Jael, Judith, David and Samson. True Heroes!

Jael, Samson, Judith and David are heroes from the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament who risked their own lives to save their people from the enemy. They are unlikely but true heroes, charming, clever and cunning, and in the case of Samson fighting with physical strength. Paintings with these true heroes had often a political or moralising message. Their stories were associated with the underdog defeating an oppressor; a small country fighting victoriously against the big enemy. The four are commonly depicted as follows: Jael holds the hammer and peg with which she killed Sisera (Judges 4:17-23), Judith displays the head of Holofernes and holds the sword with which she decapitated him (Judith 13:6-10), David leans on the gigantic sword with which he cut off the head of Goliath (I Sam.17: 51), and finally Samson who holds the jawbone with which he slew a thousand Philistines (Judges 15:15-20).

_{Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian, 1593 – 1654), Jael and Sisera (1620), 93×128cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.}

The topic of the canvas is the moment in which Jael is about to kill Sisera, a general of the enemy. Jael welcomed Sisera into her tent and covered him with a blanket. Sisera asked Jael for a drink of water; she gave him milk instead and comforted him so that he fell asleep in her lap. Quietly, Jael took a hammer and drove a tent peg through Sisera’s skull while he was sleeping, killing him instantly. Jael was the woman with the honour of defeating the enemy and their army.

_{Andrea Mantegna (Italian, c.1431 – 1506), Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c.1497), Tempera on Panel, 30x18cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.}

Besieged by the Assyrians, the beautiful Israelite widow Judith went into the enemy camp of Holofernes to win his confidence. During a great banquet Holofernes became drunk, and later in his tent Judith seized his sword and cut off his head. Often an elderly female servant is depicted taking away the head in a bag or basket. Look at the Mantegna painting, you can see Holofernes on the bed, just by way of one of his feet! Their leader gone; the enemy was soon defeated by the Israelites. This ancient heroine was understood in the Renaissance as a symbol of civic virtue, of intolerance of tyranny, and of a just cause triumphing over evil. The story of Judith and Holofernes comes from the “Book of Judith”, a text that’s part of the Old Testament of the Catholic Bible. The Book of Judith is excluded from the Hebrew and Protestant Bible, but still considered an important additional historical text.

_{Donatello or Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (Italian, c.1386 – 1466), David (c.1440), bronze, 158cm, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, Italy.}

This is the story of the Israelite boy David and the Philistine giant Goliath. The Israelites are fighting the Philistines, whose champion – Goliath – repeatedly offers to meet the Israelites’ best warrior in single combat to decide the whole battle. None of the trained Israelite soldiers is brave enough to fight Goliath, until David – a shepherd boy who is too young to be a soldier – accepts the challenge. The Israelite leader offers David armor and weapons, but the boy is untrained and refuses them. Instead, he goes out with his sling, and confronts the enemy. He hits Goliath in the head with a stone from his sling, knocking the giant down, and then grabs Goliath’s sword and cuts off his head. The Philistines withdraw and the Israelites are saved. David’s courage and faith illustrates the triumph of good over evil. Donatello’s bronze statue is famous as the first unsupported standing work of bronze cast during the Renaissance, and the first freestanding nude male sculpture made since antiquity. It depicts David with an enigmatic smile, posed with his foot on Goliath’s severed head just after defeating the giant. The youth is completely naked, apart from a laurel-topped hat and boots, and bears the sword of Goliath. The phrase “David and Goliath” has taken on a more popular meaning denoting an underdog situation, a contest wherein a smaller, weaker opponent faces a much bigger, stronger adversary.

_{Salomon de Bray (Dutch, 1597 – 1664), Samson with the Jawbone (1636), 64x52cm, Getty Center, Los Angeles.}

The biblical account states that Samson was a Nazirite, and that he was given immense strength to aid him against his enemies and allow him to perform superhuman feats, including slaying a lion with his bare hands and massacring an entire enemy army of Philistines using only the jawbone of a donkey. Holding the jawbone as his attribute, Samson looks upward, perhaps to God. The great strongman just slew a thousand Philistines with that jawbone. Overcome by thirst, he then drank from the rock at Lechi, a name that also means “jawbone” in Hebrew. Due to a mistaken translation in the Dutch Bible, some artists, like Salomon de Bray on the paining above, depicted Samson with a jawbone and water dripping out of the bone, rather than the rock issuing water.

Jael, Judith, David and Samson are just a few of the many heroes depicted in art. These four are exceptionally brave. Through their courage their people found victory and freedom. The message these four send, is to be brave in difficult times. Keep hope, keep faith, and set a step when there is the opportunity. It can change history, for oneself, and maybe for the world!

Jael, Judith, David and Samson; a print series.

In 1588 Hendrick Goltzius designed a series of four Heroes and Heroines from the Old Testament, after which Jacob Matham made the engravings. The print series could refer to events during the Dutch Revolt or The Eighty Years’ War (1568 – 1648), an armed conflict between The Netherlands under the leadership of William of Orange (“The Silent”) and Spain under King Philips II, the sovereign of The Netherlands. An end was reached in 1648 with the Peace of Münster when Spain recognised the Dutch Republic as an independent country. It’s the unlikely hero and heroine fighting and defeating the enemy; a print series with stories from the old bible books, translated into a contemporary political message.

On the drawings and the corresponding prints Jael, Judit, David and Samson are all portrayed full-length, in the foreground, with their characteristic attributes, while in the background their heroic deed is depicted. Jael holds the hammer and peg with which she killed Sisera, Judith displays the head of Holofernes and holds the sword with which she decapitated him, David leans on the gigantic sword with which he cut off the head of Goliath, that he carries in his left hand, finally Samson who holds the jawbone with which he slew a thoudanss Philistines. The preparatory drawings all still exist and are in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Hereunder on the left the drawings by Goltzius and on the right the prints as engraved by Matham. Once engraved into a copper plate and after printing, the print becomes a “negative” of the original drawing.

_{Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), Jael (c.1588), drawing, 26×17cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Jacob Matham, engraver (Dutch, 1571 – 1631) after a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), Jael with hammer and tent peg (c.1588), engraving, 27×17cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.}

_{Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), Judith (c.1588), drawing, 26×17cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Jacob Matham, engraver (Dutch, 1571 – 1631) after a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), Judith with Holofernes’ head and the sword (c.1588), engraving, 27×17cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.}

_{Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), David (c.1588), drawing, 27×17cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Jacob Matham, engraver (Dutch, 1571 – 1631) after a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), David with Goliath’s head (c.1588), engraving, 27×17cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.}

_{Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), Samson (c.1588), drawing, 26×17cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Jacob Matham, engraver (Dutch, 1571 – 1631) after a drawing by Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), Samson with the jawbone (c.1588), engraving, 27×17cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.}

The Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, March 25

Today 25th of March is the feast of The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the announcement by the Archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth and become the mother of Jesus Christ.

It’s easy to remember this date, as it’s a full nine months of pregnancy before Christmas, the birthday of Jesus. And it’s approximately the start of spring and the moment of the northern equinox when day and night are equally long. In medieval terms, start of spring is identified as the date of an unusual number of Biblical events: Adam’s and Eve’s fall into sin; Cain’s murder of Abel; Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac; the martyrdom of John the Baptist; and the Crucifixion. Still more strongly associated with this date is the Annunciation, at which, according to the Gospel of Luke, the archangel Gabriel brought word to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive the Son of God: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.”

The Annunciation at the Well flourished in Byzantium, an ancient Greek city that became known as Constantinople and as Istanbul today. In this illustration from a 12th century manuscript, two meetings are implied: at left, Mary dips her pitcher into a well as she turns to hear Gabriel’s message; at right, she approaches a house where she will receive the angel a second time while sitting on a throne-like chair. This illustration is following the Annunciation as written in the Gospel of James.
_{Jacobus Monachus also known as the Kokkinobaphos Master, Homiliae in Beatam Mariam etc, 12th Century, Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits, Inv Nr Grec 1208, page 159v.}

The Annunciation has been one of the most frequent subjects of Christian art. Its composition and details vary in accordance with its setting: the Virgin might appear on a throne, in a loggia, in a bedroom, or outdoors, and she often is shown sewing or reading. A variant of particular interest is the depiction of the Annunciation at the Spring, also known as the Annunciation at the Well. Inspired by accounts preserved in early apocryphal (non-Bible) texts such as the Gospel of James, this variant of the Annunciation depicts the Virgin Mary greeted by the angel Gabriel as she is fetching water at a well.

Cultures in the western part of the Mediterranean, like Venice with its strong trading links to the Byzantine area, adopted the image of the Annunciation at the Spring. This scene appears among twelfth-century mosaics of the Life of the Virgin in the transept of the church of San Marco in Venice.

There are two basic sources that describe the Annunciation. The Gospel of Luke (1:26-38) and the Gospel of James (v.11). Luke’s Gospel is part of the traditional Bible books and mostly the story that is depicted in Western art from the 14th Century onwards. The other source is the 2nd Century Gospel of James, which is an “apocryphal” book, meaning it’s not included in the traditional Bible collection of books. James’s Gospel is mostly the source in Eastern art up to the 15th Century and – remarkably – again by British painters in the 19th Century. The Gospel of James describes how one day Mary took the pitcher and went forth to draw water at a well when she heard an angelic voice: “Hail, you are highly favored, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.” And Mary looked around on the right and on the left to see from where this voice could have come.” During this first encounter, at a well or spring, the angel was heard but not seen. Mary appeared to be alone. Mary then went inside and it’s there that the angel appeared to her in person, while Mary is sitting on a throne-like chair.

In this beautiful illustration form an early 14th Century Armenian manuscript known as the Glazdor Gospels, a flattened, stylized well and pitcher offer only a reminder of the original “Annunciation at the Well” images. The figures’ static postures, animated only by Gabriel’s speaking gesture and the Virgin’s raised palm, recall Western Annunciation scenes, but Mary’s gilded brocade, the throned seat and the ogival dome at the top of the composition attest to its Eastern roots.
_{The Glazdor Gospels, Los Angeles, University of California Research Library, MS. 1, p. 305.}

From the 14th Century onward most Annunciations in Western art focus more on the story as written in the Gospel of Luke rather than the apocryphal Gospel of James. They dispense with the pitcher and the well and more and more they will also omit Mary sitting on a the throne-like seat. Many more images placed the event in a specific and unified space such as a portico (Fra Angelico), a private home (Rubens), or a church (Van Eyck).

The Archangel Gabriel delivers a salutation from God: “Ave Gratia Plena” (Hail, Full of Grace). His words flow out in gold letters. Mary draws back with surprise and modesty. She has been chosen to bear the Son of God. As she speaks her acceptance: “Ecce Ancilla Domini” (See, I am the Servant of the Lord), written upside-down for God to read it more easily from above. The dove of the holy spirit descends to her on rays of light.
_{Jan van Eyck (Netherlandish, c.1390 – 1441), The Annunciation (c.1435), 90x34cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.}

In this Annunciation by Fra Angelico, Gabriel is seen approaching Mary outdoors in the cloister of San Marco in Florence. Mary is depicted as sweet and innocent yet taken aback by Gabriel’s arrival. Her innocence and virginity is represented by the “Hortus Conclusus” (Walled Garden) seen in the background. Her arms are folded in the same manner as Gabriel, and show her acceptance, humility, and submission.
_{Fra Angelico (c.1395 – 1455), The Annunciation (c.1442), Fresco, 230x297cm, Convent of San Marco, Florence.}

When Cosimo de’ Medici rebuilt the convent of San Marco, he commissioned Fra Angelico to decorate the walls with frescos. This included the inside of the monk’s cells and inside the corridors; around fifty pieces in total. Out of all of the frescos at the convent, the Annunciation is the most well known. This fresco was not intended just for aesthetic purposes. Running across the loggia at the bottom of the fresco there is an inscription that instructs the viewer: “Virginis Intacte Cvm Veneris Ante Figvram Preterevndo Cave Ne Sileatvr Ave.” It means “When you come before the image of the Ever-Virgin take care that you do not neglect to say an Ave”. This was a daily reminder for the monks to pray.

