Algiers

I found something snappy to do with The Women of Algiers (in Their Apartment) by Eugene Delacroix, which happened to be in media files along with several other pieces by him I have yet to use. (Hat tip to WikiPaintings homepage featured artwork for reminding me.)

Delacroix traveled to Spain and North Africa in 1832 as part of a diplomatic mission to Morocco shortly after the French conquered Algeria. He managed to sketch some women secretly in Algiers, but mostly Moslem women wouldn’t pose for him. 

The painting is notable for its sexual connotations; it depicts Algerian concubines of a harem with a hookah, used to smoke hashish or opium. In the 19th century, it was known for its sexual content and its orientalism.  The painting served as a source of inspiration to the later impressionists, and a series of 15 paintings and numerous drawings by Pablo Picasso in 1954.

The Women of Algiers (in Their Apartment) Eugene Delacroix (1834)

How much fun was that? Not much.  So I followed the lead to Pablo Picasso -The Presence of the Past 1955 – 1963, a subsection on A World History of Art (dot com).  During this period, Picasso used artistic masterpieces as models for an entire series of his own variations – the Women of Algiers was the first group in this Picasso period.  

… From the outset, Picasso made changes in this basic pattern, transposing one seated figure from the original right to the left side, placing the servant in the foreground, or introducing new figures. In January 1955 his concept was in place. He could go on. Now, the composition was dominated by the polarity between a clothed woman seated at left and a nude reclining at right. The servant, turning away, and a further nude at the rear completed the group. The changes were not entirely the product of caprice; Picasso had taken the foreground grouping from a picture of odalisques by Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres.

Women of Algiers (after Delacroix) Pablo Picasso1955

Picasso Measured Against His Masters in Paris 

16 Sept. 2008 – Four famous museums of the beautiful French capital will host, from the 8th October, an exhibition, “Picasso and masters”, dedicated to the Spanish artist and his creative dialogue with masterpieces seen and appreciated by him.   The main theme of the exhibition will be the confrontation between Picassan works and masterpieces by great artists such as Courbet, David, El Greco, Goya, Rembrandt, Velàzquez, Delacroix, Ingres, Cézanne, Matisse, Manet and others from whom he drew inspiration. …

I also found the above write-up in Arcadia News Magazine on a 2008 Picasso exhibition, so between the two websites there is enough snappy material for another couple of posts. …

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Cecilia and Beatrice

As I said on the post below, I may be revisiting Leonardo da Vinci - Painter at the Court of Milan. And I am … to consider the ermine. In folklore the ermine was a symbol of purity, because it was supposed to prefer death to the defilement of its snowy coat.  Or so says Francesca Kay in A Lady with Two Faces (from Intelligent Life). I’m in love with her opening paragraph; I’m immediately absorbed into the story.

Consider the ermine: a stoat in winter fur. Stoats are small and fierce and quick and feral; they kill by biting the necks of their prey; they are said to mesmerise their larger victims with a snake-like dance. And now look at Leonardo da Vinci’s ermine, resting quietly, although still very much alert, in the loose grip of his mistress. His left paw is upraised in a heraldic gesture. He has intelligent eyes, his mouth is closed over sharp teeth, his fur is soft and creamy, and his owner’s long fingers rest gently on him. This is a beautiful, sleek creature, a beloved pet.

Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci c. 1490 -

The lady is Cecilia Gallerani, aged about 16 when her portrait was painted, c.1490, and at that time the favourite mistress of Lodovico Sforza, the immensely powerful Duke of Milan. In the year after she was painted, Cecilia gave birth to Lodovico’s son, and Lodovico married Beatrice d’Este, who soon ensured her rival was dismissed. …

Francesca Kay beautifully concludes that Lady with an Ermine is “above all a painting of supreme harmony, the creation of a perfect whole through total mastery of line and shadow, light and form.”

Read the article if you get a chance.

I then happened upon a writer named Ian Rivedon who had “seized the opportunity” to see the exhibition. He wrote about it on his blog post Leonardo’s Women. He had fallen in love with Cecilia and Beatrice.

La Belle Ferronniere, Leonardo da Vinci c.1490--

The stars of the show are undoubtedly two of the most beautiful works of art that I have ever seen. They are The Belle Ferronière, a painting of Beatrice d’Este, the wife of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, and The Lady with an Ermine, which is a painting of Cecilia Gallerani, his teenage mistress.

They are displayed together in one room along with several other paintings of women from Leonardo’s school. They are, all of them, wonderful, but serve only to illuminate the brilliance of Beatrice, and even more so Cecilia.

Much thought has gone into how they are hung, Cecilia in pride of place in the centre of the end wall of the room, with Beatrice adjacent to her on the left side-wall. The effect of this imaginitive positioning is stunning. Looked at from the diagonally opposite corner of the room, it seems that Beatrice is looking, apprehensively, over her shoulder at her young rival. …

Ian has a rather fanciful interpretation. Wikipedia tells me that Beatrice d’Este ”was one of the most beautiful and accomplished princesses of the Italian Renaissance. She had been carefully educated, and in 1492 she visited Venice as ambassador for her husband in his political schemes. Beatrice showed great political ability. However, her brilliant career was cut short by death through childbirth, on the 3rd of January 1497 at the age of 22″

I guess there’s not too much more to say about Leonardo da Vinci - Painter at the Court of Milan that hasn’t already been said by somebody else. Except for that I’m glad I was able to see it with them.

