Artists’ letters, often literary treasures in their own right, can provide compelling windows into the private struggles, public triumphs and towering ambitions that shaped their works and lives. The evocative and revealing correspondence of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), excerpted as early as 1893, has long fed a fascination with the artist’s impassioned story. Read more…
With one of the world’s finest collections of the 12th to 19th century European art, including Spanish, Italian and Dutch masters, Madrid’s Museo del Prado is a veritable treasure trove for an art lover.
One of its pieces de resistances (translation: a prized piece) is Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas (Maids of Honor), painted in 1656 in a Baroque style, an opulent and effusive art form popular in Europe at that time.
The painting’s painstaking detail is worth seeing, and now you can have an up-close-and-personal glimpse of the masterpiece without leaving your home.
No, we are not talking about a “beam me up, Scotty” teleportation experiment. In fact, the only science at work here is Google Earth, a virtual globe, map and geographic information program that is easily accessible to any computer user (www.google.com/intl/en/landing/prado).
This cool feature allows you to see not only Las Meninas, but also 13 other of Prado’s masterpieces painted by Goya, Bosch, Rubens, Titian, El Greco and Rembrandt.
With a resolution of 14,000 megapixels – 1,400 times more than a photo taken with a standard 10 megapixel camera – Google Earth’s technology makes it possible to get closer to the paintings and get a more detailed view than you’d be able to in the museum. You can actually see the brushstrokes and other details invisible to a naked eye.
Of course, nothing can replace the sheer pleasure of seeing a masterpiece in a museum or an art gallery in person. That’s because no technology can convey a painting’s real colors, tones, luminosity, and that ethereal quality called the “soul.”
But if a visit to Madrid is not on your to-do list, you can still enjoy a night (or a day, for that matter) in a world-class museum and explore some truly unique masterpieces.
Think about it this way: if you can’t go to where the art is, make the art come to you! 8s7axv5tyz
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973) was a Spanish born painter and sculptor. Born in Malaga, Spain, he was a child prodigy…his talent was recognized and encouraged by his father, Don Jose Ruiz y Blasco, from a very early age. Picasso was so preoccupied with art that it was often to the detriment of his schoolwork.
In 1891, the family moved to La Coruña so that Ruiz could become a professor at the School of Arts. It was during their stay here that he took notice of the precision of Picasso’s technique, and felt that Picasso had surpassed him in talent, and vowed to give up painting. Four years later, tragedy struck the family when Picasso’s sister died of diptheria. The family then moved to Barcelona and Ruiz persuaded the School of Arts to allow Picasso to allow his son to take the entrance exam for the advanced class. The process normally took a month for students to complete; however, Picasso completed it in a week, and the impressed jury admitted Picasso, who was 13 at the time.
Picasso travelled to Paris in 1900, where he met the poet Max Jacob, who became his friend and roommate. These were hard times, and much of the work he had completed had to be burned for heat for the small room he and Max shared. In 1901, Picasso and his friend Francisco de Asís Soler founded the magazine Arte Joven (Young Art), which published all of five issues. From that day he stopped using his full name and simply began using “Picasso” to sign his works. These first years of the century correspond to the painter’s Blue Period. The Blue Period is full of paintings of despondent figures—musicians, beggars, prostitutes, artists, blind men—all inspired by the struggles in Picasso’s own life.
The Blue Period is immediately followed by the Rose Period, which is followed by the African Period. Picasso is probably best known for co-founding the Cubist movement, which followed the African Period.
Picasso met and married his first wife, Russian ballerina Olga Khokhlova, in 1918. They had a son, Paulo, the following year. Although Picasso began a clandestine affair with Marie-Therese Walter in 1927, he never divorced his wife, because he didn’t want her to have half his wealth. His wife did discover the affair when Walter became pregnant with daughter Maia and the Picassos remained separated until Olga’s death in 1955. Picasso fathered two other children—Claude and Paloma—with Françoise Gilot. Picasso did remarry in 1961, but not to Ms. Walter…he married Jacqueline Roque, subject of one of his more famous later paintings, Jacqueline.
Picasso worked well into his upper years, continuing to work until his death. His last words: “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink anymore.”
There is a world of more information to discover about Picasso. Skip over to Simply Picasso to read more about this very interesting painting genius…don’t forget to take the quiz and, if you have questions, visit the Forum!
Happy learning!