Leonardo’s Annunciation depicts the Archangel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she would conceive miraculously and give birth to a son to be named Jesus. The angel holds a Madonna lily, a symbol of Mary’s virginity as well as that of the city of Florence. It is presumed that, being a keen observer of nature, Leonardo painted the wings of the angel to resemble those of a bird in flight, but later, the wings were lengthened dramatically by another artist.
_{Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452 – 1519), Annunciation (c.1474), 98x217cm, Uffizi, Florence.}

In this Annunciation by Rubens, painted around 1628, Mary is portrayed in her sitting room. The homy atmosphere is emphasized by the wicker basket that contains Mary’s sewing and the sleeping cat in the bottom right-hand corner. Rubens started working on this painting after his stay in Italy, where he had come under the influence of the great painters of the Renaissance. This Italianate influence is evident from the unusually bright colors and the free dynamic style, which was new in the Netherlandic countries. Rubens used ultramarine for Mary’s cloak, a precious pigment made from finely ground lapis lazuli.
_{Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577 – 1640), The Annunciation (1628), 310x179cm, Rubens House, Antwerp.}

This scene shows the intercession of the Holy Ghost, symbolised by the white dove. The Virgin is accompanied by three of her traditional attributes: a sewing basket, a book as symbol of Mary’s devotion, and a spray of lilies which symbolize her purity.
_{Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617 – 1682), The Annunciation (c.1660), 125x103cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid.}

In the 19th Century a group of British painters broke with traditional imagery and went back to pre-Raphael depiction of stories. This group is therefor called the Pre-Raphaelites. Here on this painting, Mary is back at the well as in the Byzantine annunciation images. She encounters the voice of the angel and his message, although she doesn’t see him.
_{Edward Burne-Jones (British, 1833–1898), The Annunciation (1879), 250x105cm, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool, England.}

This Annunciation of 1892, by Arthur Hacker from the Tate Britain, London, is depicting the story from the 2nd Century apocryphal (non-Bible) Gospel of James. As Mary gathers water at the well, unexpectedly an angel she cannot see appears. Arthur Hacker chose to portray the young Mary in portrait form, rather than focus upon the angelic meeting. Serious and sombre, Mary rests her hands on her heart. She is aware of something very important happening to her. She knows she has a role to play, and seems humbled to be chosen for it. Hovering behind Mary is the angel. He holds out a lily to Mary, the flower that symbolises Mary’s purity. Arthur Hacker spent time in Spain and Morocco. This had a strong influence on his art. Mary’s clothing probably reflects Islamic dress Hacker saw during his travels.
_{Arthur Hacker (English, 1858 – 1919), The Annunciation (1892), 233x126cm, Tate, London.}

Beatrice Emma Parsons chooses to portray the innocence and vulnerability of a young woman faced with the important responsibilities of motherhood. While the virginity of Mary has always held theological importance, with this work Parsons uses it to emphasize the humanity of the scene. Parsons captures the vulnerability of Mary, dressed in white and standing among a field of Madonna lilies, a symbol of the Annunciation and Mary’s purity. Also seen growing in Mary’s garden are red roses, emblematic of Christ’s Passion. The Holy Spirit, represented according to the traditional iconography of scenes of the Annunciation as a Dove fluttering above the Virgin’s head, is here translated into a group of birds sitting on the roof of the Virgin’s cottage.
_{Beatrice Emma Parsons (English, 1870 – 1955), The Annunciation (1897), 114x183cm, Sotheby’s New York, 2007.}

Tanner painted The Annunciation after a trip to Egypt and Palestine in 1897. Influenced by what he saw, Tanner created an unconventional image of the moment when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear the Son of God. Mary is shown dressed in rumpled Middle Eastern peasant clothing, without a halo or other holy attributes. Gabriel appears only as a shaft of light. Tanner entered this painting in the 1898 Paris Salon exhibition, after which it was bought for the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1899.
_{Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859 – 1937), The Annunciation (1898), 145x181cm Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia PA.}

March 25 was used as New Year’s Day in many pre-modern Christian countries. The holiday was moved to January 1 in France by Charles IX in 1564. In England, the feast of the Annunciation came to be known as Lady Day, and Lady Day marked the beginning of the English new year until 1752.

Here are the two stories, written by Luke and by James, both accounts of the Annunciation and written down in the first few centuries after the birth of Jesus.The story as told by Luke in his Gospel (1:26-38) is focusing on the discussion between the Angel and Mary. It’s as follows:

Luke 1: 26-38
God sent the angel Gabriel, to a virgin named Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest.”
 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”
 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her

The story as told by James in his Gospel (v.11) gives also details about the setting. It happens at the well and inside Mary’s house, and it mentions that Mary is doing some sewing and needlework. It’s as follows:

James v.11
And she took the pitcher and went out to fill it with water. And suddenly a voice could be heard, saying: “Hail, you who has received grace; the Lord is with you; blessed are yiou among women!” And Mary looked round to the right hand and to the left, to see from where this voice came. And she went away, trembling, to her house, and put down the pitcher; and she took her sewing basket with needlework, and she sat down on her seat. And then, look, an angel of the Lord stood before her, saying: “Fear not, Mary; for you have found grace before the Lord, and you shall conceive, according to His word.” And she is hearing, reasoned with herself, saying: “Shall I conceive by the Lord, the living God? and shall I give birth as every woman gives birth?” And the angel of the Lord said: “Not so, Mary; for the power of the Lord shall overshadow you: wherefore also that holy thing which shall be born with you shall be called the Son of the Highest. And you shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” And Mary said: “See, I am the servant of the Lord before His face: let it be upon me according to your word.”

The Four Seasons

Spring is in the air! I wrote about Winter in Art not so long ago. The pictures in that story were all about keeping ourselves warm in the cold season. It made me so much longing for Spring and Summer, even Autumn would be fine. Can the dark winter days be gone please, and will we soon see some spring flowers and sunshine! To get in the mood for the warmer weather, here are two series of the Four Seasons, both starting with Spring: a cute series of paintings by David Teniers (made around 1644) with seasonal activities, and four prints by Hendrick Goltzius (from 1601) with the seasons represented by children growing up and falling in love. These pictures are all to get you in the mood for the warmer seasons. Stay warm for now and enjoy!

Four Seasons by David Teniers (1610 – 1690)

The series of four small paintings by David Teniers is an allegory of the seasons where Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter have been given human forms that embody the essence of each. Teniers placed his characters, of an appropriate age and dressed accordingly, in the foreground with a symbolic seasonal object. In the background figures doing work associated with each season. The paintings are from c.1644 and pretty small, about 22x16cm.

_{Spring is personified as a gardener heaving a large pot containing a young tree, kept during winter in the orangery and now back outside as weather is getting milder. There is still a chilly background; it seems as if April showers are approaching. Other gardeners dig the soil, making a formal garden in the fashionable style set by French designers and followed with keen interest in Flanders.}

David Teniers the Younger (Antwerp 1610 – Brussels 1690) is one of the most famous 17th-century Flemish painters and particularly known for developing the peasant genre and tavern scenes. He was working for the King of Spain, as well as for Prince William of Orange and the Governor of the Netherlands, the Archduke Leopold. Teniers moved to Brussels where Archduke Leopold became his main employer. One of Teniers’ key tasks was to look after and enlarge the Archducal collection, which grew to incorporate about 1300 works. The archduke’s collection became the nucleus of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

_{Summer is a young peasant with a sheaf of wheat he has just finished binding together with straw. The peasants behind him are working hard. The man wields a scythe to cut the wheat, while the woman bends to heap it into sheaves, ready to be tied. Behind them the trees are in full leaf and the distance is hazy with the summer heat.}

_{Autumn is a jolly wine drinker – a stout fellow with a handsome moustach and a comfortable belly. In the background, a man raises a hammer to fasten down the lid of a barrel of wine. Another guy attends to a barrel that has spilled grapes onto the ground. It’s the grape harvesting season. Autumn holds a flagon in one hand and raises a glass with a fancy stem in the other, like tasting Beaujolais Primeur, and seemingly happily ignorant of the grey autumn clouds piling up behind him.}

_{Winter brings the cycle of the seasons (and life!) full circle with an old man representation the coldest of the four seasons. Wrapped in velvet and fur, he hunches over to warm his hands at a brazier. In the background a skating scene with some misty figures.}

Fours Seasons by Hendrick Goltzius (1558 – 1617)

The Four Seasons (1601), designed and drawn by Hendrick Goltzius and engraved by his pupil Jan Saenredam, offer lush depictions of flora and fauna through changing times of the year. The prints simultaneously follow a young girl and boy’s journey into adulthood. The discovery of the bird’s nest of Spring passes seamlessly into the harvesting of Summer’s ripe crops. Autumn’s root vegetables and fruits attract the interest of a full-grown goat and a pig, while the adults and their loyal hound skate the Winter away on a frozen river. On Spring and Summer an Amor figure is shooting his arrows of love towards the boy and girl, and in all four prints the warm or cold wind is blowing from the mouth of a child’s head high in the sky. This is a series about the four seasons, about falling in love, and about growing up.

_{Two young children, a boy and a girl, study a bird’s nest containing chicks. A kid goat and a young deer are in foreground. And Amor, God of Passion and Desire, flies around; ready to shoot his arrow. Love is in the air.
“Humanas recreo mentes, volucresque ferasque: Omnia floriferi laetantur tempore veris.” or “I am enlightening every man’s heart, and the birds and the wild animals; everything is happy and in full flower in the season of Spring.”}

Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558–1617), draftsman, engraver, print publisher, and painter, was one of the most important engravers and print publishers of his time. He lived and worked in Haarlem, close to Amsterdam, and established his own print publishing business. He trained a number of engravers to work in his distinctive style. Goltzius and his workshop were internationally acclaimed; his patrons included sovereigns from all parts of Europe, most notably the art-loving Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II who also granted Goltzius copyright protection, which can be seen on the Spring engraving. It mentions “Cum Privil Sa Cae M” which means Cum Privilegio Sacrae Caesarea Majestatis or With Privilege of his Holy Imperial Majesty, and with the date Anno – in the year – 1601. This should prevent other engravers from copying Goltzius’ design and prints. Once such privilege was granted, artists indeed went to court and took action against illegal copying of their works of art.

_{An encounter between a boy and a girl: the boy at left holding a sheaf of wheat and a rake over his shoulder while she has a yoke and two water buckets. A cock and hen are in the foreground. And Amor still flying around! In the background farmers are harvesting wheat, a typical summer activity.
“Per me larga Ceres densis canescit aristis, Agricolasque beo foecundi frugibus anni.” or “Through me, the wheat fields are full and golden shiny; I make the farmers happy with gifts in this fruitful year.”}

Jan Pieterszoon Saenredam (Dutch, 1565 – 1607) was a printmaker in engraving, born in Zaandam (hence his name). He showed great artistic talent and the young Saenredam was sent to learn drawing and engraving from Hendrick Goltzius in Haarlem, where he became a master at the age of 24. After working for some time with Goltzius, he encountered the almost inevitable professional rivalry and jealousy, prompting his departure and set up his own workshop in Assendelft (just north of Amsterdam and Zaandam). He died of typhus at the age of 41, and was buried in the Saint Adolphus church at Assendelft. Jan left his wife a sizeable estate as a result of lucrative investments in the Dutch East India Company.

