Something Beautiful

Meeting Street (Gibbes Museum)

Not long ago I was trying to find (or re-find) this painting and was disappointed at not being able to locate it.    Tonight I opened up the Google Art Project site and there it was -- Meeting Street, c. 1925, by Alfred Hutty. 

This work is owned by the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, S.C., which strikes me as an excellent regional art museum.   You can check it out either at the museum's website or by perusing the 43 items it has placed on Google Art Project. 

Two old favorites

Both of these old favorites are owned by the Wadsworth Atheneum in Connecticut: 

Monet painting in his garden at Argenteuil, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir  

Jane Avril, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Bottle vase (Philbrook)

One of the many pleasures of browsing the Google Art Project is discovering new museums.   This afternoon I happened across a work from the Philbrook Art Museum, located in -- of all places -- Tulsa, Oklahoma.   The Philbrook is represented by 57 works at the GAP.  

One work which attracted my eye is this bottle vase, made in the 1700s. 

Getty Museum - up close

When did this happen and why didn't I know about it?  For years I've been frustrated that the Getty Museum's marvelous collection was viewble online only in rather small, chintzy images.   It seems that's no longer the case.   Just tonight I discovered that a zoom version of its works is now available. 

Try this Madonna with St Thomas Aquinas and St. Paul, c. 1330, by Bernardo Daddi in its original form, and then check out the zoom: 

*  Original format;
*  Zoom

I think you'll agree that this represents a quantum leap forward at the Getty site, and opens up whole new viewing pleasures there. 

 

Drawings & Prints at the MIA

I'll be packing over the next couple of weeks. I'm just moving from one space to another within the upstate New York college town where I have lived for the most of the past twelve years. So, nothing very dramatic but it will still be a lot of work and not all that much fun.

To keep myself a bit of company during that time and, I hope, also for the viewing pleasure of others, I'd like to take another look at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts site, especially its Drawings and Prints department.

There's just something about this site that I love. The first thing to notice is that you can browse around in several quite nifty ways:

At random (one work at a time);

By artist (57 artists); and

By medium (17 media).

Each of these has its advantages.

The random work feature is a bit slow but has introduced me to some awesome works that I would otherwise never have come upon. Tip: after you've seen one work at random, hit the "Random Artwork" button on the right side of the page, and and another work will be delivered to you. You can keep doing that for as long as you want!

The artist feature is really fun. I might try exploring it a bit in a future post.

My personal favorite is the medium feature. I hope to delve into both drawings and prints over the next few days.

Illuminated Manuscripts (at the NGA)

Inspired by yesterday's post, I've been looking around the newly revamped NGA site. The NGA has always, in my opinion, been a little stingy with its images. That is still true in some areas, but now much less so in others. Here is a page full of wonderful, zoomable images from illuminated manuscripts. There are 16 images in the top half of the page. Don't miss the additional 19 images further down.

NGA's 25 most requested images

I love this page. It displays the thumbnails of the 25 most requested images at the website of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Just seeing so many great works on one page somehow has an effect on one's body. (Note that 25 more images are available on the very next page.)

Morgan Library (building)

The Morgan Library building itself is a work of art. You can best appreciate this by clicking on the photo of the building (white, on the left) and checking out the slideshow. Note that some rooms have multiple views.

Alternatively, you could just make your way down this list of the four rooms depicted in the slideshow:

1: East Room;
2: Rotunda;
3: West Room;
4: North Room.

You can also see a floorplan of the entire campus. You can get a somewhat different viewpoint of the whole by exploring the interactive floorplan. Note the four main, or original, rooms in the upper right corner of both maps.

Sacred Spain (Indianapolis)

The Indianapolis Museum hosted an exhibition last year titled Sacred Spain. The exhibition is now closed but its special microsite is still up. It's not a brilliant exhibition in my opinion, but it is moving and interesting.

A good way to get an initial feel for it is through the two virtual tours. And then take a look at image gallery.

Art movements (at the Guggenheim)

I've always loved this page on modern art movements at the Guggenheim museum site.