Something Beautiful

Lamentation (Botticelli)

Botticelli has transformed a mournful scene into a beautiful one, in part by his use of color, in Lamentation with Saints, ca. 1490.   

Jean Antoine Watteau

I'm not sure just when I first came across one of Watteau's red, black and white chalk drawings, but I remember being instantly taken with them.   The Metropolitan Museum has Seated Woman,  1716-17, which is both excellent and fairly typical.    The Getty has four of Watteau's works in this medium. 

Virgin and Child (S. Martini)

Every once in a while I need to see a Gothic work such as this Madonna and Child, ca. 1326, by Simone Martini.  The zoom for this painting is really marvelous. 

A bit of Holland

This photo of several windmills in Holland is very appealing, no?    It's by Corry DeLaan, of Munich, Germany.   Note that you can change the background to the photo by clicking on one of the grayscale-squares in the upper left corner of the Photoblink screen.   

Many more of Mr. DeLaan's photos appear at FotoCommunity.   One that I especially liked is called Morning Idyll. 

St Paul's Cathedral (etching)

This etching of the Choir in St Paul's Cathedral, London, strikes me as very fine.   It was made in the 17th century by Czech artist Vaclav (Wenceslaus) Hollar.  (The zoom feature is essential to a proper appreciation of it.) 

Wilmerding Collection (NGA)

The National Gallery of Art has mounted an exhibition called the John Wilmerding Collection: "American Masters from Bingham to Eakins," and has placed a generous selection of works online.  The exhibition can be approached in a number of ways --

A single page introduction;

A four-page history of Mr. Wilmerding and the collection he gathered; 

A twenty-seven page Highlights section;

A zoomable slideshow; and a   

A checklist with images of all 51 works in the exhibition.

My favorite part is the "Highlights" section.  Here are a few of my favorite works therein --

Stage Rocks and Western Shore of Gloucester Outer Harbor, 1857, by Fitz Hugh Lane.

Seated Man,  1863, by Eastman Johnson

Take Your Choice, 1885, by John Frederick Peto.

Northeast Harbor, Maine, 1895, by William Stanley Haseltine.

This exhibition is so good that even the Credits page is beautiful! Take a look -- Sunrise over Schoodic, early 1870s, by William Trost Richards.

Pokrovsky Cathedral (Quarenghi)

This drawing strikes me as quite exquisite -- Pokrovsky Cathedral and the Spasskaya Tower, 1797, by Giacomo Quarenghi (pen, brush, India ink, and watercolor).  (original page)