_{A boy and a girl, now young adults, are picking grapes and carrying a basket with freshly picked pears. Vegetables in the foreground and a goat chewing one a branch with vine leaves. Is this the goat from Spring, but older?
“En ego maturos Autumnus profero fructus, Efficioque mei ne sit spes vana coloni.” or “Look at me Autumn, who gives fruits that are ripe and takes care that the hope of my farmer is not in vain.”}

_{A young woman and a young man in rich clothes, are holding hands and skating, oblivious of the deer beset by a wolf in the background, or any of the season’s dangers. Is this poor deer the same one from Spring? A dog in lower right corner is the couple’s companion and a symbol of loyalty in love.
“Accumulant homines totum quaecunque per annum, Haec ego consumo, soli haec mihi cuncta parantur.” or “All that has been gathered and collected throughout the year, that’s consumed by me, it’s all prepared for just me alone.”}

David Teniers the Younger (Flemish, 1610 – 1690), Spring, The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, c.1644, Oil on Copper, 22x16cm, National Gallery, London.

Jan Saenredam, printmaker (Dutch, 1565 – 1607) after design by Hendrick Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617), The Four Seasons represented by four pairs of children: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, 1601, with Latin text by C. Schonaeus (Dutch, 1540 – 1611), Engraving on cream laid paper, 22×16 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago.

About the annotations on the prints:

H. Goltzius Invent. or HG Inve. This means that Hendrick Goltzius is the “inventor” or “drawer” of the design of the print.
I. Sanredam Sculpt or I.S Sculp. This means that Jan Saenredam is the “sculptor” or the “engraver” of the print.
Cum Privil Sa Cae M,. This means that the print was protected “Cum privilegio Sacrae Caesarea Majestatis” or “With imperial privilege from the Holy Roman Emperor”, as protection against illegal copies.
A° 1601 means “Anno 1601” or “in the year 1601”
C.S. means “Cornelis Schonaeus”, a scholar from Haarlem who wrote many Latin lines and verses that are found on prints of the Haarlem circle of print designers and engravers.

David Teniers, Goltzius, National Gallery London, Saernredam

February 15, 2023

National Gallery, London – Turner on Tour

“Dieppe” and “Cologne” on loan from the Frick, NY

Two magnificent pictures by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1775 – 1851) returned to the UK for the first time in over 100 years. Harbour of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile and Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening are on display at the National Gallery, London, until 19 February 2023. Lent by The Frick Collection, New York.

Exhibited at the Royal Academy London in 1825 and 1826 respectively, the paintings reflect Turner’s lifelong fascination with ports and harbours. Turner’s sketching tours within Europe were central to his fame as an artist-traveller, drawing in sketchbooks and producing paintings from them back in his studio in England. These monumental paintings have always belonged together. “Dieppe” in brilliant afternoon sun, pulls you into the hustle and bustle of a fishing harbour; “Cologne” at dusk, is set at the shore of the river Rhine in the centre of the German city. In 1911 the two paintings were acquired by the American industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick.

_{Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1775 – 1851), Harbor of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile, 1826, 174x225cm, Frick Collection, New York.}

Turner visited the French fishing port of Dieppe, in Normandy, twice in the early 1820s before painting Harbour of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile in his London studio. Set in the afternoon, the work draws from sketches made on site, as well as from memory and imagination. In this Romantic view, signs of modernisation, such as the steamboats then in use, are excluded. Turner focuses on the vibrant energy of the town filled with glowing sunlight and hundreds of figures engaged in lively activities. He captured the details of local dress, studied the ships and their rigging up close and made detailed renderings of the town’s architecture. The French subtitles Turner assigned the painting – “Changement de Domicile” (change of home address) – may refer to the couple to the right, who appear to be loading or unloading objects from boats.

_{Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1775 – 1851), Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening, 1826, 169x224cm, Frick Collection, New York.}

Cologne, Germany, had long been a major commercial, educational, and religious centre. Situated on the banks of the Rhine, Cologne was still largely medieval in appearance when Turner visited. Only a small section of the city is visible in his painting: the tower and spire of the church of Groß St. Martin piercing the evening sky, with defensive towers, walls, and the customs house leading up to it. There is a sense of time standing still. The ferry boat carrying tourists to shore is about to disturb the peace of the scene.

Turner visited Italy in 1819 and was highly inspired by the Mediterranean sun. Light became an increasingly important motif in Turner’s later work, and these two paintings certainly are the start of that artistic journey. Turner said: “The sun is God”. These words and the two paintings on view in the National Gallery summarise his belief.

Turner on Tour, National Gallery, London. Until 19 February 2023, Admission free.

Charles Baudelaire (French, 1821 – 1867) wrote a collection of short prose poems “Petits Poèmes en Prose”, published in 1869, one of those is “The Port”. Turner’s use of light in “Dieppe” and “Cologne” is a poem in painting, as Baudelaire’s words are a poem in prose.

The Port
A port is a delightful place of rest for a soul weary of life’s battles. The vastness of the sky, the mobile architecture of the clouds, the changing coloration of the sea, the twinkling of the lights, are a prism marvelously fit to amuse the eyes without ever tiring them. The slender shapes of the ships with their complicated rigging, to which the surge lends harmonious oscillations, serve to sustain within the soul the taste for rhythm and beauty. Also, and above all, for the man who no longer possesses either curiosity or ambition, there is a kind of mysterious and aristocratic pleasure in contemplating, while lying on the belvedere or resting his elbows on the jetty-head, all these movements of men who are leaving and men who are returning, of those who still have the strength to will, the desire to travel or to enrich themselves.

Le Port
Un port est un séjour charmant pour une âme fatiguée des luttes de la vie. L’ampleur du ciel, l’architecture mobile des nuages, les colorations changeantes de la mer, le scintillement des phares, sont un prisme merveilleusement propre à amuser les yeux sans jamais les lasser. Les formes élancées des navires, au gréement compliqué, auxquels la houle imprime des oscillations harmonieuses, servent à entretenir dans l’âme le goût du rythme et de la beauté. Et puis, surtout, il y a une sorte de plaisir mystérieux et aristocratique pour celui qui n’a plus ni curiosité ni ambition, à contempler, couché dans le belvédère ou accoudé sur le môle, tous ces mouvements de ceux qui partent et de ceux qui reviennent, de ceux qui ont encore la force de vouloir, le désir de voyager ou de s’enrichir.

Baudelaire, Frick Collection, National Gallery London, Turner

January 29, 2023

Winter in art

“Baby, it’s cold outside…”

Now that we are in the middle of the winter, I’ve started thinking about how this “winter” concept has been represented in art. It’s the harshest season of the year, certainly when there was no electricity or gas, but some touching images have been produced over the centuries.

It was not just landscape painters who gave us winter scenes with frozen rivers and skaters. Painters also personified winter as an old man with a fur coat and warming his hands at a brazier. And from the the 18^th century, artists depicted winter as a young woman, adding a sensual and warm touch to the cold.

I choose some ten works of art, all depicting winter as a “personification”; as a human figure depicted with symbolic attributes, representing the abstract idea of “winter”. Starting with the French Impressionist Berthe Morisot, as I like her paintings so much. And then going back in time to the 17^th century Flemish painter David Teniers, to Madame de Pompadour – lover of King Louis XV of France, to the bedroom of King George III of England, to La Frileuse, the chilly girl, by the French sculptor Houdon. It’s an eclectic batch of art, but all lovely. They give inspiration and warmth in this cold season. Like Vivaldi’s Winter from The Four Seasons.

_{Berthe Morisot (French, 1841 – 1895). On the right: Hiver or Winter, 1880, 75x62cm, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas. On the left: Été: Jeune femme près d’une fenêtre} _{or Summer: Young Woman by a Window, 1879, 76x61cm, Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France.}

Along with its Summer pendant, Winter depicts a fashionable Parisian woman who personifies a season. Berthe Morisot debuted the paintings together at the Paris Impressionist exhibition in 1880. Morisot’s images of the Parisienne, a popular figure type representing an elegant, upper-class Parisian woman, were considered utterly contemporary. A critic said about Morisot’s Winter: “with its figure, so courageously modern, of the Parisian woman braving the cold in her furs.”

Berthe Morisot (Édouard Manet’s model and sister-in-law) was one of the most respected members of the Impressionist movement. At the beginning of the 20th century, her aura began to dim and her painting, labelled “feminine”, was relegated to second rank. Only recently, thanks also to the grand 2019 Morisot exhibition in the Musée d’Orsay, Berthe Morisot was incontestably regarded again as a great artist.

_{Abraham Bloemaert (Dutch, 1566 – 1651), Allégorie de l’hiver (et de l’amour) or Winter (and love), c.1627, 70x58cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.}

This old man by the Dutch Golden Age painter Abraham Bloemaert is representing Winter. Wearing a fur hat and very carefully warming himself at a small stove full of red-hot coals or charcoal. His nose and cheeks reflect the heat of the coal. It’s not only a representation of winter, but also hinting to love and passion. Love – and it’s pleasure – happens to be gallant to the ones who court the fire of love with caution.

_{David Teniers the Younger (Flemish, 1610 – 1690), Winter, from the series The Four Seasons, c.1644, Oil on Copper, 22x16cm, National Gallery, London.}

David Teniers the Younger brings the cycle of the seasons to an end with an old man representing Winter. Wrapped in velvet and fur, he hunches over to warm his hands at a brazier, a small stove that’s heated with charcoal. His face is wrinkled, his beard long and frosted with white. In the background a small, monochrome skating scene. It’s a personification of winter and Teniers chose a character of an appropriate age and dressed him accordingly. Winter as the last season of life.

The tiny picture is on a copper base, which allowed the paint to flow more freely than it would on canvas. Teniers could show minute detail: the facial characteristics and expressions, Winter’s splendid hat and the objects on his table. Allegorical paintings of the seasons were popular at the time, and Teniers painted several versions of the subject. David Teniers was cashing in on the popularity of the series and turning them out quickly to fulfil demand.

_{Caesar Boëtius van Everdingen (Dutch, 1616 – 1678), A Young Woman Warming her Hands over a Brazier: Winter, c.1646, 97x81cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.}

This young woman by Caesar Boëtius van Everdingen warms her hands above a dish of glowing coals, holding her hands under a piece of cloth. She personifies Winter. This season was usually represented as an old man: old because the year is coming to an end, like towards the end of life. Van Everdingen’s choice of a young, richly attired woman is rather unusual. Cesar Boëtius van Everdingen was a Dutch Golden Age painter, from Alkmaar.

_{Giovanni Battista Pittoni the younger (Italian, 1687 – 1767), Allegory of Winter and Summer, c.1730, 125x112cm, Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom.}

For this allegory of Winter and Summer, the painter Giovanni Battista Pittoni turned to traditional iconographic examples. Summer is personified as a young woman, and Winter as an old man warming his hands over a brazier. Summer gestures to a small angel-like figure in the top right corner (difficult to see on the picture). That’s the Spirit of Dawn whose urn of water provides the dew droplets of summer and frost in the winter.

_{Rosalba Giovannia Carriera (Italian, 1673 – 1757). On the left: A Personification of Winter, c.1726, Pastel on blue paper, 62x50cm, Royal Collection Trust, London. On the right: A Personification of Summer, c.1744, Pastel on blue paper, 60x50cm, Royal Collection Trust, London.}

The Winter pastel by Rosalba Giovannia Carriera was acquired by George III, King of England. It entered the Royal Collection in 1762 as “a Beautiful Female covering herself with a Pelisse”. In traditional images Winter was typically shown as an old man, but Rosalba Carriera transformed the subject into a beautiful young woman. “Winter” was put on display in George III’s bedchamber at Buckingham Palace, alongside “Summer”.

Rosalba Carriera was born in Venice. She began her career as a painter of snuffboxes, but rose quickly to fame for her pastel portraits, which became highly desired across Europe. Carriera made several sets of allegories of the Four Seasons. The largest group of pastels by Carriera belonged to Frederick Augustus Elector of Saxony. Over 100 of her pastels were on display at his residence in Dresden in a ‘Rosalba Room’. The artist became blind in later life and died in 1757.

_{François Boucher (French, 1703–1770), The Four Seasons: Winter, 1755, 57x73cm, The Frick Collection, New York.}

François Boucher painted this Winter from the series The Four Seasons in 1755 for Madame De Pompadour, King Louis XV’s long-term official mistress. Their original location is unknown, but their peculiar shape suggests that they were used as overdoors, no doubt in one of Pompadour’s many properties in France.

