22 October 2018

Sandro Botticelli. The Birth of Venus (‘Nascita di Venere’), ca. 1485 (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence).



Tempera on canvas: 172.5 x 278.5 cm(!). The title was given to the painting in the 19th century. It is now believed that it doesn't represent the birth of Venus but her land on the island of Cyprus.

Visit > Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
More > Google Arts & Culture.
More > 'The Birth of Venus' at Wikipedia.
More > Sandro Botticelli at Wikipedia.

21 October 2018

Jacob Savery the younger. Noah’s Ark (‘L’arche de Noé’), ca. 1620 (private collection).


Oil on wood: 74 x 104 cm. Auctioned at Sotheby’s Paris, June 2014. Attributed to the obscure Dutch-Flemish painter Jacob Jacobsz Savery (1593 - >1651), son of Jacob/ Jacques Maertensz Savery (ca. 1565 - 1603).

15 October 2018

James Ensor. Pierrot in despair (‘Le désespoir de Pierrot’/ ‘De bedroefde Pierrot’), ca. 1910 (Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo).


Oil on canvas: 66.3 x 84.2 cm. Signed 1892, but thought to be painted around 1910. A larger copy (collection Yves Saint Laurent et Pierre Berg) auctioned at Christie’s Paris, February 2009. 

Visit > Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo.
More > James Ensor at Wikipedia.

12 October 2018

11 October 2018

5 October 2018

Flora Yukhnovich. Boucher’s Flesh, 2017 (artist’s portfolio).


Oil on linen: 215 x 180 cm. Flora Yukhnovich (2018): “My current body of work grew out my awareness of my own prejudices towards aesthetics deemed to be feminine. I realised that this was because the aesthetic attributes which we understand to be feminine were not at all true to my lived experience of being female”.

Visit > Flora Yukhnovich official
Visit > Flora Yukhnovich at: Brocket Gallery, Leeds Arts University, Parafin.

3 October 2018

Juan Gris. Guitar and Newspaper (‘Guitare et journal’), 1925 (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid).



Oil on canvas: 65 x 81 cm.

Visit > Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid.
More > Google Arts & Culture.
More > Juan Gris at Wikipedia.

Hans Memling. Portrait of Tommaso di Folco Portinari and Maria Portinari, ca. 1470 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).



Oil on wood. Overall measurements: 44.1 x 67.7 cm. Painted surface with trompe-l’oeil frames: ca. 42.2 x 32 cm each. Husband and wife, dressed in the height of fashion. Originally a triptych with a central devotional image of the Virgin and Child (the centerpiece has been assumed lost). Interesting read at Metropolitan Technical Notes. Researchers chose to not further interpret the XRF Calcium distribution map.

Visit > Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
More > Hans Memling at Wikipedia.

2 October 2018

Peter Paul Rubens. The four Rivers of Paradise (‘Die vier Flüsse des Paradieses’), ca. 1615 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna).



Oil on canvas: 208 x 283 cm(!). Also interpreted as depicting female personifications of the four continents sitting with their respective major rivers. Clockwise starting at the front: Africa and the Nile, Europe and the Danube, America and the Río de la Plata, and Asia and the Ganges.

Visit > Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
More > Peter Paul Rubens at Wikipedia.
More > Our top-50 favourite paintings.