10) The Madonna of the Chair. Raphael 1483-1520I keep posting paintings by Raphael because he is "The prince of painters" his influence was enormous, at least before our own time.
Orphaned at age eleven he served an apprenticeship with Pietro Perugino. He was fabulously talented. He, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo formed the great trinity of High Renaissance artists. Raphael was younger than the other two and was disliked by Michelangelo, probably for his ferocious talent. Raphael kept a large workshop and produced an enormous amount of work before his death at age thirty seven.
Raphael never married but the love of his life was La Fornarina (Margharita Luti). According to Vasari the art historian of the era Raphael contracted a fever after a night of impassioned lovemaking with Ms. Luti. The primitive medicine given to him as a remedy, killed him instead.
11 Galetea, also Raphael
The figures are influenced by the massive anatomy of Michelangelo. The drawing below illustrates Raphael's abilities as a draftsman. He has been revered by artists ever since as the finest draftsman who ever lived. Many of the great draftsmen of subsequent history have based their technique on his, David, Ingres Degas and Bouguereau, and even Picasso emulated Raphael.
12) Cecilia Galleranni by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
I chose this lovely woman holding a disgusting mustalid because the obvious choice would have been the Mona Lisa. I assume you already know that and the Last Supper too. You know many things about Leonardo but did you know that- in 1476 he was tried and acquitted of sodomy with a male prostitute?
- he was originally brought into the court as a musician and not as an artist?
- He also painted a nude version of the Mona Lisa?
- that he was a vegetarian?
- He was described as incredibly beautiful ?
- He was strong enough to bend a horseshoe with one hand, his left, as he was left handed.
- That he said "The act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions"?
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3 comments:
Ah..Leonardo. How many paintings did he leave behind? 18?and his inventions,all great ideas; all failures. My husband (who is an inventor) calls Leonardo the world's most talented, influential and famous failure. Sounds like a terrible thing to say , until you look at his life and realize that it may be true. My favorite portrait is the one in the Smithsonian- Genevive (?).
ah stape, you never cease to entertain and enlighten.
I wonder if, 500 years from now, someone were to devote 7 bulleted items to one of us, what would they be?
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