European Painting and Sculpture The collection of European painting and sculpture comprises works of art from the twelfth through the early twentieth century. Ranging from paintings in oil on panel, canvas, or onyx through sculptures in alabaster, bronze, terra-cotta, marble, wax, silver, and painted wood, these works of art come primarily from Italy, France, Spain, the Low Countries (Holland and modern Belgium), Germany, Austria, England, and Switzerland. The collection of European painting and sculpture can be found on the first and second floors of the Ahmanson building and in the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden.
It includes masterpieces of European art from the Middle Ages through impressionism and the followers of Rodin. Renowned for an outstanding representation of Italian baroque paintings as well as for world-famous masterpieces like Georges de La Tour’s Magdalen with the Smoking Flame (c. 1638-40), Rembrandt’s Raising of Lazarus (c. 1630), Degas’s The Bell elli Sisters (1862-64), and C’e zanne’s Sous-Bois (1894), the collection also boasts paintings by Jacopo Bellini, Rosso Fiorentino, Veronese, Titian, Frans Hals, Rubens, Boucher, Fragonard, Hubert Robert, Tiepolo, Delacroix, Monet, Pissarro, and Gauguin among others. The sculpture collection is shown integrated with the paintings. The museum displays the only collection of medieval sculpture in Southern California and is famed for its Renaissance and baroque polychrome sculptures.
The Essay on European Art
Western art is the art of European countries, and art created in the forms accepted by those countries. Written histories of Western art often begin with the art of the Ancient Middle East, Ancient Egypt and the Ancient Aegean civilisations, dating from the 3rd millennium BC. Parallel with these significant cultures, art of one form or another existed all over Europe, wherever there were people, ...
Of particular note are the French eighteenth-century terra-cotta’s, with examples of the work of Tu by, Clod ion, China rd, and Pa jou. The nineteenth century is richly represented with sculptures by David d’Angers, Rude, Carrier-Belle use, D alou, Fal gui ” ere, and above all, Auguste Rodin, to whom an entire gallery is devoted. A selection of approximately 150 medals, from the Renaissance through the 1930 s, is a representative group from the 1300 medals and in the collection. GEORGES DE LA TOUR atop atop (France, 1593-1652) Magdalen with the Smoking Flame, c.
1638-40 Oil on canvas 46 x 36 1/8 in. (116. 8 x 91. 8 cm) Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation, M. 77. 73 Although Georges de La Tour spent his entire artistic career in provincial France, far from cosmopolitan centers and artistic influences, he developed a poignant style as profound as the most illustrious painters of his day.
In his lifetime his work appeared in the prominent royal collections of Europe. La Tour’s early training is still a matter for speculation, but in the province of Lorraine he encountered the artist Jean Le Clerc, a follower of the Italian painter Caravaggio. From this source likely came La Tour’s concern with simplicity, realism, and essential detail. Mary Magdalen was traditionally depicted in her grotto or as an aged woman. The absence of explicit narrative in this painting emphasizes Mary’s state of mind and heart rather than time and place. The simple composition of vertical and horizontal shapes draws the viewer into the Magdalen’s contemplative world.
The skull, books of Scripture, and scourge set the mood, but the chief symbol and true subject of the work is the candle at which Mary gazes in her meditation. Rendered in extraordinary detail and modulation, it emits the light that followers of St. John of the Cross called ‘the living flame of love,’ toward which spiritual pilgrims are drawn out of the ‘dark night of the soul.’ La Tour scrupulously conveys the tactile quality of surfaces. The polished skull and leather books have different reflective qualities; Mary’s heavy skirt, thin, wrinkled blouse, smooth flesh, and hair are meticulously distinct. Each spare detail is carefully regulated to achieve an overall balance of form and light. to achieve an overall balance of form and light.
JEAN-BAPTISTE SIM ” EON CHARDIN atop atop (France, 1699-1779) Soap Bubbles, after 1739 Oil on canvas 23 5/8 x 28 3/4 in. (60 x 73 cm) Gift of The Ahmanson Foundation, M. 79. 251 Jean-Baptiste Sim ” eon Chardin’s work gained public attention just as a reaction to the elaborate style of rococo art was setting in. He was admitted to the French Royal Academy as a still-life painter in 1728, a rare honor, as still life was then considered far less valid than paintings of historical, mythological, or courtly subjects.
The Term Paper on Having a Balance Between Work and Happiness in Life
What is happiness? Does money necessarily bring happiness? Many people think that when become rich and successful, happiness will naturally follow. But let me tell me tell you that the world is full of very rich people who are as miserable as hell. We have been reading stories about movie stars committing suicides and dying from drugs. Then what is the key to happiness? I believe that long- term ...
Even though his work reflected the ordinary images, decorum, and morality of the bourgeois life from which he came, Chardin’s talent was recognized in artistic and aristocratic circles. Chardin began to paint genre subjects in the late 1730 s, evoking through his observation of everyday life a contemplative atmosphere that in France had largely remained the domain of religious painting. In some ways his compositions heralded the values of the art of the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on rational content, naturalistic imagery, and qualities of truth and directness in subject matter. Soap Bubbles is carefully composed in the simplest of geometries, with the window forming a rectangular space to frame the pyramidal grouping of the youth and the boy transfixed by the spherical bubble; these shapes are reinforced by the masonry, angles of the youth’s arms, and the pair of heads. Chardin renders surfaces carefully but without distracting detail. A sense of timeless contemplation transforms the ephemeral pastime of the pair into a compelling allegory about the transitory nature of life.
This is far from being a scene of carefree, youthful abandon. The European collections were founded with donations from William Randolph Hearst, of which the medieval stained glass, Renaissance Italian majolica, and Renaissance French painted enamels from Limoges are the most famous and most extensive. In addition, there is a wide selection of glass and works of art, especially sixteenth-century German silver, from the collection of Hans and Varya Cohn. From the eighteenth century there are collections of European and English pottery and porcelain, silver and furniture.
Then from the period 1880-1920 there are furniture, ceramics, and silver by significant designers, mostly from the Pale vsky collection.
The Essay on Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining
My mind was all muddled up and everything went topsy-turvy inside it. Yet, I remained still and silent. No one would ever imagine how I was feeling. There wasn't the cool atmosphere around me, nor the usual tranquility outside. My heart was pounding fast. I could hear the voice of my doctor saying that I had cancer and I could only live for a month.My heart was simply ripped apart. I could not ...
