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Straw Hat - unknown - Google Arts & Culture

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Chorip is a hat worn by men of the Joseon Dynasty, and woven with grass or bamboo strips. It was worn regardless of the wearer’s status, although the numbe...

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Cup and saucer - Workshop of Charles Fromery|Christian Friedrich Herold|J. G. V. - Google Arts & Culture

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

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Bernhard Strigel, the last known member of a successful family of artists from the Allgäu region of southern Germany, held a succession of honorary civic offices in Memmingen beginning in 1512. A much sought-after portraitist, he was soon appointed imperial court painter and finally raised to the peerage. His painting portrays Emperor Maximilian I and his first wife, Mary of Burgundy (1457-1482), next to their son Philip the Fair, who had died in 1506. Below them are Philip's sons Charles (in the middle) and Ferdinand (on the left).To the right of them is Louis of Hungary, whom Maximilian had adopted in 1515. The inscriptions give a second meaning to the portraits: they identify the subjects as members of the family of Mary Cleophas, who had been venerated as one of the sisters of the Virgin Mary since the early 15th century. Originally the other members of the Virgin's family were on the back of the panel (removed in 1919; KHM, GG 6411) and on another part (now in private ownership) of the work, which was originally conceived as a diptych. How the work was commissioned is not completely clear. It is known for certain that Johannes Cuspinian, a Humanist advisor to Maximilian, commissioned the second panel and the back of the first. But perhaps - and this appears more plausible - he commissioned the entire diptych, including the present painting, in 1520, five years after the double wedding that he had helped to negotiate. The selection of figures is certainly a reference to that event. As a proxy for one of his grandsons Maximilian married the sister of Louis, Anna of Hungary, in Vienna in 1515. A reciprocal gesture for the decision taken in 1507 that Louis would marry Archduchess Maria, the sister of Charles and Ferdinand, this successful move on the dynastic chessboard was solemnly celebrated with a double wedding in Vienna and guaranteed the emperor's successors the crowns of Bohemia and Hungary until 1918.
© Cäcilia Bischoff, Masterpieces of the Picture Gallery. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2010

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Emperor Maximilian I with His Family - Bernhard Strigel - Google Arts & Culture

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Bernhard Strigel, the last known member of a successful family of artists from the Allgäu region of southern Germany, held a succession of honorary civic offices in Memmingen beginning in 1512. A much sought-after portraitist, he was soon appointed imperial court painter and finally raised to the peerage.

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Known for her optically vibrant paintings and distinct visual language Bridget Riley has been celebrated as one of Britain's leading artists since the 1960s. Early in her career Riley confessed to feeling a great sense of frustration over what it meant to be a modern painter, this question, and her early formal training led to the conception of Movement in Squares and the development of the visual language for which she is so well known. Seeking to find a purity in the abstract form Riley began to draw squares, from these drawings she said '...as I drew, things began to change. Quite suddenly something was happening down there on the paper that I had not anticipated. I continued, I went on drawing; I pushed ahead, both intuitively and consciously. The squares began to lose their original form.' 'Movement in Squares' consists of twelve rows of alternating black and white squares, their height remains the same but their width slowly diminishes, these repetitive structures and the strong contrast develop an optical illusion of sorts, providing a sense of movement. This serves as the beginning of an enquiry and offers an insight into the early stages of Riley's investigations into the conceptual roles of geometric shapes.

Steven Burridge

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Movement in Squares - Bridget Riley - Google Arts & Culture

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Known for her optically vibrant paintings and distinct visual language Bridget Riley has been celebrated as one of Britain's leading artists since the 1960...

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George Henry Durrie's "Winter in the Country" evokes the New England landscape near his New Haven, Connecticut, home. The structure at right is a colonial era saltbox house, characterized by a roof that is steeply pitched in the front but descends gradually toward the back. Durrie's image documents the economic progress of the original settlers, who initially built a single-story home but later added the three-story hotel to capitalize on the needs of travelers and tourists.

Painted just prior to the Civil War, this productive and prosperous scene celebrates the virtues of Northern free labor, which was often contrasted with the inequalities of Southern slave labor. Durrie's paintings were popularized by the firm of Currier & Ives, who published ten prints (mostly of his winter scenes) between 1861 and 1867. These idealized depictions of New England farms resonated with Northerners nostalgic for the rural lifestyle being transformed by industrialization.

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Winter in the Country - George Henry Durrie - Google Arts & Culture

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George Henry Durrie's "Winter in the Country" evokes the New England landscape near his New Haven, Connecticut, home. The structure at right is a colonial era saltbox house, characterized by a roof that is steeply pitched in the front but descends gradually toward the back.

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Harumaki Chair - Humberto Campana and Fernando Campana - Google Arts & Culture

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Humberto Campana was born in Rio Claro (São Paulo, Brazil), in 1953, and Fernando Campana was born in Brotas (São Paulo, Brazil), in 1961. In 1983, they st...

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At the end of 1968, John Brack resigned as Head of the National Gallery School in Melbourne, where he had studied some 20 years earlier, to devote himself to full-time painting.

With paintings such as Collins Street, 5 p.m.1955, he had established a reputation as an urban realist and social commentator, one who employed irony to make penetrating comments concerning the human condition. Now, however, he was seeking an artistic form which would remain faithful to the local reality, to the here and now of immediate experience, but one which could also be interpreted on a more universal level. Throughout the 1960s, he experimented with different subject matter which he generally developed as series of paintings and drawings; these included the schoolyard series, the wedding series and shop front series. In each instance, he added further levels of meaning to the imagery.

Another series which preoccupied Brack in the 1960s was that of professional ballroom dancing. The theme initially appealed to him for its absurdity: people who converted a natural activity, such as dance, into a demanding and challenging ritual. It was also a continuation of the theme of precariousness of being, where couples are thrown together within a competitive environment, where all is set against them: the floors are tilted, slippery and polished, the glare of the spotlights is merciless, the crowd and the judges appear hostile.

It is possible to interpret the major painting from this series, Latin American Grand Final, on a number of levels. On one level it is an illustration of an actual event - the World Ballroom Dancing Championships, which were held at Melbourne's Festival Hall in 1967. Brack attended the championships and acquired a considerable number of photographs for use as source material. The painting is also about masks and facades - the costumes, the hair and the smiles are all deliberate disguises used by the competing couples, who have to face the crowd and the judge. The couples, thrown together, whether in a dance, marriage or relationship, cling to one another in gestures of simultaneous attraction and rejection, yet persist with the ritual and the farce. Unlike some of his earlier paintings where there is a clear judgemental message, here there is no judgement; Brack does not stand in front of his subject to denounce the foibles of human behaviour but instead, in the top left-hand corner, more vulnerable than the rest, dancing alone without a partner, is a self-portrait of the artist. So if this dance is a farce, a dance of life where we perform our hour upon the stage and are heard no more, assuming deliberate disguises, but alone, even when in company, then the artist is part of this ritual. He does not judge and condemn, but suffers with the rest of us.

The painting, with its blaze of neon pinks, stinging reds and sharp thrusts of black, is full of sexual symbolism set within a very formalised choreographed ritual. The generous billowing and bulbous ballroom dresses are frequently shown encroached upon by a dancer's leg, either bold and erect or curved and limp. There is a constant play between what is revealed and what is possibly implied in the imagery.

Brack employed photographs as source material for this painting; they were not copied, but used as a departure point to allow the development of a formal design. The photograph is a touchstone on the here and now, the visible, tangible Australian reality. The painting itself is a much broader comment on society, social behaviour and the tragedy of the human condition. If the Collins Street, 5 p.m. painting provided a very localised, close-up view of humanity, composed of observed, sketched individuals and in its title already signifying a specific time and space, then with Latin American Grand Final the imagery is a little withdrawn; the dancers, while based on specific photographic models, are now more symbolic, more allegoric - they are commenting about all of us, the dance of life and the ritual of being. The problem which increasingly started to preoccupy the artist was not only how to make a statement about the specific, but also how to make it in such a way as to have a universal meaning. As Brack commented later:

I considered I had made at last a significant advance on the superficiality of the Collins Street picture, while at the same time, not making the picture look over complicated. You see, the problem was to make it operate on different levels of meaning, but to make it look perhaps deceptively simple.1

Sasha Grishin 2002

1 Sasha Grishin The Art of John Brack Melbourne: Oxford University Press vol.1 1990 p.115.

Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010

From: Anne Gray (ed), Australian art in the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2002

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Latin American Grand Final - John BRACK - Google Arts & Culture

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At the end of 1968, John Brack resigned as Head of the National Gallery School in Melbourne, where he had studied some 20 years earlier, to devote himself to full-time painting. With paintings such as Collins Street, 5 p.m.1955, he had established a reputation as an urban realist and social commentator, one who employed irony to make penetrating comments concerning the human condition.

