Art For Art’s Sake

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Simonetta Vespucci (1453 – 26 April 1476), nicknamed la bella Simonetta,
was an Italian noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence
and the cousin-in-law of Amerigo Vespucci (from whose name the term “America” is derived).
She was known as the greatest beauty of her age in Italy, and was allegedly the model for
many paintings by Sandro Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, and other Florentine painters.  (from Wiki)

Portrait of a Woman by the workshop of Sandro Botticelli, early-mid 1480s

[img]https://i.imgur.com/wPTq0v4.jpg?1[/img]

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The Whistle of a Jacket (1946)
by Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957)

The paint of this free form horse and jockey was slapped on in thick layers
(impasto) which gives it a texture as well .. the Christie's catalogue read…

“Yeats uses the image of a wildly galloping horse and jockey silhouetted
against the horizon to record the transcendent state of ultimate freedom.”

Yeat's himself said he was breaking from the confines of traditional lines.
I know which I prefer

[img]https://i.imgur.com/LYFOyG3.jpg?1[/img]

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[img]https://i.imgur.com/XHYNgpb.jpg?2[/img]

These pieces speak for themselves
there a many more worth looking at

[img]https://i.imgur.com/Ldupk9K.jpg?2[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/cEkvXSl.jpg?1[/img]

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This is Fra.Fillipo Lippi (c.1406 – 1469) .. He was ordained as a priest at 19
but was too busy becoming an artist and womaniser. 
This self-portrait speaks for itself. 

Robert Browning summed him up in the first lines of his verse:

I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave!
You need not clap your torches to my face.
Zooks, what's to blame? you think you see a monk!
What, 'tis past midnight, and you go the rounds,
And here you catch me at an alley's end
Where sportive ladies leave their doors ajar?

[img]https://i.imgur.com/YLpH4VD.jpg?1[/img]

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A favourite painting only for the story behind it.  In the War of 1812
between the United States and the United Kingdom the British Army
marched into Washington D.C. on August 24, 1814 and the President, James Madison
fled from the Presidential Mansion.  The British officers ate the President's dinner,
drank his best wine then allowed the enlisted men to drink from the President's
wine cellar before setting fire to the place. 

The 200th anniversary in August 2014 was totally ignored by the BBC and CNN
but not by me.  The wind was right so I had a big bonfire to celebrate and I even
did a little dance around it.  (Well it was a special occasion)

When the building was restored a lot of the charred timbers were painted white
so that the building became known as the White House and I always have a wry smile
whenever I see it on the tv.

(Of course The United States got their 'revenge' when Andrew Jackson led the
U.S. army at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 and beat the British army rather soundly.)

[img]https://i.imgur.com/MUDAbPb.jpg?1[/img]

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The dust storms of the 1930s moved millions of tons of topsoil across
America’s heartland, wiping out farms and ranches that had stood
for generations. Alexandre Hogue witnessed the mass migration
and the damage to the country.  He produced many paintings on this theme
and this one is called     Mother Earth Laid Bare

[img]https://i.imgur.com/XEONmQc.jpg?1[/img]

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This is a preparatory sketch (cartoon) of the archangel Gabriel by Raphael
which drew me instantly – the why of it I cannot say as I am no art critic
especially of Raphael, I don't have the words.

Poor Raphael died aged 37 and was probably diabetic.  He had a very long
sex session with a female friend and rather overdid it and had a hypo,
slowly going comatose.  His friends were called for to revive him and instead
of giving him the equivalent of a Red Bull they drew blood as was the
custom of the day (1520) and so poor Raphael passed away far too early
for his art and his energetic sex life.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/yHxXeWQ.jpg?1[/img]

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Paul Signac (1863-1935)

Signac painted large studio canvases from sketches that are
carefully composed of small, mosaic-like squares of color quite
different from the tiny, variegated dots introduced and used by Seurat. 
He loved sailing and based himself at St Tropez.  It is worth while
taking a look a larger image than this for the better colours and
overall image.

Saint-Tropez, the Storm, 1895

[img]https://i.imgur.com/r8bkjKn.jpg?1[/img]

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This is Bronzino's Portrait of a Lady in Green
(c.1530-32) – the identity of the sitter is unknown.

Her face resembles very closely a woman I knew
for many years; the most elegant Lady I've known.

