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…

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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…

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Unknown portrait of Da Vinci’s brush: Did the great master really write “Princess Leonardo” and whom he portrayed
It may seem that the legacy of Leonardo da Vinci has many paintings - this artist, who died five hundred years ago, is mentioned too much and too often in…

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“Love Letter” by Jan Vermeer: Why the lute is central to the picture

Cristobal Balenciaga once said that “a good fashion designer should be an architect for patterns, a sculptor for form, an artist for design, a musician for harmony, and a philosopher for fit.” And it is not surprising that in the 20th century he ruled high fashion with innovative clothing inspired by unusually traditional Spanish sources. The Basque fashion designer took replicas from regional clothing, folk costumes, bullfights, flamenco dances, Catholicism and, of course, from the history of painting. And in the end, he created what conquered the world for centuries.

The Balenciaga collection is full of stocky silhouettes, stooped shoulders and neat trouser lines. But the fashion house today, under the leadership of Demna Gvasalia, represents a completely different aesthetic than what Cristobal himself did during his lifetime. “They cannot be compared,” explains Eloy Martinez de la Pera, curator of the new Balenciaga and Spanish Painting exhibition in Madrid, which combines ninety works of the Balenciaga couture with 56 masterpieces of Spanish painting that inspired the designer. “Balenciaga’s story ended when he stopped making clothes. His story was extremely personal, but today Balenciaga has a completely different story, and it is also worth telling. ” And in order to truly recognize Cristobal himself, it is important to know the key elements of Spanish art that shaped his aesthetic vision. Continue reading

Was there a boy, or what they argue about for many years, looking at Chardin’s picture “Prayer before dinner”

He was called the “artist of animals and fruits.” He had a significant influence on Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne. In art, this artist sought naturalness and humanity as opposed to the official Rococo style. All this is about Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin and his picture “Prayer before dinner.” What is the main debate of art critics about this picture?

The 18th century French artist Jean Simeon Baptiste Chardin was known for his still lifes and genre paintings. His refined and realistic style had a significant impact on a number of the greatest artists of the XIX-XX centuries, including Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) and Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906). Chardin’s canvases were simple, but workshops performed. The Chardin world is a world with feeling (and not gallantry), with humility (and not vanity), with simplicity (and not covetousness). For the bourgeois establishment, the works of Chardin represented a salutary contrast with the “decadent aristocratic fragility” of many of the artist’s colleagues (including Watteau). Continue reading

10 years of happiness and 28 years of grief in the life of the artist Vasily Surikov

The personal life of prominent people always attracts the attention of readers, especially if it is full of piquant details, incredible stories, secrets and mysteries. But today we will talk about the personal life of the artist Vasily Surikov, about which not so much is known. But the amazing story of his love will not leave anyone indifferent.

A bit from the biography

Artist Vasily Surikov was born in Krasnoyarsk, his ancestors were from the Don Cossacks who conquered Siberia with Ermak, after the death of which they went up the Yenisei and founded the Krasnoyarsk prison. The artist was born in 1848 in the family of an office clerk who came from an old Yenisei Cossack family. And is it necessary to say that the character of the future painter, formed in the harsh environment of the Siberian region, was just as strong and unshakable. Years later, this power was embodied in the heroic images of his paintings. Continue reading

What are the secret meanings of the image of a parrot in the paintings of great artists of different eras
For artists of the Gothic, Early Renaissance and High Renaissance, birds were part of a rich visual symbolism. In a society with limited literacy, allegorical images were vital for the…

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“Love Letter” by Jan Vermeer: Why the lute is central to the picture
Cristobal Balenciaga once said that “a good fashion designer should be an architect for patterns, a sculptor for form, an artist for design, a musician for harmony, and a philosopher…

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How Pavel Tretyakov competed with the emperor to create the most famous art gallery in Moscow
Before the revolution, patronage of the arts was considered not only charitable, but also beneficial for the donor himself, and the point here was not taxes at all. According to…

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