Here’s your Friday Afternoon Challenge, my DU pretties! Today: “Do my face!”

[CTyankee]

Here are some fabulous faces by 15th and 16th century artists of the famous, the forgotten and the allegorical figures of their times.

And please play fair and don’t cheat...

1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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[Tansy_Gold]

1. #3 on the left

Robert Mitchum

[CTyankee]

7. yep, sleepy eyes...

[Tansy_Gold]

10. I looked at that painting and. . . .

. . . . because I'm old enough to remember Bob Mitchum, that was the first thing that came to my mind.

And I don't think he was Italian!!

[orpupilofnature57]

30. No, but he was Cooool !!!

[Tansy_Gold]

8. #3 for real - Giuliano San Gallo and Francesco Giamberti by Piero di Cosimo

This diptych by the Florentine artist Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521) is one of the few real masterpieces of Italian Renaissance painting that the Rijksmuseum owns. The man depicted on the left is Giuliano de San Gallo (1433-1516), a well-known architect who designed important buildings for Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Pope. The tools in front of him, a pen and a pair of compasses, indicate the nature of his profession. His counterpart, Giuliano's father, Francesco Giamberti (1405-1480), is portrayed in on the right side. He was an architect as well, but also a musician, which is hinted at by the sheet music lying in front of him. Music and architecture were considered similar disciplines, since they both strive for perfect harmony. Giuliano commissioned the panels around 1482, not long after his father’s death, most likely as a memorial. In his time, Piero di Cosimo was a celebrated artist and probably the most successful painter in Florence after Botticelli. Except for his artistic qualities he was known for his highly eccentric behavior. He refused to do any cleaning and cherished a sincere hatred for such diverse things as the coughing of men, the sound of bells and the singing of the friars. He was suffering from various phobias, including a strong fear of fire. As a result, he hardly ate hot meals. His usual food consisted of hard-boiled eggs that he prepared fifty at a time. According to the famous artist biographer Giorgio Vasari, Piero lived ‘more bestial than human’. That this did not prevent him from creating beautiful, finely painted work is proven by these great panels.

[CTyankee]

11. did the clues in the painting give it away to you or did you know it?

[Tansy_Gold]

14. Clues.

I know pretty much zilcho about art, but I can usually spot something that will help.

And the clues in this were easy.


The clue in #4??? I can't see it well enough to determine what it is.

[CTyankee]

16. look at his hand.

I love Piero di Cosimo! He was a fabulous artist, IMO...

[Tansy_Gold]

23. That's just it.

I can't tell what's in his hand, or what the object is in front of him.

I tried using "fur collar" and "jewelry" as search clues, but this one didn't come up.

Curses, stumped again!

[CTyankee]

29. an old profession and one that was very useful "back in the day."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Don't recognize any of them,

but that last one is... yikes!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. #3 looks as though it might have been painted by Mantegna...though I doubt it!

Wonderful, all of them!

[CTyankee]

5. No, but I can understand why you would see that...certainly the same era!

I'm glad you like these. I find them fascinating...

[Tansy_Gold]

4. #6 The Ugly Duchess

Last edited Fri Jun 28, 2013, 05:33 PM - Edit history (1)

from Wikipedia


" . . . a satirical portrait painted by the Flemish artist Quentin Matsys around 1513."

[CTyankee]

6. nasty sense of humor in that painting!

This must be a person with a very bad skin condition...

[CTyankee]

9. #s 3 and 4 contain "clues."

[Brother Buzz]

12. Another Friday Afternoon Challenge and I got Nothing… Nada… Jack… Zip… Zilch... Zero.

I'll visit later and learn a bit. Number six its rather disturbing, I want to know the backstory to that one.

[CTyankee]

13. It's been guessed above. and yes, it is disturbing. I think I read somewhere that this woman

had a disfiguring condition. It very sad.

[HiPointDem]

17. i looked at it and thought "alice in wonderland". i think tenniel was influenced, it's too similar.

[CTyankee]

19. ah, yes, now I remember this illustration! Might be what you said...

[HiPointDem]

25. per this, it was...

According to Martin Gardner in The Annotated Alice, John Tenniel's drawings of the Duchess were inspired by Quentin Matsys's The Ugly Duchess (c. 1513) in the National Gallery.[1] It has been said that the painting is a portrait of Margaret, Countess of Tyrol, who had the reputation of being the ugliest woman who ever existed. The painting, however, was done 200 years after her death.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchess_%28Alice%27s_Adventures_in_Wonderland%29

[CTyankee]

27. well, I just got back from London so what can I tell you? The National Gallery is an

absolute treasure trove. Damn near killed me with my arthritic spine but I limped through it..."suffering" for art...LOL...

