We’ve all had the chance to weigh in on our favorite poem. What about the visual arts?
My favorite painting is *The School of Athens* by Raphael–a fresco which originally decorated the walls of the pope’s library and is now part of the Vatican Museum.
I love the interplay between two of the richest cultures in human history–the ancient Greek and the high Renaissance. The painting depicts a number of contemporary Renaissance artists (Michelangelo, Leonardo, Bramante, and Raphael himself) as Greek thinkers, and transposes them back into what was then the open-air setting of a partially completed St. Peter’s.
I especially like the depiction of the life of the mind, which takes me back to long-ago university days. The argumentative professors flanked by students, the solitary thinkers engrossed in their work, the clusters of observers bent over group projects, and even the hairstyles and beards could have been painted on the portico of the Illini Union in 1978. Only the togas would have to go!
I’ve always had a soft spot for Las Meninas s. The painter, Velazquez, is actually one of the subjects. He’s painting the royal family (who you can see in the mirror at the back of the wall). I don’t know who the figure is that’s entering the room, but Velazquez is painting a picture about him painting a picture, but he’s not even the subject or the title of the painting.
Older painting were a reflection of the times. No cameras. So wealthy had the painters paint pictures of themselves for posterity.
Van Gogh painted feelings. Problem is he was probably nuts and his paintings give me the creeps. I imagine what was going on in his twisted mind . But they are very effective at showing his feelings. Better than anyone else ,I think.
Even Sunflowers show a twisted mind.
well, a lot of them, but my first favorite was from when I was little and my dad owned a bar, and at that same time Budweiser sent out promotional prints of Cassily Adams’ Custer’s Last Fight, which hung in my bedroom.
Christina’s World. The mastery, the beauty and the backstory combine to make this my favourite. I find it breathtaking in reproductions; I can only imagine what the original is like.
Hands down: The triptych Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch. As a matter of fact, he’s my favorite painter ever. I like that genre pretty well, too, but just compare all of his paintings to the ones of his best imitator, Bruegel. All of the same elements are there but there is no character in Bruegel’s paintings. Some say, including myself, that this is partially indicative of a more cynical, atheistic approach which personifies death as a mass of unthinking skeletons rather than demons with an evil life force (and I even noticed that before I found critics who agreed,) but it is also indicative to me of a bad painter.
For instance, in one of Bosch’s versions of Ecce Homo he masters giving each individual in the crowd an expression while at the same time showing their mob lust. (Not to mention the delicate characterizations of Jesus and Pilate, lacking in some others.)
AHEM! Bad painter? I don’t have the time this morning, but I’m going to have to return later this afternoon with a rabid defense of PB. Are you mostly referring to the Triumph of Death? Calling Breugel an imitator of Bosch is ignoring 95 percent of his work, which is largely terribly clever and innovative (and I like Bosch,just to be clear). I will return. Heretic.
I just meant he was bad compared to Bosch: PB isn’t in my top 10 but is a decent painter himself, and I realize that he did more than rip off Bosch (and even when he did he’s better than most that did.)
The original has to be seen to be fully appreciated, as it is greatly enhanced by the collection of (IMO) utter crap that surrounds it at the Guggenheim.
It’s hard for me to pick one, even of any given artist, but the first time I saw a Kandinsky work, I was absolutely mesmerized. Very few artists have had that kind of hold of me. So here’s one of my favorite of his work, but I would hesitate to call any one piece my favorite.
Some days Munch’s The Scream gets the nod, others days it’s Persistence of Memory or even Wheat Field with Crows, by Van Gogh. The last is the only one I’ve seen in person, and not being an art expert I’d never heard of it. It was a stunning and doomy experience to see.
