 76.5 cm, width at bottom: 40.6 cm, NGA, Washington DC, USA
https://el.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%91%CF%81%CF%87%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BF:Andrea_del_castagno,_scudo_di_david_con_la_testa_di_golia,_1450-55_circa,_02.JPG

The Philistine Goliath said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” and David replied… “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head…” As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. David with the Head of Goliath by Andrea del Castagno presents the famous Biblical story described in the Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 17) in an exemplary Florentine style that fascinates me! https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2017&version=NIV

David with the Head of Goliath, exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, is one more example of the Florentine fascination with David, the Biblical King, and Hero. David, early in the 15th century, became the embodiment of the city’s Republican identity and a favourite theme for artistic commissions. The people of Florence, a small political power at the time (15th century), identified themselves with young and untried at war David, his intelligence, his motivation, and ultimate success. Goliath was compared to the big Renaissance political entities like Milan… crushed by the will of God and Florentine “diplomacy.” The story is endlessly told by great masters like Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo… and Andrea del Castagno in an amazing and unique painting!

**Andrea del Castagno,** c. 1419-1457
**David with the Head of Goliath (detail),** c. 1450/1455, tempera on leather on wood, H. 115.5 cm, width at top: 76.5 cm, width at bottom: 40.6 cm, NGA, Washington DC, USA
https://www.nga.gov/audio-video/audio/david-and-goliath-castagno-english.html

This is actually an amazing, unique, and rare painted Heraldic Shield, a type of shield, that would be carried in civic processions and then housed in the owner’s bedroom chamber. According to the NGA experts, young… David has been victorious in battle against the giant Goliath, whose decapitated head lies at his feet. David is shown with his hand raised in a gesture that speaks of determination and self-possession and may have been taken from an antique model. Furthermore, Andrea’s Shield of David, combining references of personal and civic valor, and painted by a highly esteemed artist of the period, would have underscored the owner’s readiness to do battle on both a metaphorical and an actual level, testifying to his civic and personal virtues. An amazing, unique, and rare work of Art, to say the least. http://www.italianrenaissanceresources.com/units/unit-5/essays/the-beautiful-chamber/

For information on the relationship between Andrea del Castagno and Domenico Veneziano… the fictional story of how Domenico Veneziano was murdered by his good friend Andrea del Castagno… a story masterfully said by Gorgio Vasari, but totally untrue… please go to my Teacher Curator Post: https://www.teachercurator.com/art/teaching-with-domenico-veneziano/

For a National Gallery Podcast on Andrea del Castagno’s David with the Head of Goliath, check… https://www.nga.gov/audio-video/audio/david-and-goliath-castagno-english.html

For a PowerPoint on Andrea del Castagno, please… Click HERE!

…a student interpretation of David’s story!

Theseus and Antiope

December 10, 2021

by admin Ancient Greek Art Art Exhibitions Mythology Powerpoints

**Theseus and Antiope,** sculpture from the West Pediment of the Temple of Apollo Daphnephorus in ancient Eretria, late 6^th century, Marble, 110 cm, Archaeological Museum of Eretria, Greece
https://www.esag.swiss/eretria/museum/

The multiple aspects of the concept of Kallos in the everyday life and the philosophical discourse of ancient Greece are presented in the major, emblematic, archaeological exhibition of the Museum of Cycladic Art, titled ΚΑLLOS. The Ultimate Beauty. Τhis exhibition displays three hundred emblematic antiquities from fifty-two museums, collections, and Ephorates of Antiquities throughout Greece, as well as from Italy, and the Vatican. The overwhelming majority appear for the first time outside of the museums of their provenance. They meet and mingle in the Museum of Cycladic Art, so as to give an integrated picture of the ideal of Kallos, inadequately translated into English as Beauty. On the 6^th of November I presented you one such exhibit… the Kore from Chios today, I will present you a favourite Archaic work of art… Theseus and Antiope! https://cycladic.gr/en/page/kallos-i-ipertati-omorfia

The story of Theseus and Antiope has it all… adventure, strife, love, and devotion! According to Pausanias and his Description of Greece… As one enters the city (of Athens) there is a monument to Antiope the Amazon. This Antiope, Pindar says, was carried off by Peirithous and Theseus, but Hegias of Troezen gives the following account of her. Heracles was besieging Themiscyra on the Thermodon, but could not take it, but Antiope, falling in love with Theseus, who was aiding Heracles in his campaign, surrendered the stronghold. Such is the account of Hegias. But the Athenians assert that when the Amazons came, Antiope was shot by Molpadia, while Molpadia was killed by Theseus. To Molpadia also there is a monument among the Athenians. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Paus.%201.2.1&lang=original

***ΚΑLLOS. The Ultimate Beauty*** Exhibition Photo, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
Photo Credit: Paris Tativian, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
https://cycladic.gr/page/kallos-i-ipertati-omorfia?slide=1