[Brother Buzz]

22. Ah, #1 The Ugly Duchess is really number six

I didn't receive this weeks ciphers for my secret decoder ring.

[Tansy_Gold]

26. My bad! My bad! (slap nasty fingers)

I get excited when I actually identify one of these.

[Brother Buzz]

32. I've guessed only one right, and that was a long time ago, and it was a fresco

Even money says I could smoke you on a retest; I learn a lot from the Friday Afternoon Challenges.

[CTyankee]

28. You didn't get it? I thought I sent it to you...geez...sorry, bro...

[Brother Buzz]

35. You did send them, but NSA, the rascals, intercepted them and resent last week's ciphers

They are just continuing to play with my head after I made the same mistake forty years ago; they never forget.

[Kingofalldems]

15. #1 looked like Martin Luther to me.

The Ugly Duchess?

[CTyankee]

18. not Martin Luther (but I can see how you went there). #6 was guessed above....

it is the Ugly Duchess...I couldn't resist using it...

[Mz Pip]

20. #5

Caravaggio?

[CTyankee]

24. No Caravaggio here...he was slightly later than this artist...this is High Renaissance...

[PsychoBunny]

21. #6 - The Ugly Dutchess

The Ugly Duchess (also known as A Grotesque Old Woman) is a satirical portrait painted by the Flemish artist Quentin Matsys around 1513. - Wikipedia

I don't even want to tell you what words I used to find it!

[longship]

31. No clues for me.

Glad to R&K, though.

Will watch and learn more in anxious anticipation, as usual.

[CTyankee]

33. thanks, longship. I'm really surprised no one has guessed #5, tho...such a famous painter...

[pinboy3niner]

34. #5: Raphael - Self-portrait with a friend (aka Double Portrait with The Artist)

The identity of the man portrayed before Raphael is unknown. The ancient tradition identified him as his fencing master, since he holds the hilt of a sword. Modern art historians consider him one of the painter's pupils (perhaps Polidoro da Caravaggio or Giulio Romano), a friend and commissioner of the painting, such as Giovanni Battista Branconio, for whom Raphael had designed, in the Borgo quarter of Rome, the now destroyed Palazzo Branconio. Other people associated with the character include Pietro Aretino, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, as well as other painters such as Il Pordenone or Pontormo, but these hypotheses have been refuted by other portraits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-portrait_with_a_friend_(Raphael)

[CTyankee]

36. So did my hint help you?

btw, doncha love the foreshortening on the guy's finger? Masterful...

[pinboy3niner]

37. I hadn't seen your hint, but I had Raphael on the brain...

...because the subject in #4 reminded me of Raphael's self-portraits.

[CTyankee]

38. There's another self portrait of the artist in this Challenge...hint, hint...

[longship]

39. Not #2 or #6 I presume. ;-) nt

[The Straight Story]

40. "Do my face"....I think I saw that movie once

[Tansy_Gold]

41. #1 St. Luke Drawing the Virgin by Rogier van der Weyden

Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin is an oil-on-oak panel painting by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. It depicts Luke the Evangelist, the patron saint of artists, drawing the Virgin Mary as she holds the Child Jesus. Van der Weyden likely made the painting between 1435 and 1440 for the Guild of Saint Luke in Brussels, patrons to the painter.[1] The panel was probably one of van der Weyden's first as the City Painter of Brussels following his apprenticeship with Robert Campin.[2] The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where it is held, describes the work as "among the most important northern European paintings in the United States".[3]



(Clue helped!)

[CTyankee]

42. Tell me how you did this...I don't think I could have, given my very own hints, really...

[Tansy_Gold]

43. I'm not sure I know how either!

You mentioned that there was another self-portrait by the artist in this challenge. So I went to Google Images and put in "Renaissance self-portrait red robe" and it was about the third row down.

Because seriously, I have very little art knowledge beyond my fascination with the PRB (the artists and their lives even more than their art!) and some of the women artists.

[CTyankee]

44. that's interesting! I'm glad you found it. I think it is wonderful and I love it!

I also love the PRB (but I am also a huge fan of art nouveau). What got you started on that school of art?

