Something Beautiful

Kyung Min Nam (contemporary Korean artist)

I'm very taken with Matisse and N are Talking about Cezanne, a painting done by contemporary Korean artist Kyung Min Nam in 2005. Google Art Project has 47 other works by Nam, some of them equally as enticing and enigmatic. Many refer to other artists or to artistic concerns.

Basilica of St. Denis

The Basilica of St. Denis is one of my favorite French churches.   It has at least three claims to fame:
(1)  It was the first church to have been built in the Gothic style.
(2)  It was the place where the coronations of most French monarchs took place.
(3)  It is the burial site of nearly all French kings, and of many other French royals and nobles. 

Piero della Francesco (at the Frick)

The Frick Museum in NYC is hosting an exhibition called Piero della Francesco in America.   The Web page for the exhibition is small but good.  It includes quite an excellent interactive section on altarpieces in general and one of Piero's in particular. 

Netsuke (Hare with the Amber Eyes)

The popular book The Hare with the Amber Eyes told a multi-generational story centered largely around a collection of netsuke that belonged to one family member and was given as a wedding present to another.   The author's website presents a gallery of 29 items from that collection.   They are worth seeing!  

 

Posting an image

Okay, how do I post an image? (What I really want is to know where images are stored.)

Presentation (Lorenzetti)

February 2nd (yesterday) is the traditional day for celebrating the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple.   The story is told in the Gospel of St. Luke at 2:22-39.  

The Presentation is one of that small category of Gospel scenes which has evoked many exceptionally fine paintings.   One of my personal favorites is the Presentation by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, done in 1432.  Just start anywhere and pan across, or up and down.   You'll soon see that its splendid colors and tremendous detail make this an extraordinary art work. 

 

Netsuke

There are 39 examples of Japanese netsuke, some of them quite appealing, at the Google Art Project. 

The origins of netsuke are explained on one of the Toledo Museum's pages.