Art history ftw!

Henouttaouy. Art history student in Paris. (Excuse my poor English, and feel free to correct.)

[medievalpoc]

aseantoo submitted to medievalpoc:

Sir Joshua Reynolds Portrait of Huang Ya Dong UK (1776)  Knole. 

The blog Treasure Hunt (representing the National Trust Collections of the UK) says of the subject:

The Knole guidebook mentions that he worked as a page in the household of John Frederick Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset (1745-1799) and that he attended Sevenoaks School.The boy had been brought to England from Guangzhou (Canton) by the Duke’s old schoolfriend John Bradby Blake (1745-1773), who worked for the East India Company.

However, when I did an online search for Blake I found out that he was a keen naturalist and that he had brought the boy, called Huang Ya Dong, to England because of his knowledge of the propagation and use of Chinese plants. 

Huang became a minor celebrity, advising Mrs Delaney and the Duchess of Portland on Chinese plants, Josiah Wedgewood on porcelain manufacture and the physician Andrew Duncan on acupuncture…

It is not known what happened to Huang subsequently – he may simply have lived out his days as a servant at Knole (where he was known by the other servants as Warnoton). Perhaps he followed the 3rd Duke to Paris when he was appointed ambassador to the court of Louis XVI. 

[arthistoryftw-blog]

Giuseppe Castiglione

View of the Grand Salon Carré in the Louvre

1861

Musée du Louvre, Paris

The game is to recognize every painting displayed here.

[glitter-and-guns-blog-blog]

[arthistoryftw-blog]

The Architecture

1851

Salon Carré, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

During the 18th century, the Louvre's Salon Carré  is where the first art exhibitions took place in France (called Salons, after the Salon Carré) supervised by the Academy of Painting and Sculpture.

Even now every great exhibition or fair, artistic or not, is called Salon in France.

[arthistoryftw-blog]

Paolo Uccello

Saint George slaying the dragon

c. 1450-1455

National Gallery, London

[frenchhistory]

Portrait d’une négresse, Marie Guillemine Benoist, 1800

@credits

The portrait probably represents a person who really existed, though we have no information about her. The artist didn’t give her name, but the model is wearing the headscarf of the maids in the Antilles.

This Black woman is depicted in an unsual way for her condition of domestic, if not slave. The gaze directly facing the viewers, sat on a chair, wrapped in a rich fabric, she occupies the White woman’s place.  Her position is similar to many high society lady’s painted by David, such as Madame Récamier’s that David painted the same year. 

The painting emphasizes her skin colour, by the contrast with the white sheet and the clear background. But the artist makes her beautiful, while such a subject would have seen as ugly at the end of 18th century. 

The painting is indeed audacious, by the way it depicts a Black person and the role assigned to women in art. It also shows that Marie Guillemine Benoist, who lived through the Revolution, was aware of the importance of sex, race, and social class questions when France was entering modernity. 

There is a more developped analysis of the painting, focused on the depiction of race and gender in the painting.  You can find it here

[arthistoryftw-blog]

It is thought that this woman is a maid from the Caribbean, working for Marie-Guillemine Benoist's brother-in-law. The blue scarf, the white dress and the red ribbon are a reminder of the french flag, and also remind that, after the french Revolution, french nationality was given to every free Black (april 1792), and esclavagism was abolished (1793-1794).

[odditiesoflife]

Unusual Museum of Taxidermy and Hunting

Every seeker of the unusual loves a good taxidermy museum and there are plenty of places in Paris that you can admire such zoological displays, however none of them host as theatrical and astonishing a display as the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature (Museum of Hunting and Nature) in Paris. Installed in two 18th century private mansions.  The museum advocates for respectful hunting practices, wildlife preservation and ecological consciousness.

Arranged as a Wunderkammer, each room of the labyrinth houses are dedicated to a specific animal. Deer, wild pig, rabbit, birds of prey, they all have their own place. The genuine aspect of the museums work however is that each creatures appears where you least expect them, surprising you by their lifelike presence in a setting mixing baroque furniture, paintings, and cabinets of curiosities you’re encouraged to open and play with. 

[arthistoryftw-blog]

This is one of my favorite museums in Paris. It is beautiful, quiet and strange, I recommend the visit to everyone who comes through Paris.

[frenchhistory]

Esclave d’amour et Lumière des yeux : Abd-el-Gheram et Nouriel-Aïn (légende arabe)

Auteur :

Dinet Etienne (1861-1929)

@credits

Nasreddine Dinet (born as Alphonse-Étienne Dinet on March 28, 1861 – December 24, 1929, Paris) was a French orientalist painter. 

