Something Beautiful

St. Jerome Reading

This painting might initially not look like much but, on closer examination, perhaps you will like it as much as I do.   The rabbits, the plants, the bird at the top.   And good old doughty Jerome, sitting at his book, so fit and alert.   By Giovanni Bellini, 1505, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.  

P.S.  At first I thought this work was missing St. Jerome's lion, a most regrettable omission.  But look - there he is after all, in the lower right corner.   

Drawings in Metalpoint!

Ever since discovering them through the Internet, I've loved drawings in metalpoint, i.e., in silver and gold.   So it was great to discover that the National Gallery of Art has an online feature devoted to this genre! 

HM 48

It's been a long time since I posted a link to an ''ordinary" book of hours.  Here's one of my favorites, at the wonderful Digital Scriptorium -- HM 48.   Strongly recommend you try the Medium or, better yet, Large images.  

Book of Kells online!

Trinity College, Dublin, owns the massive, marvelous Book of Kells.   After years of being notably stingy with its images, Trinity has at long last placed every single page of the Book online.  

Start here and feast your eyes.   (Note: if these early "canon tables" don't strike your fancy, just stick with it and your patience will be rewarded.)  

One of the most colorful pages is the portrait of St. Matthew, at the beginning of the Gospel attributed to him. There are two pages (here and here) where an anonymous colorist started to add decoration to the pages but left them incomplete.

Mourning Mary Magdalene

This portrait of a grieving Mary Magdalene  is unusual for the close attention paid to her face and expression.   The detail and sumptuousness of her clothing are also remarkable.   This painting was done by Colijn de Coter c. 1500.  It hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary.  

Two paintings in green

For some reason I have long found these two works in green very appealing:  
*  The Artist's Wife
*  The Green House

Mary Cassatt: Mothers (and Children)

Here is a feast for the eyes on Mother's Day: 25 works by Mary Cassatt (at Google Art Project).  

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day, perhaps a quilt?   This one has a very nice feel to it, and is for some reason called George Washington's Cherry Tree Quilt.   It was made before 1852.     

Museums in NYC

I've been feeling quite depressed for the last few days.  It occurs to me that a trip to NYC might be a good antidote.   And since I've been thinking about taking out a one-year membership in one of New York's fine museums, perhaps this would be a good time and place to look into their upcoming exhibitions.   

1:  The grand dame of NY museums:  the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  

2:  Its modern counterpart:  the Museum of Modern Art.   

3:  One of two beautiful converted mansions:  the Morgan Library.  

4:  The other beautiful converted mansion:  the Frick Collection.  

5:  Something a little different:  the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum.  

 

Let us not forget:

The Whitney Museum of American Art

and

The Guggenheim Museum .

Rijksmuseum

Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum currently has 746 paintings on display. Luckily for us, it also has more than 4,000 paintings online!

Among them are these Biblical scenes, many of which are simply marvelous.