Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 48 x 78 cm. Nr.: 175 (1934.7). Source: www.museothyssen.org//img/obras_grande/1934.7.jpg.

Materials: oil on wood. Dimensions: 21.3 x 41.3 cm. Acquisition date: 1910 (Salting Bequest). Nr.: NG2524. Source: luxfon.com/images/201202/luxfon.com_14678.jpg. P.S. I have changed the contrast of the original photo.

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 120 x 203. 7 cm. Sold by Sotheby’s (London), on July 6, 2011. Source: http://www.extravaganzi.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Venice-a-View-of-the-Rialto-Bridge-Looking-North-from-the-Fondamenta-del-Carbon-by-Francesco-Guardi.jpg.

(William Shakespeare – 1596-98)

The Ridotto Pubblico at Palazzo Dandolo (ca. 1765–68) by Francesco Guardi

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 47 x 77 cm. Nr.:? Source: arthistoryreference.com/z/la/263.jpg. P.S. I have changed the contrast of the original photo.

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 50.5 x 66.7 cm. Nr.: National Trust Inventory Number 446812. Source: ichef.bbci.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/images/paintings/uph/…

The Pope is shown on a specially erected ‘macchina’ (or stage set) in front of the Scuola di San Marco. Crowds have gathered before him, spreading into the square of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, with the Colleoni monument shown to the right.
Guardi appears to have based this painting on an engraving by Jacopo Leonardis after Domenico Fossati. The Pope visited Venice between May 15th and 19th of 1782, and prints were produced to take advantage of the popular interest aroused by his visit. Guardi was commissioned by Peter Edwards, an English painter and inspector of paintings to the Republic, to execute four paintings recording various episodes from the Pope’s stay. The episode depicted here was so popular that other versions were made by the artist. It is generally agreed that the picture in the Ashmolean belongs to the original series commissioned by Edwards (http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/446812).

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 53.3 x 85.7 cm. Nr.: 71.119 (accession number). Inscriptions: Signed (lower left): Franco / De’ Guardi; inscribed (reverse, upper left, in a later hand): Vuduta del Sante di Rialto / in Venezia / del Guardi (view of the Rialto [Bridge] in Venice by Guardi). Acquisition date: 1871. Source: images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ep/original/DP124053.jpg. P.S. I have changed the contrast of the original photo.

Here Guardi shows the bridge of the Rialto with the Palazzo dei Camerlenghi and the vegetable market on the right. He has created an effect of snapshot-like immediacy by arbitrarily cropping the buildings at the left. The canvas dates to the 1760s and is a pendant of the view of “Santa Maria della Salute” (71.120) (http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/search-the-collections/110001042#fullscreen).

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 50 x 76.8 cm. Nr.: 1939.1.113. Source: http://www.terminartors.com/files/artworks/3/6/7/36706/Guardi_Francesco-Three-Arched_Bridge_at_Cannaregio.jpg. P.S. I have changed the light, contrast and colors of the original photo.

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 72.4 x 119.1 cm. Inscriptions: signed. Acquisition date: 1846. Nr: NG210. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gandalfsgallery/7031512557/

The painting is one of the earliest of Guardi’s works as a view painter, probably dating from about 1760. It shows the most famous of Venetian squares, the Piazza San Marco, with the medieval cathedral and its bell tower in the background and the 16th-century public offices, the Procuratie Vecchie, left, and the Procuratie Nuove, right, with shops and cafés to each side.

In Guardi’s painting figures and architecture are more freely handled than was customary with Canaletto, and the crowd that idles in the Piazza is given greater prominence (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/francesco-guardi-venice-piazza-san-marco).

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 33 x 51.5 cm. Source: www.pubhist.com/work/5346/francesco-guardi/san-giorgio-ma…. P.S. I have changed the colors of the original photo.

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 37.5 x 31.5 cm. Nr.: 1939.1.129. Source: images.nga.gov/en/search/do_quick_search.html?q=guardi. P.S. I have changed the light, contrast and colors of the original photo.

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 98.1 x 138.1 cm. Nr.:11.1451. Source: http://zoom.mfa.org/fif=c%2FC42116CR-d1.fpx&obj=iip%2C1.0&wid=1000&cell=1000%2C1000&cvt=jpeg. P.S. I have changed the light, contrast and colors of the original photo.

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 48 x 78 cm. Nr.: 1991.112. Source: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/111610. P.S. I have changed the contrast of the original photo.