The original is at Windsor Castle having been
bought by Charles I in his great spending spree
when he bought the entire collection of the
Duchesse of Mantua for £30,000 .. after his
execution (1649) the collection was sold off or
given away to pay debtors.  In 2019 the collection
was largely reformed for an exhibition in
London which had to close quite soon because
of covid.  She is on my kitchen door where I
quite often talk to her and get her disapproving
look when I dance like a loonie or swear too much.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/ugMj7gS.jpg?1[/img]

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Juliette Recamier (1777-1849) by Francois Gerard (1805)

There are all sorts of generalisations about Mme Recamier
known for being a Parisian socialite, a great beauty and
“icon of neo-classicism” (what rot)  her best description
comes from the memoirs of the Comtesse de Boigne …

“Mme Recamier was a true type of womanhood as made by
the Creator for the happiness of man (no comment, this was
written mid-19th century)  She had all the charm, virtue, the
inconsistency, and the weakness of the perfect woman.  If she
had been a mother her destiny would have been complete;
the world would have heard less of her, and she would have
been happier.  … she was obliged to find compensation in society.

Mme Recamier was the incarnation of coquetry; her talent in this
respect amounted to genius, and she was the admirable leader of
a detestable school.  Every woman who attempted to imitate her
has become an object of scandal or disgrace, whereas she always
emerged unscathed from the furnace into which it was her
delight to plunge.  The fact is not to be explained by any coldness
of heart, for her flirtations were actuated by kindness and not
by vanity.  She was much more anxious to be loved than to be
admired, and this sentiment was so natural to her that she always
had some affection and much sympathy to give her numerous
adorers in exchange for the admiration which she strove to attract;
hence her coquetry avoided the usual accompanying selfishness,
and was not absolutely barren, if I may use the term.”

[img]https://i.imgur.com/GMj5UZW.jpg?1[/img]

“Every one has praised her incomparable beauty, her energetic
benevolence, and her gentle courtesy; many people have praised
her lively wit.  But very few were able to discover beneath the
easy manners of her social intercourse the loftiness of her mind
and the independence of her character, the impartiality of her
judgement and the accuracy of her intuition.  I have sometimes
seen her dominated; I never knew her to be influenced.”

[img]https://i.imgur.com/FSipkzb.jpg?1[/img]

She is bound to have had real love affairs but was far too
discreet for anyone to know.

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Thomas Hart Benson (1889 – 1975)
The Race

Thomas Hart Benson was an American scene painter known
for his murals and portraits depicting everyday life,
particularly in the Midwest.  He was also a teacher
and his most famous student, Jackson Pollock said
Benton's traditional teachings gave him something to rebel against.

Christies the auctioneers give the Race the following blurb:
“Benton’s treatment of this subject matter points to an
underlying social commentary on the tension between rural
and city life and the disparity between idealized imagery
and harsh reality.”

but really it is a simple comment on progress.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/cT9igju.jpg?1[/img]

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This is Isabella d'Este.  She became the Duchesse of Mantua
and a great patron of the arts in 16th century Italy.

The painting is the Venus of Urbino by Titian (c.1532-34).
The face is that of Isabella; Titian only met her the once.
The body is a composite of several other women. 

The significance of this painting (of another female nude
fiddling with her bits), is that it is the first where her eyes
are looking right at you, all previous nudes always
looked away, as if affecting some kind of modesty.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/GZoHXzj.jpg?1[/img]

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Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
(1906 – 8 feet x 7.5 feet)

I loved this the first time I saw it, I still do, but cannot say why.

It was conceived in a small studio in a wooden building
known as Le Bateau-Lavoir in Montparnasse in 1906.

The Demoiselles was first shown publicly at an exhibition
in Paris in 1916  It was here that the painting, which was
originally known as Le Bordel Philosophique, was given it's name; 
Picasso had named it Le Bordel d'Avignon (the Brothel of Avignon)
in 1912 and he did not like the name given by the exhibition organiser. 
He preferred Las chicas de Avignon (The Girls of Avignon).

It was sold in 1916 cheaply for 25,000 francs which annoyed Picasso greatly.
It was sold on in 1931 for 150,000 and then on to the
Museum of Modern Art in NY in 1939 who still have it.

(notes from John Goodman 1988 and Wiki)

[img]https://i.imgur.com/0cXJxcr.jpg?1[/img]

and to give an idea of it's actual size …..

[img]https://i.imgur.com/6grHhoY.jpg?1[/img]

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La Peri by Marina Hoffman

La Peri (modeled by Anna Pavlova and Ivan Novikoff),
bronze sculpture with mottled reddish brown and
black and green patina by Malvina Hoffman, 1921;
in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery,
New Haven, Connecticut.

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