Something Beautiful

Daddi Triptych

The Courtauld Institute has a very nice feature about a triptych painted in 1338 by Bernardo Daddi. 

You can view it closed, as it might have been during most of the year.   
And then you can see it open, as it would have been on a major feast day.

There is a good deal of material here, although each page is short and sweet.  You can read see, and read about, the following -

background to the triptych and its painter.

its context.

its production (You can also watch seven short videos on that process!) 

You can also examine each part of the triptych up close --

exterior (closed); and interior -

scenes of the Nativity story, at inner left (open)

Virgin and Child enthroned, at inner centre (open); and

Christ's crucifixion, at inner right (open). 

Raphael's Madonnas (part 2)

Ten more astonishing Madonnas by Raphael --

Madonna of Belvedere (del Prato), 1506  (KHM, Vienna)

The Madonna of the Pinks (La Madonna dei Garofani), ca. 1506-07  (National Gallery, London NG 6596)

Madonna of the Goldfinch (del Cardellino), 1507 (Uffizi)

Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist (La Belle Jardiniere), 1507 (Louvre)

Canigiani Madonna, 1507  (Alte Pinakothek) 

Madonna del Baldacchino, 1507-08 (Pitti Palace)

Holy Family with a Lamb, 1507 (Museo del Prado, Madrid)

Large Cowper Madonna (Niccolini-Cowper), 1508 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) (33+0+none)   

Tempi Madonna, 1508 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich)

Madonna and Child with the Infant St John (Esterhazy Madonna), 1508 (Museum of Fine Art, Budapest)

 

Raphael's Madonnas (part 1)

The Italian artist Raphael (1483-1520) painted more then twenty world-class Madonnas during this brief career.   I hope to post links to all of them, in chronological order, over the next few days.  Below are links to the first group. 

Raphael painted these during the years 1503-1505 --

Madonna and Child, ca. 1503  (Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, California)
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints, 1504-05 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC)

He spent the next three years, 1505-1508, in Florence, where he painted these:

Madonna with the Book (Connestabile), 1504 (Hermitage)
Granduca Madonna, 1504 (Pitti Palace)
Small Cowper Madonna, ca. 1505 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)  (1199+0+none) 

During his Florentine years, he also spent some time in Umbria -

Ansidei, 1505 (National Gallery, London)
Madonna and Child with Beardless St Joseph, 1506 (Hermitage)

St. Augustine cycle (Gozzoli)

The Italian artist Benozzo Gozzoli covered an entire chapel with scenes from the life of St Augustine.   They are exceptional for their color and detail.   Here are the ten best-preserved scenes, all done in 1463-65 --

School of Tagaste   (description)

St Augustine teaching in Rome   (description)

St Augustine departing for Milan   (description)

Arrival in Milan   (description)

Reading St Paul's Epistle   (description)

Baptism   (description)

Parable of the Holy Trinity   (description)

Death of St Monica   (description)

St Augustine's vision of St Jerome   (description)

Funeral of St Augustine   (description)

Gregory IX

This fresco by Raphael is not anything special really, and yet it is beautiful -- Gregory IX approving the Decretals, 1511.

Holy Family

The Holy Family group, composed of Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus, is a favorite among both artists and the public, perhaps because of the affection generally portrayed.   Here are six such works owned by the Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California --

Holy Family, ca. 1520, by Giulio Romano (description)

Holy Family, ca. 1520, by Follower of Bernaert van Orley (description)

Holy Family, ca. 1540, by Girolamo da Carpi (description)

Holy Family, ca. 1550, after Raphael (description) 

Holy Family with three saints, ca. 1560, by Nosadella (description) 

Holy Family, ca. 1650, by Nicholas Poussin (description) 

Triptych

Madonna with Saints (Thomas Aquinas and Paul), ca. 1330, by Bernardo Daddi (additional information)

.

Bonus: Virgin and Child, ca. 1290, by Master of St. Cecilia (additional information) 

Mountain landscape

A serendipitous find -- Morning in the Mountains, before 1824, by Caspar David Friedrich.   Be sure to look at the larger of the two full-size images, so that you can see the mountaineers and the sheep. 

Diego Rivera's "Detroit Industry" Murals

Loren was kind enough to comment on yesterday's "The People Working" series, saying that he found Spruance's work reminiscent of Diego Rivera's.   The artist Diego Rivera painted four walls of the Detroit Instititute of Art in 1932-33, using the fresco technique.  These murals depicting "Detroit Industry" have become world-famous.   The two lesser walls are --

East Wall

West Wall

Much more dramatic are these two full-wall treatments --

North Wall

South Wall

The "zoom" feature available on these pages permits us to get quite close to the murals' figures.  Quite exciting!

(Note: you might like to approach these from a slightly different point of view, using the museum's list of all four walls.) 

St Luke Altarpiece

I don't know why, but I simply love works like the San Luca Altarpiece, 1453, by Andrea Mantegna. (See also image from museum site.)

Commissioned for a chapel dedicated to St Luke, in the Church of St Justina, Padua, it consists of 12 panels. 

In the top register are:  St Daniel of Padua and St Jerome on the left; the Virgin, Christ, and St John in the center; with St Augustine and St Sebastian on the right.

In the lower register, St Scolastica and St Prosdocimus appear on the left; then St Luke in the center; with St Benedict and St Justina on the right.