Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Peasant Wedding

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Inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Peasant Wedding

Brueghel was well known for his peasant scenes; he was often referred to as ‘Peasant’ Breughel. Through his paintings we came to learn more about village life of the 16th century. Like so many other moralistic genre paintings this is filled with symbolistic references. Here gluttony and poverty stand out, but possibly lack of virginity. The paper crown hung over the bride is in two parts which implies she may already be with child.

Pieter’s son, Brueghel the Younger made a copy of his father’s work, and a couple mysteries appear.  In the elders version, there is an additional foot under the food tray (a door off its hinges). It seems the man in the front of the tray has three feet.

Is this a joke by the painter? Clearly Brueghel the Younger, didn’t think it was funny for in his painting the third foot is eliminated altogether. Another object that went missing is a large codpiece (a leather phallus sheath, cod was slang for scrotum) on the bagpiper. The younger attached this accoutrement to the bagpiper, but Dad’s has gone missing. Through infrared photography they found that senior’s codpiece had been replaced with a black patch. This was not the first time the elder was censored. In his bawdy, The Wedding Dance, several codpieces were removed from the frolicking peasants, only to be discovered during a 1941 restoration. I guess Pieter was not the only one with scruples

See Original: https://bit.ly/3r0aLbF

Tahitian Women on the Beach - Paul Gaugin

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Inspired by Paul Gaugin - Tahitian Women on the Beach

Born in Peru, he emigrated to France, and secured a job as a stockbroker in Paris. He did quite well as a broker. By the age of 31 he was pulling down 30,000 Francs a year, the equivalent of about $150,000 today. At the age of 35 he gave it all up to be a painter. This new job was not a success, so in 1891 he left his wife and five children and headed for Tahiti. He stayed there for ten years, returning once to try to sell his work and raise capital to return. His life in Tahiti was tempestuous. He married three times, all teenage island girls (13 and 14). This was considered a marriageable age in the Tahitian culture, but in western culture it is considered pedophilia. Gaugin was not the only French colonist that took advantage of the Tahitians desire for status or financial gain. These weddings were not legally binding and all three of his wives eventually left him. Gaugin used his wives for the models in countless paintings. The model for both of the women in this painting is Teha’amana, his first Tahitian muse, lover and eventually wife.

In 1901 when he became seriously ill with syphilis and in trouble with the French authorities, he left town. Alone and impoverished, Gauguin died of a stroke in the Marquesas Islands on May 8, 1903. He has been championed and reviled by art history. His painting was magnificent, but his lifestyle seems unacceptable.

If you would like to see the original painting: bit.ly/43HIFQS

Hieronymus Bosch and workshop - The Conjurer

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Inspired by Hieronymus Bosch and workshop - The Conjurer

There are five known versions of this painting and one engraving, but most experts believe this one is the most reliable copy. It is kept locked in a safe and loaned out on a limited basis for special exhibitions. It’s been under lock and key, since it was stolen in 1978, but luckily returned a few months later.

Like many Flemish paintings it conveys a moral message. The owl in the basket at the conjurer's waist signifies the dark arts. The frog jumping from the mouth of the dupe represents reason having given in to bestial impulses. The child, watching the victim being robbed of his money purse exemplifies the Flemish proverb: "He who lets himself be fooled by conjuring tricks loses his money and becomes the laughing stock of children."

The conjurer enthralls his audience with a game of “cups and balls”, an ancient gambling game. It is based on deception and sleight of hand, thus the conjurer. The routine includes many of the fundamental effects of magic: the balls vanish, appear, transpose and reappear. An illustration of this game can be found on the 2500BC wall of an Egyptian burial chamber.

To see original: bit.ly/3MYwqtD

George Caleb Bingham - The Jolly Flatboatmen

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Inspired by George Caleb Bingham - The Jolly Flatboatmen

Except for three months of study at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Bingham was self-taught. He began his career as a portrait painter, which was his money maker all through his career. But where he made his mark was genre painting. He was one of the most important American painters of genre subjects in the 19th century. Working before America’s vastness was made accessible by roads and railways, Bingham found his subjects in the boatmen and trappers who populated the Missouri and the Mississippi, the great rivers of his home state. Through these subjects he captured a taste of life in the West. The Jolly Flatboatmen is from his series depicting life on the river. It is among the first distinctly American paintings that capture the allure of Western expansion during the mid-19th century.Several New York businessmen formed the American Art Union to promote paintings of American scenes by American artists. Every year, the union bought a painting, and held a lottery for their members to decide who took the painting home. They paid Bingham $290 for the Floatmen and gave it to Benjamin van Schaick, a New York city grocer. The total cost to the winner was the $5 he paid for his membership. In 1986 it was sold for $6 million, a record-breaking auction price. The American Art Union produced a large mezzotint that was distributed to its 10,000 members throughout the country, This immediately made it one of the best-known works of art of its era. Some 18,000 were circulated to hang in American homes and places of business. In today’s terms, it went viral.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer

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Inspired by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century. He became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Greek and Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors. He was born in the Netherlands as Laurens Tadema, but he emigrated to England in 1870. When he tried to make his niche in the art world, he changed the spelling of his first name to the more English “Lawrence”. He included his middle name “Alma” as part of his surname, so he would be listed amongst the “A’s” in exhibition catalogues.
His meticulous archaeological research into Roman architecture, led to his paintings being used as source material by Hollywood directors in such films as: “Ben Hur”, “Cleopatra” and “Gladiator”. For “The Ten Commandments” Cecil B. DeMille would customarily spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to indicate to his set designers the look he wanted to achieve.
He became one of the wealthiest painters of the 19th century. He was even knighted in 1899. But like so many great painters his work was mostly ignored after his death. His painterly prowess was not reestablished until fifty years later. One of his most celebrated paintings “the Finding of Moses” was sold in 1960 for $400, the same painting sold for $36,000,000 at Sotheby’s in 2010. If you bought $400 of Apple stock in 1980 it would only be worth $280,000 today.

To see the original: https://bit.ly/42t2Ylf

Sandro Botticelli - The Birth of Venus

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Inspired by: Sandro Botticelli - The Birth of Venus

This painting is all about Venus, and how Botticelli wanted to immortalize her. Not because of the goddess of love she represents, but because he was madly in love with the model, Simonetta Vespucci. Simonetta was born in 1453. At the age of 15, she arrived in Florence with her husband Marco. Marco’s family was connected to the Medici, so they were invited to court. It was there that Simonetta’s beauty became legendary. She didn’t just look like Venus, but totally embodied her grace and charisma.She modelled for Botticelli, di Cosimo and other painters who attempted to capture her remarkable features. She became Botticelli’s muse and is found in a number of his paintings. Her presents filled his masterpiece “Primavera”, where many, if not all, of the women are modelled after her. She died at the age of 22 from tuberculosis. This painting was created posthumously, almost ten years later. After those many years Botticelli still had a clear vision of her face and body. At the time of Botticelli’s death in 1510 he was penniless. His work had gone out of favor after Michelagelo and Raphael hit town. On his death bed, he asked to be buried at Simonetts’s feet, and that is where he lies today.

To see original: https://bit.ly/3y4qxTd

Jan van Eyck - The Arnolfini Portrait

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Inspired by - Jan van Eyck - The Arnolfini Portrait

The verdict is still out concerning the interpretation of this painting. It is littered with iconography, which has kept researchers teetering between wedding celebration or memorial to a lost love.
The painting portrays a Bruges draper, Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife Trenta. She died in 1433 during childbirth, which was a year prior to the date signed on the painting. For this reason many people think Mrs Arnolfini is seen here in the family way. Although others think she has bunched up the dress material in her hand to show off her husband’s wears. Giovanni’s black clothing signifies a period of mourning, since black was not fashionable at this time, and definitely not for a wedding. Many of the icons found in the canvas symbolize her passing. Saint Margaret, the patron saint of the child-bearing woman, is carved on a chair in the background. The gargoyle seen next to her hand signifies her doom. The mirror, at the back of the room, is decorated with scenes from the Passion of Christ. On the woman’s side are scenes of death and resurrection, while on the man’s side are images of Christ’s life. A dog sits at their feet. In ancient Rome, dogs were carved on female tombstones, believed to guide them to the afterlife. Also, this dog is missing from the mirror, which adds to its status of a mythical character. A little spooky is the candelabra above them. The candles have all burned out except the one over the man’s head.

To see original: https://bit.ly/3JQDPKk

Inspired by: Edgar Degas - The Absinthe Drinker

Absinthe (also known as La Fée Verte or ‘the green fairy’) was a green colored, highly alcoholic spirit. Poured over ice and served with water and a cube of sugar to soften the bitter taste. It was highly addictive and known to cause hallucinations. Its growing popularity and its negative social effects led to absinthe being banned in much of Europe and America.This cafe has been identified. It is "La Nouvelle Athènes", in Place Pigalle near Sacre-Coeur, at the foot of the Montmartre hill. At the time it was a meeting place for modern artists and a hotbed of intellectual bohemians. Degas asked people he knew to pose for the figures. Ellen André was an actress, and an artist's model, who posed for a number of other impressionists. Marcellin Desboutin was an engraver and artist. When criticism of the painting cast a slur on their reputations, Degas had to state publicly that they were not alcoholics. 'L'Absinthe' sparked controversy more than once. The painting was first shown, along with 25 of his paintings, in the Third Impressionist Exhibition of 1877. The critics found it ugly and disgusting. It was then put into storage. It was shown again 16 years later, in England. The English critics viewed it as a warning lesson against absintheand the French in general. In May 1893, the work was bought for the amazing sum of 21,000 francs ($275,000 today) by Count Isaac de Camondo, who bequeathed it to the Louvre in 1908 and from there to the Musée d'Orsay. Its original title was Dans un Café, a name often used today. Other early titles were A sketch of a French Café and Figures at Café. It was changed to L'Absinthe when it was exhibited in England in 1893.

To see original: https://bit.ly/3GgFkho