Sunday, July 24, 2011

Courtly Lady

The finding of Moses by the Italian rococo painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770).

Tiepolo focuses here completely on the courtly lady with her servants, entourage and dogs. Paintings like this were always a appeal for patronage. The rich and powerful noblewoman would show her generosity.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Sin thy Name Is Woman

The Sin (1893) by the German symbolist painter Franz von Stuck (1863-1928).

The snake and the women are here inseparably interwoven, they are only two faces of the same subject. The woman may be Eve, Lilith or the devil herself, she’s a dangerous seductress. After all that’s nothing new. Eve always has been a kind of demon, but at the end of the 19th century it seems that this is all what’s left.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Blond Beauty

Bathsheba (1720) by the Italian painter Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734).

Another version of Bathsheba. Here Ricci shows a wider environment. An impressive palace, numerous servants, and in the distance king David peeping. Bathsheba is a typical European blond baroque beauty.