A luminous morning haze bathes Venice’s Grand Canal. Guided by oarsmen, gondolas and cargo boats glide through the placid water; their hulls traverse the gentle reflections cast by the surrounding buildings. Masts and vertical pilings punctuate the pale, overcast sky. Buildings of varying shapes and scale–but all sharing a muted palette–extend from edge to edge and deep into the distance. On the right, a few early-risers mill about on the banks of the canal.

Francesco Guardi often painted vedute, or views, of Venice’s principal waterway. Many of the buildings in this view were palaces of important Venetian families. The most prominent among them is the two-toned Palazzo Bembo on the canal’s left bank. Its owners, and Guardi’s likely patrons, even appear on the palace’s upper balcony.

Guardi appreciated Venice as a city of constant change rather than as a static tourist destination. On the right side, behind the tiny figures on shore, he depicted the Church of San Geremia in the midst of its renovation. The two-toned facade of the Palazzo Bembo draws attention to a recent addition to this Renaissance palace. Amid this urban transformation, Guardi reveals the transitory effects of weather and water on his life-long home of Venice (http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=266546).

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 71.3 x 119 cm. Nr.: CTB.1995.1. Source: http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_obra/1057

This canvas is a good example of a genre that became very popular in the eighteenth century, particularly among Venetian artists: the veduta, or view. Paintings of this sort were commissioned or purchased by English travellers or art-lovers. Francesco Guardi, who was strongly influenced by Canaletto’s idealised views of the city, generally made preparatory drawings for his paintings; the Museo Correr in Venice holds a large collection of his sketches and notes. Here, Guardi provides a view of the Giudecca Canal, the waterfront promenade of Zattere, the churches of San Biagio and Santa Marta, and the Euganean Hills rising up in the distant background, behind the island of San Giorgio in Alga. The use of light and colour are characteristic of eighteenth-century Venetian painting. EA (http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_obra/1057)

Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 31.7 x 52.7 cm. Acquisition date: 1878. Source: http://static.bbci.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/images/paintings/ccf/large/cam_ccf_185_large.jpg

Edouard Manet
Claude Monet
Vincent Van Gogh
Pablo Picasso
Gustav Klimt
Wassily Kandinsky
Andy Warhol
Oskar Kokoshka
Norman Rockwell
Salvador Dali
Winslow Homer
M.C. Escher
Georgia O’Keeffe
Jackson Pollock
Marc Chagall
Paul Klee
Wassily Kandinsky
Eduard Munch
Giovanni Segantini
Giorgio Morandi
Amedeo Modigliani
Emil Nolde
John Constable
Willim Turner
Jan Vermeer
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
Jan van Eijck
Rogier van der Weyden
Hans Memling‎
Hugo van der Goes
Pieter Bruegel il Vecchio‎
Peter Paul Rubens
Anton van Dyck
Albrecht Altdorfer
Matthias Grünewald
Eugène Delacroix
Honoré Daumier
Francisco Goya
Willem De Kooning
Henri Matisse
Franz von Stueck
Albrecht Duerer
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Gerrit van Honthorst
Bernardino Pinturicchio
Sandro Botticelli
Beato Angelico
Filippo Lippi
Filippino Lippi
Tiziano Vecelio
Jacopo Tintoretto
Paolo Veronese
Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino)
Ludovico Carracci
Agostino Carracci
Guido Reni
Simone Martini
Duccio di Buoninsegna
Giotto
Cimabue
Piero della Francesca
Andrea Mantegna
Giovenni Bellini
Antonello da Messina
Lorenzo Lotto
Antoniazzo Romano
Carlo Maratti
Giovanni Lanfranchi
Giovan Battista Gaulli
Antonio Allegri detto il Correggio
Giulio Romano
Pietro Perugino
Domenico Ghirlandaio
Rosso Fiorentino
Jacopo Carrucci (Pontorno)
Andrea del Castagno
Baldassarre Perruzzi
Rafaello Sanzio
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Leonardo da Vinci
Jean Luis David
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Hans Holbein,
Lucas Cranach,
Albrecht Altdorfer,
Mattias Grünewald
Masolino da Panicale (Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini)
Masaccio (Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Mone Cassa)
Artemisia Gentileschi
Lavinia Fontana,
Rosalba Carriera
Orazio Gentileschi
Agostino Tassi
Taddeo e Federeico Zuccari
Gerhard Richter
Jean Dubuffet
Georg Baselitz
Cy Towmbly
Ludwig Kirchner
Max Pechstein
Eric Haeckel
Franz Marc
August Macke,
Alexej von Jawlensky
Antonio Canaletto
Francesco Guardi
Diego Velazquez
Giovanni Paolo Panini
Gaspar van Vittel
Gentile da Fabriano
Valentin de Boulogne
Simon Vouet
Hendrick Ter Brugghen
Jusepe de Ribera
Giovanni Fattori
Giuseppe de Nittis
Nicolas Puossin
Vincent van Gogh
Paul Gauguin
Quentin Massys
Caspar David Friedrich

Mint Museum

I have spent an internship there putting together games for kids in the Education department back in 2004.  The last time I visited there?  2007 (I think).  It has changed a lot since I last visited there.

For the first time, its permanent exhibit that starts with the Ancient Americas and ends with English portraiture, it feels like a mature museum.  Furthermore, you start with Pre-Columbian art, than African art, than Asian art before you come to the European eras of art.  A rather clever change to the usual “stick the non-Western art in a tiny space.”  A common complaint I learned during my undergrad years.  If you visit this lovely place, I recommend taking one of their free maps.  Without one, you will not walk around in a linear fashion.  On the plus side, the wall color schemes do not overpower the artwork, but complements them in a subtle way.

Regardless of culture and era, furniture, clothing, and textiles also feature throughout the whole museum.  Makes sense, because North Carolina has roots in the textile and furniture industry (the buildings that I drive by when I travel around attest to this).  One of the current exhibits called The Art of Influence: Haute Couture and Luxury Fashion 1947-2007 devotes itself to shoes, clothing, handbags, and old Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar adverts from the forties and fifties.  They featured the heavies of the fashion industry even those not even in the know in this show.  Companies such as Versace, Armani, Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel feature clothes that range  from the exquisite to the mediocre.  Some lesser known fashion designers such as Hanae Mori and Nettie Rosenstein had their place.

Image via Photobucket and photofoxygirl

However, what’s a Southern museum without a pottery exhibit?  The North Carolina parts define themselves largely by families of potters.  Such as the Webster, Fox and Moravian Jugtown families.  The Moravian part gave me a sense of pride because I have roots there.  They do feature the big companies such as Wedgwood.  China, Japan, England, America, and some parts of Europe pepper throughout this show.  For the huge Chinese (BC 206-AD 1279) exhibit, they title the pottery by emperors that reigned when artists created the works.  They do mention the eras (Tang, Song, and Wei).  This show featured, in my opinion, the best pottery.  My favorite came from Chongzeign Reign from 1628 to 1644.   I also enjoyed one piece of pottery from Wanli-late Ming period.  I found pierced work beautiful and delicate, as most Ming works displayed here were.

These works featured also act as a historical window to the past such as the “Figure of a Semitic Merchant” from 618-907 AD.  Another good one came from the Yongzheng “Tea Dust Glass Vase” dated from 1723-1735.  It looked like multiple vases joined to make one.  Another favorite comes from Reign of Kangxi from 1662 to 1722.  The wine pot and cover displayed resembled bamboo.  I also enjoyed looking at pottery from the Qianlong reign from 1736 to 1795.  Titled “Reticulated teapot and cover red stoneware” it has the image of  Eight Buddhist Symbols of Happy Augury.  Lastly, I enjoyed the whimsical delight of the Blanc de chine with reptiles crawling all over the wine pot.

The 17th-20th century Japanese exhibit features mostly plates and cups with an incense holder carved into a cat.  However, the general color scheme feels so kitschy.  Another standout for me came from the European redware section that showcased pottery from 1700s.  The red color schemes of these wares felt so warm and inviting.  The museum divided the dominant English (1600-1700s) section by companies and regions.  Regions such as Staffordshire, Whieldon, and Bristol had huge collections devoted to them.  Companies such as Wedgwood celebrated their variety from pottery with designs that hearkened back to the red and black paintings of the Classical era.  Regarding Bristol, I recommend looking at their armorial plaques.  The artist carved the decorative porcelain flowers so fine it looks like it came from paper material.  This pottery exhibit also features a diorama of well dressed English patrons with a mural behind them.  They look like they are observing their fine collection of pottery that they have collected over the years.

If you start at the beginning of the permanent exhibit, you begin with the Ancient Americas.  For as long as I can remember, the Mint has always had this show.  This large section has work from all over Central and South America.  However, the labeling may confuse people, because they veer from labeling something from a tribe such as the Olmec or Mayan.  Then they label a work from a certain country such as Ecuador, Guatemala, Escuintla, Teotihuacan, and Mexico.  They also feature art from other places/ethnic groups such as the Colima, Nayarit, and the Jalisco.  I recommend checking out the Moche valley section with their animal pots such as a “Crab effigy vessel” and a ”Frog spout bottle.”  Finally, I loved the painted pottery of Chavin and the Paracas.