Instead of the hardship that traditionally illustrates the theme of winter, Boucher depicts a delightful encounter in joyous colours, a frosty background and a landscape buried under snow. A Tartar in pseudo-Russian dress pushes an elaborate sleigh with the heroine – most likely referring to Madame de Pompadour herself. Glancing out at us coyly, she sports a billowing fur-trimmed gown and a little fur necklace. Her hands may be warmed by a muff, but her upper body is completely exposed. This combination of luxury and seduction, treated in a fanciful and humorous manner, is typical of Boucher.

_{Étienne-Maurice Falconet (French, 1716 – 1791), Winter, c.1770, Marble, 135 cm, The Winter Palace, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.}

In April 1764, the 42-year-old Madame Marquise de Pompadour, the official chief mistress of King Louis XV of France unexpectedly died, and in the workshop of her beloved sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet, the last of the statues she commissioned remained unfinished – the marble Winter, a young woman sitting on an ice cube and gracefully covering flowers with her robe.

A year later Falconet received an invitation from the Russian Empress Catherine the Great to work at her court. It was agreed that at the expense of the Russian treasury all unfinished work from the Falconet workshop would travel with him to Russia. And part of that deal was the unfinished “Winter” sculpture. Falconet completed “Winter” only 5 years after arriving in Russia. That’s how this statue, made by a French sculptor, ended up in the Winter Palace of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Contemporaries of Falconet received the work as a masterpiece and the artist himself wrote: “This might be the very best work which I can do; I even dare to think that it is good.”

_{Jean Antoine Houdon (French, 1741 – 1828), Winter (La Frileuse), 1787, Bronze, 144x39x51cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.}

L’Hiver or Winter is a bronze statue of a young woman cast by the neoclassical French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. The statue personifies the winter season and is nicknamed La Frileuse, The Chilly Girl. This is reflected in both the medium (a cold, dark bronze) and the features of the sculpture, a young woman clad only in a shawl. Upon its completion and presentation at the 1787 Salon, the French yearly art fair, Winter shocked the French artistic establishment but delighted art lovers. The critics at the Salon indulged in some irony: “La Frileuse by Monsieur Houdon does not seem to achieve its effect. When someone is really cold, he tries to pull all his limbs close to him and covers his body more than his head. Nevertheless, it is pleasant to the eye and the proportions are correct” and “One must concur that winter would be a very desirable season if pretty shivering girls did not cover themselves in any other way.” Don’t think this critic will still have a job after saying this nowadays. In terms of her clothing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art describes it as “elegant but hardly adequate”. La Frileuse made me think of the song Let it Go from Frozen, “The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway.”

The statue was bought by Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d’Orléans, confiscated during the French Revolution and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

_{Paul Heermann (German, 1673 – 1732), Winter, c.1700, Marble, 65x64x34cm, Getty Center, Los Angeles.}

Shrouded in a heavy hooded cloak, this elderly man by Paul Heermann looks down with a deeply furrowed brow. As a personification of Winter, the bust gives visual expression to the chilling cold of that season. His old age refers to winter’s occurrence at the very end of the calendar year. This bust was probably part of a series of sculptures personifying the four seasons. At the Versailles Palace, it was fashion including statues of the seasons in the program for garden sculpture. The high level of finish and finely worked details of this bust, however, suggest that Winter was meant to be viewed up close, in an indoor palatial setting.

_{Jacob Matham (Dutch, 1571 – 1631) engraver, after Hendrik Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617) drawer, Winter, 1589, from the series The Seasons, engraving, diameter 26cm, National gallery of Art, Washington DC.}

This Winter engraving has a very traditional iconography. The personification of Winter is an elderly man wearing a coat and warming his hands by holding a pot containing a fire; beyond is a wintery townscape with ice skaters and people collecting fire wood; the signs of the winter zodiac (Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn) in the sky; and a cute little putto plays the cold Northern wind blowing into a cloud which results in rain and snow. And just so that we do not get it wrong, Hendrick Goltzius put the name “Hyems” just above the man, which is Latin for “Winter”.

Hendrick Goltzius designed four series with the seasons; Winter depicted here is from the set engraved by Jacob Matham.

January 14, 2023

Courtauld Gallery, London

“Boutique Gallery without Museum Fatigue”

The Courtauld Gallery is a museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in London. It houses the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art. Famous for its French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, of which you can see my favourites hereunder.

The Courtauld was founded in 1932 by the industrialist and art collector Samuel Courtauld, who in the same year presented an extensive collection of paintings, mainly the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works on view now. Further bequests were added even up to these days, from Old Master paintings and drawings to modern English abstract works. The gallery reopened in 2021 after a major redevelopment. It’s a treasure-house, on 3 gallery levels, and certainly no museum fatigue! It’s a very pleasant place to visit.

_{Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 – 1919), La Loge or The Theatre Box, 1874, 80x64cm, The Courtauld Gallery (Samuel Courtauld Trust), London. Bequeathed by Samuel Courtauld, 1948.}

Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La Loge (The Theatre Box) is celebrated as one of the most important paintings of the Impressionist movement. The heart of the painting is a play of gazes enacted by these two figures seated in a theatre box. The elegantly dressed woman lowers her opera glasses, revealing herself to admirers in the theatre and looking towards us viewers, whilst her male companion trains his gaze elsewhere in the audience, trying to spot who are seating in the other boxes. Renoir focuses upon the theatre as a social stage where status and relationships were on public display. This scene was staged in Renoir’s studio. His brother Edmond and Nini Lopez, a model from Montmartre, posed as the couple.

_{George Seurat (1859 – 1891), The Bridge at Courbevoie, c.1886, 46x55cm, The Courtauld Gallery (Samuel Courtauld Trust), London. Bequeathed by Samuel Courtauld, 1948.}

George Seurat painted this view on The Bridge at Courbevoie at the river Seine near Paris. The scene shows an island called the Grande Jatte, which Seurat often painted, but now the mood is unusually sombre and silent. The socially distanced human figures add to the sense of melancholy. The grass, sailing boats and the fisherman contradict with the smokey factory chimney. These images signify the adverse effects industrialisation has brought on the environment that was formerly calm and unpolluted. Courbevoie was a riverside town but became an industrial suburb of Paris.

Seurat is using a technique he had recently created, called “pointillism”. It means painting with lots of tiny dots or points of colour. If you look closely at this painting you will see that everything in the picture is made up of tiny dots. Seurat wanted colours painted side by side to mix in our eye when we look at the pictures, this is called Optical Mixing. Seurat believed that this would make his pictures brighter and more vibrant. Although here he created a picture full of sadness.

_{Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890). On the left Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, January 1889, F527, 60x49cm, The Courtauld Gallery (Samuel Courtauld Trust), London. On the right Self-portrait with Bandaged Ear and Pipe, January 1889, F529, 51×45cm, Private Collection, on view in Kunsthaus Zürich.}

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (above on the left) by Vincent van Gogh and painted in January 1889, is one of the highlights of the Courtauld Gallery collection. It’s one of the two self-portraits painted by Van Gogh in January 1889, a week after leaving hospital. He had received treatment there after cutting off most of his left ear (shown here as the bandaged right ear because he painted himself in a mirror). This self-mutilation was a desperate act committed a few weeks earlier, following a heated argument with his fellow painter Paul Gauguin.

Van Gogh had moved from Paris to Arles in the south of France, in hopes of creating a community for artists. He invited Paul Gauguin, an artist whom he had befriended in Paris, to come stay with him. They proved to be a disagreeable pair. The evening of December 23, 1888 during one of their arguments, Van Gogh threatened Gauguin with a razor, but then injured himself, severing part of his left ear. Van Gogh lost a lot of blood and had to be taken to the hospital. Van Gogh returned to his house at the beginning of January. He wrote to Gauguin, apologizing for the incident and assuring him of their continued friendship. He was keen to start painting again and worked on two self portraits during the weeks following his return home. The second self-portrait (above on the right) is the other self-portrait with bandaged ear, wearing same coat and hat, and also painted in January 1889. Vincent van Gogh died on July 29, 1890.

_{Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906), Montagne Sainte-Victoire with Large Pine, c.1887, 67x92cm, The Courtauld Gallery (Samuel Courtauld Trust), London. Gift from Samuel Courtauld, 1934.}

The Montagne Sainte-Victoire dominates the countryside surrounding Paul Cézanne’s hometown of Aix-en-Provence in southern France. For Cézanne, the mountain embodied the rugged landscape and people of Provence. Cézanne painted and drew the mountain from different vantage points throughout his career, each time finding a new mood or atmosphere. The timeless quality of the setting is interrupted only by the modern railway viaduct on the right and the trail of steam left by a passing train. The sweeping pine branches in the foregrounded of this painting are like a curtain and follow the contours of the mountain. The pine tree acts as a “repoussoir” (French for “pushing back”), a painting technique by which an object acts as a frame along the foreground and directs the viewer’s eye into the depth of the composition and emphasizes distance, like here the contrast between the pine tree and the faraway mountain. A highly advisable trick for nowadays instagrammers, getting more depth and effect in their insta-pics.

Cézanne lived in Aix-en-Provence for most of his life. He inherited his family estate and was free of financial worries, making him able to focus on art and painting. The Montagne Sainte-Victoire became the subject of about forty of Cézanne’s oil paintings and twenty of his water colors.

_{Édouard Manet (1832 – 1883), A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, 1882, 96x130cm, The Courtauld Gallery (Samuel Courtauld Trust), London. Gift from Samuel Courtauld, 1934.}

This celebrated work  A Bar at the Folies-Bergère is the last major painting by  Édouard Manet, completed  a year  before he died. The central figure is a barmaid in front of a mirror, engaged with a customer we can see in the reflection on the right. In the mirror behind her, we see the world she surveys in front of her. In the top left corner a pair of green feet, which belong to a trapeze artist who is performing above the restaurant’s patrons. Amidst the bottles are two brown ones with a red triangle on its label, from the UK’s Bass Brewery Beer, still existing today. And the wine label on the red bottle on the left has the artist’s signature, “Manet 1882“.

TheFolies-Bergère was the first music hall in Paris; a nightclub where every one spoke the language of pleasure. The barmaids were vendors of drink and love. Manet knew the Folies-Bergère well. He made preparatory sketches for A Bar at the Folies-Be on site, but the final painting was executed in his studio. He set up a bar and employed Suzon, one of the barmaids of the Folies-Bergère, to pose behind it. In 1882 when this painting made its début at the Paris Salon, the yearly French art fair, Édouard Manet’s health was fading as he struggled to complete this painting. Manet died at the age of 51 the following year.

_{Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1906), Pot of Flowers and Fruit c.1889, 46x56cm, The Courtauld Gallery (Samuel Courtauld Trust), London. Bequeathed by Samuel Courtauld, 1948.}

This Pot of Flowers and Fruit is such a simple still life, and at the same time there is so much to see. It’s not about the objects, but it’s all about the colors and the forms. Paul Cézanne contrasts the roundness of the fruits with the flat leaves of the plant and the rectangular forms at the reverse of the stretched canvas in the background. The colors are in great balance, yellow on the two sides of the green leaves of the plant, with the green-yellow leaves connecting everything. The white flower is a modest – but also triumphant – touch in the centre. We read the image as a balanced play of shapes and colours.

The Courtauld Gallery and Courtauld Institute of Art
Somerset House
Strand, London

The Louvre: Things, a History of Still Life

“There is still life in still lifes”

Musée du Louvre Paris is hosting an exceptional exhibition, “Les choses, une histoire de la nature morte” or “Things, a history of still life”. Still life, the exhibition argues, is not about “nature morte” which is the French expression for still life and literally translates to “dead nature”, but about a living form of art, animated by the heart and mind of the artist, the viewer and their surroundings. The French expression “nature morte” is implying that, in order to capture the richness of the natural world around us, it needs to be fixed and robbed of life. The Louvre exhibition changes this view. The “things” on the exhibition encourage to look at “still lifes” in a fresh way and to think and dream together with the artist. To contemplate the world of “things” as if they were indeed alive. The Louvre proves there is still life in still lifes.

Hereunder a personal selection, starting in 1964 and backwards to the 15th Century. I will try to emphasise the “life” in these still lifes.

_{Marcel Broodthaers (1924 – 1976) “Casserole and Closed Mussels” 1964, Mussel shells, pigment, polyester resin and iron casserole with wooden handles, 31x28x25cm, Tate, London.}

Casserole and Closed Mussels (1965) by Marcel Broodthaers is a work that uses empty mussel shells as both subject and medium. The mussel shells were obtained from a restaurant that he frequented in Brussels. The cooking pot belonged to the Broodthaers’s family and was used right up until the time that the work was created. The mussel shell can be read as symbolizing the artist’s native Belgium, mussels being a popular national dish. Broodthaers’s use of mussels also refers to the representation of shellfish in Flemish 17^th Century still life painting, where the empty shell became a symbol of vanity and the futility of luxury.

_{Giorgio Morandi (1890 – 1964) “Natura morta” 1944, 31x53cm, Centre Pompidou, Paris.}

This Natura Morta is exemplary of Giorgio Morandi‘s art of translating the mystery and poetry of simple things. He would depict the same familiar bottles and vases again and again in paintings notable for their simplicity of execution. Morandi chose these ordinary objects and staged the pots and vases in an ever different manner, against a neutral background, and painted in soft whitish colors. They seem frozen in time, silent and secret. Morandi has thus immortalized these things and made them present to the world, in a way that exceeds their function and simplicity. Morandi made over 1000 paintings and created his own recognizable style. The artist lived his whole life in Bologna, Italy, where the Morandi Museum contains a major collection of his work. The Casa Morandi, where he lived with his sisters and where he had his workshop can be seen in its original form, including the cupboards with the simple pots, bottles and vases he used for his many still lifes.

_{Joan Miró (1893 – 1983) “Still Life with Old Shoe” Paris 1937, 81x117cm, MoMA Museum of Modern Art, New York.}

Joan Miró painted Still Life with Old Shoe in 1937, being exiled to Paris in the midst of the Spanish Civil War. Over a few months he created Still Life with Old Shoe, which was his first painting with recognisable objects after a decade of abstract work. Miró said: “The composition is realistic because I was paralysed by the feeling of terror and almost unable to paint at all… We are living through a terrible drama, everything happening in Spain is terrifying in a way you could never imagine.” Miró painted in his words “something very serious”, a “tragedy of things, a miserable piece of bread, an old shoe, an apple pierced by a cruel fork and a bottle, like a flaming house that spread the fire over the whole surface”. The whole painting seems to be set against the backdrop of a burning, hellish landscape. The apple is brownish-yellow, which suggests rotting. Miró himself stated “The fork attacks the apple as if it were a bayonet. The apple is Spain.” This painting is Miró’s traumatised reaction to the Spanish Civil War.

_{Paul Cézanne (1839 – 1903) “La Table de cuisine, The Kitchen Table” c.1889, 65x82cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.}

The “things” on the Kitchen Table by Cézanne are assembled by the painter’s mind, not by putting the objects on a table and copying that image on a canvas. For Cézanne, it’s not about showing reality. The ginger-pot, which appears in 12 of Cézanne’s paintings, has no surface to sit on, and neither has the large basket at the back. None of the table, cupboard and chair are holding any probable perspective. And yet, Cézanne creates a harmonious and lively ensemble. It’s not a static still life or “nature morte”; it’s a kitchen table that comes to life. Cézanne’s painting represents more truth than ever can be made visible on a real-life kitchen table. Cézanne creates the predecessor of VR, Virtual Reality. In his lifetime, Cézanne was ridiculed for lack of conventional artistic skill; he did not paint like the others. But Cézanne said: “I shall astonish Paris with an apple”, what he does in this painting with apples, pears and melons.

_{Edouard Manet (1832 – 1883) “Le Citron” 1880, 14x22cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.}

Le Citron by Manet, painted three years before his death, is in its seemingly simplicity one of the painter’s most powerful still lifes. Manet isolates this yellow fruit on a sober black ceramic saucer, making the fruit an important “thing”, with such bright colour and touching structure of the skin. Manet proves that less is more. Le Citron is a main character in the big world of Impressionist and Modern Art Painting.

_{Luis Egidio Meléndez (1716 – 1780) “Still Life with Watermelons and Apples in a Landscape” 1771, 63x84cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid.}

Luis Egidio Meléndez put his Watermelons against the backdrop of a stormy sky. Majestic, they dominate their environment. This still life was painted for the natural history cabinet of Charles de Bourbon, the Prince of Asturias and heir to the throne of Spain. The melons show such attractive freshness and a perfectionist realism that extends to even the smallest details like the fallen seeds, drops of juice and tiny bits of watermelon flesh. This painting is used for the poster of the Louvre exhibition “Things, a history of still life”. But is this a still life, is this nature morte? I dare to answer “no” and declare this painting a portrait, a portrait of two real life watermelons.

_{Sébastien Stoskopff (1597 – 1657) “Corbeille de verres et pâté, Basket with glasses and pâté” c.1635, 50x64cm, Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, Musée de la Ville de Strasbourg, France.}

Sébastien Stoskopff painted Basket with Glasses and Pâté, as if it’s the end of a meal when, according to German custom, the dishes are collected in a basket. The simplicity of the composition, the dark and empty background, accentuate the presence of all the things: glasses, the crust of the pâté, and the letter. The painting encourages reflection on the relationship between reality and appearance, on what art can do and how painters of everyday life made the materiality of things tangible.

Stoskopff was an painter from the Alsace, where German and French influences blend. He is one of the most important German still life painters, specializing in portraying goblets, cups and especially glasses. His works were only rediscovered after 1930 and can now be seen in some of the world’s most important art museums (MET, Louvre, KHM, Gemäldegalerie). His chief works hang in his hometown of Strasbourg.

_{Louise Moillon (1610 – 1696), “Coupe de cerises, prunes et melon, Bowl with cherries, plums and melon” c.1633, 48x65cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.}

Louise Moillon, one of the most talented female painters of the 17th century, affirms her virtuoso here with this Bowl with Cherries, Plums and Melon. It’s perhaps Moillon’s most famous painting. The intense red of the cherries bursts against the dark green of the leaves, the blue touches of the plums and the orange-yellow of the melon. In this orderly and balanced composition, the painting invites us to calmly meditate on the simple beauty of things. We know of around twenty paintings by Moillon, three of which are kept in the Louvre. Louise married when she was 30, and basically did not paint anymore after her marriage. She became 86 years old.

_{Anonymous, North Germany, “Nature morte aux bouteilles et aux livres, Still life with bottles and books” c.1500, Oil on Wood, 81x106cm, Museé Unterlinden Museum, Colmar.}

This panel, a Trompe l’Oeil with Books and Bottles, is divided into two parts: a niche, where various objects are placed, and an upper part with two doors, one locked, the other ajar. The niche with bottles and books is like a rebus. The things represent clues about the owner of this work, and it all refers to the medical world: the books and the small ink bottle hanging above the red book refer to reading and writing, a bottle whose label reads “fur zanwe” (“for toothache”) shows that it contains medicine for toothache, a pot with ointments, a glass urinal, the medicine box, all indicate that the owner was a doctor or a barber. He commissioned this work to embed it as a panel in a piece of furniture in his interior in northern Germany. This “trompe-l’oeil”, a highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface, makes the things look real. The owner of this panel was most likely very pleased to use these “things” to trick the eye of his visitors.

Musée du Louvre, Paris, “Les choses — une histoire de la nature morte” or “Things — a history of still life”. Until January 23, 2023.

The texts above are loosely based on the exhibition labels.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Clara the Rhinoceros

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam presents Clara the Rhinoceros, an exhibition about an animal who travelled far from her native land of India and became the most famous rhinoceros in the world, a true pre-intstagram Jurassic Park hype in the 18th century. The objects on display show the celebrity status of Clara and how “Claramania” spread over Europe.

Clara is just one month old when she is captured by hunters in her native Assam, in present-day India, in 1738. Her mother was killed in the process. A powerful prince presents Clara to director Sichterman of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) trading post in Bengal. The aim of exchanging gifts is to maintain sound mutual relations and promote trade. Bengal is vital to the Dutch: this is where they buy cotton fabrics, saltpetre, opium and enslaved people.

_{Sheet issued in 1742 by Clara’s owner, Douwe Most, to advertise the exhibition of Clara and pump that hype to the max. Clara, the Dutch rhinoceros visits the town of Middelburg in August 1742. The fee to see Clara is 20 cents for adults and 10 cents for children.
Text in Dutch: Advertissement. Aan alle Heeren en Liefhebbers wort Bekent gemaakt, dat alhier is gearriveert een Levendige Rhinoceros int Gebiet van den Grooten Mogol gevangen int Lantschap Assem, en uijt Bengalen in Hollant Aangelant. wiens weergaa noyt Bevorens hier is geweest, en men seght hij wort wel hondert Jaar Oud, en Deese is soo Tam als een Kalf, en is te sien . . . tot . . . Eijder Persoon voor 4 stuijvers en kindere van elf a twaalf jaar voor 2 stuijvers.
Below printed text in manuscript “dit beest is te seen over de Mol Straat bij de Kraan. en is wel 3500 lb swaar.”}

Clara is cherished in the household of director Sichterman and looked after by an Indian caretaker. She is considered so special that Clara is sometimes allowed to mingle with the dinner guests. After about two years, she has grown so much that she is passed on to a new owner, VOC captain Douwe Mout, who takes her with him when he sets sail at the end of 1740. He is the first person to successfully bring a rhino to the Netherlands safe and sound.

_{Petrus Camper (1722 – 1789), “Clara as a young Rhinoceros” 1742, drawing, Allard Pierson Museum, collection of the University of Amsterdam.}
_{Clara is about three years old when she arrives in The Netherlands. Petrus Camper was a Dutch scientist, physician, anatomist and zoologist in the Age of Enlightenment. He took the opportunity to make several drawings of Clara when she visited Amsterdam.}

Clara tours Europe for seventeen years, from her arrival in 1741 until her death in 1758. Her owner, former VOC captain Douwe Mout from Amsterdam, has a wooden carriage made in which Clara is transported from town to town, over mountains and rivers, in winter and summer. Mout exhibits her wherever there is an audience, at fairs and markets at inns and palaces, and against a fee of course.

_{David Redinger (active first half 18th century), “Exhibition of the Dutch Rhino Clara in Zurich” 1748, Woodcut, 17x33cm, Zentralbibliothek Zürich.}
_{This print is documenting Clara’s visit to Zurich, Switzerland. Note the depiction of Clara’s traveling cage to the left, with one wheel visible. Text on the print in German: “Wahrhafte und nach dem Leben gezeichnete Abbildung des liegenden Rhinoceros oder Nashorns, welches bereits in verschiedenen Ländern von Europa zur Schau herum geführt, und erst neulich in den meisten Haupt-Städten der Schweitz gesehen worden.”}

Clara is a hype during her lifetime. Precisely her unknown, extraordinary and exotic aspects are emphasised. She features in clocks and sculpture and even influenced Parisian fashion “mode au rhinocéros“. Clara is no longer an individual but has become an archetype. She remains the Rhino model for many years after her death in 1758.

_{J.J. de Saint Germain (1719 – 1791) and F. Viger (1708 – 1784), “Rhinoceros Musical Table Clock” 1755, c.75cm high, Parnsassia Collection.}
_{The Parisian bronzier and clockmaker Jean-Joseph de Saint-Gemain fashions exclusive timepieces for the elite. He makes a bronze sculpture of Clara when she is on view in Paris in 1749, which he uses as the support for such a clock, surmounting a music box. It seems as if Clara herself is making a sound and listening at the same time: her mouth open and ears pointed.}

People touched, teased, admired and studied Clara. She prompted this sensational level of interest because no one in Europe had ever been able to see a real live rhinoceros. She was a hyped up, must-see cultural and scientific phenomenon.

_{Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686 – 1755), “Clara in Paris” 1749, 310x453cm, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin, Germany.}
_{As an experienced animal painter, Oudry seizes the opportunity to portray Clara in the spring of 1749, when she was in Paris. He depicts her life-size and almost tangibly, just as the visitors saw her. A real portrait. She is 11 years old, 3.6 meters long and 1.7 meters tall, and weighs over 2500 kilograms. This magnificent painting was shown at the Paris Salon in 1749 and acquired in 1750 by Duke Christian Ludwig II of Mecklenburg-Schwerin together with a series of menagerie paintings. In fact, the Clara painting was never put properly on display, probably due to its size. The painting remained stored away for a long time. Only since 2008, following extensive restoration work at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, has it been on exhibit in the Staatliches Museum Schwerin, permitting the “Claramania” to be rekindled once more in Schwerin.}

Clara became famous because she lived virtually her entire life in captivity in countries where she did not belong, far away from her own habitat. She served as entertainment, as decoration as well as a source of knowledge. But what might Clara have thought of her experiences?

_{Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen, “Rhinoceros with a Turkish Man on its back” c.1755, Porcelain, 28x26x11cm, Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Sammlung Angewandte Kunst, Kassel, Germany.}
_{The stereotypical man and the rhinoceros are both archetypes here. What matters most to the European buyers of this kind of painted porcelain figurines is that they were out of the common and real talking pieces, as Clara the Rhinoceros travelled though Europe those years and had become a mega celebrity hype. Incidentally, the man’s proportions are much too large in relation to the rhino.}

Clara never fails to be a sensation. Douwe Mout is nothing if not enterprising. Anyone can see here – for a fee! He has prints made for advertising purposes, which can also be bought as a souvenir. He calls her a wonder beast, tells how heavy and large she is and also how much she eats and drinks per day: 60 pounds of hay, 20 pounds off bread, and 14 buckets of water. Clara becomes a celebrity. A veritable must-see!

_{Johann Elias Ridinger (1698 – 1767), “The Rhinoceros Miss Clara in Augsburg” 1748, drawing, 29x44cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.}
_{Local artists Ridinger makes a few sketches on June 12, 1748, when Clara is in Augsburg, Germany. He truly portrays here as an animal of flesh and blood. He later incorporates some of the sketches in his engravings (see hereunder). Written on the sheet by the artist at bottom right in brown ink: Anno 1748 den 12. Junii habe ich disen/Rhinoceros allhier in Augspurg nach dem Leben gezeichnet. Seine Grösse war in der Höhe 6. Schü die Länge 12 Schü, von Farbe ist er meist Castanien braun unten am Bauch und in der tieffe seiner falten Leib od Fleisch farbe gewesen. J.E. Ridinger hatt ihn von 6. Seiten gezeichnet (On June 12, 1748, I drew this rhinoceros from life here in Augsburg. It was six feet tall and twelve feet long, it was mostly chestnut brown, but on its belly and in the folds of its skin flesh color. J.E. Ridinger drew it from six angles)}.

Clara may not have been the first rhinoceros to come to Europe, but she did become the most famous one. After her long voyage from India, she travelled around Europe in her custom-made cart, accompanied by her entourage. She travelled for 17 years, far and wide: to Vienna and Paris, to Naples and Copenhagen, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, everywhere. Eventually, Clara died in London in 1758.

_{Johann Elias Ridinger (1698 – 1767), “The Rhinoceros Miss Clara in Augsburg” 1748, etching, 34x28cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.
Lower center in plate: Anno 1748 im Monath Maij und Junio ist dieses Nashorn Rhinoceros in Augsburg… (Anno 1748 in the month May and June this Rhino was in Augsburg). Print after the drawing by Ridinger as can be seen above. By etching after a drawing the print becomes a reverse image, like a “negative” of an old-fashioned photo or selfie.}

Clara was almost never free to walk or run. She depended on humans for her survival, and was rarely able to display natural behaviours – except for example the occasions when she needed to cross a river by swimming, and clearly enjoyed the water. In 1750 the Neurenberg biographer Christoph Gottlieb Richter published a conversation between a rhinoceros and a grasshopper, in which the rhinoceros bemoans the way people treat her and stare at her. This book presents a role-reversal, with the rhinoceros appraising and studying people rather than the other way around.

"Were it possible in the future to liberate myself from the slavery that presently imprisons me and return to my homeland, in revenge I would exhibit men to my brothers. I am sure that the genus of rhinoceroses will look upon the wonder beast that man seems to be with more favour than human beings view a rhinoceros."

- said the rhinoceros, according to Christoph Gottlieb Richter.

Clara the Rhinoceros runs to 15 January 2023 in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The texts above have been adapted from the Rijksmuseum press release and the exhibition sheets.

The San Diego Museum of Art

“Art of the Americas”

The San Diego Museum of Art has an eclectic collection, housed in a beautiful Spanish-style not-too-big building, located in San Diego’s Balboa Park. The Museum holds a broad collection of Arts of the Americas, Spanish old master paintings, Asian and European art. And oddly enough, one of the strongest collections of German Expressionism in the United States.

_{Francis Luis Mora (American, born Uruguay died New York, 1874 – 1940), “Morning News” (1912), 30x41cm, The San Diego Museum of Art.
Mora, known for his depiction of every day, features in this painting commuters riding close together on a streetcar, highlighting the increasing presence of women in the workplace at a time of rapid social and industrial change. Scenes of New York City, undergoing enormous transformation, blur through the window.}

The original inspiration for a permanent public art gallery can be traced to the Panama-California International Exposition, held in Balboa Park during 1915–1916. The Exposition was organized to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal and to promote San Diego as a seaport. Among its numerous displays representing various industries and products was a prominent exhibition of fine arts featuring European old masters, American art, and works by California and San Diego artists. The public response to the art exhibition convinced civic leaders and prominent local artists that San Diego needed its own fine arts gallery and collection.

Guy Orlando Rose (American, 1867 – 1925), “Fisherman’s Cove, Laguna Beach” (c1918), 50x61cm, The San Diego Museum of Art.
_{Born in San Gabriel, on his father’s ranch, Rose studied at the California School of Design (now San Francisco Art Institute). He left for Paris in 1888, and soon joined the international artist colony in Giverny, home of Claude Monet. When Rose returned to California several years later in 1914, he was drawn to the scenery of La Jolla, Laguna Beach, and Carmel, painting the sun-drenched vistas in a vigorous and loose impressionistic style. Rose’s experience in France and his passion for the local scenery made him a central figure in the movement of California Impressionism.}

Planning for the new museum began in 1922. A prominent site on the north side of Balboa Park’s Plaza de Panama was secured. As “The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego”, the museum officially opened its doors on February 28, 1926.

Georgia O’Keeffe (American, 1887 – 1986), “The White Trumpet Flower” (1932), 76x101cm, The San Diego Museum of Art.
_{Despite the influence of many established artists, O’Keeffe was able to develop her own distinctive response to modernism, separating herself from her contemporaries through her focused study of the natural world and, specifically, the copious canvases in which she presented flowers. She often enlarged flowers, making a single bloom dominate the entire pictorial space. In The White Trumpet Flower, O’Keeffe explores the beauty of nature and emphasizes formal qualities such as shape, color, and line. The independence O’Keeffe exuded in her paintings was reflected in her creative practice as she refined her artistic process and kept to a consistent regime. She stretched and primed her own canvases, kept cardboard squares of her favorite colors, which she typically used to select her color palette before beginning a work, and often visualized a work completely before she began painting.}

The architect William Templeton Johnson (1877–1950) designed and constructed the new art gallery. The Spanish Colonial–style architecture from the 1915 Exposition suggested the style for Johnson’s design. Johnson however, went one step further and looked directly to sixteenth-century Spanish Renaissance models for inspiration. For the building’s exterior, they borrowed motifs from the Cathedral of Valladolid, Spain, and the façade of the University of Salamanca, Spain, while for the interior they adapted features of the Hospital de la Santa Cruz in Toledo, Spain. Also enhancing the façade with the addition of sculptural elements including life-sized sculptures of Spanish Old Master painters Velázquez, Murillo, and Zurbarán as well as heraldic devices and the coats-of-arms of Spain, the United States, California, and San Diego.

Juan Sánchez Cotán (Spanish, 1560 – 1627), “Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber” (1602), 69x84cm, The San Diego Museum of Art.
_{Still-life painting was virtually nonexistent in European art before the 1590s, and Juan Sánchez Cotán is among the first practitioners of the genre and this work is universally acclaimed as his masterpiece. Brilliantly executed, the painting is unflinching in its naturalism and simplicity. The mysterious serenity of the composition has led many to question the meaning or function of the image. For some, the work is an exercise in pure painting and a straightforward depiction of vegetables in a cold cellar. Others however, believe that the picture may have religious overtones, and that it should be understood as a celebration of God’s most humble creations. In support of the latter reading, it is often noted that Sánchez Cotán gave up his possessions and entered a Carthusian monastery in 1603.}

_{Juan Manuel Hernández (Costa Rican, 1969), “Paisaje de Cachi” (2002), 80x100cm, The San Diego Museum of Art.
Hernández paints what he calls “the essence” of his native Costa Rica, currently the most biologically diverse area on the planet, in a deliberately historical and realistic style to evoke what may be lost if care is not taken for its fragile ecosystems.}

Raphaelle Peale (American, 1774 – 1825), “Still-life with Peaches” (1816), 35x55cm, The San Diego Museum of Art.
_{Raised in Philadelphia, a center of American art, Peale preferred still life painting, even though he was an able portrait painter and portraits were more lucrative. Around 1812, Peale began to focus on still lifes, as his ill health interfered with his ability to interact with sitters. In fact, Peale was one of the first American painters to make the still life the focus of his oeuvre.}

The San Diego Museum of Art
1450 El Prado
Balboa Park, San Diego, CA

The Visitation: Mary meets Elizabeth

“Baby Shower for two”

As we near December and Christmas, all our attention turns to the story of the birth of Jesus. But how about his mother Mary? How about Mary’s pregnancy, and what did she do in those nine months before giving birth to Jesus? Around May that year, when Mary was 2 months pregnant with Jesus, she travelled some 150km from her home in Nazareth to a small town in Judea, to visit her relative Elizabeth who was 8 months pregnant of John the Baptists. This visit of Mary to Elizabeth is called the “Visitation” and is told in the Bible in the chapter that’s the Gospel of Luke (1:39-56). The Visitation took place on May 31^st and Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months, during which Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist, on June 24^th.

_{Rogier van der Weyden (c.1400 – 1464), “Visitation” (c.1437), 58x36cm, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig.}
_{Mary meets Elizabeth, both pregnant, in front of Elizabeth and Zacharias’ house. Although the story is set in Judea, Rogier van der Weyden choose a Flemish setting, which will have appealed to the contemporary viewers.}

Elizabeth and her husband Zacharias were both very old and without children. Miraculously Elizabeth suddenly got pregnant, which was predicted to Zacharias by the angel Gabriel. Zacharias could hardly believe this, as his wife was too old to get a baby. Here is a similarity with the message Maria got from the same angel Gabriel: “Ave Maria, you will be pregnant and give birth to Jesus!” When Mary got pregnant, her fiancé Joseph could also hardly believe what had happened.

_{Albrecht Dürer (1471 – 1528), “Visitation”, from The Life of the Virgin series (1503), Woodcut, 30x21cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.}
_{The Life of The Virgin is a series of 20 woodcuts, published as a book with the prints facing a page with Latin verses. These series focus on Mary as a human and even a mother, opposed the the suffering as in many other series of the life of Mary and Christ. Also, Dürer is using a very contemporary approach, look at the clothes of Mary and Elizabeth and Zacharias standing in the door of their house. This depicting of a “bourgeois” Mary will immediately have been familiar and attractive to Dürer’s clientele. From the moment of publishing, the woodcuts were copied and sold illegally, Dürer started many legal cases to protect his copyright.}

Mary knew well that her cousin Elizabeth had grieved for so many years on account of being childless. Mary travelled all the way to share Elizabeth’s joy and of course to help her in her household affairs and be with her during birth and in the months after the birth of the little John. It was a mission of charity.

_{Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, (1606 – 1669), “Visitation” (1640), 57×48cm, Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI.
On the left the elderly Zacharias, husband of Elizabeth, easing himself down the stairs with the help of a young boy; on the right Joseph, Mary’s fiancé, climbing up the hill leading his donkey. Considering tradition and the need for security, Joseph probably accompanied Mary to Judea and then returned to Nazareth, to come again after three months to take his wife home. The dog symbolizes faithfulness. This painting may relate directly to Rembrandt’s life. The face of Elizabeth is reminiscent of the artist’s mother, who died in 1640 just as his wife was about to give birth.}

Mary’s visit also brought divine grace to both Elizabeth and her unborn child, John the Baptist. Even though he was still in his mother’s womb, John became already aware of the presence of Jesus who was still in Mary’s womb. When Mary and Elizabeth met at the doorsteps of Zacharias’ house – the “Visitation” – Elizabeth spoke out with a loud voice and said to Mary: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” And Elizabeth said that as soon as she heard the voice of Mary’s greeting, her baby leaped in her womb for joy. At that moment the still to be born John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit.

_{Drawn by Raphael (1483 – 1520) and finished by his workshop, “The Visitation” (c.1517), 200x145cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid.}
_{The two figures can be told apart by their age. Mary is depicted as a young woman while Elizabeth, on the left, is an old woman, which emphasizes the miracle of her pregnancy, as the Bible texts have it. The scene takes place in a landscape and in the background we can see an event which would take place years later: Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. This work was drawn by Raphael, who was paid 300 escudos. He then had the painting done by one of his assistants, though it is not clear which one.}

Since the Medieval era, Elizabeth’s greeting, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” has formed the second part of the “Ave Maria” or the “Hail Mary” song. The first part are the words the angel Gabriel said to Mary when he announced she will be pregnant of Jesus. One of the most famous composed music versions is Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria” from 1825. Listen to it via the link, with English and Latin lyrics provided in the clip and hereunder.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Ave Maria, gratia plena,
Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedíctus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei,
ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.

_{Domenikos Theotokopoulos (aka El Greco) (1541 – 1614), “Visitation” (c.1612), 97x71cm, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.
This Visitation painting was intended for the Church of San Vicente in Toledo, Spain, and the contract signed in 1607 stipulated “in the ceiling a story of the Visitation of Saint Elizabeth, … which is to be placed in a circle. ” By April 17, 1613, El Greco declared the paintings completed. However, it is not certain that The Visitation was installed. El Greco used quite some artistic – almost modern – abstractions in this 17th century work.}

In response to Elizabeth, Mary proclaims the famous words “My soul magnifies the Lord” in what is now called “Song of Mary” or “Magnificat”. Mary rejoices that she has the privilege of giving birth to Jesus. While Mary speaks to Elizabeth, she also turns a bit into a revolutionary as she continues looking forward to God transforming the world. “The proud will be brought low, and the humble will be lifted; the hungry will be fed, and the rich will go without.” In her answer to Elizabeth, Mary transforms herself from an obedient humble girl into an adult fighter for justice and protector of the poor. This “Magnificat” is nowadays banned in certain countries, as seen dangerous by the ruling oppressors. Johann Sebastian Bach put music to the words and created in 1723 his masterpiece “Magnificat”. Listen to it via the link, at least for the first few minutes. Lyrics in English and Latin hereunder.

My soul magnifies the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for He has looked with favor on His humble servant;  from this day all generations will call me blessed.
The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His Name,
He has mercy on those who fear Him in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm;
He has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

Magnificat anima mea Dominum;
Et exultavit spiritus meus in Deo salutari meo,
Quia respexit humilitatem ancillae suae; ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes.
Quia fecit mihi magna qui potens est, et sanctum nomen ejus,
Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.
Fecit potentiam in bracchio suo;
Dispersit superbos mente cordis sui.
Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles.
Esurientes implevit bonis, et divites dimisit inanes.

_{Pontormo (1494 – 1557), “Visitation” (c.1529), 202x156cm, San Michele e San Francesco, Carmignano, Tuscany, Italy. This “Visitation” has remained in the church for which it was painted for almost its whole existence. In the foreground of the painting, we see Mary and Elizabeth, in the background two handmaids.}

Mary, through her meeting with Elizabeth, is no longer a silent participant of the Christmas story. She is a protector of the suppressed and a revolutionary, a fighter for a better world. Celebrating Christmas, is celebrating hope for a better world, for true justice to come.

_{Johann Sadeler (I) (1550 – 1600) engraver, after Maerten de Vos (1531 – 1603) drawer, “Visitation” (c.1588), 2nd print from the series of 15, “Life and Passion of Christ and the Virgin”, Engraving, 19x14cm, RijksMuseum, Amsterdam. An almost nowadays meet and greet between two couples. Mary and Elizabeth, who are both pregnant, kiss and hug. And their husband, Joseph and Zacharias, shake hands.}

And for the sake of completeness, here is the full text of the Bible story of The Visitation; Luke 1:39-56, in the new international version.

Mary Visits Elizabeth (39 - 45)

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,
where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!
But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Mary’s Song (46 - 55)

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me — holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. (56)

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

“The Hippest Museum In Town…“

The Hammer Museum is an art museum and cultural centre in Los Angeles, known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur-industrialist Armand Hammer, the museum has since expanded its scope to become “the hippest and most culturally relevant institution in town.” Here are four paintings from the original art collection of its founder.

_{John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925), “Dr. Pozzi at Home” (1881), 202x102cm, The Armand Hammer Collection, Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.}
_{Dr. Samuel Jean de Pozzi was a Parisian dandy, art collector, gynaecologist, and a womanizer. An extremely handsome man, who, if he had lived during the 21th century, would surely have become a celebrity. Standing in his scarlet dressing gown, his robe is reminiscent of a monastic habit, and recalls Renaissance portraits of Catholic popes and cardinals. Dr. Pozzi was described by a contemporary as “himself a kind of beautiful work of art.” This grand painting was the trigger for the 2019 book by Julian Barnes, “The Man in the Red Coat“.}

The Hammer Museum opened 1990, founded by Dr. Armand Hammer, former Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corporation. Financed by Occidental, the Museum was built adjacent to the Corporation’s international headquarters in Westwood, Los Angeles. At that time, the Museum featured galleries for Dr. Hammer’s collections — old master paintings and drawings — as well as galleries for traveling exhibitions. Dr. Hammer passed away in December 1990, three weeks after the opening of the Museum.

^{Claude Monet (1840 – 1926), “View of Bordighera” (1884), 66x82cm, The Armand Hammer Collection, Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.}

The original Armand Hammer Collection features works of art from the sixteenth through the twentieth century that reflect the interest and dedication of Armand Hammer. The highlights from the collection are on permanent display at the museum, and four of these are depicted here. Over the last 20 years, the Hammer Museum has formed a Hammer Contemporary Collection which now holds over 2,000 artworks. The museum also instituted the internationally acclaimed Hammer Projects, a series of contemporary exhibitions and installations featuring local, national, and international emerging artists.

^{Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 – 1669), “Portrait of a Man Holding a Black Hat” (c.1637), 76x69cm, The Armand Hammer Collection, Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.}

The Hammer Museum is nowadays affiliated with UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). The museum and its art centre believe in the promise of art and ideas to illuminate our lives and build a more just world. The Hammer understands that art not only has the power to transport us through aesthetic experience but can also provide significant insight into some of the most pressing cultural, political, and social questions of our time. The Hammer shares the unique and invaluable perspectives that artists have on the world around us.

^{Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890), “Hospital at Saint-Rémy” (1889), 92x73cm, The Armand Hammer Collection, Gift of the Armand Hammer Foundation. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.}

The Hammer Museum hosts a diversity of programs throughout the year, from lectures, symposia, and readings to concerts and film screenings in its Billy Wilder Theatre. The museum’s collections, exhibitions, and programs are completely free to all visitors.Watch 1,000+ talks, performances, artist profiles, and more on the Hammer Channel.

HAMMER MUSEUM
10899 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024

The Four Church Fathers

Pre-Medieval Think Tank…

The Four Church Fathers were influential theologians and highly intellectual writers who established from the 4th to the 5th century the foundations of Christianity. Let’s see how we can identify these four guys in pictorial art, based on some of their legends. Their Latin names are Ambrosius, Augustinus, Gregorius and Hieronymus, in English Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory and Jerome. Each of them has its own fairytale legend, and these stories are perfect for recognising them as a group and as individuals.

_{Jacob Jordaens (1593 – 1678), “The Four Church Fathers” (c.1640), 219x252cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm.
From left to right: Jerome with the Cardinal’s hat and and with his friend the lion, Augustine in Bishop’s costume with mitre, pastoral staff and with the flaming heart, Gregory as Pope with the Papal tiara, and Ambrose as Bishop and with his beehive.}

Their common attributes are books, quills to write with and sometimes a dove, who whispers holy spiritual inspiration into their ears. They are scholars and sitting in their study while writing, reading or discussing; or at least they give the impression that they are in deep thoughts! And they are all saints and you might see the “halo”, which is a symbol of holiness represented by a circle around the head of a saint. Ambrose and Augustine were Bishops, they wear a “mitre” on their head. Gregory was Pope, he wears the papal “tiara”. Jerome was Cardinal and he wears a “galero”, the Cardinal’s hat.

_{Ambrosius, Engraving (c.1575), Print maker Petrus Cool after design by Maerten de Vos, 29x22cm, RijksMuseum, Amsterdam.}
_{Abrose wears the Bishop’s mitre and staff, and his beehive-symbol on the background.}

Ambrose (Saint Ambrosius, c.340 – 397) was Bishop of Milan. He is dressed as a Bishop, with a mitre and the pastoral staff. There is a famous legend about Ambrose. When he was in his cradle as a baby, a swarm of bees covered his face and left a drop of honey. That’s the sign of Ambrose’s future ability as an eloquent and sweet-tongued speaker. His attribute is a beehive and he is Patron Saint of beekeepers, candle makers, and Milan. Ambrose is buried in the Basilica di Sant’Ambrogio, Milan. His feast day is December 7^th.

_{Augustinus, Engraving (c.1600), Print maker Aegidius Sadeler (II) after design by Peter de Witte, 15x11cm, RijksMuseum, Amsterdam.}
_{He is a Bishop, thus the mitre and the pastoral staff. And that toddler in the foreground told Augustine that he will have emptied the sea with a spoon before Augustine will have understood the essence of God. Well, that makes one think; and certainly Augustine!}

Augustine (Saint Augustinus, c.354 – 430) was a Bishop, like Ambrose, and dressed as such with a mitre and Bishop’s staff. Often Augustine is portrayed with a child with a spoon in his hand. According to the legend, Augustine was walking along a beach one day when he meets a child trying to empty the sea with a spoon into a hole in the sand. When Augustine asked the child if he would ever succeed, the child replied: “Certainly before you will understood the essence of God”. Augustine is also often depicted with a flaming heart, as symbol of his love for God. He is the Patron Saint of printers and theologians and his feast day is August 28^th.