Dinet’s understanding of Arab culture and language set him apart from other orientalist artists.  Before 1900, most of his works could be characterized as “anecdotal genre scenes”. As he became more interested in Islam, he began to paint religious subjects more often. He was active in translating Arabic literature into French, publishing a translation of a 13th-century Arab epic poem by Antarah ibn Shaddad in 1898

[ancientpeoples]

Funeray Cloth of Isetneferet

From Egypt New Kingdom, 1300-1070 BC

This type of painted linen panel was placed on the chest of the coffin. It was another means of ensuring the eternal provision of offerings, which were also depicted on the walls of the tomb. Water, as a substance with no colour, taste or smell, was used in Egyptian rituals for purification.

Isetnefret is shown seated before an offering table loaded with loaves of bread. Her lion-footed chair is similar to examples found in wealthy tombs, but has much longer legs. She holds a lotus flower to her nose; the flower’s stylized curved stalk is typical of representations dating to the New Kingdom. The lotus flower is symbolic of rebirth.

Both Isetnefret and her daughter Tii are dressed in fashionable voluminous robes, with the fringed edge running down the front of the garment. They also wear wide collars and heavy wigs. Tii wears hoop earrings. Pierced ears were fashionable for men and women from the New Kingdom. The small boy, Penpare, like all children in Egyptian art, is shown naked, but does not have the usual sidelock of youth.

(Source: The British Museum)

[arthistoryftw-blog]

Paolo Uccello

Saint George and the Dragon

c. 1458-1460

Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris

[thatlittleegyptologist]

I think it’s fair to say that, despite being told, I still don’t know what it does.

I tried to learn but every time I got it wrong I got yelled at so I stopped trying. Also it’s really not clear “when” it’s that form. Unless everyone is seeing a marker that I can’t. I suck at grammar.

[arthistoryftw-blog]

This. Sums up my life.

[ancientpeoples]

Cylinder seals from the Old Babylonian period, third millennium BC. Images courtesy of the British Museum, London.

1. A royal figure faces a deity who has one hand raised, with between them a lion-scimitar and a bow-legged dwarf behind them. Old Babylonian period. Hematite, fair condition.

2. A kilted figure with one hand raised and a royal figure the god, clad in a striped skirt and with his arm extended. Old Babylonian period. Hematite, worn.

3. A god in a ladder-patterned robe faces a figure in a cap and striped kilt who raises one hand. Old Babylonian period. Serpentine, very worn.

4. A hero wrestling with a bull-man; a royal figure; and a nude goddess. Old Babylonian period. Goethite, fair condition.

The first known cylinder seals have been found in Susa in south-western Iran and at Uruk, south Mesopotamia, and date to around 3500 BC. These cylinders, carved in semi-precious stones such as hematite or serpentine, limestone, glass or faience, carry a pictorial story in negative relief. In later periods, versions with Mesopotamian hieroglyphs appeared. The seals were rolled onto wet clay, leaving behind an impression of the carvings in high relief. The picture stories often have a religious nature, are commemorative of a certain event or deploy a particular theme.

Cylinder seals were used for a variety of purposes, and were sometimes even worn as amulets and given to the deceased as a funerary gift. The most widespread use is of the seal as a administrative tool. For instance, storage jars of grain or a bale of goods intended for transport would be sealed off with a strip of clay onto which a seal was rolled to prevent theft. Envelopes were closed using a seal, or they would roll a cylinder on an unhardened brick for decoration. 

[arthistoryftw-blog]

I like cylinder seals. Cylinder seals are cool.

[arthistoryftw-blog]

Ivan Bilibin

Ivan Tsarevitch catching the Firebird

1899

[baroqueart]

State Portrait of Louis XV by Hyacinthe Rigaud Date: 1715

[sadighgallery]

Ancient Persian. Coral beads in the shape of a grape cluster, in a modern gold earrings setting. 200 AD (1 ½”)

[muirgilsdream]

Cylinder seal, bull.

[arthistoryftw-blog]

Cylinder seals are cool.

[sadighgallery]

Ancient Persian Cylinder Seal. Royal Lapis Lazuli cylinder seal with three scenes: eight soldiers holding staffs, a standing God on a throne holding a bow, and walking animals beneath. Holes for wearability. Very large and extremely rare. 500 BC ( 2 1/2” )

[myhistoryblog]

Sadigh Gallery’s Ancient Persian Agate Cylinder Seal by SadighGallery on Flickr.

Via Flickr: Banded brown agate cylinder seal with traces of white. On it is a seated ruler, a figure holding a bow, two horned animals face to face, and a winged bird above. Hole for wearability. 500 BC (1 ¾”)