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Capsule
Monday, October 14, 2019
Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon is a very small oil-on-panel portrait of an unidentified man attributed to the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck.
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Lead Picture (Story below in Thumbnail)
Monday, October 14, 2019
Portrait of a Man with a Blue Chaperon
Jan van Eyck - Google Art Project
Read more on the blog www.existentialautotrip.com
The blog? A daily three to four-minute excursion into photos and short texts to regale the curious with an ever-changing and diverting view of a world rich in gastronomy, visual art, ideas, chuckles, stories, people, diversions, science, homespun, and enlightenment.
Observing with wit and wisdom, Dom Capossela, an experienced leader, guides his team of contributors and followers through that world, an amusing and edifying conversation to join.
Note that the blog is also the first place that posts the "Hello, my friends’ videos.
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Commentary
Monday, October 14, 2019
So Saturday with daughter Kat, age 20, worked out well.
While she went to a yoga class led by a teacher she greatly admires, I worked on the blog, posted a video over five social media, and created three new videos.
We lunched a little pasta and then did some shopping in the North End.
And then the T to the Prudential Center where Kat got an Almond Matcha Latte and sat down to read a book on the secrets of a case method interview.
Huh?
It occurred to me that some people might bitch about having to study during their vacation.
Kat embraces it.
She’s in the hunt for another fine summer internship and doesn’t mind the sacrifices that are required.
I’m kind of in awe of her.
Feeling that her generation are going to do us proud.
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News re: existentialautotrip
Monday, October 14, 2019
Consecutive Post # 556
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Saturday’s Dinner posted on
Monday, October 14, 2019
Dinner at Ma Maison was perfect.
We shared an artichoke, a roast quail, seared sea scallops, and a steak frites.
All terrifically done and reasonably proced.
Service was excellent.
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Chuckle of the day:
Monday, October 14, 2019
Steven Wright:
Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?
Tell a man that there are 400 billion stars and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint and he has to touch it.
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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A “Hello, my friends!” video.
Monday, October 14, 2019
Doctor finds a workaround
Dom’s website: existentialautotrip.com
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Today’s Thumbnail
Monday, October 14, 2019
The lead picture was commissioned and completed sometime around 1430.
It contains a number of elements typical of van Eyck's secular portraits, including a slightly oversized head, a dark and flat background, forensic attention to the small details and textures of the man's face, and illusionistic devices.
It had long been thought that the ring held in the man's right hand was meant as an indication of his profession as a jeweler or goldsmith and so the painting was long titled on variants of such. More recently, the ring is interpreted as an emblem of betrothal and the titles given by various art historians and publications since are usually more descriptive of the colour or form of the headdress.
The painting was attributed to van Eyck in the late 19th century, but this was repeatedly challenged by some art historians until a 1991 cleaning when infrared photography revealed an underdrawing and methods of handling of oil that were unmistakably van Eyck's.
Prior to 1948, the panel belonged to the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Romania.
That year, the new Communist regime seized the panel, along with eighteen others it considered the museum's most valuable holdings, and gave it to the National Museum of Art of Romania in Bucharest.
At the end of 2006, in time for Sibiu's stint as European Capital of Culture, the works were returned to the Brukenthal Museum.
The Arnolfini Portrait (or The Arnolfini Wedding, The Arnolfini Marriage, the Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, or other titles) is a 1434 oil painting on oak panel by the Early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck.
It forms a full-length double portrait, believed to depict the Italian merchant Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife, presumably in their home in the Flemish city of Bruges.
It is considered one of the most original and complex paintings in Western art, because of its beauty, complex iconography, geometric orthogonal perspective, and expansion of the picture space with the use of a mirror.
According to Ernst Gombrich "in its own way it was as new and revolutionary as Donatello's or Masaccio's work in Italy.
“A simple corner of the real world had suddenly been fixed on to a panel as if by magic ... For the first time in history the artist became the perfect eye-witness in the truest sense of the term".
The portrait has been considered by Erwin Panofsky and some other art historians as a unique form of marriage contract, recorded as a painting.
Signed and dated by van Eyck in 1434, it is, with the Ghent Altarpiece by the same artist and his brother Hubert, the oldest very famous panel painting to have been executed in oils rather than in tempera.
The painting was bought by the National Gallery in London in 1842.
A tip o' the hat (U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, 1924) after signing an Indian treaty
Sly devil that he was.
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Acknowledgements
Monday, October 14, 2019
Thanks to Steven Wright for today’s chuckles.
Thanks to the Microsoft team at the Prudential Center for their unflagging availability to help with a constant flow of technological problems.
Always thanks to Wikipedia, the Lead and the Thumbnail sections of the Blog very often shaped from stories taken from that amazing website. They are truly worthy of public support.
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Good Morning
Monday, October 14, 2019
I love art.
I always carry a magnifying glass to examine the brushstrokes.
Che vuoi? Le pocketbook?
See you soon.
Your Taeyeon
And now? Gotta go.