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Guess the Artist

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 01:35:44 +0000

Your clues this week are:

The artist worked as a manuscript illuminator and panel painter during the Early Italian Renaissance.

Giorgio Vasari, fount of suspect information, claimed the artist trained under a person who was beatified by Pope John Paul II centuries later. In reality, there is no documentation supporting Vasari's claim (I know! Try to recover from your shock!), but our artist clearly admired the future Blessed's work.

The artist came from a Florentine family that constantly battled with the Medici clan over who had the most wealth and power. At various times, over the course of 100 years or so, both parties sent rivaling family leaders (an ever-evolving cast of characters) into exile. When both leaders were in Florence, they competed to build the most imposing palazzo -- the artist's family won, by the way, which incited yet another de' Medici to confiscate their palazzo and not return ownership for 30 years. Naturally, all concerned kept marrying their daughters off to the other family thanks to the "friends close, enemies closer" philosophy.

This work is one of 17 illuminations the artist created for a Book of Hours commissioned by a third Florentine family. They were not nobility, but kept marrying up and acquiring more money by any means necessary. Wealthy, though not nearly as wealthy as the other two, they were known around town for acting like flashy nouveau riche types. This tribe also had a tendency to pick feuds with just about anybody over anything. The list of people they alienated in the late 13th- and early 14th-centuries includes the Guelphs, the Ghibellines and the Neri, as well as Dante Alighieri, who slammed them in the seventeenth canto of the "Paradise" portion of his Divine Comedy.

I bring these plots and intrigue to light to illustrate the irony of the work above, in which a Saint serenely kneels in prayer. Money cannot save one's treacherous soul, but apparently it can buy a very nice picture of it.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

Last Week's Answer:

The set of clues didn't seem that easy, but nearly everyone knew that it was Picasso and his Mama. (Many of you were also winners of my top secret Pithy Picasso Comment award.) I can't single anyone out because Sandy knocked me offline for a while and all of the answers came in at the same time. So congratulations, All, and thanks for participating!

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, November 5th, 2012 at 01:35:44.

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October Treats

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 23:49:07 +0000

October Treats originally appeared on About.com Art History on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 at 23:49:07.

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Malcolm D. MacDougall III: Parallel Worlds (Updated)

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 20:47:49 +0000

Malcolm D. MacDougall III: Parallel Worlds (Updated) originally appeared on About.com Art History on Wednesday, October 31st, 2012 at 20:47:49.

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Guess the Artist

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 02:39:25 +0000

Your clues this week are deliberately short:

This is an early work.
It was painted in the 19th-century.
You know who the artist is.

The sitter is connected to the least complicated relationship the artist ever had with another human being.

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

The Last Answer:

The artist in question when last we met was Jan Matejko (Polish, 1838-1893), and the portrait was of Boleslaw III (a.k.a.: Boleslaw the Wrymouth; 1086-1138), Prince of Poland from 1107 to 1138. Yolanta from Toronto knew this immediately, and assured me that it was an easy challenge if one has a Polish background -- which, I discovered, many, many readers do. Congratulations to Yolanta, and thanks to all who participated!

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, October 29th, 2012 at 02:39:25.

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Have You Met MetPublications Yet?

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:52:50 +0000

On October 11, 2012, The Metropolitan Museum of Art launched MetPublications, a new online portal dedicated to distributing The Museum's rich publishing history. An amazing 643 exhibition and collection catalogues, Bulletins, and Journals are now online, available for anyone, anywhere to search their tables of content, author information, reviews, awards, and links to other, related bibliographies from The Museum's publishing arm. The inaugural publications date back to 1964, but The Museum has plans to eventually offer every publication from its founding (1870) to the present. Sounds too good to be true, right? But wait! There's more!

Of the 643 publications, you can read, search, and download -- in their entirety, for FREE -- 368 out-of-print titles. And of the 368, 140 of the out-of-print titles offer print-on-demand copies. (Perfect if someone used your treasured copy of American Pastels in The Metropolitan Museum of Art for a beer coaster and ruined it.) Another 272 titles are still in print and thus not fully available, however you are able to search their contents and use the Preview function on Google Books. When all else, and I do mean all else fails, MetPublications will hook you up with WorldCat to locate the nearest copy, either at a local library or one through which your library can arrange an Inter-Library Loan (a.k.a.: my best non-human friend ... excepting our dog, of course).

Finally, each publication is cross-indexed to other Museum resources online, including the excellent Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Connections, AND individual works from The Museum's collections that are featured in the publication. The whole MetPublications effort is, quite simply, a researcher's dream come true.

As a final bonus, I will mention two things. (1) These publications are very expensive to produce, print, and purchase. It has always struck me as a sad waste when they go out of print. With diligent searching, you may find them for resale, but then the price has escalated to some ridiculous figure. If a reprint is available, I'd much prefer to see its consumer cost go to the original publisher.

(2) These publications typically weigh a lot. It is not unusual for an exhibition catalogue to hit the 10 lb. threshold. Add up +/- one hundred (like me), and you've got anywhere from 500 lbs. to half a ton of weight sitting on one area of your living structure. That is enough for, say, a spouse in a bad mood to make loving remarks such as, "NO. MORE. BOOKS!" or "Why don't you go the animal shelter, adopt 17 cats, hit up the recycling center for bales of newspapers on the way home, and complete the 'hoarder' theme you've got going on over here. Honey." All I'm saying is that 368 PDF files weigh -- literally -- nothing. Spare yourself any aggravation that you can!

Huge, huge thanks to The Metropolitan Museum's Editorial and Digital Media departments' staffs for launching this valuable resource. If it sounds like I am gushing, I am ... and unapologetically. MetPublications is THAT magnificent.

Have You Met MetPublications Yet? originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, October 22nd, 2012 at 16:52:50.

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Guess the Artist

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 02:05:37 +0000

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, October 15th, 2012 at 02:05:37.

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Guess the Artist

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 03:13:38 +0000

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, October 8th, 2012 at 03:13:38.

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Guess the Artist

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 04:21:14 +0000

Your clues this week are:

The artist was born where Samuel L. Clemens grew up, but was raised in Chicago.
The artist studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts during the heyday of the French Impressionists, and admired their style. (Did you notice the smaller paintings on the wall in this painting?) Our artist, though, was too uncomfortable playing fast and loose with technical skills to ever paint ... well ... fast and loose.
When the artist married, John Singer Sargent's wedding present was one of his watercolors. As if having John Singer Sargent as a friend wasn't present enough.

The sitter (stander?) in this portrait, who went by the nickname "Buck," was a prominent Texan and good human. A sure bet as nominee for Attorney General in the 1876 election, he withdrew his name on learning that the other candidate was a crippled veteran with a large family to support. Do you know his name?

Please email me your guesses over the coming week. I'll post the winner and correct answer with next week's guessing game. Good luck!

The Last Answer:

Two weeks ago the clues were supposed to lead you to Nikolaos Gyzis (1842-1901), the Greek painter who was very, very active in Germany. The portrait, done in 1895, was of his wife, Artemis Gyzi. Megan sent the first email with the correct answer. Congratulations, Megan, and thanks to everyone who participated!

Guess the Artist originally appeared on About.com Art History on Monday, October 1st, 2012 at 04:21:14.

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New in September

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 23:45:00 +0000

New in September originally appeared on About.com Art History on Sunday, September 30th, 2012 at 23:45:00.

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The Story Behind The Scream

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 18:29:42 +0000

The Story Behind The Scream originally appeared on About.com Art History on Sunday, September 30th, 2012 at 18:29:42.

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