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Sailing Boats at Argenteuil - Gustave Caillebotte - Google Arts & Culture

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Caillebotte was passionate about sailing. From 1879 onwards, he won regattas on the Seine and attracted attention for his luxurious and innovative boats. A…

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The largest painting in the National Museum's collection - Jan Matejko's Battle of Grunwald, measuring over four metres in height and nearly ten in width.
The painting depicts the culmination of a battle waged in July of 1410 which ended in a rout of the Teutonic Knights' army by allied Polish-Lithuanian-Russian forces led by Ladislaus Jagiełło. The Battle of Grunwald acquired a monumental relevance in Polish history. As one of the nation's greatest military victories, it became an affirmation of the historical strength of the kingdom. Matejko's depiction of this very event in the era of the country's partitioning was intended to bolster Poles' faith in their homeland's future resurgence.

The action portrayed in the painting revolves around two figures, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order Ulrich von Jungingen and the Lithuanian Grand Duke Witold. We see von Jungingen is the midst of a fatal clash with plebeian warriors symbolising the Polish-Lithuanian nation. The triumph of the victors is personified in the figure of Duke Witold, full of momentum, appearing as if elevated above the fighting masses. A key ideological accent can be found in the spear being aimed at the chest of the Grand Master. The weapon is the Spear of Saint Maurice - an insignia of the Polish crown after Holy Roman Emperor Otto III presented Boleslaus I the Brave with a replica of the Holy Lance during the Congress of Gniezno.

The emotions on the faces of the warriors - ranging from triumph to despair, from chivalric courage to fury and terror - are depicted in a much more graphic way than the fashion typical of academic painting in the second half of the 19th century. The densely packed and seemingly crooked composition, achieved in part through setting the two main focal points - the action around the Grand Master and the figure of Witold - deeper within the scene, serve to pull the viewer into the very centre of the battlefield tumult. Matejko's deliberate lack of restraint and order in constructing the composition, his use of nervous outlines and the sharp, dissonant contrast of colours were all intended to maximise the painting's impact. Despite the realistic rendition of the cruel and brutal fighting, the artist was still able to endow the knights with a specific air of grandeur and pathos, and to elevate the scene's anonymous warriors to the rank of heroes of a historical epic.

Matejko's vision of the Battle of Grunwald rose to achieve symbolic stature. The painting's significance within Polish culture is evidenced by the fact that during World War II, the Nazis offered a reward of two million Marks, eventually increased to ten million, for information leading to the location of the canvas. Fortunately, even with such a high sum, the painting never fell into Nazi hands.

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The Battle of Grunwald [Tannenberg] - Jan Matejko - Google Arts & Culture

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The largest painting in the National Museum's collection - Jan Matejko's Battle of Grunwald, measuring over four metres in height and nearly ten in width.The painting depicts the culmination of a battle waged in July of 1410 which ended in a rout of the Teutonic Knights' army by allied Polish-Lithuanian-Russian forces led by Ladislaus Jagiełło.

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Bosschaert seldom varied his compositions, no doubt relying upon the customer´s great demand for flower pieces. Three main motifs are common: flower in a vase on a table, in a niche or on a window sill. Signed AB (as monogram) 1617 on the border of the table.
Pieter Breughel the elder and Ambrosius Bosschaert´s manner of painting flower pieces quickly became the norm for several generations: symmetrical, aligned bouquets with a multitude of flowers from every season of the year. The aim was to represent a group of different flowers crowned by the expensive tulip. Bosschaerts interest in flowers is understandable as he lived in Middelburgh, capital of Zeeland, known for its botanical gardens and botanists.

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Still-Life with Flowers - Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder - Google Arts & Culture

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Bosschaert seldom varied his compositions, no doubt relying upon the customer´s great demand for flower pieces. Three main motifs are common: flower in a vase on a table, in a niche or on a window sill.

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Coral reef in Raja Ampat, Indonesia - Alex Mustard Ocean Image Bank and The Ocean Agency - Google Arts & Culture

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Helmer Osslund is famous for his northern Swedish autumn landscapes. In 1910, he painted this view of the Ångermanälven river from Storberget in Nordingrå. It won a gold medal at the World's Fair in San Francisco in 1915. Later, Osslund painted the same view again in a total of five versions, with various additions and different colours and features. Only the first version was painted on site - on eight sheets of greaseproof paper that he transferred to the canvas

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Autumn, Nordingrå - Helmer Osslund - Google Arts & Culture

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Helmer Osslund is famous for his northern Swedish autumn landscapes. In 1910, he painted this view of the Ångermanälven river from Storberget in Nordingrå. It won a gold medal at the World's Fair in San Francisco in 1915. Later, Osslund painted the same view again in a total of five versions, with various additions and different colours and features.

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Top Amer(Sou) Argentine Sierra Di Cordoba And Other Moutains - Google Arts & Culture

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TOP AMER(SOU) Argentine Sierra Di Cordoba and Other Moutains

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Robben Island is both a South African National Heritage Site as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Island was, "home" to one of the world's most famous prisoners, presidents and leader, Nelson Mandela. He was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid.

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Western Cape, South Africa - Google Arts & Culture

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Robben Island is both a South African National Heritage Site as well as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Island was, "home" to one of the world's most famous prisoners, presidents and leader, Nelson Mandela. He was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of apartheid.

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J.D. 'Okai Ojeikere (born in 1930, in Ojomu Emai, Nigeria, died in 2014, in Lagos, Nigeria) was raised in rural Southwestern Nigeria in a village where photography was an exotic luxury. In 1950, he bought a modest Brownie D camera, and a neighbour taught him the rudiments of photography. In 1951 he began to seek work from the Ministry of Information in Ibadan, repeatedly sending the same letter: "I would be very grateful if you would use me for any kind of work in your photographic department." His persistence paid off in 1954, when he was offered a position as a darkroom assistant. Just as Nigeria was shedding colonial rule in 1961, he became a still photographer for Televison House Ibadan, a division of the Western Nigerian Broadcasting Services, the first television station in Africa. Jazz musician Steve Rhodes was director of programming and Ojeikere has recalled the spirit of the time: "Just after independence, we were full of ideas and energy. We were going to conquer the world." In 1963 he moved to Lagos to work for West Africa Publicity.

In 1967 he joined the Nigerian Arts Council, and during their festival of the following year he began to take series of photographs dedicated to Nigerian culture. This body of work, now consisting of thousands of images, has become a unique anthropological, ethnographic, and documentary national treasure. Most African photographers of his generation only worked on commission; this project, unique in its genre, flourished without any commercial support. The Hairstyle series, which consists of close to a thousand photographs, is the largest and the most thorough segment of Ojeikere's archive. "To watch a ' hair artist' going through his precise gestures, like an artist making a sculpture, is fascinating. Hairstyles are an art form," Ojeikere has commented. He photographs hairstyles every day in the street, in offices, at parties. He records each subject systematically: from the rear, sometimes in profile, and occasionally head-on. Those from the rear are almost abstract and best reveal the sculptural aspect of the hairstyles. For Ojeikere, this is a never ending project as hairstyles evolve with fashion: "All these hairstyles are ephemeral. I want my photographs to be noteworthy traces of them. I always wanted to record moments of beauty, moments of knowledge. Art is life. Without art, life would be frozen."

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Mkpuk eba - J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere - Google Arts & Culture

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J.D. 'Okai Ojeikere (born in 1930, in Ojomu Emai, Nigeria, died in 2014, in Lagos, Nigeria) was raised in rural Southwestern Nigeria in a village where photography was an exotic luxury. In 1950, he bought a modest Brownie D camera, and a neighbour taught him the rudiments of photography.

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Woman Combing her Hair - Władysław Ślewiński - Google Arts & Culture

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Władysław Ślewiński was one of the first Polish artists who went to Paris to study painting, instead of Munich, which had been fashionable so far. There he...

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Night sky

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From the moment of his arrival in Arles, on 8 February 1888, Van Gogh was constantly preoccupied with the representation of "night effects".
In April 1888, he wrote to his brother Theo: "I need a starry night with cypresses or maybe above a field of ripe wheat." In June, he confided to the painter Emile Bernard: "But when shall I ever paint the Starry Sky, this painting that keeps haunting me" and, in September, in a letter to his sister, he evoked the same subject: "Often it seems to me night is even more richly coloured than day". During the same month of September, he finally realised his obsessive project.

He first painted a corner of nocturnal sky in Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles (Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Muller). Next came this view of the Rhône in which he marvellously transcribed the colours he perceived in the dark. Blues prevail: Prussian blue, ultramarine and cobalt. The city gas lights glimmer an intense orange and are reflected in the water.