The Spanish colonial section of the museum has a lot of sculpture and paintings of saints, mostly of Peruvian origin, with the occasional Colombian and Ecuadorian piece.  All of these artworks from the silver crown to the sculptures of Christ in his bloody last days had no names.

The contemporary Mayan section featured clothes of huipils and trajes by Tz’utujil and Kaqchikel Mam.  Further down had displays of performance masks of Mexico known as the Moros y Cristianos.  According to the caption box, the Michoacan masks represents the 17th-18th Africans who mediated between spanish and indians.  I must say, I enjoyed that little remembered piece of history.  They also had the most delightful devil masks.  In another room contained works by members of  the Pueblo and the Hopi.  They had many excellent artists such as Jacquie Stevens, Andrew Padilla, Virgil Ortiz, and Louis Naranjo.

The African art  section has its own small room.  Despite the size, each piece comes from a tribe from the continent.  The Ashanti, Yoruba, Djenne, Bankoni, Bura, Igbo, Nupe, Dakakari, Yaka, Kuba, Burkina Faso, Mende, Jola, dan, Bassa, Edo, and Bamana all have a place.  Furthermore, all works came from the  late twentieth century.

One especially quirky and funny exhibit comes from The History of Platform Shoes.  Mostly coming from North America and Japan, they shoes displayed as early as the 1930s.  For a visual aid next to the Asian section, they displayed two modern woodblock prints by Utagawa Kunisada and Utagawa Kuniyasu.  The Japanese shoes start with the tiny Geta to the recent sandals.  From high fashion to the fetish, they exhibited a pair of thigh high boots to ”honor pole dancers everywhere.”  Shoes from the Goth subculture also have their own section.  More high fashion displays from the past come up as soon as a visitor leaves the room as encounters Chinese robes in a hallway from Manchu Qing Court that from 1644 to 1911.

Image via Photobucket and marven15

In the Renaissance section, they dedicated this space to artists even I, someone who has taken a lot of art history courses and visited Italy, did not know about.  I do recognize some names such as Domenico Morone and Ridolfi Ghirlandaio.  They also have a painting by Cosimo Rosselli, who according to the caption box, painted the Sistine Chapel besides Michelangelo.

The Baroque section also has a lot of artists who do not receive a lot of attention that say, Caravaggio or Annibale Carracci does.  Artists such Domenichino, Valero Costello,  Domenico Mondo, Francesco Guardi, Francesco del Rossi also decorate these walls.

The Dutch and Flemish Renaissance/Baroque room features artists ranging from the obscure to the very well-known.  One painting I liked came from an artist with the name Bruges master of 1480 with the painting Portrait of a Donor/A Skull in a Niche. This section does contain a Rembrandt sketch, and a painting by the School of Peter Paul Rubens, with his small painting entitled Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist.  The subject here ranges the genre painting to Greek myths.

The last room goes by the label, The Golden Age of English Art.  This space consists mostly of portraiture patronised by people who could afford it.  They do have some prints by artist James Gillray who satirized King George III.   Furthermore, since Charlotte has the nickname, ‘The Queen City’ this space has Allan Ramsey’s large portraits of Queen Charlotte and King George III.  One standout piece comes from a sedan chair that has an Angelica Kauffmann painting.  Regarding the color scheme of the museum, each space has a color that complements the works, and does not overtake them.

Image via Photobucket and Immagini

(Check out the tag section for more artists who have a space in the Mint.)

