beside the easel

Leonardo's most cryptic and virtually unknown work, Salvator Mundi sold for a mind-boggling $450 million dollars at Christie's New York to break a world record, more than paying for the painstaking restoration by the incredibly skilled hands of Dianne Dwyer Modestini . Read more about her process in this CNN article . This article by Gary Meisner talks about Da Vinci's use of Golden Ration proportions within the painting. Although this kind of selling price has outraged many art critics and skeptics alike all over the world—how dare an Old Master work outsell a Van Gogh or other modern work? I'll leave the art market talk to the experts. In this post I hope to examine the painting more fully and explore how much of it is the hand of Leonardo and the rest possibly the hand of others including Melzi, among others. Am I disputing its authorship? Not necessarily. I have profound respect for Professor Martin Kemp and I'm sure he's right when he says that stand...

Portrait of the painter Caspar de Crayer by Anthony Van Dyck , 1630 A contemporary of Rubens, Gaspar de Crayer was born in Antwerp on November 18, 1582. Crayer is interesting in that his style gradually evolved from his early career as a high-Renaissance Flemish artist to Baroque after being in contact with Rubens and his workshop. It is not clear the kind of working relationship they had, but one can easily see the grand scale and intricate compositions of Rubens that held an enormous influence on Crayer. Yet curiously Crayer paints his women with a distinctly Italian sensibility that is reminiscent of Titian, Veronese, and even Spanish artist Murillo. At any rate, judging by the brilliant portrait of him by Van Dyck above his company was well-received by and not seen as a competitor of Rubens nor Van Dyck. Alexander and Diogenes, early 1600's Crayer bathes the figures in an uncharacteristically Titianesque warm light. I like how Crayer uses body language to great effe...

The Birth of Jesus, Gerard van Honthorst, 1622 Looking at the brilliant chiaroscuro side bathing these faces in a warm golden light, I note how Honthorst focuses on the reactions of the figures surrounding Christ and not the manger surrounding them. Clever triangles, contrast of warm and cool colors, and a black sky behind them are all that is necessary to make a great painting. Honthorst creates presence with light, a physical space around Christ, and flawless figures. Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this blog and Happy New Year! I invite any comments or questions. I will be back in the new year with a very busy January of great artist bios and their work.