The stars sparkle like gemstones.A few months later, just after being confined to a mental institution, Van Gogh painted another version of the same subject: Starry Night (New York, MoMA), in which the violence of his troubled psyche is fully expressed. Trees are shaped like flames while the sky and stars whirl in a cosmic vision. The Musée d'Orsay's Starry Night is more serene, an atmosphere reinforced by the presence of a couple of lovers at the bottom of the canvas.

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Starry Night - Vincent van Gogh - Google Arts & Culture

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From the moment of his arrival in Arles, on 8 February 1888, Van Gogh was constantly preoccupied with the representation of "night effects". In April 1888,...

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City Scape - Ham, Myung Su - Google Arts & Culture

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world’s treasures online.

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Van Gogh's night sky is a field of roiling energy. Below the exploding stars, the village is a place of quiet order. Connecting earth and sky is the flamelike cypress, a tree traditionally associated with graveyards and mourning. But death was not ominous for van Gogh. "Looking at the stars always makes me dream," he said, "Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star."

The artist wrote of his experience to his brother Theo: "This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big." This morning star, or Venus, may be the large white star just left of center in The Starry Night. The hamlet, on the other hand, is invented, and the church spire evokes van Gogh's native land, the Netherlands. The painting, like its daytime companion, The Olive Trees, is rooted in imagination and memory. Leaving behind the Impressionist doctrine of truth to nature in favor of restless feeling and intense color, as in this highly charged picture, van Gogh made his work a touchstone for all subsequent Expressionist painting.

The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 35

Find out more about The Starry Night at:
mo.ma/starrynight

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The Starry Night - Vincent van Gogh - Google Arts & Culture

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Van Gogh's night sky is a field of roiling energy. Below the exploding stars, the village is a place of quiet order. Connecting earth and sky is the flamel...

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A beautiful Spring scene!

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In the summer of 1878, Monet moved with his family to Vétheuil. His stay there of three-and-a-half years was a period in his life full of tragic adversity. Beginning with the birth of their second son, his wife's condition increasingly worsened, and until her death in September 1879, all their money went to doctors and medicines. Due to financial pressure, they shared a household with the family of Monet's friend and patron, Ernest Hoschedé. Overcoming a profound professional crisis and personal difficulty, the period spent in Vétheuil was ultimately a crucial period in Monet's artistic development: its culmination was experimentation pursued that rendered perceptible atmospheric luminous phenomena, which he had commenced in Argenteuil. Prior to his arrival in Vétheuil, Monet had made a name for himself as a painter of modern life - and the urban everyday. Upon moving to the small
town on the Seine, it was rather the peaceful rural landscape that interested him, and he focused on the subtle transitions of light and colour found in the landscape. He rendered numerous vistas of the immediate environs of his residence, the orchards surrounding the house and of the town from the riverbank. His Flowering Plum Trees, painted in the spring of 1879, was also made in the vicinity of the painter's house. Between the boughs of the fruit trees, a part of Vétheuil can be seen, as well as the hill of Ch?nay in the background. Monet devotes all his attention to the direct study of nature, reducing the presence of man to the minimum, while anecdotal details are completely absent. Nothing can be felt of his tribulations, the gaiety of his paintings from the period contradicting his hopeless family circumstances. Everything pulsates in the painting; every point comes to life. The picture is a masterful example of the optical blending of colours, the breaking down of natural colours to their elementary units. The eye perceives these separated units as the infinite subtle nuances of tone. The brushstrokes practically trace the undulations of the breeze between the trees, up to the softly inclining crest of the hill. The conscious activation of the viewer's gaze heightens the illusion of motion in the picture, and the sun-kissed landscape is permeated with vibrating vividness.

Contrary to the beliefs surrounding the Impressionists, the choice of details featuring in the picture from the natural scene demonstrates thorough planning. The final version of the scene is born through preparatory studies and compositional experimentation. It was during these years that Monet began to record in groupings colour and atmospheric variations observed in the same location at various times, also experimenting with variations in format, dimension or composition.

The picture was most probably put on public view for the first time in 1880 at the gallery of the journal, La Vie Moderne. This exhibition signified a turning point in Monet's life and artistic career. The interest of critics and collectors once again focused on him, and art criticism began to recognise the value of the artworks that seemed not to be completely "finished", and Monet's rare talent for landscape painting, as well as his technical proficiency.

Text: © FERENC TÓTH

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Plum Trees in Blossom - Claude Monet - Google Arts & Culture

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In the summer of 1878, Monet moved with his family to Vétheuil. His stay there of three-and-a-half years was a period in his life full of tragic adversity. Beginning with the birth of their second son, his wife's condition increasingly worsened, and until her death in September 1879, all their money went to doctors and medicines.

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Albert Bierstadt belongs to the second generation of the Hudson River School and is best known for his panoramic views of the American West. Born in Germany and raised in Bedford, Massachusetts, Bierstadt returned to his native land in 1853 to study painting at the Düsseldorf Academy, where he developed his trademark of conveying theatrical effects of light and shadow.

After returning to the United States, Bierstadt traveled to the American West, at that time little explored and sparsely inhabited, to paint its scenery and to bring his pictures back to a curious public on the East Coast. In "California Spring", Bierstadt's depiction of a pastoral scene along the banks of the Sacramento River celebrates the American West as an Eden-like paradise-overlooking the harsh realities of agricultural life in the Central Valley, such as recurrent droughts, overgrazing, and poverty.

Zoom in on the portion of the horizon flanked by California oak trees. In this area of the painting, Bierstadt painted the dome of the Sacramento State Capitol in minute detail. Constructed in 1874, just one year before Bierstadt finished "California Spring", this landmark building was a notable addition to the landscape.

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California Spring - Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) - Google Arts & Culture

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Albert Bierstadt belongs to the second generation of the Hudson River School and is best known for his panoramic views of the American West. Born in German...

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The subject of the painting appears to be from the Gospel of Saint Luke, 5: 1-11, which tells of one of Christ's miracles, and his calling of Simon Peter, James and John to follow Him. Standing by the Sea of Galilee, Christ sees two boats at the shore and their fishermen washing their nets. He enters Simon's boat, and after preaching to a crowd of followers on the shore, tells Simon to go out upon the lake and cast his net. Simon protests that they have taken nothing all the previous night, but at Christ's bidding will try again. Their net fills with so many fish it breaks; they call to the other boat for help, and both boats become so laden with fish they begin to sink. Simon, James and John are amazed and fearful, for they feel unworthy of such a miracle. Christ tells them not to fear, "for henceforth thou shalt catch men. . . . they forsook all, and followed him." Tanner was not a literal illustrator of Biblical stories. He distilled their spiritual essence by reducing all representative details to a few essentials and rendering these in a nearly expression is the style.

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The Miraculous Haul of Fishes - Henry Ossawa Tanner - Google Arts & Culture

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The subject of the painting appears to be from the Gospel of Saint Luke, 5: 1-11, which tells of one of Christ's miracles, and his calling of Simon Peter, James and John to follow Him. Standing by the Sea of Galilee, Christ sees two boats at the shore and their fishermen washing their nets.

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The lion is a large felid of the genus Panthera native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, deep-chested body, short, rounded head, round ears, and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane. It is a social species, forming groups called prides. A lion's pride consists of a few adult males, related females, and cubs. Groups of female lions usually hunt together, preying mostly on large ungulates. The lion is an apex and keystone predator; although some lions scavenge when opportunities occur and have been known to hunt humans, the species typically does not.
Typically, the lion inhabits grasslands and savannas, but is absent in dense forests. It is usually more diurnal than other wild cats, but when persecuted, it adapts to being active at night and at twilight. During the Neolithic period, the lion ranged throughout Africa, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus, and Western and South Asia, but it has been reduced to fragmented populations in sub-Saharan Africa and one population in western India.

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The lion is a large felid of the genus Panthera native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, deep-chested body, short, rounded head, round ears, and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane.

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The Cutting-Out of the French Corvette ‘La Chevrette’ - LOUTHERBOURG, Philippe Jacques de - Google Arts & Culture

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The cutting-out of ‘La Chevrette’ was a once-famous incident in the wars against Napoleon. Britain feared invasion and the capture of this heavily armed co...

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These fighting knights carry the banners of ancient feuding empires--SPQR, the banner of ancient Rome, at the left, and the dragon, that of Gaul, at the right--yet they wear contemporary gold and silver Florentine armor and joust like Florentine knights of the 1400s. The brilliant colors and simplified geometric shapes make the armored steeds look much like rocking-horses, creating a resplendent yet artificial, fairy-tale battle scene. Despite the flatness of the sumptuous painted fabrics and the mere outlines of the horses' bodies--aside from the elegantly foreshortened white horse at the right--their hooves appear to exist in three-dimensional space.

Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi knew about battles, for he was once a mercenary soldier, but he did not intend this scene as a realistic depiction of warfare. The panel originally formed the front of a cassone, or wedding chest.

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Battle Scene - Giovanni di Ser Giovanni Guidi (Lo Scheggia) - Google Arts & Culture

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These fighting knights carry the banners of ancient feuding empires--SPQR, the banner of ancient Rome, at the left, and the dragon, that of Gaul, at the right--yet they wear contemporary gold and silver Florentine armor and joust like Florentine knights of the 1400s.

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In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only wood plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height. In wider definitions, the taller palms, tree ferns, bananas, and bamboos are also trees. Trees are not a taxonomic group but include a variety of plant species that have independently evolved a trunk and branches as a way to tower above other plants to compete for sunlight. Trees tend to be long-lived, some reaching several thousand years old. Trees have been in existence for 370 million years. It is estimated that there are some three trillion mature trees in the world.
A tree typically has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground by the trunk. This trunk typically contains woody tissue for strength, and vascular tissue to carry materials from one part of the tree to another. For most trees it is surrounded by a layer of bark which serves as a protective barrier.

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In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, supporting branches and leaves in most species. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only wood plants with secondary growth, plants that are usable as lumber or plants above a specified height.

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The horse is a domesticated one-toed hoofed mammal.

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Large lavender-purple flower in center foreground with dark arc above. Purple flower buds lower left. The diagonal arc is concealing the lower part of a second purple flower in upper half of painting.

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Petunia No. 2 - Georgia O'Keeffe - Google Arts & Culture

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Large lavender-purple flower in center foreground with dark arc above. Purple flower buds lower left. The diagonal arc is concealing the lower part of a se...

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Cortina d’Ampezzo - Google Arts & Culture

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Cortina d’Ampezzo, is a town and comune in the heart of the southern Alps in the Veneto region of Northern Italy.

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During the Thirties, de Chirico exhibited a number of works with the title of Venice, of which, however, little remains. The scene in this view taken from the Bilotti gift shows a precise event: the historical regatta which took place on the feast day of the Redemptor, gathered opposite the Ducal Palace, with ten barques decorated with varying degrees of opulence, followed by gondolas and smaller boats. The composition is typical of Venetian cityscape painting, particularly that of Guardi and Canaletto, indeed it is likely that this view of the historic regatta at Venice was inspired by two large canvases by the latter.

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Venice historical regatta - Giorgio de Chirico - Google Arts & Culture

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During the Thirties, de Chirico exhibited a number of works with the title of Venice, of which, however, little remains. The scene in this view taken from the Bilotti gift shows a precise event: the historical regatta which took place on the feast day of the Redemptor, gathered opposite the Ducal Palace, with ten barques decorated with varying degrees of opulence, followed by gondolas and smaller boats.

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Global Warming of the Ocean or El Niño? - Photo libre de droits - Google Arts & Culture

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A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.
Small boats are typically found on inland waterways such as rivers and lakes, or in protected coastal areas. However, some boats, such as the whaleboat, were intended for use in an offshore environment. In modern naval terms, a boat is a vessel small enough to be carried aboard a ship. Anomalous definitions exist, as lake freighters 1,000 feet long on the Great Lakes are called "boats".
Boats vary in proportion and construction methods with their intended purpose, available materials, or local traditions. Canoes have been used since prehistoric times and remain in use throughout the world for transportation, fishing, and sport. Fishing boats vary widely in style partly to match local conditions. Pleasure craft used in recreational boating include ski boats, pontoon boats, and sailboats. House boats may be used for vacationing or long-term residence. Lighters are used to convey cargo to and from large ships unable to get close to shore. Lifeboats have rescue and safety functions.

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A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.Small boats are typically found on inland waterways such as rivers and lakes, or in protected coastal areas.

