Arnolfini Wedding, Perspective Lines

Arnolfini Wedding is such an amazing painting. It still evokes curiosity and debate from scholars with regards of how it was painted and the symbolism portrayed. It's a shame however, that it suffers from some perspective flaws. Still, it adds to the character of the painting. Afterall, Jan van Eyck was one of the first people to start painting in oil. I made this visual to show some of the perspective lines since I couldn't find a good hi-res version on the internet. Enjoy!!

Jan van Eyck
Arnolfini Wedding (Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife)
Oil on oak panel of 3 vertical boards
32.4 in × 23.6 in
1434
National Gallery, London

Self-Portraits by Pablo Picasso

Here's a neat little montage I created of Self-Portraits by Picasso throughout the years. It's interesting to note his versatility as an artist of Realism and Abstraction!

Detail of globe, The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein The Younger

The Ambassadors
Hans Holbein The Younger
Oil and tempera on panel
National Gallery, London, U.K.
1533

Real Life Van Gogh

Is this what Van Gogh really would've looked like? If it is...then I'm a little freaked out!!! His face has been burned onto my brain! He looks a little too intense for my liking.

Anywho, I found this image on some random blog. They based the image on one of his most famous self-portraits...aptly tited Self-Portrait. Unfortunately, no photos exist of Van Gogh after his teens, so nobody really knows what he looked like as a man.

Kids these days...

As many of you know, I've been painting alot of toys lately. They are so fun and revitalizing. There's something about toys, unlike any other objects, that captivate people. The toy paintings evoke memories and emotions. I want to make people feel good about what I paint....So in my daily cruising around on the intranets I found this amazing William Merrit Chase toy painting on an art history blog website of some girls playing with a ring toss! I'd never seen the painting before.

It's really interesting to note what kept kids entertained in the 1800s...and then what it takes to keep a kid entertained in the 2000s!! To the later; quite a bit! Kids now have playstations, and ipods, and youtube, and amazing interactive, sound making, light emitting doodads. My little nephew has amassed probably the equivalent of half a toysrus store worth of toys. Even I had quite a bit of fun things to play with growing up. But think about all those poor souls who lived before the 20th century who had all but a circle with a stick to play with...

William Merritt Chase
Ring Toss
1896
Oil on canvas
40 3/8 x 35 1/8 in. (102.6 x 89.2 cm).
Collection of Marie and Hugh Halff

Explosion in a shingle factory!! Nude Descending a Staircase, No. II (hi-res)

Marcel Duchamp
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. II
oil on canvas
1912
57 7/8 x 35 1/2 in
Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Last Supper freshly painted.

Using a computer program, a group of Italian scientists/specialists recreated what the Last Supper possibly looked like back when it was painted in 1495-1497. They based the new image on master copies created by many artists through the years before The Last Supper was too far gone. And also on sketches of the Last Supper by da Vinci himself. There is question as to what exactly Christ's feet looked like considering, well, there's a big door cut into them! Oh the Humanity!

Soon after The Last Supper was created, it started spoiling almost immediately because of da Vinci's experimental medium he used. (When attempting a huge commission it's best not to re-invent the wheel!)

It looks nothing like I had expected. Its...so...clean....and perfect. I guess being overly-saturated with the deteriorated view for so long, its hard to think of a flawless Last Supper.

Part of the appeal of The Last Supper is the mystery surrounding its creation. Knowing very little about it coupled with the deterioration, leaves people always questioning, always thinking.


Mastercopies by Renaissance artists
Last Supper image copyright of leonardo3.net

Is this a long-lost Michelangelo sculpture?

I just recently read an article in the latest edition of ARTnews about a piece of sculpture being a long-lost sculpture by Michelangelo. The sculpture in question is titled "Little Archer" and has been tucked away in a French embassy unnoticed and unappreciated for years. He's missing his arms and lower legs. But from what's left, some critics seriously think Michelangelo sculpted this...and to up the ante a little more, some think he carved it at the age of 15! I was drawing crude pictures of Led Zeppelin on school desks with colored pencils at age 15...geez...makes me feel under accomplished.

But anyway, there are qualities about it that resemble his other work like the twisting motion of movement and the style of the hair seem to point at Michelangelo. While others completely reject this notion. After some crafty googling I came across a funny article about how this sculpture doesn't pass the "Testicle test." I'll spare you the details but in a nutshell, the sculpture is lacking in it's anatomical accuracy apparently.

The plot thickens and the mystery deepens.

Who knows if it really is or isn't.

Here is a high-res picture just for kicks. Enjoy!

Jeanne-Claude, June 13, 1935 – November 18, 2009

Jeanne-Claude died, aged 74, on November 18, 2009, from complications of a brain aneurysm. Tis sad. I wonder how Christo will carry on. Jeanne-Claude very much seemed to run the show. Every interview I've ever seen with them, Jeanne-Claude does all the talking and even cuts off Christo to finish his sentences...

Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (Hi-Res)

Hannah Höch
Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser Dada durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands
(Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany)
1919-20
photomontage and collage with watercolor
44 7/8 x 35 7/16 in
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie