FYI

Автопортрет, 1878, музей Метрополитен Работы на Викискладе

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Самые извращенные демонические символы в изображениях Ада на его полотнах так или иначе ассоциируются со «знаком Зверя». Впрочем, никаких тому письменных свидетельств Босх нам не оставил. Каждый, кто всматривается в густонаселенные огромным количеством сюрреалистических образов миры Иеронима Босха, волен видеть в них то, что ему больше нравится. Или не нравится.   ( Read more... )         

A plump, naked boy, made of bronze. His curly hair is bound in a knot on his forehead and drapes onto his neck. The winged infant is the god of love Cupid. He is standing on his toes, stretching his arms as if about to loose an arrow: the right arm bent back, the left full out in front.

This shallow dish - a tazza - was designed as a drinking vessel. The object is a combination of various parts: a hollow, trumpet-shaped foot, a solid stem and a shallow bowl with a broad, flat rim. The glassblower varied the thickness of the stem. This gave the opportunity for additional decorative elements on the glass, such as the glass edges and the ribbed knop. Parts of the drinking vessel are superbly decorated with painted ornamentation in different colours.   rijksmuseum.nl

Like its predecessor, the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) was essentially a dispute about trade fought on water. The end of the war was hastened in June 1667 when the Dutch launched a spectacular raid on the English naval base at Chatham on the river Medway, east of London. It came as a complete surprise to the British. The Dutch smashed the chain that defended the river from enemy attack. As a result, they were able to capture two English ships and burn a further six. One of the prizes was the flagship, 'Royal Charles', brought back to Holland as a trophy of war. Admiral Michiel de Ruyter received this gold cup picturing the encounter in enamel to mark the successful raid.   rijksmuseum.nl

Forty flowers could be arranged in this tower of Delft blue faience called a tulip or pyramid vase. In fact it was not only used for tulips; all sorts of cut flowers could be arranged in it. This example was made in Delft, between 1690 and 1720 and it is more than a metre high. The construction comprises a stack of 6 loose, watertight vases. Vases with spouts for individual flowers were made in all sorts of shapes in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. The pyramid vase was the ultimate achievement in this field.   rijksmuseum. nl

This bust depicts Queen Mary II of England, the wife of the Dutch Stadholder-KingWilliam III. It was made between 1680 and 1685, of blue painted Delft faience, of which Mary was particularly fond. Mary was a enthusiastic collector and owned the largest collection of faience in existence at that time. The couple's Dutch palaces, Het Loo and Honselaersdijk,were full of these pieces. Thanks to Mary's enthusiasm for the blue and white earthenware it became popular in court circles of the Stadholder-King - both in the Republic and in England. This provided an important stimulus for the Delft faience industry.       rijksmuseum.nl

This charming lady is Hortense de Beauharnais. Her father, a member of an old aristocratic family, had been decapitated during the French Revolution. Her mother's second husband was Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1802, Hortense, then 19, married her step-father's brother, Louis. In 1806, Louis Bonaparte was placed on the Dutch throne and Hortense became Holland's first queen. Yet she rarely came to the Netherlands and the marriage was far from happy. This portrait was painted in Paris. It was intended for the Royal Palace on Amsterdam's Dam Square, which Louis made his residence. In fact the King never took delivery of the painting. It remained in the painter's possession and was later sold with the rest of his estate.     rijksmuseum.nl

That's odd ... it's a glass, a wine glass in fact, but it is upside down - the glass has no foot. Instead, it has a decorative silver sphere containing a silver die. This type of glass is known as a wager cup. When filled with wine it can only be put down once the contents have been drunk: the glass cannot stand upright. This particular wager cup is known as a dice glass. It is a product of seventeenth-century Dutch workmanship in the Venetian style.    rijksmuseum.nl

Two ships in high seas. The larger ship is clearly in trouble: high waves are breaking against the hull, the square foresail has broken loose and one of the masts has been broken in this sudden squall. The sails are hauled in and the crew is hard at work. A few men are still up in the rigging - one has been left behind in the crow's nest. The small fishing boat on the left is also having trouble keeping course. The seething sea and threatening sky portend more bad weather. This dramatically lit sea scene was painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger. He has signed it below on the left.   rijksmuseum.nl

Panathenaic prize amphora, ca. 525–500 b.c.; black-figure
Attributed to the Kleophrades Painter, Greek, Attic, Terracotta

H. 25 in. (63.5 cm), Rogers Fund, 1916 (16.71)

Reverse: pankration (athletic contest) and judge            Obverse: Athena

This splendid Panathenaic amphora is inscribed with the words "from the games at Athens." On one side is the figure of Athena, the presiding goddess at the Panathenaic games in Athens, and on the other side, shown here, is the pankration, the contest at which this vase was awarded as a prize. The object of the pankration, a combination of boxing and wrestling, was to bring one's opponent to the ground. A favorite trick was to seize a contestant by the leg and force him to fall backward, such as depicted here. One athlete has grasped the other's foot and is trying to throw him by placing an arm under his opponent's thigh. A trainer stands nearby, closely watching the struggle to see that all rules are properly observed

The pankration was the toughest and most dangerous of all athletic events. One could twist, strangle, hit, and pound one's opponent; in fact, the only things forbidden were biting and gouging the eyes. Injury to the competitors was unavoidable since they sought to win by all possible means, heedless of the life of their opponents.

Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Attributed to the Euphiletos Painter, Greek, Attic, Terracotta

H. 24 1/2 in. (62.23 cm), Rogers Fund, 1914 (14.130.12)

This Panathenaic amphora would have been filled with oil from the sacred olive groves in Attica, and would have been awarded as a prize to some worthy victor in one of the Panathenaic games held in Athens every four years. With its typically fat body and small neck and foot, the prize vase is, perhaps, the best example of a vase shape made to serve an official function. Each Panathenaic amphora was made according to a standardized shape and capacity of one metretes (approximately 42 quarts), and was decorated in black-figure technique. The principle decoration is always in the panels of the body of the amphora, with an armed Athena typically on the front and an illustration of the featured competition on the back.

Foot races, the earliest competitions of the Olympic games, were undertaken over varying distances. The stadion, probably the original race, was a fast sprint over one length of the track (over 200 meters), while the diaulos and the dolichos, both introduced somewhat later, covered distances of approximately 400 meters and 1,400 to 3,800 meters, respectively. The painter of this vessel has neatly fit five sprinters—five men and a youth—into the panel of the pot. Notice the wealth of incised lines depicting musculature, a preoccupation of Greek artists for centuries to come.

Orders for Panathenaic amphorae were placed with leading artists of the time. On the basis of style, this vessel has been attributed to the Euphiletos Painter. An inscription on the front of the amphora gives not only the official designation of the vase as a prize, but also the signature of the potter, Nikias, a rare occurrence on pots of this shape.

Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Source:  Department of Greek and Roman Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Seated in a leather chair is a middle-aged man. He seems a neat sort of person, with his short beard and bright, alert glance. His clothes are made of a black, shiny material. The ring on his index finger and his gloves reveal his wealth. This is Thomas Gresham, a merchant, in his forties. He was the financial representative of the English Crown in the Netherlands. The portrait was painted in 1564 by the Utrecht artist Anthonie Mor van Dashorst.   www.rijksmuseum.nl

Anne Ferneley is wearing a dress with a gown under which her cream-coloured sleeves can be seen. That she is a wealthy woman is obvious from the expensive fabrics and her gold jewellery. She is wearing a chain with a pomander about her waist. Little is known about many of the women portrayed in paintings. All that we know about Anne Ferneley, for example, is that she married in 1544 and died in 1596. By then she had been a widow for seventeen years.  www.rijksmuseum.nl

Philips William was the eldest son of William of Orange. But having been held hostage in Spain since the age of 14, he was passed over in favour of his half-brother of Maurice when the new stadholder was appointed. Philip William had to make do with the title Prince of Orange. Because he had been raised as a Catholic and a Spanish aristocrat the Dutch distrusted the Prince. Michiel van Miereveld portrayed him as a nobleman, dressed in the opulent fashion of a courtier. In contrast, Van Miereveld depicted Maurice, Frederick Henry and Spinola in their armour. A recurring feature in each of these portraits is a plumed helmet on a sidetable. In 1599 Philip William was made a knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece. Since the painting shows the Prince wearing the insignia of the order, it can be dated to after 1599.     www.rijksmuseum.nl

This well-dressed man eyes the viewer with a serious and self-confident expression on his face. He is portrayed from the waist up, standing in front of a balustrade, his arms resting lightly on a chair. Behind him is a red curtain with a large tassel. Beside it are the contours of a twilight landscape. This is Jan Steen's only serious self-portrait. He regularly depicted himself in his own paintings, usually in company, in a comical role, as a drunkard, a victim of deception or - as in the 'Merry family' - playing the bagpipes.   www.rijksmuseum.nl

These chestnut vases were made by Theodorus Gerardus Bentvelt, a silversmith working for the firm of Bonebakker in Amsterdam. He drew inspiration from the Gothic style. The octagonal base with lobed rim was borrowed from medieval monstrances and chalices of the Middle Ages, while the rest was his invention. This is typical of the nineteenth century love of earlier styles. Bentvelt also worked in the Dutch Renaissance style. The chestnut vase was first produced in the third quarter of the eighteenth century and was probably intended for roasted or pureed chestnuts. The curved surfaces of the round vase arose from the lobes at the base, producing a magnificent reflective effect. The only additions are a small border to the body and a natural branch of acanthus leaves on the lid.   www.rijksmuseum.nl/

In the eighteenth century French fashions were keenly followed in the Netherlands. Not least among these devotees were the Dutch cabinetmakers. In The Hague Matthijs Horrix was the leading craftsman producing furniture in the French mode. He made this commode in the Neoclassical or Louis XVI style. Typical features are the straight lines and surfaces as well as marquetry ornamentation based on ancient motifs such as the classical vase in the portrait medallion. Yet Horrix was not slavish in his devotion to French fashions. The form of the commode - with a single large door in the centre, concave sides and a gilt bronze base line - is certainly not French. Indeed, the inlay on the central door is characteristic of earlier Rococo decorations, with its irregular rock formations and flowers.  www.rijksmuseum.nl/

Here is a portrait of a small girl in a blue dress painted in 1641 by Johannes Verspronck. At this time, Verspronck was a leading portrait painter in Haarlem. 'Girl Dressed in Blue' is his most famous work and one of the best loved portraits of a child from the seventeenth century. The girl has been portrayed as a real adult. Only her child-like face betrays the fact that she cannot be more than about ten years old. In those days, young girls were dressed in the same way as their mothers. It is not known who this girl is, although we can be certain she came from a wealthy family. This can be seen from her dress decorated with gold lace, her excessive jewellery and the feather fan she is holding.    www.rijksmuseum.nl/

Maria Swartenhont was the daughter of two well-known residents of Amsterdam: Elisabeth Bas and Jochem Swartenhont. Jochem Swartenhont was a famous naval captain; later in life the couple opened a tavern together. It was a popular venue in fashionable circles: 'The Prince of Orange', on the corner of Nes and Pieter Jacobszstraat. Maria married Maerten Rey and had three children with him. She died in 1631, aged 33. Her children were then adopted and brought up by Maria's mother, Elisabeth Bas who was sixty years old and a widow by then. A counterpart to Maria's portrait exists, portraying her husband. The Rijksmuseum collection also includes portraits of her parents, her daughter Maria Rey and her son-in-law Roelof Meulenaer.   www.rijksmuseum.nl/

An unpretentious portrait of an unknown man. He was 46 years old when Jan van Scorel painted him in 1529. His age and the date are given on the frame, as if a small piece of paper is stuck there. The man is fashionably dressed in a black fur-lined tabard over a black shirt with a stiff collar and a biretta on his head. His face is turned sideways, but his eyes address the viewer. It is his direct gaze that makes the portrait so relaxed. The same effect is achieved through the subtle details such as the delicate lines around his eyes and the stubble of his beard. Jan van Scorel was the first in the Northern Netherlands to paint this type of portrait of middle-class burghers and this is one of his earliest such pictures.   www.rijksmuseum.nl/

«Все, что я делал в искусстве, — игра воображения. И у меня всегда был один идеал, одна модель — движение танца».

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Between 1710 and 1725 the basic shape of Dutch cupboards changed: cabinets on tall open supports were gradually replaced by cupboards with a base that comprised a chest of drawers. This is therefore a typical eighteenth-century cupboard. The silver mounts on the doors and drawers were the work of Dirk Froger, a silversmith in Amsterdam. In addition to the maker's mark, the silver also bears the date letter for 1764. It was around this time that the cabinet was made, probably be a cabinetmaker in Amsterdam. This cabinet would have been remarkably expensive piece of furniture. The veneer over the oak structure has been enlivened with floral designs, ribbons and rocailles in marquetry.    www.rijksmuseum.nl/

A young woman is reading a letter, around her are a table and chairs. She is illuminated by the light from what is presumably a window. On the wall behind her is a map. The artist has achieved a muted tone with his use of blues and browns. Vermeer has played here with the light and shadow. While the map and the chair cast a distinct shadow on the wall, the woman does not. It makes her stands out from the background. The subtle gradations of colour and the contrasts in this painting were already greatly admired two hundred years ago. A 1791 auction catalogue remarks on 'the pleasing effects of light and shadow'.    www.rijksmuseum.nl/