The riddle and curse of the “Crying Boy”: Why Amadio was called the devil painter
The Italian painter Bruno Amadio, who worked under the pseudonym Giovanni Bragolin, is considered to be the most dramatic and sinister artist in the history of art of the 20th…

Continue reading →

The bloody drama that broke out centuries ago in Rembrandt’s brilliant painting Lucretius
As a rule, artists in all ages, creating their paintings, meticulously approached the choice of subjects that would inspire them to write unique and masterpieces. And since in the old…

Continue reading →

The bloody drama that broke out centuries ago in Rembrandt’s brilliant painting Lucretius
As a rule, artists in all ages, creating their paintings, meticulously approached the choice of subjects that would inspire them to write unique and masterpieces. And since in the old…

Continue reading →

the cortex

The bloody drama that broke out centuries ago in Rembrandt’s brilliant painting Lucretius

As a rule, artists in all ages, creating their paintings, meticulously approached the choice of subjects that would inspire them to write unique and masterpieces. And since in the old days, plots were taken from legends, myths, biblical stories, the same theme was revealed by painters in different variations and several times. And today I would like to recall one of such legendary stories that laid the foundation for the works of many eminent masters of European painting. This heart-rending plot did not pass by the famous Dutchman Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn.
And the story, which occupied all the thoughts of the artist, was about the pious Roman Lucretia, the beloved heroine of the Renaissance and Baroque artists, who tragically passed away, but tried to save her honor. Continue reading

How Peter Konchalovsky managed to avoid repression and why the artist was called the Soviet Cezanne

Not many painters who disobeyed the socialist regime in times of bloody repression managed to escape punishment. Today I would like to recall the name of one of them – Pyotr Petrovich Konchalovsky. In those terrible years, the artist managed to remain a “pure” painter who avoided the embodiment of socialist reality and portraits of its leaders in his creations. Moreover, to take as a basis for his work the direction of the hostile Western art, which is why he was named in his time – the Soviet Cezanne.

It should be noted that the great merit of Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first People’s Commissar of Education of the RSFSR, was that Pyotr Petrovich was allowed to create freely, despite the attacks of critics who longed for the proletarian coup and the ecstasy of socialist work in the artist’s works. Anatoly Vasilievich convinced the guardians of the dogmas of socialist realism that Konchalovsky in his modern day “sings the poetry of our everyday life” and, apparently, the People’s Commissar did quite well. Continue reading

Symbolism of the most mysterious stone: Women with pearls in the paintings of famous artists

The dual nature of pearls has inspired artists at all times: pearls have been used for centuries as attributes of vanity, purity, innocence and even generosity. According to the National Gallery of Art, “symbolically, pearls were associated with vanity and worldly cares. Titian, for example, dyed Venus’s hair adorned with pearls. They can also represent purity, as can be seen from Lorenzo Lotto’s painting of St. Catherine.”

In 17th-century Dutch painting, pearls are depicted in earrings, necklaces and bracelets of heroines in portraits, historical paintings and vanitas objects. Perhaps the most famous painting with pearls is rightfully considered the “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by Jan Vermeer.
Jan Vermeer “Girl with a Pearl Earring” Continue reading

Two brides for one groom: The riddle of a picturesque plot about the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine
The American artist Marilyn Sunderland covers her pumpkin sculptures with the plexus of leaves, flowers and berries, figures of fantastic fish, birds and butterflies, turning a regular vegetable grown in…

...

7 beloved women by Pablo Picasso
“If he had not become an artist, he would have become Don Juan,” once said a friend of Pablo Picasso, the French playwright Jacques Cocteau. And it’s hard to disagree…

...

High Renaissance Titans: Who They Are and What Their Contribution to Art History
The Renaissance refers to the rediscovery of ideals from classical antiquity. Artists no longer thought about the art of antiquity. Now they had the tools, technology, knowledge and confidence to…

...