The Rembrandt Affair

I just finished a phenomenal book by Daniel Silva.  The latest in a long series about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli assassin and art restorer, The Rembrandt Affair is centered around the dirty history of one fictional painting.  Though this story is fictional, there are many true ones like it.  Because art is so old, it carries almost all the secrets of society.

In the mass round up of Jewish people during WWII, agents of the SS were relentless in their search for art pieces--Hitler even had a special department tasked with collection of rare art.  This book tells the story of an executive SS officer who bargains the lives of Jews for their art.  Though Jews were ordered to turn in all valuable things like jewelry and art, many kept them for potential leverage and sentimental value.  The SS officer, Kurt Voss, took a Rembrandt, Portrait of a Young Woman, from a family of prominent Dutch Jews in exchange for their youngest daughter's life. Events like these, along with the frequency of art theft, makes provenance the most important thing about a painting.

The book also addresses the extremes of art restoration.  When the painting is stolen from the original restorer, it ends up covered in blood and has a bullet hole.  There are also two deep creases that originated from the documents that were hidden between it and an additional canvas that was added to seal the documents in.  Using a solution that has acetone as the reactionary agent, art restorers use cotton swabs to meticulously move varnish from the canvas.  To replace the hole, a new patch of canvas is added and filled in the same style of rest of the canvas.  Art restoration is a tedious task that takes immense skill and the ability to mirror the work of the original master.

The painting in the book, Portrait of a Young Woman, does not exist but the closest actual painting would be Rembrandt's Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels.  Hendrickje Stoffels was Rembrandt's famed mistress.  He got her pregnant, however, he was unable to gain approval from the Catholic church to marry her because of the child they had out of wedlock.  The sensual mood of this picture is displayed in the clothes and body position.  She is wearing a large fur shawl-like piece with what looks like a thin silk underdress.  The cut is extremely low and show almost her entire chest.  She seems to be lying or sitting on a bed.  The bed being a deep red could symbolize the passion in their relationship.  Her face is a peaceful gaze that seems to be unaffected by having to pose for her lover to paint her. The large earrings and the swooping gold necklaces display the opulent gifts that Rembrandt blessed her with.  Rembrandt was considered the leader of the Old Dutch Masters and he lived a lavish life in his house in Amsterdam. 

Dress To Impress(ionism)

Ben,  Sarah B.,  Anna Claire, Megan, Peter (me)

A couple weeks ago, a dedicated group of Art History students, including myself, piled into the mini-van and headed off for a night of adventure dressed in out finest artsy garb.  We made our first stop at the Local Taco, an over-priced, hip restaurant (not sure if they want to be called that) on the outskirts of downtown.

When we finished out gourmet tacos, we headed to the Frist Center for a lecture by Gloria Gloom about the effect of the Franco-Prussian War on the Impressionist movement in France.  Though the lecture ended up being largely about fashion, it provided us with a great insight into the social life of Parisians during that time period.  The most important point was the importance of court life before the fall of the 2nd Republic and the rise of the common person after.  This can easily be seen in the mood and dress before and after.

Impression: Sunrise (1872)

The exhibit, The Birth of Impressionism, was very well put together and showed the story line of Impressionism.  It is difficult to give Impressionism a single definition because it encompasses a large variety of pieces depicting a large variety of subjects. For the most part, works from this era show life 'as is'.  There are rarely floating objects or flying cherubs of any kind.  Objects are subject to gravity and are given mass.  Almost all works were done with oil on canvas which had become a standard at the time. One of the most characteristic features of this movement are the small and thin yet visible brush strokes.  These can be seen in Claude Monet's Impression: Sunrise, which happens to the be the painting that the movement was named after.  Along with the brushstrokes, Impressionism features ordinary subjects, open composition, unusual visual angles, the inclusion of movement, and an emphasis on the correct use of lighting.  When combined, they make some of the most real paintings ever made.  I highly suggest that anyone who has not seen this exhibit go because this is a once and a lifetime opportunity to see a collection of masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay in France.  Click on this link to see how the public has reacted to it.

For our final stop, we visited the recently up for business Pinkberry where we enjoyed totes the best hun cal fro yo. To understand what I just said, watch this (happens around 2:50): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gspaoaecNAg.

The Economics of Art

Why does Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (also known as a shark in formaldehyde) sell for $12 million dollars?  Is art a better investment than stocks and bonds?

Check out this Podcast done by NPR's Planet Money team: Why A Dead Shark Costs $12 Million Dollars

p.s. The first 5 minutes of the podcast is about the old finance reform bill so ignore it.

College of Arts AND Sciences?

How can one place teach two completely different subject? I thought wearing a lab coat and having inch thick glasses was disjoint with turtlenecks and French cigarettes.  It turns out they aren’t.  The influence of science can be seen in many areas such as the human form, mass, and gravity.  As the scientific understanding of the world evolved, so did the realism of art.  Scientific advances by people like Galileo and da Vinci created a new understanding of how people interact with their surroundings.  Gone were the floating objects and the figures that didn’t create shadows; in were the straight lines of perspective and the fluid style of motion.

A good example of depicting motion is Raphael’s Galatea, pictures above.  Based on the poem Stanzas for the Joust of Giuliano de’ Medici by Angelo Poliziano, this fresco depicts the beautiful Galatea fleeing her hideous lover, the Cyclops Polyphemus.  This piece is filled with movement and tension.  The centaur on the right strain to move and the trumpeters exuberantly blow their horns.  The cupids draw their arrows tightly while their small wings keep them aloft.  Raphael uses all these moving figures to draw the eye back to the radiating Galatea at the center.  This gives the effect of her being the source of their great energy.  The direction of the sunlight adds to the focus of the painting.  The sunlight comes in from the top left corner and lands right on Galatea.  The shadowing in the bottom right corner is proof that Raphael understood the properties of light.  Lastly, the foreshortening done on the cupids creates the effect that they are spiraling away, giving this piece even more 3-dimensionality.  Though many of the subjects in this piece are mythical, Raphael shows a deep understanding of the science behind motion and light and the effect it has on the observer.