Columbus Museum of Art » Old Masters

Christian Bruce, Countess of Devonshire

scott — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:29:26 +0000

Anthony van Dyck (Antonis van Dijck) was one of the outstanding portrait painters of his time. He began his extraordinary career as an assistant to Peter Paul Rubens, the great Flemish master and court painter. In 1632, van Dyck was appointed court painter to King Charles I of England. Van Dyck was knighted, and he resided and painted at the English court for most of his life. Here, the artist has painted Christian Bruce, a widow, who looks directly at the viewer with an air of confident self-possession. A full-length portrait such as this one was an intentional display of status and wealth–note the swag of rich fabric behind the figure.

Earth: Vertumnus and Pomona

scott — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:27:06 +0000

François Boucher was a French court painter to Louis XV (1715–74) and a master of the Rococo style. This is one of two existing canvas panels he painted to hang over a door in one of the king’s chateaux. Vertumnus was a mythological god of ripening fruits, who adores Pomona, goddess of the orchard. Here, Vertumnus has disguised himself as an old woman so he can plead his case without being recognized. Initially he fails to win her love, but he wins it later by revealing his true identity. Cupid holds a mask that symbolizes the lover’s disguise, although any eighteenth-century viewer would have recognized the “old woman” as a man because of his large, ruddy hands. The viewer also would have recognized Pomona’s features as those of the king’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour.

Bathsheba

scott — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:25:04 +0000

The Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi was a highly successful and influential artist at a time when women painters were rare. For this major commission, she painted the principal figures, and, as was the common practice, she employed two specialists to paint the architectural and landscape features. King David of the Old Testament, on the balcony, is going to seduce Bathsheba, his commander’s wife. Gentileschi has emphasized Bathsheba’s dignity and noble bearing and has relied on strong light and vivid but somber colors to emphasize the silent drama of the scene.

Raphael and the Baker’s Daughter

scott — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:21:35 +0000

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, one of the great French painters of the nineteenth century, was known for his precise and elegant drawing, a talent he shared with Raphael, the great Italian Renaissance painter. Raphael is said to have died of a fever he caught when returning one night from the home of his love, Margherita Luti. Here, although she is sitting on his lap, Raphael is gazing at his portrait of her. He is also neglecting the large Transfiguration behind him, which remained unfinished at his death. Ingres has turned the story into a meditation on death, art, immortality, and the distractions of love.

A Lady with a Parrot and a Gentleman with a Monkey

scott — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:17:41 +0000

This work was painted after the founding of Dutch Protestantism, when subtle moral tales became typical of Dutch painting. It was probably intended for a private home. Within the delightful world of fine detail and delicate color, there is the sly warning that life’s amusements may be filled with hidden dangers, a cautionary tale using symbols easily read by Dutch viewers. The woman feeds oysters, believed to be an aphrodisiac, to the bird. Her low-cut dress and feather indicate love of pleasure. The open cage represents the woman’s lost virtue; the nuts, worthless appetites; the monkey, man’s depravity or lust.

Varvara Ivanovna Ladomirsky

scott — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:15:37 +0000

The most celebrated woman artist of her time, Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun combined Rococo elegance with Neoclassical ideals of simplicity and dignity in her brilliant portrait style. Vigée Lebrun’s considerable talent supported her through many personal hardships, which included being married to a compulsive gambler and enduring exile from France after the start of the revolution. She eventually traveled to Russia, where she painted this portrait. The sitter may have been the woman whom the artist described in her memoirs as “the most beautiful woman” she had ever painted. The subject’s Neoclassical gown is suggestive of both the revival of the ancient Greek style and the widespread renewal of interest in antiquity at the time of this painting.