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Overpainting in Art and Its Reasons
Overpainting is to paint over something that is more or less finished. The most common reason is to save money. Beneath the Mona Lisa there is another maiden. The canvases were expensive back in the day. So, it was cheaper to just paint over it. Hunt painted over just the face. He had gotten married. For this reason, he changed the face of the woman in the painting. Now, she has the face of the wife and the hair of the other woman. Las Meninas only got a cross. It was important for folks to know that Velazquez was a...
Dancing in Art
We first start by looking at the Ancient Egyptians. They depicted a lot of aspects of their life in their murals. This included art and music. The Greeks and Roman also depicted dancing in their vases. During medieval art, dancing dropped off the face of the earth. It came back with the Greeks in the Renaissance period. Dancing typically appeared in paintings of the Bacchanal. It was rare for dancing to feature contemporary folks. Things continue like so during the baroque and Neoclassical period. The rococo brought a bit of court dancing into the frame. In the 1800s, dancing was...
Knights in Art
Knights have their root origin in the Ancient Greek hippeis. To put it simply, they were mounted warriors. The concept continued in the Roman times. In medieval times, the concept of knighthood took full bloom. It was a title given by Kings to their strongest fighters. The knight overtime became an elite warrior class. This title eventually became hereditary. When Guns became a thing, armors went out of fashion. Knight started to be depicted without their armors. If they were to us armor, it was usually a black armor. This was due to the infamous black knight from King Arthur’s...
Weird Babies in Art
It is common belief that medieval painters were not interested in realism. It is important to consider that monks lived in isolated mountains. It was difficult for them to sketch Babies from life. There is also the matter to consider that paintings as a whole were considered a craft in medieval time. It only started picking up during the Renaissance period. Due to the insistence of the golden ratio, the babies continued to look like miniature adults. They only started to resemble true human babies in the 1800s. The impressionists were good at rendering more or less realistic babies. Academic...
Lapis Lazuli and Jan Vermeer
Vermeer was a famous Dutch baroque painter. He died in poverty, but the art historians love his work. He is famous for his usage of Lapis lazuli. This was an expensive pigment. At the time, it could only be found in Afghanistan, Russia and Chile. So, you can guess the shipping costs. The pigment was first used in the Procuress painting. It was in a vase that was near the maiden’s jug. He then added it to the milkmaid. It is interesting how he used such an expensive pigment for peasant clothing. His Girl with a Pearl earring was a...