DU darlings! Welcome to your Friday Afternoon Challenge. Today: “Hey, what’s Going On?”
These works have something going on, either in the picture itself or a circumstance involving the work. Your challenge is to figure that out! Hmm....
And without cheating, please...
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= new reply since forum marked as read
just my little way of encouraging an art conversation...sorry I was a bit lame...
glass is clearly much smoother than this, however, the face is looking down, like in the Pieta AND I know I saw another version somewhere else, and I was susprised, then read that Michelangelo did a few others...I'd have to cheat to see where those other versions are...maybe one is in Florence. 
Even at that age, I was very impressed, could tell it was special. But didn't some lunatic attack it and do some serious damage? 
I should look it up... 
And I can understand your reaction. I haven't been to Italy (yet), but I've been to Ireland, England and Russia and just the age of the art and the buildings is mind boggling. In Russia, the Kremlin was built in 1492 (by Italian artisans) and I visited a 9th-century church. It's pretty overwhelming... 
I was a USC Junior doing their 'D.C. Semester' program in 1977. I had an internship with a dem congressman, and we did some USC field trips--including one to the Smithsonian on which one of their experts took us up to the Smithsonian "attic" for items not on current exhibit. Seeing Theodore Roosevelt's original Teddy Bear, Abraham Lincoln's desk, and JFK's rocking chair blew me away...
That must have been amazing! Both because of the experience in D.C. and seeing those amazing possessions. The Teddy Bear would been the one that would make me 
It was Lincoln and Kennedy.
Had to be both emotional and amazing to actually see them. Have you seen the Lincoln movie? It's supposed to be pretty accurate at capturing the real person. I went to a book signing/lecture with Doris Kearns Goodwin and was pretty impressed with the depth of her knowledge, closest we'll ever come to the real thing, but you had a much more personal experience... 
I knew that she'd also written on FDR and Johnson, but she knew LBJ personally, interned for him. Though she wasn't sure she'd still have the job, since she'd just written a piece against the Vietnam War... 
I've only been to D.C. a couple of times, the second time spent mostly at Arlington. I plan to go again, possibly in the spring. How very cool that you spent so much time there, though it must have been heartbreaking working at the Vietnam Memorial. And the Lincoln Memorial can choke you up, just looking at photos...
I'll try to see the memorial to FDR, certainly a giant among our presidents. I was still somewhat new to politics in 2004, joined DU in 2003 after being scared witless by 9/11 and decided I'd better wake up. I know how I felt after Kerry "lost," felt physically sick for days since it made no sense, totally blindsided me, so that must have affected you so much more. 
for the past hour or so and have now discovered his flair for the trompe l'oeil. Opening up a ceiling with an Oculus, complete with little cherubs looking down on the pious, in the "Camera Picta". Well, I never...in 1470!
Andrea Mantegna fresco on the ceiling of the The Bridal Chamber, Ducal Palace, Mantua, Italy c. 1465-1474
Who would have thunk it?
I did know what "Trompe l'oeil" meant before I discovered Mantegna, which is one of the reasons why I started digging into his works (actually, I started by looking at the comparison between the Degas copy and Mantegna's original).
We had an invasion of Giant Daddy Long Legs down at the Space Needle in Seattle last summer, when a young artist, Marlin Peterson, plopped two of them on the roof of the armory building, providing the neatest illusion for those looking down from our state's famous icon. Washington's own trompe l'oeil!
http://queenanne.komonews.com/news/arts-culture/775530-my-intention-was-not-make-innocent-patrons-space-needle-feel-prey
http://marlinpeterson.com/
Marlin Peterson's arachnid mural, as seen from the Space Needle. (Photo via Marlin Peterson)
http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2012/08/31/why-giant-daddy-longlegs-are-attacking-the-seattle-center/
Mainly from constantly running into it in my Friday challenge searches. 
The Space Needle pics also are great--mainly for the shadows.
I haven't researched what it is or why it's there, but it just strikes me as very weird.
The spider shadows, on the other hand, are intriguing. But my interest may just stem from my long-ago boyhood experience of catching Black Widows in my garage.
But it still looks weird.
I grew up in SoCal, where Black Widows in the garages were normal. I once collected 36 in a jar.
In those days, a girl who could deal with spiders would be our hero.
They eliminate insects that can be problematic. I agree with the old axiom that spiders are good luck. Not to mention that their shadows are pretty.
