Michelangelo - Fragment 35, Before 1547

      Nobody has the whole of it
before he reaches his limit
of his art and his life. ~ Michelangelo


If one of the greatest of masters of art who brought marble to life, fresco off the wall, and drawing to new heights in the 1500's which were still marveled and reveled in our time, what limits do you suppose he aspired to?

David, 1504, Florence, Italy Michelangelo

Pieta, 1499, The Vatican at St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, Italy, Michelangelo

The Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Vatican City, 1508-1512

Today is rather short and the days in-between my posts rather long.... I fear graduate school at times drains the time for the arts I love and am passionate about.... so Michelangelo feared he was not doing enough and he accomplished so much... who am I to say I am tired, I am busy, I am over-run??

Keats and Bernini

Fontana della Barcaccia, 1627 (Baroque) - Rome, Italy,
Pietro Bernini (son of Gian Lorenzo Bernini)

At the bottom of the Spanish Steps built to the Piazza di Spagna, Rome leading to the Egyptian obelisk and the Church of Trinita dei Monti on the Pincio Hill, where the 16th-century Villa Medici sits the Fontana della Barcaccia.  As Keats was terminally ill his doctor advised him to take a respite and Keats was said to have 'fallen under Rome's spell and would fall asleep at night outside listening to Bernini's fountain'.  It is of no surprise that one great artist inspired another nor is it a surprise that the fountain of the great Master Bernini's son brought peace and tranquility to Keats in his last days.  Both Pietro and Gian Lorenzo Bernini both were exceedingly talented sculptors and artists and Keats, well.... He can speak for himself.... still....


Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art –

Bright star! Would I were steadfast as thou art –

  Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

  Like Nature’s patient sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

  Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,

Or gazing of the new soft fallen mask

  Of snow upon the mountain and the moors –

No- yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,

  Pillow’d upon my fail love’s ripening breast,

To feel forever it’s soft fall and swell,

  Awake forever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear forever her tender-taken breath,

  And so live ever- or else swoon to death.

-Keats, 1884

Fontana della Barcaccia, 1627 (Baroque) - Rome, Italy,
Pietro Bernini (son of Gian Lorenzo Bernini)

Love and Poetry by Dante Alighieri

'Dante and Beatrice' Henry Holiday 1883, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Love and Poetry by Dante Alighieri 

'Guido, I wish that you and Lapo and I,

Spirited on the wings of a magic spell,

Could drift in a ship where every rising swell

Would sweep us at our will across the skies;

Then tempest never, or any weather dire    5

Could ever make our blissful living cease; 

No, but abiding in a steady, blessed peace

Together we'd share the increase of desire.

And Lady Vanna and Lady Lagia then

And she who looms above the thirty best     10

Would join us at the good enchanter's behest;

And there we'd talk of Love without an end

To make those ladies happy in the sky - 

With Lapo enchanted too, and you and I.'

Dante is writing of Guido Cavalcanti and Lapo Gianni who were poets in his literary circle; Lady Vanna and Lady Lagia who were the ladies to Guido and Lapo; Beatrice who is referred to in the poem in line 10 as the 'she' who looms above the 30 best is Beatrice, Dante's immortal and eternal love (the 30 best are the 30 Dante named as the most beautiful women of the whole of Florence); and of the enchanter as in Merlin himself.  In the painting it is key to realize that the moment in time is when Beatrice was alive in Florence because it is later after she is dead that he immortalizes her in his Divine Comedy as Eternal Love which is why, in my opinion, he has capitalized love as a proper noun in line 12.  

What may be unknown to the viewer of the painting is that this is portraying a moment when Beatrice decided not to pay Dante 'salutation' and destroyed him, breaking his heart. Dante himself refereed to Beatrice as 'La gloriosa donna della mia mente' or 'the glorious lady of my mind' ~ he wanted a relationship with her so he had one in his mind.  It will be Beatrice who is the inspiration in his Divine Comedy and whom he speaks with as if they are completely friendly; however they never had any relationship.  Beatrice is in the center as the main character holding a distant and deliberate stare away from Dante while Lady Vanna in red leans behind Beatrice to stare at Dante echoing his hand on his hip with hers.  This physical echoing of body stance connects the two figures in an implied line and an almost implied mirror image of each other reflecting opposites.  She protecting her friend closely and he wanting to be close to Beatrice.  Vanna and Dante even echo their posturing down to their feet.  The red from the garments, the shoes, and the hat continues the implied lines  moving the viewers eyes actively around the canvas continually surveying the canvas.  The young girl in blue is Beatrice's maid balancing out the composition yet having little interaction other than eye contact with Dante.  This painting is according to recounting from Dante about a day on the Arno in Florence.  The Arno and Florence are still as beautiful now and perhaps more so. 

