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From International Herald Tribune – Old Masters are making a comeback.
Vigorous bidding for Old Masters reflects sea change in market
Federico Barocci’s study in oil on paper, which is a modello for the head of Saint John the Evangelist in an altarpiece still in place at Senigallia, Italy, was a newly discovered addition to the body of his drawings for which the 16th-century master from Urbino is most admired. Bidders went berserk and ran up the small sketch to $1.76 million, tripling the high estimate. The international dealer Luca Baroni won the battle.
Sold for $1,762,500 at Christies
Also: A lovely multimedia presentation of the latest Christie’s auction at IHT
Glad to see the public taste enjoying a bit of humanism again 
Leonardo has always been one of my favourite artists. He was the perfect blend of engineer, scientist and artisan – taking all his experience and weaving it into an elegant aesthetic.
My favourite painting from Leonardo has always been the Lady with an Ermine, in the Czartoryski Museum.
A history of the painting can be read on Wikipedia.
The most compelling qualities for me in this painting are the dramatic use of light and stunning naturalism of the sitter’s pose and rendering of the animal, as well as the dynamic composition of the figure in a pyramidal spiral, and lastly the coloring of the piece. Although heavily damaged and overpainted in parts in a botched manner, this painting has always caught my fancy most of all.
A favourite quote of Richard Feynman comes to mind. As he said to Jirayr Zorthian:
“Jerry, I have an idea. You don’t know a damn thing about physics and I don’t know a damn thing about art, but we both admire Leonardo da Vinci. What do you say one Sunday I give you a day of physics, and the next Sunday you give me a day of art, and we both become two Leonardo da Vincis.”
Indeed, the very thing that bothered Feynman in aesthetics is the same thing that bothers me. So I will close out with this wonderful video “Ode on a Flower” … and every time I paint a flower, a hand, a woman, I continue to stand in awe of mathematical and fractal patterns, subtle complexities of the refraction of skin properties, all the physical and biological processes that add to, not subtract from the beauty in naturalistic and figurative art.
A subject which is of considerable interest to me is the practice of art, most particularly figurative art. From the days of Classical Greece, it has been quite simply an Issue.
Plato and Epicurus explore common ground on the subject, and of any philosopher to have had profound influence on the arts to this day – it is Plato. Epicurus’ aesthetics bear the marks of Plato, and it is back to Plato we have to go for understanding.
We artists have a love/hate relationship with Plato’s Aesthetics. I am exploring Plato, but from his later philosophy, which is of more interest to me: the Mature Plato.
Plato was an idealist. Art was a method to expressing the Ideal. However, Plato also was a materialist of a very special sort. The Neoplatonist Plotinus turned Plato upside down, and most understand him fairly wrongly on the physical world because of it, in my opinion. But that is another topic for discussion.
Plato did express in some of his works through some of his interlocutors, that censorship of art was a good thing. For Plato’s philosophy, art was powerful, and potentially dangerous. In my opinion, he’s not wrong.
I am emphatically not so much a fan of the censor as some of his characters were, but I do see where Plato’s philosophy had a point. I point directly to the propaganda of Nazi and Communist regimes, as well as American propaganda from World War I. A great collection of World War I posters are hosted at Georgetown University:
http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/guac/amposter_99/
Take a very long, hard look at those propaganda posters. As much of an advocate of figurative art as I am, I do concede the point to Plato. Art can be dangerous, especially political art. Of all the major wars fought in recent history, World War I was the best example of a senseless, needless, deeply nasty bloody war. Americans by and large were vehemently opposed to getting involved in it. Propaganda to convince them otherwise abounded, and it is for this reason I point it out emphatically.
Now I will point out, what is most notable about most political art, is the use of figurative art. It is a common aspect of all of it.
Figurative art possesses within itself, a powerful ability to tell stories via the image. A powerful image is a blade with a double edge. It can be used for great good, or great harm, or something inbetween. The storytelling power of figurative art is formidable, and effective weapons are frequently drafted for the purposes of people, be they good or bad, or something inbetween. A powerful image is a powerful tool, or conversely an equally powerful weapon – it is up to us to use them prudently, wisely, with honor, with justice.
Back to Plato. He had roughly two phases. The early Plato, which is best represented by the Republic. Or the later Plato, best represented by the Laws. I go to the Laws, to the words of the Athenian, to get a better sense of how Plato thought towards the end of his life.
Plato, in the Laws, put a strong emphasis on Persuasion, when it came to enforcing the laws of his state, Magnesia. We come back to Persuasion, to Wisdom, to Prudence, to Metis… over and over again in Greek philosophy, in all the masters of Greek philosophy who matter.
We as visual artists, are possessed of a powerful ability to Persuade, via the figurative image. We have the responsibility as individuals to use that power wisely. I’ve observed over the years, that social control in communities has to come from somewhere. Either it comes top down, like in Plato’s Republic – laws handed down from on high. Or it comes bottom up, with the individual aware of their need for self-control. In reality, social control is an interplay of both top down and bottom up aspects. Plato started to come around more to the bottom up idea in his later thought. I admit that I prefer to see people become more and more bottom-up in their behaviour.
It is for this reason, I like Epicurus, who took the Bottom Up approach much further than anyone else in Greek philosophy. The imagery of Epicurus’ Garden is a powerful one, that of an organic, fractal growth, interdependent on each other – the society of Friends.
So now I, as an artist, visualise myself as a student on the path to the Mastery of Light. There are many great Masters of Light in art who I admire for many various reasons. I will write short pieces to highlight various ones of them, people who used their talent to illuminate their visions of the world. Some are Idealists, who used their formidable talent to illuminate the worlds of Ideas that animated them: taking us on a romp of their perfect visions of ideal worlds made real. Others are Realists, who used their considerable talent to illuminate the very gritty imperfect world we live in. All of them however, were Masters of Light, of the use of figurative art, most especially of the mastery of light itself, within their art to communicate their ideas of how they saw the world. They are all Masters.
The Venus de Milo – 3d scanned and interactive. Though its a commercial Konica Minolta site (promoting their latest 3d scanner technology) - the site is truly gorgeous and VERY instructional. (beware it is an interactive Flash site)
I have seen the Venus de Milo in real life (at the Louvre), and she never fails to inspire. A delight for all who love classical art
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