Women artists

Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun (16 April 1755 - 30 March 1842)With these two examples you can imagine she was a succesful painter, but she wasn't accepted at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture with the excuse that her husband was an Art-Dealer. Well, there are always excuses. King Louis XVI ordered the Académie to accept her. And so she was. the first is a portrait of the Queen of France Marie-Antoinette and her three children, all of them died some years later. The second is a self-portrait of Élisabeth. It seems that she produced a total of nearly 860 paintings that you can see in some important Museums in France, Russia, etc.

Santiago del Arrabal

Next Monday our Exchange Programme will take us to Toledo. While reading about the different places we will enjoy I found this image of Santiago del Arrabal. The basic idea I would like to last in our minds is that this 13th century church built over a previous mosque combines Arabian and Romanesque elements; it is a mixture of two cultures. Both Romanesque and Arabian elements live together like in the Toledo of those days. This Spanish medieval style has a name, Mudejar. Mudejar comes from the word muddajjan, permitted to stay, Muslims were allowed to stay in Spain, creating a unique style. This style survived in Spain for several centuries.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN FLICKR. THIS IS SOMETHING I WAS LOOKING FOR,AGES AGO; A NOT VERY WELL KNOWN EGYPTIAN QUEEN. AND THERE IS ALSO A REAL TEXT ABOUT HER. Ahhotep I ("Peace of the Moon"), lived circa 1590-1530 BCE (Second Intermediate and New Kingdom), was an important historical figure a member of the Seventeenth Dynasty, and is often regarded as the matrilineal founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. She was a Queen of Egypt, a successful military commander (especially against the invading Hyksos), and ruled a re-united Egypt as regent for at least one of her sons. The grave goods found buried with her at Thebes included three "golden flies of valour" medals (yes, they're insect-fly shaped: image. No, I don't know why unless there was a visiting time traveller planting the inspirations for 20th century European aesthetic movements...), which were only awarded for outstanding military service to Egypt, and ceremonial daggers, and axes. Her son, Ahmose I, erected a stela in her honour in a temple of Amun-Re which says (partial quote):

"She [Ahhotep] is the one who has accomplished the rites and taken care of Egypt... She [Ahhotep] has looked after her [Egypt's] soldiers, she [Ahhotep] has guarded her [Egypt], she [Ahhotep] has brought back her [Egypt's] fugitives and collected together her [Egypt's] deserters, she [Ahhotep] has pacified Upper Egypt and expelled her [Egypt's] rebels."
All of which strongly implies Ahhotep personally led her troops into battle.

Egyptians

These are shabtis or ushebtis. They are beautiful, they are in all history books.
Do you know what they are? Write a definition and show it to the teacher. That will give you a positive. (If you are a 1st year student)

Colours of the Avant-garde Art in Romania 1910-1950

What you see here is a painting by a Romanian artist, this work of art can be seen in Lisbon Portugal now. It is in the Chiado Museum. http://www.museudochiado-ipmuseus.pt/en/node/495
This is the web page where you can visit/see this exhibition.

Victor Brauner, Portrait of the poet Ilarie Voronca, Galati Museum of Art

An Egyptian Queen

Queen Nefertiti was the wife of Akhnaten. This pharaoh was a revolutionary one, he tried to change egyptian religion forever. He wanted his people to adore one god, the Sun. Of course he was really hated by priests and religious people. And his revolution ended the day he died.
Nefertiti (c. 1370 a. C. - c. 1330 a. C.) She wasn't only the wife of the pharaoh, Akhnaten made her a queen with the same powers of the pharaoh, something very unusual in Egypt. That is why we see the royal couple together in political and religious representations.

Romanesque Art

When I teach art I usually have the feeling that I cannot express what I really feel about the periods I refer to. I love art and I would like to make students like it at least a little bit, so let's try again. Here you have my favourite group of Romanesque paintings in Spain, When I visited them come years ago I had a wonderful time seeing such besutiful and yet naive figures. Maybe you'll love the gore part on one of them. This is The Crypt in the Colegiata of Saint Isidore, in Leon (Spain)

Four Periods in Art

Compare the four ideas you find in these paintings. What is the most important idea in them? Note down differences and similarities and comment your notes with your teacher.

And the winner is...

It seems most 2nd graders like "La Gioconda" 3 out of 5 students said this was their favourite work of art. Please visit wikipedia and watch the different parts of the painting photographed in the article.

Working conditions and art

This is just an introductory idea for the 3rd year students. As I said there is a Brazilian photographer who has shown the world some of the worst working conditions and yet he has made beautiful pictures.

My favourite work of art

Michelangelo. Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici. 1526-1531. Marble. Medici Chapel, San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy.
(Here is another example for 2nd graders)
The statue of Lorenzo di Medici is my favourite work of art, when I see "Il Pensieroso" I can feel his strength, his thinking attitude is so clear I can imagine what he is thinking about. In this renaissance sculpture you see the classical influence, but you even imagine what is to come in the baroque. Geniuses are like this they get inspiration in the past and are able to be a source of newer works of arts.