Firenze, Italy, May 2011

Particular Fondness for the Academies

William Bouguereau has to be one of my favorite of the more 'modern' painters because of his training in the Academic Style and his loyalty to the Academic style.  Bouguereau was a master of incorporating in the literature he studied with the paintings he did and painted a wide array of mythical and religious topics.  Even in an age when artists were rebelling against the Academies like Matisse and Degas, who had no love for Bouguereau's slick finished style, Bouguereau held fast to his love of the literature, arts, and style of the academies.


This painting is called Art and Literature:

L'art et la litterature, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1867, Oil on canvas, 78-3/4 x 42-1/2"
(Art and Literature, c. 1867, Oil on Canvas, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Arnot Art Museum Elmira)

The Birth of Venus shows Bouguereau's exceptional grasp of form and skill in painting the human form, particularly the female human body.  The idealized world of mythology, gods, goddesses, nymphs, and legends is were Bouguereau prevailed in the accurate details, beautiful renderings of flesh, and symbolism.

William Bouguereau, Naissance de Vénus, en 1879, huile sur toile, H. 3. ; L. 2.15, musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
©photo musée d'Orsay / rmn (The Birth of Venus, 1879, Oil on Canvas, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Musee d'Orsay, Paris)

To compare this with a classical masterpiece below is Botticelli's Birth of Venus, 1486 nearly 400 years earlier

Birth of Venus, c. 1486, Tempera on Canvas, Sandro Botticelli, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Botticelli, displays all the symbolism, iconography, and mythology in his painting present in Bouguereau's painting, but Bouguereau brings in an element of a more 'real' female heroine with the realistic flesh and form of Venus.  She is painted in a manner appearing perfect yet she could be real unlike Botticelli's who still appears as if only a dream.

Apollo and Daphne

Apollo, the Greek god of the sun and music, insulted the young Cupid for playing with his bow and arrows.  Apollo, who was a great warrior said to Cupid, ‘What have you to do with warlike weapons? leave them to the worthy…  Be content with your torch child and kindle up your flames, as you call them, where you will, but presume not to meddle with my weapons.’

Apollo and Daphne, 1622-25, Marble, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy

Young and arrogant Cupid chose two of his arrows; one gold to rouse love and one lead to spur hate.  Cupid shot the lead arrow into Daphne and the golden one through Apollo’s heart.  Apollo was imprisoned by his love for Daphne for eternity but in turn she was repulsed by the thought of Apollo.  Daphne became so full of contempt for all love that she preferred woodland sport to any lover at all and would flee into the woods to explore from potential suitors.   When Daphne’s father Peneus demanded she marry to give him grandchildren she pleaded to remain unmarried.  Apollo relentlessly pursued Daphne and Daphne continued to flee until Cupid interceded to aid Apollo.  Once Cupid helped Apollo, Daphne could no longer escape and she pleaded with her father Peneus to rescue her to change her so she no longer would be in danger.  Peneus turned her skin to bark, her hair as leaves, her arms became the branches, and she was able to stop running as her feet became the roots to the ground.

Apollo and Daphne, Cast Bronze, Ron Rodgers, Public Art, Fremont, California

Daphne was able to stop running, but Apollo never left her alone because even as a tree he embraced the branches, which moved away from him attempting to escape even then. Apollo took a vow to tend to her even in this form and promised that her leaves would decorate the heads of leaders as crowns and that her leaves were also to be depicted on weapons. Apollo utilized his powers of eternal youth and immortality to render her evergreen. This is the story of the Bay Laurel and the Laurel Wreath which sat/sits on the head of leaders and champions.

Sculpture, Apollo and Daphne, Bernini, 1622-24

Sculpture, Apollo and Daphne, Ron Rogers, Cast Bronze