TheSagrada Mortaja was founded at the end of the 16th century in the church of Santa Marina. The image of Christ (Nuestro Padre Jesús Descendido de la Cruz) is a baroque masterpiece of Cristóbal Pérez (1667). The Virgin (Nuestra Señora de la Piedad) and the rest of the group are from the circle of Pedro Roldán (17th century).
The Apparition of the Virgin to Saint James the Greater
Private collection (via Setdart)
Saint James was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament, and is the patron saint of Spain. According to ancient local tradition, on 2 January AD 40, the Virgin Mary appeared to James on the bank of the Ebro River at Caesaraugusta, while he was preaching the Gospel in Hispania. She appeared upon a pillar, Nuestra Señora del Pilar, and that pillar is conserved and venerated within the present Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, in Zaragoza, Spain.
Since she-ra’s second season aired, I decided to start watching the show already. I don’t know why I DIDN’T WATCH IT BEFORE, ITS AMAZING AND I LOVE EVERYONE!!
- I guess everyone knows Gustav Klimt’s painting, The Kiss. One of my favorite ever. Lots of artist tried to remake it in their own style and i really admire this piece of Picasso and i’m so happy that i had chance to see this in the National Gallery of Budapest!
- Created during the artist’s Blue Period, “The Frugal Meal” is one of the masterpieces of twentieth-century graphic art, vividly evoking Picasso’s experiences as a young artist living in the low-rent district of Montmartre. “The Frugal Meal” rises above abject misery: Picasso creates an allegory of survival that addresses the difficulties and vicissitudes faced by the struggling artist. The print may have been inspired by illustrations for Jehan Richtus’s “Soliloques du Pauvre” (Soliloquies of the Poor) of 1897 made by Theodore Steinlen and Picasso’s fellow Catalan artist Joaquim Sunyer Miró, which are fraught with the same weariness and angst.
Pablo Picasso - Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1909-1910)
- “That’s Voyard!” exclaimed the four-year-old-son of a friend of Ambroise Vollard’s, on seeing the painting. In fact, it’s easy to recognize the features of the Parisian galleryst, famous for having works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh or Henri Matisse.
- As I write you before, Picasso’s blue period started in 1901, after his friend commited suicide. He lived in very poor conditions during this term of his life in Montmartre, Bateau-Lavoir, he had lots of financial difficulties. He regularly visited the women’s prison hospital in Saint-Lazare, where venereal diseased prostitutes preserved. In the cells, ill and lonely women and girls vegetated, such as the woman in this painting, who fall asleep during drinking. The other title of the painting is Absinthe drinker: the greenish shades of the woman’s face reminds us to the color of the alcohol, which causes madness.
- Picasso was twenty years old, when his good friend Carles Casagemas commited suicide in 1901, so he painted this masterpiece in memory of him. After this experience he started the blue period.
- Picasso had not yet turned fourteen when he painted this portrait of a young Galician girl, one of his first oil paintings. Following the example set by the masters of the Spanish Golden Age (sixteenth-seventeenth centuries), such as José de Ribera or Francisco de Zurbarán, Pablo painted portraits of ordinary people and attractive models, like this girl with bare feet and a sad pout. A simple pose, a neutral background, an empty space lit from above are all features of naturalism. In his anatomical construction, however, Picasso demonstrates a mannerist touch. You can see this barefoot girl, who is watched and watching at the same time. This girl is the fisrt incarnation of the theme of sitting woman in Picasso’s art, which sometimes disappears and later shows up again.
Few weeks ago, i was in the Pablo Picasso exhibition in the National Gallery of Budapest, Hungary. I spent an amazing time there, and i studied a lot about the artist. The name of the exhibition was: transfigurations, it embraced every period of Picasso’s career, paying particular attention to one aspect of his ouvre: the constant transfigurations in his portrayal of the human figure. Most of the exhibited works have been generously loaned by the Musée national Picasso-Paris, which preserves the largest Picasso collection in the world. I will post my favorites from the exhibition, which touched me and makes me wonder every single time. Picasso’s life was an adventurous journey, and he was a really great artist and man, so i hope i can show you a small slice of it and sou can imagine it!
