"Detail from Giovanni Bellini's Madonna di Brera" (oil on stretched linen; 10" x 8")

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The painting is the copy of a detail from "Madonna di Brera" (1510) by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini. The original hangs in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, Italy. My painting shows the Virgina Mary. By the way, Belinni was the Week 4 lesson for "Let's Face It 2018".

When he painted it, Bellini was around eighty and one of the most prestigious figures of the Venetian Renaissance, a sort of charismatic patriarch who, at the end of his career, showed that he was able to take in and guide a new direction in style.

Giovanni Bellini, "Madonna di Brera"

The space of the picture is dominated by the monumental figure of the Virgin seated on a throne, wrapped in loose drapery that dilates the volume of her body in line with 15th-century schemes for construction of the image. But the harshness and incisiveness of line has vanished, and the entire composition is now built up out of color alone. Behind the Madonna stretches a landscape that is perhaps the true protagonist of the painting, pervaded by a warm luminosity that makes it look more like a magical evocation than a realistic description.

With this painting, Bellini perfected the pictorial representation of that special atmosphere and natural light which were to characterize the whole of Venetian production in the 16th century, achieving this stylistic effect through a precise change in the technique of execution: in fact examination under infrared light, carried out during the restoration of 1987, revealed the almost total absence of preparatory drawing, reduced to a summary sketch without hatching or shading on which the image was constructed solely by the spreading of paint.

I was charmed by the serious expression of the young Virgin Mary. Bellini painted many other Madonnas, but it was this Madonna that stole my heart.
 

"Detail from Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks" (oil on stretched linen; 10" x 8")

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The painting is the copy of a detail from "The Virgin of the Rocks" (before 1508) by the Italian Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci. The original hangs in the National Gallery in London. My painting shows the Archangel Uriel.

Leonardo da Vinci, "The Virgin of the Rocks" (London version)

The Virgin of the Rocks (sometimes the Madonna of the Rocks) is the name used for two paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, of the same subject, and of a composition which is identical except for several significant details. The version generally considered the prime version, that is the earlier of the two, hangs in The Louvre in Paris and the other in the National Gallery, London. The paintings are both nearly 2 metres (over 6 feet) high and are painted in oils.

Both paintings show the Madonna and Child Jesus with the infant John the Baptist and the Archangel Uriel, in a rocky setting which gives the paintings their usual name. The significant compositional differences are in the gaze and right hand of the angel.

I chose the London version for my week 3 exercise of the Let's Face It workshop", because I like its angel better and, more importantly, I have seen the huge painting in person. Several years ago, I sat in front of it for a long time, mesmerized and utterly enchanted. Here I am, copying Leonardo da Vinci's beautiful angel!

Copy of Detail from Sir Peter Paul Rubens's "The Straw Hat" (oil on linen; 12" x 9")

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The painting is the copy of a detail from "Portrait of Susanna Lunden or The Straw Hat" by the Baroque master Sir Peter Paul Rubens. It is now in the National Gallery, London. It was done as a homework for Danni Dawson's portrait painting class at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA. The assignment was glazing: start the painting with a grisaille in burnt umber, cobalt blue, and white; let the grisaille dry, then build up the colors with layers of thin paints slowly over the period of several weeks.

The title "Le Chapeau de Paille" (meaning The Straw Hat) was first used in the 18th century. In fact, the hat is not straw; "paille" may be an error for "poil", which is the French word for felt. The hat, which shades the beautiful face of the sitter, is the most prominent feature of the painting. Her fabulous, asymmetrical dress and cleavage are not shabby either!

The portrait's subject is Susanna Lunden (née Fourment), elder sister of Rubens' future second wife Helena Fourment. The portrait probably dates to the time of Susanna's second marriage in 1622, to Arnold Lunden.

"Detail from Velazquez's 'Juan de Pareja'" (oil on linen; 12" x 9")

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In 1648, as court painter to Philip IV of Spain, Diego Velázquez was sent to Rome to purchase works of art. Velázquez brought with him Juan de Pareja, a slave, who served as an assistant in the artist's workshop. During his stay in Rome, Velázquez executed an oil portrait of Juan de Pareja.

Velázquez painted the portrait of Juan de Pareja, who was of Moorish descent, in his workshop, as an exercise in preparation for his official portrait of Pope Innocent X. The Pope, a ruddy-faced man who would be depicted in the bright pink and crimson robes of his office, presented a tricky study in both color and composition. Additionally, since he would be executing a portrait from life, Velázquez would be forced to work quickly while still capturing the essence of the pope's character.

The "Juan de Pareja" reflects Velázquez's exploration of the difficulties he would encounter in the Pope's portrait. To compensate for a restricted palette of colors, Velázquez adopted a loose, almost impressionistic style of brushwork to bring an intense vitality to his subject. Juan de Pareja (circa 1610 – 1670) became an artist in his own right, and in 1654 he was freed by Velázquez.

The Portrait of Juan de Pareja was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum in 1971. At the time, the purchase price of over $5.5 million set a new record for paintings at auction. (The above information is from Wikipedia.) The hefty price tag tends to blind the viewer's eyes from truly seeing the portrait. During the three-week-long study of its detail of head and shoulders, I was mesmerized by Velazquez's brushstrokes and his penetration of the subject's intelligence.

"Detail from Titian's Ranuccio Farnese" (oil on gessoboard; 10" x 8")

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The painting is the copy of a detail from "Ranuccio Farnese" (1542) by the Italian Renaissance master Titian from Venice. The original hangs in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.  It has always been one of my favorite Old Masters' paintings, so when Danni Dawson gave us a grisaille/glazing assignment, I decided to make a copy of a detail from it.

This portrait of twelve-year-old Ranuccio was painted in Venice just after he had been made prior of San Giovanni dei Forlani, an important property belonging to the Knights of Malta. The grandson of Pope Paul III, Ranuccio was the youngest member of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Italy.

Ranuccio became cardinal of Santa Lucia in Sicily at the age of fifteen, and he was granted several bishoprics before his untimely death at the age of thirty-five. In this perceptive portrait, Titian brilliantly captures the image of a sensitive pubescent boy about to embark upon a very public life.

"After Vermeer's 'Milkmaid'" (oil on gessoboard; 10" x 8") sold

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You may recognize that the above painting is detail of the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer's "Milkmaid" (circa 1658).  The original hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which regards it as "one of the museum's finest attractions"

My copy is a class assignment by Danni Dawson, painted over the period of several weeks.  We were learning the grisaille method of monochrome underpainting, which was used extensively by most Old Masters in the past.  We did the underpainting with burnt sienna and ivory black paint; a thick layer of white paint went over the underpainting; then, finally, thin layers of glazes of other colors were laid on to bring out the glow.

If you mess up the underpainting, no matter what fancy glazing work you do, there isn't much you can do to rescue the mess.  But over the beautifully-done underpainting, all you need is a small amount of pigments to finish off the painting.  That is how the Old Masters maximized the effect of expensive pigments.  I must say it is a tedious way of painting, but there is no denying the exquisite glow the glazed paintings have.