03 11 2016

So who chose the models for the nine muses?

I talked to Tim Wallace-Murphy about the Renaissance models (hes working on symbolism in Renaissance art) and he told me about the contracts between sponsor/paymaster/commissioner and the artist which are very detailed  indeed (I've since looked, on his advice) Notwithstanding, it seems the choice of model was at the artists whim.The contracts are about the artist having to do the work and not farm it out to apprentices, how many figures doing what. Though of course from time to time the sponsor is shown, kneeling by the virgin, whatever - and in many cases the artist crops up, silently judgmental.
The roof in Greenwich, of course much later, springs to mind - the Great Hall - poor James Thornhill,  messed about by monarchs dying and being crowned and dying and... and either he painting himself badly (not inconceivable) or he used the old devise of putting his left hand where his right should be, to indicate deceit.

At the Beaux Arts yesterday (Carcassonne day out) I found three saints. St Anthony, 18 century Naples, by Giovanni Riolla: Les Larmes de St Pierre by Juseppe Ribera (1591-1652) and AUTOPORTRAIT en Jean-Bapiste, by Henri Jean-Guillaume Martin (1860 - 1945) So spanning three centuries, one straight saint (didn't say which St Anthony nor were there clues in the picture), one saint in action (crying) and one saint as the artist pretending to be a saint.

They all three have loose handling and impasto, both of which I have in buckets, which pleased me - it seemed to allow for lack-of-control interventions.
afterwards I thought this may not be a characteristic of the genre but of the selection committee at the gallery... next time I'm there will see the dates they were added to the collection.

Liked all three.