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Details

Title: Translated Vase

Creator: Yee, Sookyung

Date Created: 2007

Physical Dimensions: w45 x h43 x d49 cm

Critic's Note: I for an I, other for the other: The Theory of Yee Sookyung "I am I, the other is other"--Nishida Kitaro From the beginning, a distance exists between the artist and the work of art. Although the work of art emerges from the expression of the artist's intentions, the work has an autonomous object-hood, just as the artist has a personhood. Such an objecthood is fated to inhabit the space of viewers, who form a condensation of interdependent individualities. If the space of the artist is that of the self, the space of the work of art is the world of the other. The task of producing a work of art becomes that of the artist negating the self and making "an other similar to the self." When viewers sense an artist's particular expression, what they may be describing is a world of the self that has been exteriorized through its long inhabitation of other's space. However, occasionally there are works that have not been externalized but remain firmly a part of the world of the artist's individual self. In this case, the possibility for predicting the work becomes difficult. How protean and capricious is this self that has not been opened out to the other. Yee Sookyung is of this nature. Her works are difficult to categorize, considering the myriad of changes they have undergone. She has shown works in all media, from objects and videos to painting and drawing. Hers is a rare case among Korean artists. From "Getting married to Myself," (Indeco Gallery, Seoul) her first solo exhibition in 1992, to her latest show "Paradise Hormone," (2008, Mongin Art Center, Seoul), the change and variety of work makes it difficult to connect them with a particular personal style. This is most likely because the time needed for the world of the self to be exteriorized and digested by others is constantly overtaken by another hidden world within her that manifests itself. On a more fundamental level, it is important to point out that several complex but uncompromising layers exist in the space between her works created of the self for the self, and those of others and for others. The Japanese modern philosopher Nishida Kitaro once used the expression, "I am I, the other is other," to suggest that this individual "I" could never become the "other." Thus, it suggests that the space that makes up the world of the self and the world of the other forms absolutely different dimensions. If the space of the former is an individual topos (basho) made up of a condensation of fragments, the space of the later is a cosmos beyond a homogenous space that is continually expanding. No matter how many topoi overlap, they can never make a homogenous space. Although these two worlds can never mix on an essential level, on an everyday, basic level they communicate with relatively little conflict. The reason why a coherent sense of individuality seems so faint in Yee's work is that in the majority of cases of other artists, a sense of personality is that state of flux where the world of the self is caught up in the world of the other. For Yee, she begins by questioning this notion and from the very beginning distinguishes clearly between the world of self and the world of the other. This kind of attitude of the self for the self, and the other for the other can perhaps be called the secret of her work. I for I In Yee's "Flame" series, she shows an extreme world of drawing. Drawing is a completely self-engrossing act of individuality. Another person cannot partake in it, while the medium perhaps most directly reveals a sense of bodily space. Because the body includes the territory of the self, that space cannot be traversed. The body is also the vessel that contains the soul. In this sense, drawing is the most effective means of revealing the hidden aspects of the artist's individual selfhood. In most cases, drawing takes over the entire space of the canvas in an instant. This is because the artist's body is thrown toward the picture without resistance. Thus the body itself becomes expression. However, in the case of Yee, the body that appears in her drawings is manifested as threads that thin out to resemble something like lines of information. Is it possible to call this kind of drawing a form of "expression"? On a more subtle level, is it an act of abandon rather than a self-controlled form of expression? Within our bodies are thousands of cells that each contain a destiny, a function and habit. But like data that has been put through a document shredder, she breaks apart these lines into individual, single files that fly onto the picture plane. This act of drawing is similar to the terms of a religious confession, where the individual self is gradually negated. Just the amount of time taken to produce the larger works she has done is months. For making drawings, this is a considerable amount of time. The reason why this cannot help but be the case is that the body is torn to the extreme into thin and long pieces of information, know-how, judgment; all of the records contained in that body and soul must be cast aside. In order to do this, a larger surface of canvas can't help but be used. The body and soul are one and the only way to determine whether the soul resides within the body is to divide it into cells and to show each of those individual tiny particles. This way of bringing the body to bear upon the picture plane is different from typical drawing methods. Instead of expression it is a form of negation, while the act of negation becomes a religious form of self-disciplining. In order to accomplish this, a line is drawn every time energy is received from the body. But this energy is different from that used in the traditional calligraphic techniques of ink painting. The energy comes from the topos of the I, from the invisible within the body. In order to capture this other energy, Yee looked at the supernatural energy found on Goguryeo cave paintings. The notion of yeonggi, is a kind of invisible, supernatural vital energy in objects that is not palpable, but that has a definite existence. It describes a kind of essence within the space of topos. One can only call it a kind of noise. It is said that when the body's central processing unit becomes conscious of its surroundings, only about 30% can be grasped by logic. The remaining algorithms appear as noise. Who knows whether our individual existence is not itself made up of these masses of noise. If we want to become receptive to the world around us, we have to become open to the invisible, spectral world, a world of noise that is not perceived by logic alone. Although the world of noise is invisible, it is one that exerts a strong control over us. Is it not that the yeonggi that appears in her work an attempt of bringing the invisible world into the visible? However, this kind of noise does not stop at the simple act of painting with Yee, unlike in the Goguryeo cave paintings. Painting has physical properties. Matter moves beyond the artist and aims toward otherness. Thus instead of such matter becoming rarefied, the topos of the body becomes more present in drawings. Although most of these lines of noise resemble waves, at times different formations appear as if nodes of energy have created them. Dragons, monsters and women appear among other images, forming the patterns of a repetition compulsion. They are like glimpses of the invisible, of images compressed within the zip file of the artist's personal topos. The artist confesses to this and by unfurling them proceeds to erase the noise of the self. This is because the world of the other is a world where the self has been effaced and released. Other for the other In a sculpture project, Yee made a public work of art by asking the local residents of Echigo Tsumari in Japan and Anyang in Korea to participate in a survey, an exemplary instance of a public work that started from her world and was given to the world of the other. The survey asked people to choose among the body parts of different religious founders such as Confucius, Lao Tzu, Mary, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, Ganesh, and which icon's body part would be the most suitable for the sculpture. She made a new icon from the results of the survey. Is this not the very definition of the world of the other, a world of self-sacrifice for the public good? This is the public sphere. This is the form of the ultimate public work of art. There is no space for the artist's self in a work like this. From the first, it is a clear, transparent and rather noise-less world. The more others participate, the more I disappear and the noise completely disappears. The heart of the reason for choosing the subject of religious icons resides in this as well. Such icons are individuals that left the world of the self in order to become part of the other. And these icons teach us by example to throw away the world of the self in order to obtain the world of the other, to become the world of the true self. However, Buddha and Jesus have been seized upon as the more iconic even among other icons. In other words, these supposedly self-less icons appear to take on the form of individual selves. Excluding herself from the process as much as possible, she used the survey format so only others would participate, undoing the individuality of the icons by turning them into a new, truly public icon. In her "Translated Vase" series, she shows the step-by-step process of turning the world of the self toward the world of the other in an elaborate and complicated way. The artist asked a ceramicist if she could pick up and use the discarded, broken ceramic fragments found around the kiln. What are those fragments? At one point dirt, they gained a viscosity upon contact with water and when meeting the hand of the potter and the spinning wheel, achieved a solid plate form, then when meeting the fire of the kiln hardened into a ceramic form and after deemed a reject, broken apart. At the beginning it was an other similar to the self of the potter. Ceramics are a form of art closer to the world of others, because unlike the fine arts, ceramics must be made while paying attention to function rather than just expression. And when the ceramic vessel is broken up into fragments, it can no longer rely on its function as a useful object and thus has become something completely other. Yee gathers such fragments and makes a new ceramic vessel. There is of course no reason that these fragments should fit together. There is an original shape that they retain from the original intentions of the ceramicist. And ceramics have a limit on what shape they can assume, as a result of the physical motions of the potter's wheel. Thus the fragments can't help but come with a certain symmetry and curvature. In order to make these reconstructed vases, thousands of fragments are needed and must be fitted together. What results are ceramic forms that do not retain the original symmetry and curvature of normal pieces, but are deformed and misshapen. But it is at this point that something strange occurs. A balance emerges from the attempt to piece together parts that don't fit. Perhaps it could be called the order of others, created from bringing together different pieces. It comes from the gilded glue used to join these fragments, from a noise that doesn't belong to the safe order of space of the original whole pieces. However, this noise is not unstable. This is because it is a noise that has passed through the third person. And it emerges from a new sense of beauty that Yee has created. This stable noise that emerges from letting the different shapes of the fragments come together rather than imposing a form upon them shows a different world from the opaque topos seen in her more personalized drawings. Looking at the process alone, one can say that a homogenous space without noise has been transformed into a topos with noise. However, the result is a work that is neither completely the state of otherness, nor that of the self. Rather than saying that there is a particular expression that links all of her works together, they are connected by the notion of negating the self. This kind of stance allows the works for the self and those for others to be equally observed. One can say that in the attempt to create works where the self is rejected, they are extremely religious. This tendency manifests itself in yet another way in her recent work, "Portable Temple." The portable temple is a personal temple for the artist. In this work, we see the backside of five Buddhas on a six-part folding screen. All religions teach us to throw away the self and become one with the other. Thus the space that religions aim for is a "space at one with the other." However, by arranging the self within the space behind Buddha, the space is filled with noise and transforms into a pre-meditated topos space. This work is similar to the later translated vases series, in its insistence on transformation and the way it changes the flow of the space. Religion, which always demands a transparent world of the other rather than the artist's opaque world of the self, would understandably make an artist nervous, for fear that their power of expression may fade. Many artists today have considered this problem of the encounter between religion and art. Yee Sookyung is a rare artist who creates works of the self and of the other at the same time. Most artists would try to indicate works for others as the official works and hide the works of the self. In a way, pop art, which lessens the power of the self, may be an art form which manifests one of the most religious tendencies. One can even say that the popularity shown for pop art shares a point of commonality with peoples' enthusiasm for religion. Confessional works of the self thus become hidden away. Yee makes both of these kinds of works and firmly shows both of them. Yee is different from the pop artists we are familiar with. Interpreting the many dimensions of the relationship between the world of the self and the world of the other in new ways, Yee offers the beginnings of a new possibility of resolving the conflict between religion and art. Perhaps this is the greatest gift that her works give to us. In Hwang Art Activist

Artist's Education: 1989 MFA in Painting, Seoul National University, Seoul 1987 BFA in Painting, Seoul National University, Seoul

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Translated Vase - Yee, Sookyung - Google Arts & Culture

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Details Title: Translated Vase Creator: Yee, Sookyung Date Created: 2007 Physical Dimensions: w45 x h43 x d49 cm Critic's Note: I for an I, other for the other: The Theory of Yee Sookyung "I am I, the other is other"--Nishida Kitaro From the beginning, a distance exists between the artist and the work of art.

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The barren, windy landscape is from Tjörn. Nordström was born there, but this was painted in Varberg, where the artist moved in May 1893. Here, Nordström, Nils Kreuger and Richard Bergh, developed a "synthetist" style of landscape painting, with billowing lines and a subdued palette. The critics said Nordström's art was morose and introverted: "In Storm Clouds the darkening landscape is ominous with its bleak and raving fury," Edvard Alkman wrote in Dagens Nyheter in 1894.

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From 1517 to 1518, at Le Clos Lucé in Amboise, Leonardo da Vinci soon designed and arranged magical shows and extraordinary spectacles, becoming a master in the art of special effects. As a result he became the grand organiser of royal festivities.

In 1517, in Argentan, a celebration was organised to mark the visit of Francis I to his sister, Marguerite of Angoulême. A letter written by Anastasio Turrioni to Federico Gonzaga, hostage at the French court in 1516 and 1517, gives a description of it: "In the street there was a ferocious lion. A hermit gave to his Majesty a rod, with which he struck the lion three times, which opened: inside all was turquoise, with in the middle a fleur-de-lys." Few of da Vinci's drawings allude to this prodigious automaton. However, as Giovan Paolo Lomazzo and Michelangelo Buonarroti suggest, this mechanical lion that walked towards the king and whose belly then split open, spilling out fleurs-de-lys, does appear to have come from the imagination of Leonardo da Vinci.

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Take this tour to discover examples of Egyptian art and architecture. From 2551 BCE to 196 BCE Egypt produced remarkable and beautiful structures and artefacts that are still admired today.

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This exhibition was created by students in Art History 1302 at the University of Houston-Downtown during the fall 2017 semester.

The students were mentored by their instructor, Rebecka Black, and by MFAH staff members including Chelsea Dacus, assistant curator of antiquities and of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; Chelsea Shannon, gallery interpretation specialist; and Dena Woodall, associate curator of prints and drawings. Special thanks go to Kelley Magill, university programs specialist at the MFA; and Mark Cervenka, associate professor of art and director of the O'Kane Gallery at the University of Houston-Downtown.

STUDENTS | ART HISTORY 1302
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https://blog.mam.org/2016/01/26/from-the-collection-albrecht-durer-part-2/

Simons, Carol. (1991). An Intimate Look at Japanese Style, Simple and Ornate. Smithsonian, 21(10), 74.

