30Apr 2020 by kike_K No Comments
The Jester

The Jester

Painting
There is a much complete series of jesters painted by Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), Don Sebastian de Morra is my favourite one. In all those paintings portraying these misshapen, fool human beings which are really unique in the history of Art, Velazquez is capable of bringing out his innate sense of elegance, a certain distance, a great tenderness and deep respect for the models whom he never derides. The melancholic expressiveness, a cautious and discreet look in their eyes, the wonderful red and green harmony of the clothes. The painter Ramon Gaya wrote beautiful and accurate words on these paintings: ‘All the scholars devoted to Velazquez have tried to decipher every probable meaning hidden in the series of jesters. Most of the time, they have turned Velazquez into a kind and…
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24Nov 2019 by kike_K No Comments
Giovanna Garzoni

Giovanna Garzoni

Painting
Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670) was born in a family of craftsmen. Against all social conventions she was given a full artistic education and training. Her first recorded work a Holy Family is dated on 1616. She married the Venetian portraitist Tiberio Tinelli when she was 22 years old but they split up one year later. There would be no other love adventure in her life, no source of scandal. She was free so she decided to focus on her artistic vocation and this during her entire life. At that time, oil painting wasn’t an option for any woman so she was devoted to scientific illustration (animals and plants), calligraphy and miniatures, ‘all those things a honest woman can do at home’ according to this period customs and standards.  She looked for…
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06Oct 2019 by kike_K No Comments
Giorgio Morandi

Giorgio Morandi

Painting
Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) is one of those painters I’d like to write about. Like so many artists of his generation he was influenced by the Cubism and like many Italian artists he was under the influence of the Futurism and the metaphysic painting style too. He would deny the metaphysic influence later, tired of being compared to Carrà or De Chirico. Around 1937, he retired to Bologna and started a period of experimentation and further studies related to the physical character of the objects. These experiences would take the rest of his life resulting in a series of very well-known still-life paintings. Morandi, among very few artists, deepened in the pictorial possibilities of the models and stayed true to an idea, both considering the way the models are represented and…
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