collections
Ciphers, signs and self-portraits: How artists of the past signed their paintings
Not every masterpiece of painting contains the signature of the artist. There were reasons for this, both at the dawn of the Renaissance and in the modern era; they are now. Some of the works were “signed” by the masters in unusual ways – symbols in which an indication of the identity of the author was hidden. Bones, butterflies, cats appeared in the paintings for a reason.
Why it was not customary to sign a work before
Having finished work, put your signature in the lower right corner of the picture – a custom that entered the practice of artists during the early Renaissance. Alas, authorship of earlier works is often not possible to establish – primarily because of the lack of signatures on them. Artists of the Middle Ages then united in workshops, and had no right to show any individualism in creativity, this was perceived as vanity. In addition, most of the works were devoted to religious subjects, and to put their own name on paintings depicting saints was akin to sacrilege. Continue reading
19th Century Girl Albums: Entertainment for Bored Aristocrats or a Separate Genre in Art?
The young ladies of the 19th century were not so different from the modern ones: they also needed attention, recognition, evidence of sympathy from friends and, of course, a cordial secret, which was expressed in allegories and symbols – often poetic. Now social networks are used for this, then – albums, quite intimate, but not closed from other manuscript books.
Album History
Unlike diaries closed from prying eyes, albums were created to be shown – to friends and relatives, to those who would also be asked to leave a record. The albums were filled with the “wrong hand”, but at the same time bore the imprint of the owner’s personality – it was he who determined who to include in his inner circle and whose work to keep as a keepsake. Continue reading
10 collectors whose investments in art are millions of dollars
The richest people in the world spend billions of dollars in order to collect a decent collection of antiques and art. Each collector has his own taste and his own idea of the beautiful. But owners of billions of dollars are similar in one thing: they consider art a great investment, which in the future can bring serious profit to the owner.
Philip Niarchos
The collector became a worthy successor to the work of his father, Stavros Niarchos, who laid the foundation for the collection of art of the twentieth century back in 1949. In his mansions in different cities of the world were paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Picasso, Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin. Philip Niarchos later added to his father’s meeting by buying self-portraits of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Vincent van Gogh at auction, as well as Andy Warhol’s painting “Red Marilyn”. Continue reading
