beside the easel

There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or significant of the laws of the universe than the nude human body. Robert Henri Charles Louis Müller , A Standing Female Nude Leaning Against an Arch, ca.1864 Once again I decided to talk about some Old Master drawings and delve into the thinking behind how these drawings may have been created and the knowledge of the artist. In the above drawing by Müller, done in sanguine with white chalk highlights, the figure is drawn from a low view-point, with her body twisting toward her left side while resting on one knee. Note how Müller alternates the bent right leg with the bent left arm to create dynamic contrast. The right arm is also foreshortened and partially in shadow. Expressing power and femininity, this is a study that is Renaissance in spirit, even Mannerist, revealing the female nude as sculptural yet always graceful. Anton Raphael Mengs , Seated male nude viewed from the back, 1755 One of several Academic nu...

The Resurrection of Christ by Paolo Veronese, ca.1570 Beside the Easel is now over a year old, and having written about and analysed well over 80 Old Masters from the Renaissance to Academic, I will continue to focus on techniques and methods of great artists but with more comparison and observation. Up until now I have focused on celebrating artist birthdays and their work, but moving forward I will be also writing about art books, color palettes and color, and interesting blogs to showcase some current ideas and methods.

Coronation of the Virgin with St Augustine and St William of Aquitaine, ca.1616 Born on January 26, 1582, Giovanni Lanfranco was a Baroque painter and alumni from the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna. A contemporary of such greats as Guido Reni and Domenichino , Lanfranco would take what he learned from the Carracci and make it uniquely his own, fusing tenebrism, color, Mannerism, Renaissance and Baroque into a very eclectic combination that at times seems to defy description. At times he can be quite Classical, other times Venetian, and yet sometimes he can be eerie enough to veer into the fringes of the surreal. Lanfranco could take the most overdone and tired theme or story and make it unreal...dreamlike and even bizarre. His subconscious seems to have been at the heart of his work, rather than merely keeping up with his colleagues or earning a paycheque. Lanfranco is, in many ways, a visionary who foresaw Surrealism by three hundred years. Note how the composition ...

Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, 1746 Born in the small town of Gaeta near Naples on January 8, 1680, Sebastiano Conca was a late Baroque Italian artist. Conca has a style that is more Mannerist than Baroque, and considering he painted well into the Rococo period he nonetheless maintains his Manneristic-Baroque method only with more color, showing a clear Venetian influence in his work. Interestingly, during this period Naples was flourishing as a city producing its own Baroque Masters, including Francesco Solimena who taught Conca. Later Conca himself opened his own school, the Accademia del Nudo which attracted a large following from artists all over Italy and Europe, one of the most famous being Pompeo Batoni, whose birthday is also later this month. This would lead to Conca teaching at the famous Accademia di San Luca in Rome for two separate terms, although his name today is not well known as his work was eclipsed by others. Nonetheless Conca is interesting for his compo...

Study for an Ignudo, 1599 Annibale Carracci was born in Bologna on November 3, 1560. Having lived a relatively short life, Annibale's contribution to art was nonetheless enormous in that with his brother Agostino and older cousin Ludovico formed a historic school that would change art history and usher in the Baroque movement, the Accademia degli Incamminati . The first of its kind, they sought to combine the Florentine philosophy of line and draftsmanship with the vibrant color of Venice to create a new, unified style that would supersede the convoluted theories of Mannerism with a more hands-on approach where students and teachers alike were considered equals. The goal of the school was an inner drive to bring painting back to its Classical roots but with a fresher approach. Of the three, Annibale was the most talented and ingenious, emphasizing to his students the necessity of rigorous study before every drawing and determining what you are going to represent and what me...

Portrait of a Man (possible self-portrait?), ca.1518 click here for zoomable version One of my favourite Renaissance painters, Andrea Del Sarto, who was called by Vasari as the artist "senza errori"—without errors—represents a Classicism with a poetic sensibility that borrows from Raphael and Da Vinci but evolved into his own brand of genius. Michelangelo was a good friend and one of his biggest fans, ultimately recommending him as a teacher to Vasari himself. Del Sarto has a way of synthesizing beauty and perfection with vivid color and a full-range of values that may have had an influence on Baroque painters much later on. Although another underrated artist today, his work really does have few faults. In fact, he would have made a formidable sculptor, judging by his confident anatomy and figures, with real facial and hand expressions that are hypnotic. The above portrait shows a young man of uncertain identity, yet somehow the prevailing art historians believe it is ...

The Annunciation, ca.1540 This Venetian Master, relatively uncommon from the Renaissance, was born in July 5, 1500 in Treviso. Having studied under Titian, his style seems to fuse the Renaissance with Venetian color and heavy Mannerist influence. We often hear plenty about Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, and even Tiepolo, but Bordone is the kind of artist you find out about only in art history classes or, better yet, in a museum. And his style is definitely worth discovering. The deep earth tones and dramatic light of Titian are immediately evident, but what really makes Bordone unique is his composition and anatomy, more specifically, how he used them together to make paintings with a definite style that deserves attention. Where Titian became more loose in his later years, and Tintoretto painted fast and furious, and Veronese big and colorful, Bordone paints with specific attention to detail and skin tones in a way that is more pure somehow. He may have lacked the psychological in...

L'Alabardiere, 1529-1530 Jacopo Carrucci (known as Jacopo da Pontormo or Pontormo) is one of those painters who fully embraced Mannerism in a way that makes him quite likeable in spite of himself. He is not easy to define though. His style ranges from bright colors to a dark, sombre Baroque-like palette; his drawings are exciting to study, full of energy and, like many artists, more accurate than his paintings. As a portraitist, Pontormo is in a category unique to the Florentines, both real and unreal at the same time due to his Mannerism; being the teacher of Bronzino we see strong similarities. In the above example, we see an Alabardiere (Halbardier) or guard with the distinctive two-handled pole spear but Pontormo focuses on the young man himself, proud and confident, yet with an innocent face. Pontormo bathes him in warm window light against a dark wall of some sort, again to heighten the textures and colours of the guard. In typical Mannerist fashion, his physique is im...