What's going on here?

[CTyankee]

Six scenes of famous works of art
Identify and let's discuss!




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https://artincontext.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Line-in-the-Death-of-Marat-Analysis.avif
https://media.licdn.com/dms/image/C5612AQH8H3Lsq3x5mA/article-inline_image-shrink_1000_1488/0/1520230229180?e=1714608000&v=beta&t=rKBbdrGYdrjUI_XZjJCjMTXTQRfVGVqiok0G-XmUeVc

[2naSalit]

1. Interesting images but I only see 4.

First off, only artists' names come to mind at first, I guess that's my starting point for what the painting might be about.

The dancer, the second one looks like it might be Degas, the one after that might be Toulouse-Lautrec, but don't quote me on that. The common theme looks like the idea of partying and enjoying things, perhaps too much.

[CTyankee]

2. sorry my theme was not developed better...

the first is by Caravaggio. It's the conversion of St. Paul on the Way to Damascus.

I didn't quite think this one through but it is great art and nice to look at...

[2naSalit]

3. I didn't know the work...

But if it was going to fit in with the theme I was guessing at, he could have been drunk or something and landed on the ground. I don't know. I have actually had a a bit of exposure to fine art but it's been a while, I remember some of my favorites. I feel inadequate when it comes to identification games.

[dameatball]

4. Well, I used to live in Damascus, Virginia and I never saw anything like this.

Although the annual "Trail Days" could get a little interesting.

[Donkees]

5. Dramatic tenebrism in 1,2,4, (Caravaggio, Sargeant, David) ...

The Manet section you chose to highlight places focus on the reflections of the whole painting (the barmaid's face and man's face in two of the bottles). His signature and date is on one of the other bottles.

[CTyankee]

9. I would have said "chiarascuro" which slightly predated "tenebrism" but I see your point and agree.

[Donkees]

10. ''Caravaggio was so much of an innovator, he's come to be regarded as the founder of tenebrism.''

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-tenebrism-art-definition/

You may not think of austere Neoclassicism as connected to the bombastic Baroque. But scholars have called the Death of Marat David’s “most intense masterpiece of Caravaggism.”

As a student, David was likely very inspired by Caravaggio, who was not the most fashionable reference in France at the time. With its draped arm and stigmata-like, bloodless wound, the figure in Death of Marat echoes Caravaggio’s Entombment of Christ (1603). Marat’s dramatically lit, slack-jawed face also echoes Caravaggio’s Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy (1610).

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jacques-louis-david-death-of-marat-3-facts-1894240

El Jaleo is painted in a monochromatic palette, except for the orange and crimson of the other dancers (seated extreme right), some small touches of orange at left (candle on chair and palm-prints on back wall) and gold highlighting on the hanging guitars. In keeping with his close affinity for the Spanish painting of Diego Velazquez (1599-1660) and Francisco Goya (1746-1828), as well as the dramatic tenebrism used by Baroque masters like Rembrandt (1606-69), Sargent demonstrates his virtuoso handling of dark tones (compare the solid black of the musicians' hats with the graduated greys of the dancer's shawl), while at the same time contrasting the blacks with the white tones of the dancer's dress, caught in the bright footlights.

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/paintings-analysis/el-jaleo.htm

Chiaroscuro, tenebrism, and sfumato were used by artists for different purposes: to create an air of mystery, private intimacy, psychological complexity, to evoke nightmarish realities, to produce haunting dramatic encounters, or to suggest the metaphorical battle of light and darkness playing out in a variety of contexts.

https://www.theartstory.org/definition/chiaroscuro-tenebrism-sfumato/

[CTyankee]

11. excellent references, I would say that tenebrism fast followed on from chiarascuro and tenebrism is that moment when

at the end of the day it suddenly turns to dark. Altho I am not religious, I do know there was such a thing as Tenebrism services during Holy Week, referring to Christ's agony on Good Friday, knowing what was coming.

Someone who knows more than I do, please correct me on this...

[Donkees]

12. The Tenebrae ritual was rooted in the gospel account of darkness overtaking the earth during the crucifixion

The crucifixion darkness is an event described in the synoptic gospels in which the sky becomes dark in daytime during the crucifixion of Jesus for roughly three hours.

Starting from the Enlightenment, it has become a common view in modern scholarship to read the account in the synoptic gospels as a literary creation of the gospel writers, intended to heighten the importance of what they saw as a theologically significant event.

The image of darkness over the land would have been understood by ancient readers as a cosmic sign, a typical element in the description of the death of kings and other major figures by writers such as Philo, Dio Cassius, Virgil, Plutarch and Josephus.

Many writers have adopted an intertextual approach, looking at earlier texts from which the author of the Mark Gospel may have drawn. In particular, parallels have often been noted between the darkness and the prediction in the Book of Amos of an earthquake in the reign of King Uzziah of Judah: "On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_darkness

Tenebrae ritual: The strepitus, Latin for "great noise", made by slamming a book shut, banging a hymnal or breviary against the pew, or stomping on the floor, symbolizes the earthquake that followed Christ's death.

[CTyankee]

13. Wonderful, thank you! So my guess on Tenebrae is basically true. Your further explanation of the religious roots of the

word is very helpful.

[Donkees]

14. Yes, it's an immersive sensory experience driving emotional memory, an art form.

It varies by denomination. Here is an excerpt from Trinity Church Wall Street, NYC service from 2022:

Tenebrae at Trinity begins with a kind of candelabra, called a hearse, holding fifteen candles. The series of readings, hymns, and meditations will include music from Purcell, Poulenc, Bruckner, and Monteverdi; poetry by Mary Oliver and Madeleine L’Engle; prayers from the late South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu; and meditations from Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton and Barbara Brown Taylor.

As we meditate on Christ’s journey to the cross in poem, anthem, song, and story, one by one the candles and other lights in the church will be extinguished until only a single candle, considered a symbol of our Lord, remains. Toward the end of the service this candle is hidden, suggesting the apparent victory of the forces of evil. At the very end, a loud noise is made (symbolizing the earthquake at the time of the Resurrection— Matthew 28: 2), the hidden candle is restored to its place, and by its light all depart in silence.



https://trinitywallstreet.org/stories-news/tenebrae-shadows-and-darkness-holy-week

[Floyd R. Turbo]

6. The second one is obviously a woman being ignored as she tries to fold a fitted sheet!

[eppur_se_muova]

7. "El Jaleo" by John Singer Sargeant is no. 2. Saw that one at the Smithsonian several years ago. nt

[CTyankee]

8. No, the painting is at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. Maybe you are thinking of another Sargent work?

[eppur_se_muova]

15. This was a limited (one-month ?) special public display. A family friend drove up to DC just to see it.

Nope, no mistaking that painting for anything else!

[Donkees]

16. There was also a study painting for the dancer at the Smithsonian from a private collection

STUDY

The very large painting at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum in Washington, shown here on the right, is actually a study for the dancer in El Jaleo although I think most people who see it think it works very well as its own painting.

https://redtreetimes.com/tag/john-singer-sargent/

[CTyankee]

17. Oh, that must have been wonderful!

They SHOULD get it out of Boston for a viewing elsewhere!