Then, when I left home, I fell in love with a fellow who believed in reincarnation and he always said that he wanted to come back as one, since he knew that I liked and respected spiders. I lost him to the Colorado River in 1972 and since then, I have rescued every single spider I've ever run across. That's not an easy thing to do, considering what I've done for a living thru most of my life...cleaning lady, here, and I've got to get going right now. (I always keep a jar in my bucket, just in case)
I wonder if that Bridal Chamber has shadows from the people peeking in, painted on the floor? That would be cool.
That was the same year I was touring Europe and seeing many of its art treasures. The monastery at Orvieto, in Italy, was a real treat. Not only for the art there, but also because the monks served us dinner, with some of the wine they made. I had a couple of cases shipped home.
I found a detailed discussion of it:
As you can see, Holbein fused portrait and still life in The Ambassadors. To interpret it, is necessary to understand the artist’s obsession with symbols. Both the two ambassadors and the objects can be interpreted symbolically.
If we look carefully, the costumes of the ambassadors are radically different. While the French ambassador on the left uses couture, mundane clothing; the bishop wears a religious garb.
The objects included are clearly differentiated from each other. On the shelf, in the upper level, we see elements that refer to heaven: a celestial globe (to study the stars), a quadrant, a Torquetum (an astronomical calculator) and more. On the lowest level, objects that refer to earth: a globe, books and musical instruments. In the foreground, we see a strange diagonal, which is one of the most interesting features of the painting: a skull painted by anamorphosis, a technique where you draw a figure that can’t be identified when viewed from the front. It is only visible when it’s looked from another perspective. The ambassadors was supposed to be hung on the landing of a staircase, so the skull could be seen as you lower the stairs. Symbolically, the skull universally represents death.
With these indicators, Holbein shows us the spiritual world at different levels of the painting: heaven, earth and hell. Men, between them, are among the eternal conflict of belief in a higher power or not.
http://silverandexact.com/2012/05/18/the-ambassadors-hans-holbein-the-younger-1533/
I know it, so I don't say, but it's fun to see that this technique is coming back in various urban and architectural places. You just need the perfect spot.
I love looking at all that's going on in that Hogarth painting you've provided here, (quite the entertainment) but then I thought that I remembered his name and checked for him in a print book. It says that Shrimp Girl was unfinished, but what a difference between the vivid figures in "An Election Entertainment" and her image.
The Shrimp Girl by William Hogarth c. 1740–1745
I see the word "Holland" up there at the top of that world map, (and West Friesland right above Greenland).
Oops, found it!
Jan Vermeer, 1658, "Soldier and a Laughing Girl"
Detail of both the painting and the world map, within:
http://www.essentialvermeer.com/catalogue/officer_and_laughing_girl.html
And here's another one he did, of the same map:
"Woman in Blue Reading a Letter"
http://www.art-of-yesterday.co.uk/worksofart/vermeer/woman_in_blue_reading_a_letter.html''
Last edited Fri Feb 22, 2013, 09:42 PM - Edit history (2)
I don't know about that "golden rectangle", will have to read up on it, but see the link I also "updated" with on my original post. There's some interesting background on Vermeer and his map depictions on that page.
Here's another that looks like it may be the very same map, too. In the foreground, on left.
"The Love Letter" c. 1670
http://www.navigo.com/wm/paint/auth/vermeer/
Grossly foreshortened by Holbein the Younger I won't give the spoiler away so others can figure out what it is.
Thanks for the fun challenge!
Intriguing that he did it "his way."
Nice research...you get an A plus...
...that in my initial searches I skipped over all the "Calvary, after a painting by Andrea Mantegna" entries that swamped my results--because I thought they were just retail sites hawking repros. 
But there are NO takebacks on class grades.
I just found it, too!
It's the size of a barn door, weighs more than an elephant, and is one of the most famous and coveted paintings in the world.
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/25/132283848/is-this-the-worlds-most-coveted-painting
"Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"
Oh my god!
Then, in 1566, all hell broke loose. Protestant militants broke down the cathedral doors with an improvised battering ram, intending to burn the altarpiece, which they considered to be an example of Catholic idolatry and excess. But alert Catholic guards had disassembled the enormous work and hidden it in the cathedral tower, where it survived unscathed.
And here is the answer to CTyankee's question:
Enduring Mystery
The Ghent Altarpiece didn't stay safe for long. Thieves broke into the cathedral one night in 1934 and made off with the lower left panel.
