Sunday, October 26, 2014

Angel Musicians

Angel Musicians
Pisa
c. 1350

 Madonna & Child
Antoniazzo Romano
c. 1480

By accident I came across a group of artifacts from one among the large number of American tycoon-museums created during the glory days of this nation's international dominance. From about 1890 to about 1990 American collectors had far more money than anybody else. Old Master works of art from Europe could be and were hoovered up by the shipload and transported to the New World, there to be displayed in purpose-built museums with the tycoons' names over the doors.

Saint Cecilia
Guido Reni
1606

Liberation of Saint Peter
Hendrick van Steenwyck
1618

Flower Bouquet
Jan Brueghel the Elder
c. 1620

Saint Ignatius of Loyola
Peter Paul Rubens
c. 1620

Anne of Austria
Peter Paul Rubens
c. 1622

Louis XIII
Peter Paul Rubens
c. 1622

David & Goliath
Peter Paul Rubens
c. 1630

Portrait of a Young Man
Jan Lievens
c. 1640

What I picked for posting here was determined, as usual, by the irresponsible promptings of personal taste, and not by any wish for balance or a fairly distributed representation. That explains why fully half my choices are from the 17th century (the place where I intend to move permanently after I retire from my job at the library). Work from other centuries is equally worthwhile, no doubt, but less resonant.  

Interior of Saint Peter's, Rome
Giovanni Paolo Pannini
1735

Triumph of Virtue & Nobility over Ignorance
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
c. 1740

Mouth of the Seine at Honfleur
Claude Monet
1865

Bouquet of Lilacs
Pierre August Renoir
1875

Mulberry Tree
Vincent van Gogh
1889

Tahitians
Paul Gauguin
1899