Then, a few days later, we went to Toledo (which Alex "called dibs on" to do a blog-post) and saw one of my favorite paintings, El Greco's The Burial of Count Orgaz. Nothing too academic or deep about why I like this painting so much . . . I just think that St. Stephen and St. Augustine (below in gold) are some of the most beautiful faces ever painted. Of course the copy doesn't do this large painting justice. It is housed just inside of a small church (kind of in the lobby/foyer) and takes up the whole wall.LET'S GET A DIALOGUE GOING. WHAT FACES DO YOU THINK ARE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL IN THE HISTORY OF ART? The Mona Lisa, anyone? What is your favorite face and why? We'd love to see your comments.
(To make a comment all that you have to do is set up a gmail account.)
(I would promise that we'll not do so much about art for a while, but we are going to Barcelona on Wednesday and we'll be seeing lots more. Just tonight the kids organized an art exhibit for the students who came over for our Sunday night Open House. It was called "Laraways: The Early Works.")
4 comments:
Michelle, concerning El Greco's "The Burial..." you probably already know this but it was interesting to me:
"In the bottom left corner of the painting there is a small child pointing at St. Stephen's sleeve. This child is El Greco's son. The only other figure in the painting who is actually looking out of the painting, toward the viewer, is El Greco. He is in the back row. His face appears above an upraised hand, immediately above the head of St. Stephen."
I wish I was familiar enough with different works of art so I could give a valid opinion on a great face . . . I will do some homework and get back to you! :)
What about Frida?? Love her self portraits. The storytelling quality,the colors! I love Mexican art. Have you ever seen Lee Bennion's portraits? Love the one that was at the BYU museum of art during the Images of Christ exhibit. If I remember right it was Mary. Anyway another great Utah artist.
Love your posts Michelle. Take care
Anonymous (is that Mom?), funny thing El Greco also included Phillip II in the painting as an angel in heaven. It turns out that Phillip was not fond of El Greco's work and perhaps the artists painting of him in heaven was his way of saying-- I wish he were dead. I don't know.
Stephanie, Frida is a fun choice. Have you ever seen my Frida cookbook. I'll have to show it to you when I get back. There are some really great black and white photos of her.
Yes, I love Lee Bennion's paintings too. Utah has such fun and interesting artists. Lee's daughter was in my ward in NY and I met Lee several times. She was gracious and lovely (just as you'd expect from her paintings).
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