Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Florid Paintings from 17th-century Europe

Guido Reni
Bacchus and Ariadne
1619-20
oil on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Couple in the Park

A man walks alone in the park and beside him a woman walks, also alone. How does one know? It is as though a line exists between them, like a line on a playing field. And yet, in a photograph they might appear a married couple, weary of each other and of the many winters they have endured together. At another time, they might be strangers about to meet by accident. She drops her book; stopping to pick it up, she touches, by accident, his hand and her heart springs open like a child's music box. And out of the box comes a little ballerina made of wood. I have created this, the man thinks; though she can only whirl in place, still she is a dancer of some kind, not simply a block of wood. This must explain the puzzling music coming from the trees.

 by Louise Glück, from Faithful and Virtuous Night (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014)

Guido Reni
St Joseph with Christ Child
1620s
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Willem van der Vliet
An Allegory
1627
oil on canvas
private collection

Orazio Gentileschi
Annunciation
1623
oil on canvas
Galleria Sabauda, Turin

Giovanni Battista Gaulli
The Three Marys at the Sepulchre
1684-85
oil on canvas
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Matteo Rosselli
Triumph of David
1630
oil on canvas
Louvre

Peter Paul Rubens
Marie de Médicis as Bellona
1622-25
oil on canvas
Louvre

Willem van Mieris
Militiaman with empty glass
1690
oil on panel
private collection

Pietro Martire Neri
Portrait of Diego Velázquez
1650s
oil on canvas
private collection

Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Marie de Raet
1631
oil on canvas
Wallace Collection, London

Jacob Adriaensz Backer
Portrait of Geertruida Hasselaer
1645
oil on canvas
private collection

Juan Carreño de Miranda
King Charles II of Spain as Grandmaster of the Golden Fleece
1677
oil on canvas
private collection

Gerrit van Honthorst
Portrait of a Gentleman
1631
canvas
private collection

Gerard ter Borch
Seated girl in peasant costume
17th century
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam