Thread of Art

You are in the Museum of Modern Art standing before Number 31, 1950. You are consumed by the scale and baffled by the merit. Another viewer irresistibly says, “my five-year-old could do that”.  Impulsively you want to laugh, but you don’t. But…

At a time when most of the world was under Roman occupation and travel was dangerous, forbidden, or impossible, the Gospel writer Matthew told of the long and determine journey in the early first century of the “wise men” or…

You lost your head. Not you, the reader, but YOU, Charles I, Stuart King of England, Scotland and Ireland. “Charles I in Three Positions”, 1635-36, by Anthony van Dyke (1599-1641), Royal Collection, Windsor Castle. “Charles I in Three Positions” was…

In this time of multiple crises in our world, how important is music to you? Your daily dip into rhythm is what, or WHO? Are you haunting a forbidden “nightclub”, streaming Pandora, listening to NPR’s classical stations, iTunes, Prime Music,…

Wouldn’t you love to have a red studio? Even if you are an accountant or a nurse (bless you!) or a parent who is home schooling? Matisse’s  L’Atelier Rouge at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, requires a double-take, and…

Never mind the Parthenon or the Aphrodite of Knidos…… Centuries before marble there was clay – terracotta. The craftsmen of black figure and red figure were the first artists in Greek history to record their names on their accomplishments. What are we talking…

Impressionism seems to brighten everyone’s mood – scenes of the bourgeois life – leisure life. A picnic, a stroll in the park, a café luncheon, a racetrack, a frilly-dressed petite jeune fille, a twilight-lit dance, a sip of absinthe, a melting cathedral,…

During the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte (as First Consul, 1799, and Emperor, 1804-1815), there were four artists who were “court painters” and who portrayed Napoleon in his most regal and powerful states and stances. They were all at the service…

Artemisia had two enemies: Agostino Tassi and Holofernes. It is Rome, Italy, and Artemisia Gentileschi is an adolescent artist, talented beyond expectations. She has trained at home under her father, Orazio Gentileschi, a notable Baroque painter and contemporary of the…

As lovers of art in 2020, we now expect our museums to resemble objects instead of temples. Previously an art museum was a revered and usually symmetrical building, historically classical and European.  But by the early 20th c., most architecture was strongly influenced by…