{"id":353,"date":"2011-03-18T03:44:50","date_gmt":"2011-03-18T07:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=353"},"modified":"2015-03-13T23:15:47","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T03:15:47","slug":"a-master-class-in-art-the-new-gauguin-and-canalleto-exhibits-in-the-national-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2011\/03\/18\/a-master-class-in-art-the-new-gauguin-and-canalleto-exhibits-in-the-national-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"A Master Class in Art– the New Gauguin and Canalleto Exhibits in the National Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u2018Ars Longa, vita brevis\u2019 goes the old Latin saying\u2014 Art is long, life is short,\u00a0 or better said, art lasts, but life doesn\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take long to realize the truth of this when you go and study the masters in the National Gallery in D.C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are two new excellent exhibits in the Gallery at present,\u00a0 one on the work of\u00a0 Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin\u00a0 (1848-1903), a so-called post- Impressionist painter,\u00a0 and another on Giovani Antonio Canal (1697-1768)\u00a0 better known as\u00a0 Canaletto.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We will deal with the latter first,\u00a0 since he is from an earlier period of European art, and we will deal with\u00a0 Gauguin\u2019s less well know religious art from his time in Bretton.\u00a0\u00a0 First, here are a picture of the Pantheon like dome in the National Gallery, the main rotunda.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the entrance way into the exhibit is this beautiful gondola from Venice, where\u00a0 Mssr. Canal lived and painted.\u00a0\u00a0 It gives you a clear feel for one of the things that most inspired him\u2014 life in a city that was also life on the water.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Canaletto was so named because his father was also a painter, and so when the son became a painter he was dubbed \u2018little Canal\u2019\u00a0 or \u2018Canaletto\u2019. And like so many sons he exceeded his father\u2019s accomplishments in what he did.\u00a0 Canaletto also had famous students, with Bellotto, who was his nephew and understudy, being the most well known. At this exhibit of Canaletto we also have quite a few Bellotto paintings, and one sees at once that while imitation is the greatest form of flattery,\u00a0 Canaletto was the master when we compare their work side by side of the same scenes in Venice.\u00a0\u00a0 Canaletto was a trend bucker, as he preferred to paint outdoors rather than in a studio as was the custom of his day.\u00a0\u00a0 As the Wiki article on Canaletto stresses \u201cCanaletto became known for his grand scenes of the canals of Venice and the\u00a0 Doge\u2019s Palace. His large-scale landscapes portrayed the city\u2019s famed pageantry and waning traditions, making innovative use of atmospheric effects and strong local color. For these qualities, his works may be said to have anticipated\u00a0 Impressionism.\u00a0\u00a0 This is perhaps why these paintings are exhibited at the same time as the work of\u00a0 Gauguin.\u00a0\u00a0 Canaletto served as his father\u2019s apprentice, painting theatrical scenes early in his career, which may explain some of his sense of staging, proportion and drama in the sky which characterize his paintings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The work of Canaletto is crisp, clear, and full of light, exhibiting a precision of line.\u00a0 His many paintings of the Cathedral of St. Mark and of St. Mark\u2019s square, and of the Grand Canal as we see here are justly famous, and when Canaletto went to England in the early 18th century and painted in London, be became just as famous there as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Mention Paul Gauguin and you are apt to conjure up mental images of Tahiti and naked natives.\u00a0\u00a0 Less well known, unfortunately is Gaugin\u2019s religious art, such as the \u2018Yellow Christ\u2019 an 1889 painting here displayed.\u00a0 Gauguin painted in a sort of minimalist, or primitive style, quite deliberately, and was known for his brilliant colors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> One of his most fascinating paintings is the painting of Jacob wrestling with the angel, while viewed by Bretton maidens.\u00a0\u00a0 The conception of this painting was that these Bretton women were listening to a sermon about Jacob and the angel, and what is painted in the upper part of the canvas is the way they imagined the scene.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Perhaps Gauguin\u2019s most famous religious painting is of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane.\u00a0 Beside the interesting choice to make his hair and beard orange, the other notable feature of the painting was showing the disciple\u2019s departing from Jesus rather than staying with him.\u00a0\u00a0 Gauguin attempted to give this painting to a church in Bretton, but they turned it down.\u00a0 I am betting they regret that now.<\/p>\n

There are many more of these sorts of works in the exhibits in the National Gallery, which you ought to check out if you live in the vicinity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Artists see the world through different lens than most of us, and sometimes they capture the essence, the truth, the beauty of something far better than words could ever do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Ars Longa, vita brevis\u2019 goes the old Latin saying\u2014 Art is long, life is short,\u00a0 or better said, art lasts, but life doesn\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take long to realize the truth of this when you go and study the masters in the National Gallery in D.C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are two new excellent exhibits in the Gallery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Master Class in Art-- the New Gauguin and Canalleto Exhibits in the National Gallery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"'Ars Longa, vita brevis' goes the old Latin saying--- Art is long, life is short,\u00a0 or better said, art lasts, but life doesn't.\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn't take long to\" 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