beside the easel

St Sebastian, ca.1660 Born on 24 February, 1613 in Taverna , a small town in Catanzaro of southern Italy, Mattia Preti was a Baroque painter who worked in both fresco and large-scale paintings. Preti is the only major artist of success to come out of the region south of Naples, the only city besides Rome that was a hotbed of Baroque talent at the time. Having been influenced by Caravaggio and taught by Battistello Caracciolo , Preti would become a major force in Italian Baroque art, although today his name is not entirely recognized except in Italy. Preti's style is characterized by chiaroscuro with dynamic anatomy and dramatic angles, and a gift for facial expressions. I had the pleasure of observing St. Sebastian at the Capodimonte Museo in Naples back in 2010, and I have to say it is not only one of Preti's masterpieces, it is a triumph of Baroque art. Choosing a low view-point, Preti's brilliant composition is created by a sagging figure with each limb bendin...

A Young Man with a Basket of Fruit (Personification of 'Summer'), ca.1650 Happy New Year! Welcome to the first post of 2013 ! January is a busy month for artists, with only November and July coming close for the sheer amount of artist birthdays. Born on December 31 and baptized on January 1, 1618 in Seville, Spain, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo was a giant of the Spanish Baroque era known for his flawless figures, graceful poses, and deep colors. Murillo is unique in his range of subject matter for his time, ranging from the genre of poor young boys to religious figures, lovely women and children to aristocratic portraits. Murillo may have been among the first to portray poverty after Velázquez, who was a profound influence on his work as a young artist in his twenties. However, Murillo has an optimism, a gentle quality to his work that is tender and soothing, a sort of antithesis to Caravaggio's tenebrism which was far more distopian and dark. At times this makes hi...

The original painter of light, Rembrandt van Rijn was born on July 15, 1606 in Leiden, Netherlands. He is one of the most imitated painters in terms of brushwork, although his particular use of chiaroscuro is truly unique and personal. His etchings are also what make him one of the greatest in that genre, producing an enormous amount in his lifetime, and lastly, his self-portraits are among the most famous of any artist in history for their sincerity and penetrative insight. Of the many he painted the example above is one of his finest, in my opinion, for its execution and presence: he was 34 years old, towards the peak of his success. Years ago I watched the film of his life made in 1936 by Charles Laughton , and is still the best film I've seen on an artist to date. Laughton was perfect for the role. Danaë, ca.1636-47 Rembrandt's interpretation of this often painted mythological scene is intimate and real, and Danaë's body language is what makes this painting so ...

The Victory of Joshua over the Amalekites, ca.1624 Born on June 15, 1594, Nicolas Poussin was another giant of French painting whose attention to composition, line and color make him easily identifiable as one of the greats. I wanted to do a post of him earlier but ran out of time due to a new work schedule (better late than never, I always say!) Poussin is unique in that he could more than hold his own in Classical, landscape and historical painting...his name is synonymous with harmony and perfection, which would have a massive influence on French art from the Academic style right up until the Cubists. The painting above is an extremely busy composition, and very atypical of Poussin's usual balanced, quiet subject matter. In this particular battle, Joshua and the Hebrews are determined to completely destroy the Amalekites , a ruthless tribe who were considered even worse than the Philistines, who attacked the Hebrews shortly after they fled Egypt. So, under commandment by Go...