"This is the enduring mystery that really is part of the popular cultural awareness of the people of Ghent still to this day," Charney says.
The theft has never been solved. Visitors to St. Bavo Cathedral today will see a copy of the missing panel, painted during World War II. The copy is so good that many people thought it might be the original, hidden in plain sight, though recent conservation work has disproved that theory.
By RAF CASERT | Associated Press – Mon, Nov 19, 2012
GHENT, Belgium (AP) — The main suspect in the legendary art heist is said to have whispered with his dying breath: "Only I know where the 'Adoration' is..."
More than seven decades later, the whereabouts of a panel belonging to one of Western art's defining works, the "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," also known as the "Ghent Altarpiece," remains a mystery.
If the stunning heist of Picasso, Monet and Matisse paintings in Rotterdam, Netherlands, last month focused attention on the murky world of art theft, the gothic Saint Bavo cathedral in Ghent has been at the center of a crime that has bedeviled the art world for decades.
"The Just Judges" panel of the Van Eyck brothers' multi-panel Gothic masterpiece hasn't been seen since 1934, when chief suspect Arsene Goedertier suffered a stroke at a political rally and died after murmuring those fateful words to a confidant.
...
Ghent was hit by two thefts on the night of April 10, 1934: "One was a wheel of cheese," said detective Jan De Kesel. "The other was the panel."
...
http://news.yahoo.com/arts-perfect-theft-ghent-altarpiece-075958588.html
The story notes that investigation of the art theft was slowed down because the cheese theft case was given priority.
You beat me and I didn't know it because it was an edit to a post I'd already seen.
Our weekly challenge is more a collaborative effort than an individual competition. I may race to find a work, but Im happy to see others finding them, too--even when I'm aced out. We learn things and bring them back to share for the benefit of all. Plus it's a kick seeing CTyankee having a chance to indulge in the discussions she enjoys so much!
And, as a final saving grace--at least I'm slightly less of an art dunce than I used to be.
Nice working with you! 
I've been unable to compare that Mantegna, the original of the one from which Degas painted his copy. What was the Mantegna titled?
I've quietly enjoyed this challenge for some time now, but haven't ever felt able to participate because I really am a bona fide art dunce. I do always google the paintings after-the-fact and read all of the links you and CTyankee and some of the others have normally provided and that has been pretty much my entire education where the art world is concerned. I did skim off of the learning that my daughter managed when she went to college (saved all of her textbooks and read them) and did the same as a kid when my big brother studied Art History, but other than that, as CTyankee has probably figured by now, I know absolutely nothing and I couldn't tell a Mannerist from a Realist just by looking. But I've always been interested.
You must excuse my glee of discovery, for I'm aware that you are no "dunce", at all, and I was pretty pleased with that research I did earlier. 
It was a fun afternoon! My man passed by the computer while I was fixing supper and wanted to know what all those weird pictures were on the google page that I'd left it at, ha! (a stubborn guy who wouldn't enter a museum if it was the last building on earth)
But you are a great and ardent fan and I am so glad!
Please do get "The Rape of Europa" by Lynn Nichols out of your library and read it (it is also a PBS special if you can find the video). It catalogs the theft of the art of Western europe by HItler and is just eye opening! What an amazing book! I was enthralled the entire time reading it.
But I'm afraid that once you get started you will, like me, get somewhat "addicted" to this art study...it's a nice addiction, of course, but still...pretty time consuming...
Cheers!
The room where the real altarpiece is kept (a copy is on the main floor but you can see the real one for a few extra euros) is tiny and you are chock a block with all the other people viewing it. Ghent is actually a big city (I had this funny idea that it was a little town).
We managed to "art tour" that region of Belgium entirely on public transportation and on foot. It was a sort of "pilgrimage" (nonreligious, however)...Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp (Rubens!) and of course Brussels itself. I nearly busted my arse quite literally, pulling a gluteal muscle I didn't even know I had...
#4 is from the "Ambassadors" by Hans Holbein the Younger. The white thing in the center is an anamorphically distorted image of a human skull. The undistorted image may be recovered using a cylindrical mirror of the correct radius.
"Holbein" means "hollow bone" and the skull is a hollow bone!!!
Fabulous art history prof at the University of Houston told us that, Dr. Peter Wolfgang Guenther.
Supposedly his parents were art dealers in Berlin, and he played on Paul Klee's knee.
His daughter Irene wrote a book on fashion during the Nazi era.