Smith, William. (1875). A Concise Dictionary of The Bible: Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography, and Natural History. Condensed from the Larger Work.
https://books.google.com/

Stone, A.J. and King, Heidi. (2013). Peruvian Featherworks: Art of the Pre-Columbian Era. Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. No. 9, p. 1612.

Strieder, Peter. (2017). Dürer, Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T024180pg1/

Tensions and Intrigue in Felix Vallotton. Fire Beneath the Ice. (2017). Van Gogh Museum.
www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/news-and-press/press-releases/tensions-and-intrigue-in-felix-vallotton-fire-beneath-the-ice/

The Large Horse, Dürer, Albrecht. (2017). Victoria and Albert Museum.
collections.vam.ac.uk/item/o728525/the-large-horse-print-durer-Albrecht/

The Virgin and Child with a Monkey. (2017). Cleveland Museum of Art.
www.clevelandart.org/art/1964.29/

Wall text for Akan Ceremonial Sword, African art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Wall text for Akan Linguist Staff, African art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Wall text for Coclé Pedestal, Pre-Columbian art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Wall text for Hopi Olla, Native American art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

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Artistic Genus: Depictions of Animals in the Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - Google Arts & Culture

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This exhibition was created by students in Art History 1302 at the University of Houston-Downtown during the fall 2017 semester. The students were mentored by their instructor, Rebecka Black, and by MFAH staff members including Chelsea Dacus, assistant curator of antiquities and of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; Chelsea Shannon, gallery interpretation specialist; and Dena Woodall, associate curator of prints and drawings.

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This painting was created with reference to Chinese Song dynasty academic bird and flower painting. From around 1920, as a result of the pursuit of an oil-painting-like feel through the use of Nihonga pigments, Gyoshû thought of positioning his flowers and still-life objects in a completely inorganic space. The peach blossoms, positioned in an almost diagonal line against a gold ground, are extremely closely observed. While small in scale, this work is quite finished in effect. The signature on the left edge of the painting is written in the calligraphy style used by the Song emperor Huizong.

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Peach Blossoms - Hayami Gyoshū - Google Arts & Culture

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This painting was created with reference to Chinese Song dynasty academic bird and flower painting. From around 1920, as a result of the pursuit of an oil-painting-like feel through the use of Nihonga pigments, Gyoshû thought of positioning his flowers and still-life objects in a completely inorganic space.

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Portinari was a magnet that represented the aesthetical, artistic, cultural, social, and political worries of his generation. Get to know the personalities of his time.

Portinari and friends at a dinner to celebrate Graciliano Ramos's 50th birthday, at the Lido Restaurant. Among them: Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Lúcia Miguel-Pereira, Gustavo Capanema, Manuel Bandeira, João Condé, José Lins do Rego, Vinícius de Moraes, Moacir Werneck de Castro, and Jorge Amado.

Executive Director: João Candido Portinari
Curatorship and Research: Maria Duarte
Texts: Projeto Portinari
Copyright Projeto Portinari

The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.

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Portinari's Time - Projeto Portinari - Google Arts & Culture

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Portinari was a magnet that represented the aesthetical, artistic, cultural, social, and political worries of his generation. Get to know the personalities of his time. Portinari and friends at a dinner to celebrate Graciliano Ramos's 50th birthday, at the Lido Restaurant.

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This coffin belonged to a man named Paankhenamun, whose name translates as "He lives for Amun." Paankhenamun was the doorkeeper of the temple of the god Amun, a position he inherited from his father. X-ray examination reveals that he was approximately 5'6" tall and died in middle age. Cartonnage cases were a popular form of coffin at the time that Paankhenamun was buried. After mummification, the wrapped body was inserted into the case through the back. The back was then laced up, a footboard was added, and the case was painted. Cartonnage coffins were normally placed inside one or more nested wooden coffins that were also decorated.

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Coffin and Mummy of Paankhenamun - Egyptian - Google Arts & Culture

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This coffin belonged to a man named Paankhenamun, whose name translates as "He lives for Amun." Paankhenamun was the doorkeeper of the temple of the god Amun, a position he inherited from his father. X-ray examination reveals that he was approximately 5'6" tall and died in middle age.

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War and Ethnicity - Istituto Storico della Resistenza in Toscana - Google Arts & Culture

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During World War II, a significant number of soldiers of Italian descent fought within the national armies of a few Allied nations. Many belonged to famili...

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© Underwater Earth / Christophe Bailhache
Thanks to our image partners: AXA XL, Google, UNESCO, Panedia, Fourth Element, NOAA Fisheries, The Nature Conservancy, U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, Project Manta, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Tiffany and Co. Foundation, Paul G Allen Family Foundation (as part of the 50 Reefs initiative), National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa, The University of Queensland, Exposure Labs/Chasing Coral, Parks and Wildlife Service/Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (Government of Western Australia), Mission Blue, UNSW Sydney, Sydney Institute of Marine Science, Ocean Lovers Festival, Florida International University, Aquarius Reef Base, Coral Restoration Foundation, Charles Darwin Foundation, Galapagos National Park

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Out of Sight, Out of Mind - Google Arts & Culture

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© Underwater Earth / Christophe BailhacheThanks to our image partners: AXA XL, Google, UNESCO, Panedia, Fourth Element, NOAA Fisheries, The Nature Conservancy, U.S Fish & Wildlife Service, Lady Elliot Island Eco Resort, Project Manta, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Tiffany and Co.

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Nose Flower - Lee, Joong Keun - Google Arts & Culture

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

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The mood and subject matter in Steen's paintings range enormously, from intimate moments when a family says grace before a meal to festive celebrations of Twelfth Night. But to all of his paintings we respond in a warm and compassionate way to the ordinary figures he represents.

The Dancing Couple is characteristic of many of Steen's paintings in that it shows people celebrating a festive occasion; here, judging from the tents in the background, the scene might be a village kermis, or fair and market celebrating a local saint's day. Two figures dance while musicians play, people eat, drink or smoke, couples flirt, and children play. Steen included himself in the activities; he is the grinning figure on the left touching the chin of the woman who drinks from a wine glass.

Despite the apparent frivolity of the scene, the painting has a more sobering message. Steen was a moralist who often used emblematic references in his paintings to express the transience of human life. The cut flowers and broken eggshells on the floor, and the young boy blowing bubbles on the right are symbolic. Steen seems to suggest that earthly pleasures are short-lived and we should contemplate more lasting values, symbolized here by the church tower in the background.

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The Dancing Couple - Jan Steen - Google Arts & Culture

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The mood and subject matter in Steen's paintings range enormously, from intimate moments when a family says grace before a meal to festive celebrations of Twelfth Night. But to all of his paintings we respond in a warm and compassionate way to the ordinary figures he represents.

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Composition in black and white. Straight lines and intersecting, lines and zigzag lines also shaded defined by intersecting. Coffee processing It depicts, seeing three men and one woman working, another woman with child in her arms, a sheep and a horse. In the foreground to the left, front woman with the upper body leaning. She has her hair tied in a bun and secure hands a sieve. To your on the right, you see a bag of coffee and open to his on the left a mound of coffee beans. On the right man standing in profile to the left, with the upper body leaning holding a rake that is ahead, he suggests be pulling for himself a mound rest of dirty coffee beans. To the left of this figure, lamb lying profile to the left with your head up and stretched front legs. A little further back, to the left, disproportionately small woman, standing, front, carrying on his on the left arm and holding a child with the on the right, a backpack rests on your head. In the background, on the left, standing man in front, carrying the massive head bag of coffee, and also horse standing and facing. To the right of center, Profile man on the right with the upper body leaning down; he has his arms stretched forward is packing a bag of coffee on a pile already tidy. Next the bags are seen on the ground, a gourd and acreage in perspective for background with scarecrow stuck in the middle. The bottom on the left shows an open field with hill on the horizon.

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Composition in black and white. Straight lines and intersecting, lines and zigzag lines also shaded defined by intersecting. Coffee processing It depicts, seeing three men and one woman working, another woman with child in her arms, a sheep and a horse. In the foreground to the left, front woman with the upper body leaning.

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Albert Bierstadt was a skilled showman. Here, he reorganized Rocky Mountain landmarks, exaggerated their scale, and introduced dramatic weather to thrill audiences at a moment when the North American continent was under rapid development. Bierstadt's display for profit of theatrically lit large canvases like this one was a forerunner of today's movies.

In 1863 Bierstadt made on-site studies for the work, which he completed in his New York studio. The painting had a personal significance, for "Mt. Rosalie" (now Mount Evans) was named by the artist in honor of his traveling companion's wife, Rosalie Osborne Ludlow, whom Bierstadt would marry in 1866 following her divorce.

