Something Beautiful

Prado gallery

The Prado Museum in Madrid holds one of the world's finest art collections. One good way of accessing its holdings is to use the the Museum's own Online gallery, currently offering 1,076 works of art. One way to explore the Online gallery is to check out this page and go from there.

Discovered in 1995

These six pilaster saints were on display not that long ago at the National Gallery, London. The six panels were discovered, wrapped in newspaper, in an English church in 1995. It appears that they were painted by Jacopo Di Cione and his workshop in Florence, Italy, sometime around 1365-1370.

The Gemäldegalerie (Berlin)

The Gemäldegalerie in Berlin is one of the world's great museums. You can get a feel for what it might be like to spend a day there by reading this long blog entry, complete with photos. The photos are not always great and a few of the comments are unfortunate. On the whole, though, this page will give you a real sense of being at the Museum and viewing the fabulous works mounted on its walls.

The Uffizi!

I just came across Museums of Florence, a rather astonishing site that apparently lists all (most of? many of?) the museums of Florence, Italy, and provides thumbnails of the works that they possess.

Here, for example, is the section on the famed Uffizi Gallery.

Another wonderful room

Should I call this a wonderful room -- or a room of wonders? It's another room at the Arts decoratifs website, this time filled with works of the Renaissance.

Les Arts decoratifs

A newly-discovered site to celebrate: Les Arts decoratifs. I'm still learning my way around this site, so I can't give quite the kind of guidance that I would like. To give you a taste, though, here's one superb example of the kinds of riches available here:

Middle Ages (panorama, full-screen).

And here are two more general pages that lead deeper into the site:

Interactive plan

Collections

National Gallery, London

I'm trying to bestir myself and find just the right painting to post.  So far I've not succeeded, but I'm enjoying the National Gallery, London site as I pursue my elusive goal.  It has gone from strength to strength over the years that I have used it.

No, I haven't found just the work I wanted for today. Here, though, is an extraordinary work that is well worth a few minutes' study -- a Crucifixion altarpiece, attributed to Jacopo di Cione, c. 1368

An amazing feature of the site is that you can look at the plan for each floor, and choose a room to visit online. Have a look:

Ground floor

2nd floor

Sainsbury Wing

On each floorplan, you can choose a room and then see a list of the works it contains. Room 53, for example, has paintings from Florence, Italy, in the period 1400-1450. Among other beautiful works, you can see in this room a Coronation of Mary by Lorenzo Monaco, the central panel of the San Benedetto altarpiece.

Rijksmuseum

Here are two Christmas-related works from the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands.   

Jesse Tree, 1485, by Jan Mostaert  (additional info)
(Note: Look for the PEACOCK.) 

Holy Kinship, ca. 1490, by Geertgen tot Sint Jans (additional info) 

Reminder: Don't miss out on the enlarged versions!

New Hermitage

The "New Hermitage" is part of the famed museum complex of St. Petersburg, Russia.   At the Hermitage website, you can see five views of the New Hermitage's exterior, and 12 views, plus 8 more of the interior. 

The interiors, especially, are really worthwhile.   Here are two of my particular favorites --

Hall of Ancient Greece
Hall of Twelve Columns

Camille Pissarro (NGL)

The National Gallery, London, is a marvelous art museum with a fine website.  This morning I found myself looking at its small collection of 12 works by Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro (1830-1903).   

Among these twelve are two works painted in England --

Fox Hill, Upper Norwood, 1870

The Avenue, Sydenham, 1871

Pissarro painted city-scapes, such as these two works made in Paris --

Boulevard Montmartre at Night, 1897

Louvre under Snow, 1902

The artist spent a great deal of time in the French countryside --

View from Louveciennes, 1869-70

Cote des Boeufs at L'Hermitage, 1877

He painted portraits of people dear to him --

Portrait of Cezanne, 1874

Portrait of Felix Pissarro, 1881

Finally and, to my mind, best of all, he painted country people in their natural rural settings --

A Wool-Carder, 1880

Little Country Maid, 1882

The Pork Butcher, 1883

My personal favorite of all the Pissarros at the NGL is this enchanting portrayal --

Pere Melon Sawing at Pontoise, 1879