[Tansy_Gold]

46. It all started with William Morris

I discovered Morris by way of Tolkien in the 1960s, but didn't really get hooked on that whole PRB ==> Arts & Crafts ==> Socialism thing until many years later.

Sometimes the PRB art itself is sentimental and almost shallow but it's also (imho) very evocative and emotional. When you look at the artists' personal lives as a context for that art, it just becomes endlessly fascinating to me. There was in some ways a nostalgia for a mythic past that never was, and yet in other ways they abandoned the social traditions they would have grown up with that were a living remnant of that mythic past. Millais painted advertisements, Julia Margaret Cameron took the technology of photography and turned it to art. I think they knew, somehow, on an artistic level, that certain images reach/reflect universal emotions.

[CTyankee]

47. a nice journey for you. I love PRB for its utter beauty.

I'm glad you love this. I do too...

[pinboy3niner]

45. #4: Jacopo Pontormo - Portrait of a Goldsmith. nt

[CTyankee]

48. hey, did you get this from my hint?

[pinboy3niner]

50. I couldn't make out what is in his hand

Multiple searches were getting nowhere, so I began entering in my search terms various objects he might be holding--pen, brush, cross....and viola!

I think it was "cross" that did it. I wanted to add more background info, but it must be buried somewhere in tons of commercial reproduction and poster sites.

I did find what looks o be the proper title of the work: Portrait of an Engraver of Semi-Precious Stones. And that it was an early work, between 1517-18. And that Pontormo was a leading Mannerist in Florence.

[jberryhill]

51. Sure

You probably just mistyped "porno" and Google suggested it.

[pinboy3niner]

52. That's not true! When I mistype 'porno' Google suggests...oh, wait...um...

Nevermind.

[DevonRex]

49. Here's #1 today:

He's come back as Italian pro soccer player Riccardo Montolivo who plays for Milan and the Italian national team as well.

I have no clue about the paintings and I started late, but that face struck me immediately. I'll shut up now. and I'm so glad I changed an i to a u <<<----- back that way a bit.

[rusty fender]

53. #2 is by Bronzino

the boy is believed to Elenor of Toledo's son Giovanni or Francesco.

[pinboy3niner]

54. Nice find! 'Portrait of Leonor de Toledo and her Son, Giovanni':

In 1539 Cosimo (Cosimo I de’Medici, the first Grand Duke of Tuscany) married Leonor of Toledo, descended from one of the noblest families of Spain. This act further consolidated his power within the context of European politics.

Bronzino depicted Leonor on numerous occasions, both alone and accompanied by her one or more of her eleven children. The most outstanding example is the portrait now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence (fig. 1), considered a masterpiece due to its technical quality and exquisite artistic merit.


Fig. 1
Bronzino. Portrait of Leonor de Toledo and her Son, Giovanni, ca.1545-1546. Oil on panel, 115 x 96 cm. Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, inv: 1890 no.748. Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Fiorentino


http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/contenidos_articulo/10

[CTyankee]

56. Altho I usually don't care too much for Mannerist painters, I do appreciate Bronzino.

This is particularly beautiful. I love the way he did the light behind her head...nice effect!

[pinboy3niner]

55. RECAP OF ANSWERS:

1. Rogier van der Weyden - St. Luke Drawing the Virgin

2. Bronzino - Portrait of Leonor de Toledo and her Son, Giovanni

3. Piero di Cosimo - Giuliano San Gallo and Francesco Giamberti

4. Jacopo Pontormo - Portrait of an Engraver of Semi-Precious Stones (aka Portrait of a Goldsmith)

5. Raphael - Self-Portrait with a Friend (aka Double Portrait with The Artist)

6. Quentin Matsys - The Ugly Duchess (aka A Grotesque Old Woman)


Thanks for another great Challenge, CTyankee!

[CTyankee]

57. thank YOU for your faithful participation!

we sure have a good time here, don't we?

The thing I love about art is that I can spend a lot of time chasing down obscure references, historical notes and all kinds of trivia and just get lost in it all...it takes me out of the ordinary every day stuff...

[pinboy3niner]

58. We do have a good time

Your Challenges are fun and educational, especially for an art dunce like me. They are not without their agony, especially on the very tough ones, but I think of it as...

[CTyankee]

59. OMG.

well, another one next Friday. You seem pretty well equipped to deal with these challenges yourself, tho...LOL...

[pinboy3niner]

60. Here's a recent photo of me doing the Friday Afternoon Challenge...

[CTyankee]

61. LOL!