CANALETTO, VENEZIA E I SUOI SPLENDORI A CA’ DEI CARRARESI A TREVISO

23 Ottobre 2008- 5 Aprile 2009

Nell’antica disputa Canaletto-Guardi, le mie preferenze sono sempre andate alle visioni del secondo, nel contempo più buie e più luminose – intendendo la luce diurna come maliconia, e quella notturna come guizzo nel buio, macchia quasi estemporanea a contrasto con uno sfondo coloristicamente drammatico.
Canaletto mi sembrava scolastico e “tirato col righello”, in confronto a lui. Mi piacevano alcune sue vedute limpide e serene del Palazzo Ducale o del Canal Grande, ma non arrivavo a comprendere l’autentica importanza della sua luminosità.
Dopo aver visto la mostra “Canaletto – Venezia e i suoi splendori” nella casa dei Carraresi a Treviso, la mia passione per le lagune ed i canali di Francesco Guardi è rimasta intatta, anzi si è consolidata; però ho imparato a capire meglio il valore della luce e la qualità pittorica di Antonio da Canal.
In effetti, la mostra è organizzata in modo da far comprendere per immagini, attraverso i quadri esposti, la nascita e lo sviluppo del vedutismo; si scopre il soggetto Venezia come protagonista, dapprima come sede di eventi politici e mondani, poi di per se stessa; si può confrontare la qualità dei primi vedutisti,  a partire da Van Vittel, e di quelli minori, con quella più limpida e superiore del Canaletto, continuando poi ad osservare lo sviluppo del movimento in diversi soggetti pittorici, variamente caratterizzati e sempre interessanti, ma quasi mai in grado di competere con quello, che ormai veniva considerato l’indiscusso maestro del vedutismo a livello europeo.
Finchè non si presentano, nelle ultime stanze del Palazzo dei Carraresi, le vedute, struggenti e un po’ distorte, del Guardi…e allora, per chi ama questo pittore, non c’è competizione: si gusta con gli occhi e con l’anima, e basta. Il suo, è un altro buio, rispetto a quello dei colori opachi e pesanti di molti paesaggi del Seicento e Settecento; è un buio che viene dopo la trasparenza del Canaletto.
Confesso che è strano, per me, accorgermi di non aver mai prestato la dovuta attenzione a questo fenomeno; avevo visto decine di vedute di questo pittore, senza guardarle nell’ottica storicamente giusta, e quindi anche esteticamente più piena ed approfondita.

Vorrei aprire una parentesi. Diverse componenti concorrono all’esplosione del vedutismo: in primo luogo, si moltiplica il desiderio dei principi, degli ambasciatori ed altri importanti personaggi di commissionare e possedere una testimonianza, appropriatamente lussuosa, delle loro visite ufficiali nella Serenissima Repubblica; successivamente, si verifica il fenomeno del Grand Tour, per cui nobili e ricchi inglesi e tedeschi scendevano in Italia per completare la propria cultura, facevano una tappa a Venezia e quindi ne riportavano, come prestigioso souvenir, uno o più quadri di Canaletto, Marieschi, Carlevarijs, Bellotto o altri ( i meno ricchi si accontentavano – si fa per dire – di ottime stampe).
Questi fatti storici sono il presupposto per la diffusione, ma non bastano a spiegare la linea evolutiva del vedutismo; tecnicamente parlando, l‘evoluzione dei colori e delle inquadrature sono dovuti ai progressi scientifici nel Settecento, agli studi sulla camera oscura e sulla natura della luce.
Il secolo dei “lumi”, giustamente, porta la sua luce, fisica e metafisica, nelle tele di questi pittori, che contribuiscono – da parte loro – a configurare e “materializzare” l’estensione di questa scoperta. Osservando, l’uno dopo l’altro, i diversi talenti degli artisti esposti nelle stanze dei Carraresi, si vede proprio l’avanzare della luce sulle tele; i cieli di Carlevarijs sono stupefacenti, ma i suoi palazzi hanno ancora, spesso, una pesantezza di pietra, che si stempera e scompare nel Canaletto.
Con lui e in lui, acqua e pietra non sono più in contrasto, tutti i colori si alleggeriscono e le sue vedute acquistano un’armonia compiuta: l’aria e l’acqua hanno vinto sulla terra e sulla pietra, l‘illuminismo pittorico è al suo culmine.
Ciò non significa che, nelle sue opere più immature o comunque meno riuscite, non faccia capolino di tanto in tanto un’asciuttezza formale, uno spirito un po’ troppo geometrico; ma bisogna anche pensare all’eccesso di domanda nei confronti della sua produzione, che lo portava a un’attività indefessa, con risvolti non del tutto positivi, che preludono quasi al concetto e alla pratica della produzione di serie del secolo ventesimo. Rimane il fatto che, nonostante ogni critica, è un pittore grande, che condensa in sé lo spirito di un’epoca.
Più grande, anche perché fuori dagli schemi, Francesco Guardi vede tramontare il secolo dei lumi; condensa in sé ed esprime uno spirito di passaggio, le sue inquiete, surreali luci  diurne, e le sue spettrali ma vivissime luci notturne danno l’addio al Settecento e preludono con i loro guizzi al romanticismo.