The effigy of Theseus and Antiope, temporarily exhibited in the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, was originally created for the West Pediment of the Temple of Apollo Daphnephorus in Eretria. Information regarding the Temple of Apollo in Eretria is unfortunately scarce. Eretria, a town in Euboea facing the coast of Attica, was first mentioned in Homer’s Iliad as one of the cities that provided ships against the Trojans. During the 8^th century BC, the citizens of Eretria, a flourishing city during the Geometric and Archaic periods, built an impressive Temple to honour God Apollo, apsidal in architectural form. Soon after, a second, wooden Temple followed on the same site. Finally, around 520- 490 BC, a larger stone Temple was built, the remains of which are still visible today. Unfortunately, the Archaic Temple was badly destroyed during the Persian invasion of 490 BC. https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/intranets/students/modules/greekreligion/database/clunba/

The late Archaic period (510-500 BC) pediment sculpture depicting the abduction of Antiope by Theseus portrays the moment of Theseus stepping onto a chariot’s platform while tightly holding Antiope in his arms… a decisive moment in the development of the story, a key moment in the development of ancient Greek Art. Notice the depicted entwined torsos and think of the evolution accomplished as figural depiction moves from the frontal and immobile Kouros and Kore type of sculpture to the more naturalistic modeling of the classical era. Notice how the psychological drama unfolds, and consider the subtle ways the artist of Theseus and Antiope presents the understated surrender of the elegant Amazon, and the restrained triumph of the victorious hero. Notice how the heads of both figures slightly bend and observe the created interplay of light and shade, shapes and forms. What an accomplishment for the unknown artist. Could he be the famous Athenian sculptor Antenor? https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/classics/intranets/students/modules/greekreligion/database/clunba/

For a PowerPoint on the Theseus and Antiope theme, please… Check HERE!

**Photograph of the actress Katharine Hepburn in the 1932 Broadway production of The Warrior’s Husband,** March 1932
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Katharine_Hepburn_in_The_Warriors_Husband.jpg

The Labours of the Months: December

November 30, 2021

by admin Art Powerpoints Renaissance Uncategorized

**By an unknown Venetian artist…**
**The Labours of the Months: December,** 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

Last, for December, houses on the plain, / Ground-floors to live in, logs heaped mountain-high, / And carpets stretched, and newest games to try, / And torches lit, and gifts from man to man / (Your host, a drunkard and a Catalan); / And whole dead pigs, and cunning cooks to ply / Each throat with tit-bits that shall satisfy; / And wine-butts of Saint Galganus’ brave span. / And be your coats well-lined and tightly bound, / And wrap yourselves in cloaks of strength and weight, / With gallant hoods to put your faces through. / And make your game of abject vagabond / Abandoned miserable reprobate / Misers; don’t let them have a chance with you. My new BLOG POST for The Labours of the Months: December starts with a sonnet by Folgore Da San Geminiano (c. 1250-1317), translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in his book “Dante and His Circle,” (Roberts Brothers, Boston, 1893). http://www.sonnets.org/folgore.htm

Depicting the Labours of the Months was a popular artistic theme that was frequently used in the decoration of Cathedrals and Churches, Castles and Palaces, Psalters, Breviaries and Books of Hours across Europe during the Medieval and Early Renaissance period. Each month, depicting popular activities of peasants or/and the gentry through the year were sometimes paired with the Signs of the Zodiac circle. They would be either simple and small in size or large and elaborate, crafted in stone, wood, stained glass, painted in murals or often enough, painted in parchment. The Labours of the Months had a role in highlighting authority and privilege, hard work and occasionally, small, everyday pleasures. They are often perceived as a link between the work of man, the seasons of the year and God’s ordering of the Universe. Many great Monuments and Libraries in Europe display fine examples of such artefacts for art lovers to enjoy. http://www.livingfield.co.uk/ages/labours-of-the-months/

Throughout 2021, on the 1^st day of every month, I presented you with a small painting, part of a group of twelve, from the National Gallery in London, depicting a young man busy with some kind of a pastoral chore. According to the National Gallery experts… painted on canvas and then glued to a wooden panel these paintings 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 …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

**By an unknown Venetian artist…**
**The Labours of the Months: December (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 last painting for 2021… a simple brick building to the right, and a bare, uninviting landscape, introduces the viewer to the composition depicting the December Labour of the Month. It shows a popular theme… a slaughterman pinning an animal down with his right knee, holding its snout shut to stop it from struggling, whilst slitting its throat and moving its leg to make its blood flow quickly into the skillet on the ground. December is a month to celebrate the Birth of Christ, and the preparations for the festivities are about to begin!

For a PowerPoint on the Venetian paintings depicting the Labours of the Months, please … Check HERE!