Art

Pareja: Enamorado con Amor (Couple: In Love With Love) II

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I continue the exploration of couples expressing affection.  Here the image is the same as the first, but the treatment varies, and it is on paper versus wood, so the interaction between paint, medium a base offers additional variations.

 

Pareja: Enamorado con Amor (Couple: In Love With Love) 35 cm x 29.7, 13" x 11.7
Pareja: Enamorado con Amor (Couple: In Love With Love) II 35 cm x 29.7, 13″ x 11.7

“My favorite is Enamorado con Amor II  Couple in Love with Love. You can feel  the intensity. Just beautiful.”  Arlene

Love takes many forms and we can always use more and can never have too much.  We should not oppress it but encourage its flowering and deepen the bonds that hold us together.

Pareja: enamorado con amor — Couples: In Love with Love

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Pareja: Enamorado Con Amor/ Couple: in love with love. Acrylics on panel, 22 x 31 cm. 8.5″ x 12|

This is the first in the series exploring the expressions of affection.  I was sitting in Parque Turia in Valencia as a couple across the lawn embraced before the 15th century bridge crossing what was then the main channel of the Turia River, since diverted and made into walking and bike paths as well as playing fields, and of course a meeting place for lovers and snugglers.

Love takes many forms.  We can always use more, can never have too much, and should not oppress but encourage its flowering thus deepening the bonds that hold us together.

Barberini Palace, Caravaggio, Raphaello, chiaroscuro cieling

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October 21, 2015

The Barberini Palace, just up the hill from Bernini’s Tritone Fountain, is an immense mansion and the home of the Galeria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, art from about the 15th c -17th century.  Here is Caravaggio’s Narisco- Narcissus. Get a load of the reflection!

Narciso by Carravagio
Narciso by Carravagio

In the galleries I try to find something I can draw. I try to find something that is interesting and doable in 5-10 minutes and where there is a seat, good lighting, things like that. Sketch of Gerrit van Bronckhorst’s Betsaben al Bagno. I’d never heard of this painter. Seems to have been influenced by Caravaggio, given how he treats the light here.

Gerrit van Bronckhorst Betsaben al Bagno in Galeria Nazionale d'Arte Antica Rome
Gerrit van Bronckhorst Betsaben al Bagno in Galeria Nazionale d’Arte Antica Rome
Sketch of van Bronckhorst Betsaben al Bagno
Sketch of van Bronckhorst Betsaben al Bagno

Back to Caravaggio, here’s another masterpiece hanging in room 20 (in my best Spanish accent, I asked where this room was in Italian and got a reply in Spanish!).  It’s so gruesome I nearly walked out of the room!

 

Caravaggio's Judith and Holofernes
Caravaggio’s Judith and Holofernes

Salvator Rosa’s “La Poesia” and “La Musica” (17th century) are superb.

Salvator Rosa - La Poesia3 Salvator Rosa - La Musica

 

And a rarity for the time, a woman painter, and quite a good one!  Portrait of a Young Woman Dressed as a Bacchante

'Portrait of a Young Woman dressed as a Bacchante, by Angelica Kauffmann, Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Italy.
‘Portrait of a Young Woman Dressed as a Bacchante, Angelica Kauffmann,

 

 

Here’s yet another prize- what the Galleria notes as the first female nude:

Pierre Subleyras
Pierre Subleyras

 

Jacopo Zucchi “Ritratto di Ciela Farnese”

Jacopo Zucchi 'Ritratto di Ciela Farnese
Jacopo Zucchi ‘Ritratto di Ciela Farnese

 

As for the building, it is a divine palace built by the Barberini family, whose symbol, three bees, appears throughout.  It is in wonderful shape.  The most magnificent room is on the second floor, immense and nearly empty except for several small sofas in the middle.  People lay on them and look at the ceiling, some 20 meters/60 feet above.  Here’s why:

Pietro da Cortona Triumph of Divine Providence.
Pietro da Cortona Triumph of Divine Providence.

 

You have to go there to appreciate all of these, especially this ceiling though.

All this for 7 euros.