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A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie - Albert Bierstadt - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Albert Bierstadt was a skilled showman. Here, he reorganized Rocky Mountain landmarks, exaggerated their scale, and introduced dramatic weather to thrill audiences at a moment when the North American continent was under rapid development. Bierstadt's display for profit of theatrically lit large canvases like this one was a forerunner of today's movies.

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This familiar image was exhibited publicly for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago, winning a three-hundred-dollar prize and instant fame for Grant Wood. The impetus for the painting came while Wood was visiting the small town of Eldon in his native Iowa. There he spotted a little wood farmhouse, with a single oversized window, made in a style called Carpenter Gothic. "I imagined American Gothic people with their faces stretched out long to go with this American Gothic house," he said. He used his sister and his dentist as models for a farmer and his daughter, dressing them as if they were "tintypes from my old family album." The highly detailed, polished style and the rigid frontality of the two figures were inspired by Flemish Renaissance art, which Wood studied during his travels to Europe between 1920 and 1926. After returning to settle in Iowa, he became increasingly appreciative of midwestern traditions and culture, which he celebrated in works such as this. American Gothic, often understood as a satirical comment on the midwestern character, quickly became one of America's most famous paintings and is now firmly entrenched in the nation's popular culture. Yet Wood intended it to be a positive statement about rural American values, an image of reassurance at a time of great dislocation and disillusionment. The man and woman, in their solid and well-crafted world, with all their strengths and weaknesses, represent survivors.

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American Gothic - Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942) - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This familiar image was exhibited publicly for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago, winning a three-hundred-dollar prize and instant fame for Grant Wood. The impetus for the painting came while Wood was visiting the small town of Eldon in his native Iowa.

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The sacred bull Nandi, vehicle of Shiva - Chola dynasty (9th-13th centuries), India - Google Arts & Culture

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Recently installed at the entrance to the Indian gallery, a newly acquired sculpture of Nandi, the sacred bull, is already proving very popular with audien...

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As described by the Roman historian Livy (1st century BC), the youthful Massiva was the nephew of a prince of Numidia in present-day Algeria who had supported Scipio Africanus (a Roman general so known because of his conquests in North Africa) and the Romans in battle. The young Massiva was captured by the Romans in 209 BC and brought before Scipio. When Scipio learned the youth's identity, he sent him back to his uncle laden with gifts. Tiepolo, the greatest Italian history painter of the 18th century, combines dramatic gestures, grand scale, and classical architecture to tell his story of generosity and statesmanship. Details such as the banner with the initials of the Roman state situate the story in Roman history. Under the artistic conventions of the time, North Africans of high status, including Numidians, were generally depicted with European features. The black youth chatting with the soldiers on the left is probably Scipio's servant. For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 449, pp. 559-560.

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Scipio Africanus Freeing Massiva - Giovanni Battista Tiepolo - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As described by the Roman historian Livy (1st century BC), the youthful Massiva was the nephew of a prince of Numidia in present-day Algeria who had supported Scipio Africanus (a Roman general so known because of his conquests in North Africa) and the Romans in battle.

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Composition in black and white. Straight lines and intersecting, lines and zigzag lines also shaded defined by intersecting. Coffee processing It depicts, seeing three men and one woman working, another woman with child in her arms, a sheep and a horse. In the foreground to the left, front woman with the upper body leaning. She has her hair tied in a bun and secure hands a sieve. To your on the right, you see a bag of coffee and open to his on the left a mound of coffee beans. On the right man standing in profile to the left, with the upper body leaning holding a rake that is ahead, he suggests be pulling for himself a mound rest of dirty coffee beans. To the left of this figure, lamb lying profile to the left with your head up and stretched front legs. A little further back, to the left, disproportionately small woman, standing, front, carrying on his on the left arm and holding a child with the on the right, a backpack rests on your head. In the background, on the left, standing man in front, carrying the massive head bag of coffee, and also horse standing and facing. To the right of center, Profile man on the right with the upper body leaning down; he has his arms stretched forward is packing a bag of coffee on a pile already tidy. Next the bags are seen on the ground, a gourd and acreage in perspective for background with scarecrow stuck in the middle. The bottom on the left shows an open field with hill on the horizon.

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Country Scene - Candido Portinari - Google Arts & Culture

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A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. A mountain differs from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is larger than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges.
Mountains are formed through tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanism, which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years. Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering, through slumping and other forms of mass wasting, as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers.
High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level at similar latitude. These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains: different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction, such as mining and logging, along with recreation, such as mountain climbing and skiing.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. A mountain differs from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is larger than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres above the surrounding land.

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The National Gallery of Australia's recent acquisition Violet and gold 1911 is a brilliant light-filled work. We can see here how the artist focussed on light and colour rather than subject. In 2001, Ron Radford, then director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, wrote about this work as being 'one of McCubbin's most beautiful Macedon paintings', remarking that 'there is no narrative, only poetry'.1

Does this surprise you? Do you think of Frederick McCubbin as one of the great Australian Impressionists, alongside Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder? Do you consider him to be an artist who had his heyday in the 1890s, painting images of the bush extolling the life of pioneers and the sadness of lost children? Do you regard him as playing a major role in the development of the Australian landscape, painting works that are part of the fabric of Australian culture? All of this is certainly true.

But do you also believe that his best days were over by the 20th century, and that he carried on as the 'good old Proff', philosophising and teaching others? If so, you need to think again. Of course McCubbin was one of the great Australian Impressionists. However, as Australia became a federation and began to move into modern times, McCubbin just got better and better. While Roberts, Streeton and Conder did their best works in the 1880s and 1890s, McCubbin came into his own in the 20th century, particularly after his first and only trip to Europe, in 1907, when he spent five months abroad. During this visit he was inspired by the works of JMW Turner and Claude Monet, especially the late paintings of Turner, which were being shown for the first time at the Tate Gallery in London.2 McCubbin observed, 'as Monet says, "Light is the chief sitter everywhere".'3Violet and gold amply demonstrates this.

In this work, McCubbin created an image of cattle drinking at a pool surrounded by tall trees; but, more than that, he depicted a beam of light reaching through the trees and onto the cattle. Light glows through the trees. As Radford has observed: 'Rays of dappled light flickering through the dark trees animate the surface of the painting with flecks of colour'.4 Indeed, the way he captured the light radiating through the trees and across the ground is miraculous.

Violet and gold is an example of how, during the early years of the 20th century, McCubbin changed his approach and began to paint pure images, focussing on nature, on light, the time of day and the season. He painted flickering light, hazed light, dazzling light-light in all its manifestations. As McCubbin wrote of Turner, he 'realized the quality of light ... no theatrical effect but mist and cloud and sea and land drenched in light ... They glow with a tender brilliancy'.5

McCubbin also began to depict modern life and modern times: wharfs, factories and city streets. He started to portray his subjects using pure colour applied with a palette knife-he used paint in a most advanced and abstracted fashion, creating painterly surfaces. If you stand closely to Violet and gold (or look at the detail opposite), you will see what I mean. You will find portions of the picture in which McCubbin has almost splattered his paint over the coarse canvas. He animated the surface of the painting with flecks of colour. His free handling of paint and his layering of pure colours are remarkable.

McCubbin gave Violet and gold an abstract, poetic title-possibly a result of having looked at and admired James McNeill Whistler's work in London in 1907. Coming of Spring, Afterglow (both National Gallery of Australia), Winter's morning and Autumn morning (both National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne), emphasising the time of year or time of day, this is one of only a few works to which he gave a colour title.

Violet and gold was painted about one kilometre from McCubbin's country retreat, Fontainebleau, at Mount Macedon, on the nearby property of Ard Chielle. McCubbin found this area inspirational and painted many images there that capture his interest in atmospheric effects. They derive from his deep knowledge and love of the place and his lived experience. Violet and gold is one of the most painterly and evocative of these works-full of pastoral charm and end-of-day ease.

The area below Mount Macedon where McCubbin painted Violet and gold was low-lying and swampy and full of tall gum trees. McCubbin was fascinated by the Australian eucalypt, and suggested that other Australian artists did not appreciate its qualities. He wrote:

The subtle way in which it responds to varying effects of light and shadow was lost on them ... the varieties in shades and colours, the Gum tree presented, from the violet grey tints of the stringy bark to the transparent sheen of the White Gum, upon which colours distort and change in a hundred subtle ways as they would upon a mirror. Yet our trees and our faded flora are such component parts of our Australian landscape.7

Some of McCubbin's late works are among Australia's finest Federation landscapes. 'They glow with a tender brilliancy' (as McCubbin described the work of Turner).8 The shimmering, dazzling light in Violet and gold shows how much McCubbin learnt from Turner. It has a rich painterly surface - which reflects the subtle harmonies of the Australian bush. And, as Turner often did, McCubbin makes the small shining orb of the sun the central, dominating force of the composition.