_{Gregorius, Engraving (c.1600), Print maker Aegidius Sadeler (II) after design by Peter de Witte, 15x10cm, RijksMuseum, Amsterdam.}
_{Gregory is the only Pope amongst these four Church fathers; his Papal tiara, the three-tiered crown, in the background.}

Gregory (Saint Gregorius, c.540 – 604) was Pope, and thus shown in Papal vestments and with the Papal tiara, the three-tiered crown. Gregory renewed church music, now known as “Gregorian Chanting”. He is the Patron Saint of musicians, choristers and singers, teachers and Popes. His feast day is September 3th and he is buried in Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

_{Hieronymus, Engraving (1589), Print maker Antonie Wierix (II) after design by Cornelis Ingelrams, 17x21cm, RijksMuseum, Amsterdam.}
_{Jerome is here with his friend the lion and Jerome’s Cardinal hat hangs on the wall. The look on the face of the lion is, in my opinion, adding to the seriousness of Jerome studying on the book!}

Jerome (Saint Hieronymus, c.347 – 420), was Cardinal and is depicted with the crimson Cardinal’s attire and hat, or just with the cardinal’s hat when he is depicted as a hermit in the wilderness, desert or cave, when Jerome lived for a few years a life of penitence. He is most famous for translating the Old and New Testament from Hebrew and Greek into the “Vulgate”, the simplified Latin Bible version, which became the official version of the Bible for over thousand years. Jerome is mostly depicted together with a lion. There is a well-known legend in which St. Jerome drew a thorn from a lion’s paw. The beast became his companion wherever Jerome went. It is the symbol of compassion conquering brute force. Jerome is the Patron Saint of translators, librarians and teachers. His feast day is September 30 and he is buried in the Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome.

Looking at the paintings in this article, we see Church Fathers who lived from the 4^th to the 6^th century, but dressed as Church officials from the 16^th and 17^th century. This imagery appeals probably more to the contemporary viewer than some ancient monk-style non-elaborate dressed men from the pre-medieval centuries. Jerome’s Cardinal hat (“galero”) was only worn from the 14^th century. The Bishop’s headgear (‘mitre”) as worn by Ambrose and Augustine was only en vogue from the 11^th century, and the Pope’s ceremonial headdress (“tiara”) was used from the 8^th century.

_{Pier Francesco Sacchi or Il Pavese (1485 – 1528), “The Four Church Fathers; Augustine, Gregory, Jerome and Amrose; with the symbols of the Four Evangelists: eagle, ox, angel and lion)” (1516), 196x168cm, Louvre, Paris.}
_{From left to right: Augustine, Gregory, Jerome and Ambrose.}

In the last painting, by Pier Francesco Sacchi and painted around 1516, we see again the Four Church fathers, but now they are hijacking the symbols of the Four Evangelist. As if they want to identify themselves with the writers of the Four Gospels, written 1^st and 2^nd century, opposed to just being the translators and commentors of these holy books. The symbols of the Evangelists are as follows from left to right: John – Eagle, Luke – Ox, Matthew – Angel, and Mark – Lion. The animals are under the table, the angel peeps in between two of the Church fathers. The lion on the right bottom corner is therefore Mark’s lion and not Jerome’s! The Church Fathers from left to right are Augustine, Gregory, Jerome and Ambrose.

Icarus

Hubris (ὕβρις): Pride Goeth Before The Fall…

This is a story of ambition, pride and downfall. It’s about Icarus (Ἴκαρος) and his father Daedalus (Δαίδαλος) and how they escaped imprisonment, flying out of the infamous Labyrinth on the isle of Crete. But with a tragic ending. Icarus flies too high and too close to sun; he loses his wings, falls out of the sky, plunges into the water, and drowns in what’s now called the Icarian Sea. A story from Greek mythology and written down in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

_{Anthony van Dyck (1599 – 1641), “Self-Portrait as Icarus with Daedalus” (1618), 112x93cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Daedalus is concentrating on adjusting the ribbons with the wings over his son’s shoulders, and may be explaining to him the importance of flying at the right altitude. Icarus though, is already making his own plan. He looks with pride and will follow his own path. Its a self-portrait by Van Dyck, when he was 19 years old. About to start his own career and become a famous painter on his own merits. That’s what he is expressing in this painting.}

According to the classical Greek legend, Daedalus was a master architect most famously responsible for building the Labyrinth on the island on Crete, as prison for the Minotaur monster, a half-man, half-bull. Because of his knowledge of the Labyrinth, King Minos of Crete shut Daedalus and his son Icarus, up in his own created Labyrinth, to simply keep the mysteries of the labyrinth a secret. Daedalus decided that for him and his son the only way to escape was up through the air.

_{Laurent Pécheux (1729 – 1821), “Daedalus and Icarus in the Labyrinth”, 97x73cm, current whereabouts unknown, latest at Sothebys January 19, 2005.
Daedalus tells his son the that the only way out of the Labyrinth is through the air. In the front left corner the instruments of Daedalus as architect, on the right the stove where the beeswax was melted to glue the feathers together.}

Daedalus constructed for himself and Icarus sets of wings made from feathers held together by beeswax. He then cautioned his son to fly a middle course: neither so low that the sea would wet the feathers and make them heavy, nor so high that the heat of the sun would damage them.

_{School of Joseph-Marie Vien (1716 – 1809), “Daedalus in the Labyrinth, attaching the wings to his son Icarus” (c.1750), 195x130cm, Louvre, Paris.
Daedalus is attaching the wings to the shoulders of Icarus and gives his son the vital pre-flight briefing. Seems Icarus has other thoughts, he is pointing out to where he wants to go. Is that towards the sun?}

“Daedalus said: Let me warn you, Icarus, to take the middle way between earth and heaven, if you fly too low the moisture from the sea weighs down your wings, or if you go too high, the sun scorches them. Travel between the extremes. Take me as your guide and follow the course I show you!” (From Ovid’s Metamorphoses book VIII. Verse 183-235)

_{Jacob Peeter Gowy (1615 – 1661) after Peter Paul Rubens (1577 – 1640), “The Fall of Icarus” (1637), 195x180cm, Prado, Madrid.}
_{Icarus, his wings in tatters, plunges past Daedalus into the sea. Icarus’ mouth and eyes are wide open in shock and fear, and his body tumbles as it falls. Daedalus is still flying, his wings intact and fully functional; he looks alarmed towards the falling body of his son. They are high above a bay containing people and a fortified town at the edge of the sea.}

Overcome by a feeling of pride and confidence, Icarus disobeyed his father and soared high into the sky trying to quench his thirst. But he came too close to the sun. And without warning, the heat from the sun melted the wax holding his feathers together. One by one, Icarus’s feathers fell like snowflakes. Icarus kept flapping his “wings”, but he had no feathers left and was only flapping his bare arms. Then he fell into the sea and drowned.

_{Joos de Momper (1564 – 1635), “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”, 154173cm, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Joos de Momper is closely following the narratives from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. These include an angler catching a fish with a rod and line, a shepherd leaning on a crook, a ploughman resting on the handles of his plough. According to Ovid, they are amazed with this sight of Daedalus and Icarus and believed to be gods. Up at the top left, Daedalus is seen to be flying well, but Icarus is in an inverted position as he tumbles down.}

“Icarus, Icarus where are you? Which way should I be looking, to see you?”, screamed Daedalus. Finally, Daedalus found the body of his son floating amidst feathers. Cursing his inventions, he took the body to the nearest island and buried it there. The island where Icarus was buried is named Icaria.

_{Paul Ambroise Slodtz (1702 – 1758), Fall of Icarus” (1743), Marble, 38x64x55cm, Louvre, Paris.}
_{A beautiful intimate marble from the Louvre. Icarus fell into the sea, a wave comes from the right, his wings detached and the feathers in disarray. As if he washed ashore on the island of Icaria, in the middle of the Icarian Sea. The island where his father Daedalus will burry him.}

What do we learn from this story? Icarus is instructed to fly between the extremes; not too high but also not too low. This is a warning to avoid being too ambitious while also not becoming completely unambitious. One need to find a golden ratio. In the story are significant changes of fortune. When Daedalus and Icarus start their flight, it marks a change from prison to freedom, from bad to good fortune but then comes the moment that Icarus gets overconfident and flies too high, he wants to reach the sun! With as result that his wings disintegrate, and his fortune changes from good to bad. Pride goes before the fall! The story of Icarus is the perfect example of hubris!

_{Herbert Draper (1863-1920), “The Lament for Icarus” (1898). Draper’s painting a more romantic view, in which three nymphs have recovered the (apparently dry) body of Icarus, and he is laid out on a rock, while they lament his fate, to the accompaniment of a lyre. Perhaps influenced by contemporary thoughts about human flight and aerospace travel, Draper gives Icarus huge wings, and they are shown intact, rather than disintegrated from their exposure to the sun’s heat.}

Europa

How Europe got its name…

The European and Asian continent are both named after female characters from Greek mythology. Let’s have a closer look at “Europa” and her representation in art. It’s all about a beautiful princess who is abducted by a divine bull and gives her name to a whole continent.

_{Nöel-Nicolas Coypel (1690 – 1734), “The Abduction of Europa” (1722), 90×102cm, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond VA.}

The story about Europa (Εὐρώπη in Greek) is simple. She was a beautiful princess from the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre, located on the southern coast of Lebanon. One day, Europa and her friends were picking flowers and playing on the beach. Zeus – or Jupiter, the Roman version – sees her and immediately falls in love. As King of the Gods and having a reputation for endless affairs, Zeus decides to take what he wants. He transforms himself into a marvelous bull with a snow-white body and walks towards the girls. Charmed by the bull’s docile behavior, the girls start petting him and decorate him with garlands of flowers. The bull Zeus lays down at Europa’s feet and pretends to be the most kind and gentle animal ever. Encouraged by her friends, Europa thinks she might ride such gentle beast and climbs on the animal’s back. Of course, this is exactly what Zeus had planned. Now he can abduct Europa!

_{Jean François de Troy (1679 – 1752), “The Abduction of Europa” (1716), 66x82cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington.}

Zeus gets up and slowly starts walking around. Soon however, the bull Zeus accelerates his pace and eventually breaks into a gallop, with Europa clinging on for her life. The King of the Gods and the frightened princess reach the seaside and dive into the sea, leaving Europa’s bewildered friends behind. Europa could do nothing but hold on in fear.

_{Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669), “The Abduction of Europa” (1632), 65×79cm, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.}

The bull swam with her on his back, all the way from the coast of Lebanon to the isle of Crete. Here the Greek god regained his human form and, under a cypress tree, made love with Europa. She became pregnant and gave birth to three sons of Zeus, all becoming kings and famous heroes. Europa married the King of Crete, became Queen and she lived happily ever after. The story about Europa is a classic Greek tragedy, but this time with a happy ending.

_{Titian (1488–1576), “The Abduction of Europa” (c1560), 178x205cm, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston MA.}

Europa riding the bull of Zeus was a popular subject in art. The earliest Greek reference is in Homer’s Iliad from the 8^thcentury BC. The Roman poet Ovid (born 43 BC) describes the story in his Metamorphoses. Hereunder a fresco from the Casa di Giasone in Pompeii, dated before 79 AD as that’s the year when Pompeii was buried under 5m of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Jael, Judith, David and Samson; a print series.

Want to share this? Push the button...

Want to share this? Push the button...

Four Seasons by David Teniers (1610 – 1690)

Fours Seasons by Hendrick Goltzius (1558 – 1617)

Want to share this? Push the button...

“Dieppe” and “Cologne” on loan from the Frick, NY

Want to share this? Push the button...

“Baby, it’s cold outside…”

Want to share this? Push the button...

“Boutique Gallery without Museum Fatigue”

Want to share this? Push the button...

“There is still life in still lifes”

Want to share this? Push the button...

Clara the Rhinoceros

Want to share this? Push the button...

“Art of the Americas”

Want to share this? Push the button...

“Baby Shower for two”

Want to share this? Push the button...

“The Hippest Museum In Town…“

Want to share this? Push the button...

Pre-Medieval Think Tank…

Want to share this? Push the button...

Hubris (ὕβρις): Pride Goeth Before The Fall…

Want to share this? Push the button...

How Europe got its name…