Millions of people enter the world’s museums each year. Some leave only with a map and visitors button, some leave with souvenirs from the gift shops, but some, on occasion, manage to slip out with priceless masterpieces.
Artists and craftsmen have been producing masterpieces for centuries and it is from contemporaneous writings, describing both the works and the artists responsible, that we get a more complete picture of the periods and people in the history of art. Art historians analyze not only individual objects, but the social, political, economic, religious and philosophical contexts in which they were created. One of the most interesting things about the discipline is that it comprises, to some extent, a variety of humanities and sciences as a means to an end. You are being educated on far more than an object when you study the history of art.
John Hogan (1800-1858) was one of Ireland’s greatest sculptors. He was born the son of a carpenter at Tallow, Co. Waterford, and by 1816 was apprenticed to Thomas Deane, a builder and architect for whom he worked as a carpenter and woodcarver. In 1823, he attracted the attention of the Irish engraver W.P. Carey, who recognized his talent and helped him to study in Rome.
Portrait of John Hogan. Cork City Libraries.
La Toilette. Turkish School, 18th century. Carlton Hobbs LLC.
“La toilette,” a term first used in the 16th century, describes “the process by which aristocrats prepared themselves every morning to face the world.”1 It was a long and complex exercise, which could be estimated to last at three hours from start to finish, and included the preparation of the skin, makeup, perfume and coiffure. In the 18th century the toilette evolved from a dressing procedure to an all-out ceremony or performance. “The most stylish citizens of Versailles adored showing themselves off while they were in the process of being dressed.”2 The term is also applied to furniture of the boudoir such; a dressing table, such as the one below, and all appurtenances are also considered the toilette or table de toilette.
This mysterious painting of an open hand dates back to 1633 according to one of the many inscriptions on the canvas. Measuring 49 inches high, 28 inches wide, this intriguing painting contains multiple cryptic Latin phrases and is of uncertain origin.
According to Dr. George Szabo, former director of the Lehman collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the painting is probably a unique example of an instructive work of art that may have adorned the study of a Late Renaissance patron with a strong bent to the philosophic or scientific. The lettering and numerals, being highly accomplished ,leads one to believe that it probably was painted in one of the leading Italian centers with a strong tradition of calligraphy.
A set of six faux marble wall panels attributed to Thomas Kershaw. Carlton Hobbs LLC.
Thomas Kershaw (1819-1898), began his career as a painter and decorator in Bolton, Lancashire, with a nine year apprenticeship at the age of twelve with Mr. John Platt. Immediately afterward he relocated to London, where his fame had preceded him, and accepted employment with Messrs William Cubitt. However, in the mid-1840s, Kershaw decided he wanted to establish himself independently and exhibited as such in the Great London Exhibition of 1851, where he won the first prize and was offered commissions for the imperial palaces of St. Petersburg (though he would decline these). His fame spread to the continent and in 1855 he exhibited at the Exposition Universelle at Paris, where his talents “required a practical demonstration to convince sceptical [sic.] critics that the works shown were painted representations and not panels of the real woods and marbles.”1
This set of eight large watercolors of World War I Airplanes was painted by Riccardo Caviglioli (1895 -1975), an Italian aviator and painter born in Milan. Caviglioli received multiple decorations during World War I, and during his lifetime worked as an aeronautical writer, designer and illustrator for advertising campaigns. Additionally, he wrote a book entitled Austrian-Hungary Aviation on the Italian Front between 1915 and 1918 published in 1930.
Caviglioli’s aviation watercolors were first presented at the Torino Exposition in 1928. His designs represent true historic reconstructions of a glorious past, and through his artistic style he was able to depict the impression of flight, glides, turns and takeoffs.
The production of painted tiles in Valencia has continued in one form or another since the Middle Ages. The first known Valencian factory devoted solely to tilemaking opened in 1568. Full polychrome designs introduced by Castille artisans had revolutionized the Spanish tilemaking industry and inspired new subject matter and more elaborate compositions. Increased demand led several Valencian craftsmen to open tile factories, which at first were small, cramped workshops with a single kiln and a limited yield. However, by the middle of the eighteenth-century, at the height of the Spanish Rococo period, the city’s tile factories had become the foremost in Spain, and were receiving commissions ranging from kitchen panels in the homes of the wealthy nobility to interior decorations in the Royal Palace in Madrid.
This painting of unusually large scale (at just over 14 feet long) depicts the entrance front of the great house of Denham Place, Buckinghamshire and has been attributed to the artist Peter Hartover. The painting, which can be dated on the grounds of stylistic comparison with other of Hartover’s works to around 1675, records the appearance of Denham Place after the addition of a vast façade by Sir William Bowyer (1612-79) in the 1650s and before its rebuilding by Sir Roger Hill from 1688.
You might remember our Halloween blog, “Trick or Treat,” in which we focused on a number of artworks that feature skeletons. The last work we mentioned was full of quotes and symbolism, and we’re back to tell you a bit more about this curious picture.
This engraving is titled Life and Death Contrasted, or, An Essay on Woman. It belongs to the genre of symbolic still life painting known as Vanitas (Latin for “vanity”) intended to remind us of our own mortality and the transience of earthly possessions and vices. Like Memento Mori painting (from the Latin “Remember you will die”), the most popular symbols found in these works are skeletons or skulls, but they may also include symbols of vanity (such as mirrors and musical instruments), expressing the emptiness and worthless nature of worldly goods.