Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, Egypt, Roman Period, encaustic on wood panel, 15 x 8 in. (38 x 19 cm), in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
What appears at first glance to be a sophisticated contemporary oil portrait, is, in fact, an encaustic painting that is roughly 2,000 years old.
Painted in Egypt during the time of Roman occupation, around 100 -150 C.E., this is a beautiful example of the durable and non-yellowing medium of encaustic. Pigment is suspended in hot wax, often augmented with linseed oil, cold wax, egg yolk or resins, and applied to a wood panel.
We know the boy’s name because of the inscription at the collar of his tunic.
Dugald Stewart Walker was one of the less well known American illustrators active in the early 20th century, basically in the latter part of the “Golden Age” of illustraion.
Still Life with Corn, Charles Ethan Porter; watercolor on paper, 11 x 17 in, (27 x 43 cm); in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Though watercolor and gouahe are common in botanical art, they are infrequently usesd for still life paintings. There’s something I particularly like about those that I’m familiar with, and it’s always a treat to come across some that are new to me.
Charles Ethan Porter was an American painter active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who focused primarily on still life. Though he also painted in oil, here he uses textural qualities available in watercolor (and perhaps gouache) to let us feel the texture of the husks, the gentle umps of the kernels of corn and the smooth sphere of the apple.
As I’ve done on every New Year’s Eve for the last 20 years(!), I’ll wish all Lines and Colors readers a Happy New Year with one of J. C. Leyendecker’s New Year’s covers for the Saturday Evening Post.
In most of these, Leyendecker commented on events of the time, In this one he’s marking the arrival of 1926. The title is “No New Taxes!” and the New Year’s baby is chopping the tax bill in half. In the Revenue Act of 1926, President Calvin Coolidge actually reduced federal income tax and inheritance tax. (What a concept!)
At top, I’ve shown a cleaned up version of the cover, below that is a photo of an actual museum cover, faded with time. The original art for this illustration (images above, bottom) was recently on display at the Delaware Art Museum.
For more Leyendecker to while away your New Year’s day, check the list of Lines and Colors J C. Leyendecker posts at the end of this article.
Going into the new year, I will point out that in ugly times, the creation of beauty is an act of defiance.
Originally from Philadelphia, Granville Redmond became prominent as a California Impressionist, bringing the ideas of the Frensh Impressionists to the California countryside.
Like the French Impressionists, and their American east coast contemporaries, the California Impressionists painted on location, looking to capture the visual effects of light and color in the landscape.
Redmond was fascinated, in particular, by the abundance of California wildflowers, painting scenes of rolling hills ablaze with color.
Redmond was deaf from an early age, and studied at the California School for the Deaf. There, he was encouraged to pursue his artistic interests. In later life, he was a part time actor, appearing at times with his friend Charlie Chaplin.
An Eastern Ruler Seated on His Throne. Albrecht Durer, pen and black ink on paper, 12 x 8 inches (31 x 20 cm), in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, DC.
Durer was a master of painting, graphics and, of course, drawing. In this wonderful ink drawing, his command of line, hatching and cross hatching gives the impression of an image much more detailed than it actually is. His lines swoop and swirl, suggesting the depth of the folds, and the curves of the face and sharply define the sword and royal accoutrements.
Adoration of the Shepherds, Giorgione, oil on panel, 36 x 43 inches (91 x 110 cm), in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, DC.
The briliant Venetian painter Giorgione, who was likely Titian’s teacher, studied for a time with Giovanni Bellini. You can see the influence, and fascination with landscape, evident in Bellini’s Saint Francis in Ecstasy (top image from my post on Bellini).
As in that painting, Giorgione provides a monumental rock face within which is a cave. As in Bellini’s painting, and similar paintings of the time, almost everything, has a symbolic meaning, particularly plants. The trees and shrubs are botanically identifiable, and are prominent components of the composition. The plant on the rock above the cave entrance is of particular interest, given its position above the holy family. I’m not sure, but I think it may be mistletoe, which has significance in relation to Mary.
The landscape is detailed and extends back past a town to the mountains beyond. Like many Renaissance landscapes, the distance is shifted into blues by atmospheric perspective, but even the farthest reaches of the middleground is not.
Giorgione sets his scene in the day, in contrast to many paintings of the subject, in which the event is persented at night, allowing for the supernatural glow of light from the child. In this case it is the cherubs hovering the scene that emit an unearthly light.
Here, the infant is uncharacteristically placed on the ground, half on swaddling and half on Mary’s robe (undoubtedly painted with true lapis lazuli based Ultramarine Blue). There is a beautiful harmony to the colors and values of the figures and their attire, with delicate handling and subtle value relationships.
One of the most beautiful depictions of this often painted scene in the history of art.
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