Among McCubbin's late works are two other Macedon paintings in the Gallery's collection, Hauling rails for a fence, Mount Macedon 1910, which McCubbin painted one year before Violet and gold, and Afterglow 1912, painted one year afterwards. In comparing these works we can see that Violet and gold is the more daring and adventurous work. Whereas Violet and gold is a long, narrow canvas, the other two works are more rectangular. And where in Violet and gold McCubbin focused on a thicket of trees, emphasising the denseness of the bush and hardly showing any sky, in both Hauling rails for a fence and Afterglow he adopted a more traditional composition, placing a clump of trees on one side and open sky on the other. In Violet and gold McCubbin used the reflections in the pool to add to the internality of the work-with the reflections an illusionist echo of the trees. In all three paintings he created dynamic compositions by contrasting the strong verticals of the tree trunks with diagonal-in Hauling rails for a fence and Afterglow, the diagonals are essentially those of the hillside, but in Violet and gold he used a more complex composition with the diagonal fall of the shaft of light coming down across the picture towards the right, contrasted with the dark shape of a jagged branch rising diagonally from the left.

The three paintings also show McCubbin's interest in different times of day: Violet and gold capturing a low sun shining through an early morning mist, Hauling rails for a fence portraying the middle of the day and Afterglow depicting the rosy afterglow of the setting sun. McCubbin did not just vary his compositions in painting these three subjects, but also his range of colours and his brush (or palette knife) strokes - each used to create a different atmospheric effect. McCubbin played with the use of figures in each of the paintings, from the workers in Hauling rails for a fence to the animals in Violet and gold and to the classical nudes of Afterglow. However, the figures are not there to create a story so much as to give a sense of space to the composition. Although Violet and gold becomes flatter if we were to take out the cattle, it also becomes more obviously an adventurous paint-laden picture surface, showing nature experienced from within.

The generous support of Ashley Dawson-Damer and John Wylie and Myriam Wylie has made possible this major purchase of Violet and gold for the Gallery's 25th anniversary year. They have helped us represent more strongly one of Australia's most important artists at the turn of the century and, in doing so, have provided a great service to the Australian public.

Anne Gray

Head of Australian Art

The National Gallery of Australia will be holding an exhibition from 2 August to 27 November 2009 of Frederick McCubbin's later paintings. Anne Gray would welcome being contacted by owners of works by McCubbin painted after 1907.

1. Ron Radford, Our country: Australian Federation landscapes 1900-1914, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2001, p 84.

2. McCubbin did know of Turner's work before visiting Europe. Indeed, he wrote to Tom Roberts on 8 January 1906, commenting that 'I am painting a Turnerian gem ...'; in Andrew McKenzie, Frederick McCubbin 1855-1917: 'The Proff' and his art, Mannagum Press, Lilydale, 1990, p 243.

3. Frederick McCubbin, in James MacDonald, The art of Frederick McCubbin, Boolarong Publications, Brisbane, 1986, p 84.

4. Radford, p 84.

5. Frederick McCubbin, letter to Annie McCubbin, 19 July 1907, in McKenzie, p 259.

6. Whistler was a leading proponent of the credo 'art for art's sake'. He famously titled many of his works 'harmonies' and 'arrangements', such as Arrangement in grey and black: the artist's mother ( Musée du Louvre, Paris).

7. McCubbin, in MacDonald, p 84.

8. McCubbin, in McKenzie, p 259. Text © National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 2010

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Violet and gold - Frederick McCUBBIN - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The National Gallery of Australia's recent acquisition Violet and gold 1911 is a brilliant light-filled work. We can see here how the artist focussed on light and colour rather than subject. In 2001, Ron Radford, then director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, wrote about this work as being 'one of McCubbin's most beautiful Macedon paintings', remarking that 'there is no narrative, only poetry'.1 Does this surprise you?

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Galloping Horse - Edvard Munch - Google Arts & Culture

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Google Arts & Culture features content from over 2000 leading museums and archives who have partnered with the Google Cultural Institute to bring the world's treasures online.

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Composition in black and white. Contour lines and loose. Boy sitting on the floor with sheep. The boy is at the center of the stand, are sitting with the body from the front, head turned to the sheep standing on the right leg stretched on the left forward and on the right bent with the foot planted on the ground. Safe with the on the right hand the animal's neck and on the left the back. The boy wears a hat with flaps up, collared shirt and short pants and long sleeve. Sheep is facing, standing on the left, with the head turned to the boy. To the boy's on the right, part of a pita planted in the earthy. A faint outline of a foot, the lower on the left edge of the support. Background with hint of small hills.

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Boy with Sheep - Candido Portinari - Google Arts & Culture

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Composition in black and white. Contour lines and loose. Boy sitting on the floor with sheep. The boy is at the center of the stand, are sitting with the body from the front, head turned to the sheep standing on the right leg stretched on the left forward and on the right bent with the foot planted on the ground.

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Hypatia - Julia Margaret Cameron - Google Arts & Culture

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This serene study illustrates a key scene in the story of Christ’s resurrection: “For the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled ba...

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This over-the-top ensemble dates to the "Peacock Revolution" of the late 1960s and early 1970s, an era when many men wore bold colors and extreme silhouettes as protest against conservative post- World War II styles (think of actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) in the 1956 classic, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit). Contemporaries would have deemed this outfit "Funky!" and "Outta Sight!"-exclamations overheard in fashionable London's Carnaby Street, New York's Harlem, and Paris's Left Bank.

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The Canada Agriculture and Food Museum is a working farm in Ottawa. Located on the Central Experimental Farm, the Museum offers an opportunity to explore t...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This over-the-top ensemble dates to the "Peacock Revolution" of the late 1960s and early 1970s, an era when many men wore bold colors and extreme silhouettes as protest against conservative post- World War II styles (think of actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) in the 1956 classic, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit). Contemporaries would have deemed this outfit "Funky!" and "Outta Sight!"-exclamations overheard in fashionable London's Carnaby Street, New York's Harlem, and Paris's Left Bank.

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Man's Maxi-Coat Ensemble - Alexandre - Google Arts & Culture

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This over-the-top ensemble dates to the "Peacock Revolution" of the late 1960s and early 1970s, an era when many men wore bold colors and extreme silhouettes as protest against conservative post- World War II styles (think of actor Gregory Peck (1916-2003) in the 1956 classic, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit).

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Composition in earthy, ochre, rose, gray, black, red, green, blue and yellow tones. Smooth texture. Transparency effects; tones and halftones obtained using broad strokes, which interpenetrate and overlap. Light falling from the left, stronger on top left half of the composition and more diffuse on the right half. It depicts a peasant dance, especially two couples dancing to an black accordionist, a man sitting at the table and other figures dancing in the background. In the foreground, on the left, couple dancing, profile: her on the left and him on the right, both with his face forward. The man's arms involve the woman's waist and she holds his arms almost at the shoulder. She wears long dress with a waist sash and a headscarf, with tip falling on the right shoulder. He has mustache, wears wide-brimmed hat, jacket lighter than pants and neckerchief. In the center of the composition, another couple dancing: her front is 3/4 toward to the right and he is facing back and 3/4 to the left. The woman is blonde, has slicked-back hair and wears a long dress with waist sash. The man has wide-brimmed hat, wears jacket lighter than the pants and scarf on the left breast pocket with the tip hanging out. Still in the foreground is a woman figure cut by the left edge of the support, turned back, 3/4 to the left, with green headscarf and long dress. In the background, in the center to the right half of the composition, on a dais, a man sitting in chair with feet, 3/4 facing left, playing accordion. This figure has hair, mustache and white beard, wears vest, long-sleeved shirt and dark pants. On the right edge of the support, another man sitting in a chair, left leg crossed over the right and toe raised to the left, with a table to his right. He is smoking a pipe, has a beard and mustache, wears a hat and scarf around his neck, pants and jacket. Behind to the right of the accordion player, a black figure standing, with the torso down, covered by accordionist, facing 3/4 to the left, looking forward and wearing a wide-brimmed hat. The dais, an apparent step, defines the space of the accordion, the black man and the man with the pipe. In the third plane, crowd effect obtained through the representation of a couple and a woman with braids, slightly set amid several strokes that suggest figures from other dancing couples. At the upper right corner, the darker area suggests a door. Plain background.

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Country Dance - Candido Portinari - Google Arts & Culture

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Composition in earthy, ochre, rose, gray, black, red, green, blue and yellow tones. Smooth texture. Transparency effects; tones and halftones obtained using broad strokes, which interpenetrate and overlap. Light falling from the left, stronger on top left half of the composition and more diffuse on the right half.