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At the Court of Milan

I left Salvator Mundi looking forward to a review of the unprecedented Leonardo da Vinci - Painter at the Court of Milan exhibition at National Gallery of London from from 9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012.  I was sure the Guardian would have one since it had had a ton of coverage about it since May 2011.

Lo and behold, I was reminded of this today by The Economist’s Prospero blog in a post titled: Yes, it’s worth it. 

St Jerome, Leornardo di Vinci 1481 (unfinished)

PEOPLE who write about art exhibitions often see them before they open to the public. So we are accustomed to friends and strangers asking:

“Is it good?”

But since “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” opened at London’s National Gallery in early November, a new question keeps coming up:

“Is it worth it?”

At first this question struck me as odd, even shocking. After all, this really is a once in a lifetime chance to see so many paintings by one of the greatest painters in the history of Western art. Some 18 paintings by Leonardo survive; half of them are on view. They have come from Prague, Rome, Krakow and St Petersburg. …

For these reason alone—and there are others—for anybody who cares about art, the answer to the question “Is it worth it?” is a blindingly obvious:

“Yes”.

There was no mention of the Salvator Mundi but after seeing Lady with an Ermine (from Intelligent Life) and da Vinci’s unfinished “but searing” Saint Jerome the correspondent had a better appreciation for the artist.

The Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo di Vinci 1481 (Louvre)

The rest of the post is about how it’s the hottest ticket in town and gossip columnists have reported on the fashionable people who are desperate to prove they have not missed out.  

The correspondent congratulates the National Gallery for its decision to hold back 500 admission tickets for sale every morning of the exhibition. Bring a folding chair: lines  start forming at 7 or 7:30,  the museum’s doors open at 10am and there might be a four-hour wait beyond that.

At the end we are told to Read more: Deciphering the da Vinci code (Nov. 2011)

NOTE:  This is how I know that for the first time both versions of The Virgin of the Rocks, one the National Gallery owns and the other belonging to the Louvre, are shown together. Upon further reading, I may add to this post or continue on another.

NOTE II: Prospero’s feature photo  (via the Guardian) on the aforementioned post.  Not even one person brought a folding chair.

“Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan”, London’s National Gallery, photo credit Guardian

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Ballets Russes: The Firebird

The last post of 2011 is also the series finale of Ballets Russes and the artistry of Leon Bakst which has been updated several times. I’ve also brilliantly footnoted a subtitle for the series: Persequendum Est. Please note changes to Ballets Russes: Cleopatra and Ballets Russes: Afternoon of the Faun.  Neither post may have explained the significance of Ballet Russes, so I’ll do that now.

"Firebird" costume sketch, Leon Bakst 1910

The Ballets Russes is regarded as the greatest ballet company of the 20th century and its influence lasts to this day.  Many of its dancers came from the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg. After the Bolshevik Revolution, young dancers were recruited from Paris. The company was  directed by Sergei Diaghilev between 1909 and 1929.

Artistic collaboration among contemporary choreographers, composers, artists, and dancers altered the course of musical history and the art of performing dance. Its ballets have been variously interpreted as Classical, Neo-Classical, Romantic, Neo-Romantic, Avant-Garde, Expressionist, Abstract and Orientalist.

As the title of this post implies, most of the rest of this post will be probably be about The Firebird, a 1910 ballet created by the composer Igor Stravinsky (his breakthrough piece) and choreographer Michel Fokine, who collaborated with Alexandre Benois to write the ballet. Not surprisingly, set and costume design were by Leon Bakst.

The Firebird premiered in Paris on 25 June 1910. Even before the first performance, the company sensed a huge success in the making.The critics were ecstatic, praising the ballet for what they perceived as an ideal symbiosis between decor, choreography and music.

The tale is a concoction of Slavik folklore where the Firebird, a magical glowing bird that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor somehow interacts with the evil magician Kashchei the Deathless.

Léon Bakst: Firebird, Ballerina, 1910

It’s entirely possible, or so says Wikipedia, the inspiration for mixing the mythical Firebird with the unrelated tale of Kaschei the Deathless came from the popular child’s verse, “A Winter’s Journey” which includes the lines …

And in my dreams I see myself on a wolf’s back
Riding along a forest path
To do battle with a sorcerer-tsar
In that land where a princess sits under lock and key,
Pining behind massive walls.
There gardens surround a palace all of glass;
There Firebirds sing by night
And peck at golden fruit.

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Persequendum Est ~  Postrema

 The Artistry of Leon Bakst

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At the end of 1699 the Russian Emperor Peter I the Great issued an order to celebrate the New Year beginning on January 1 by the Julian calendar and for this purpose to decorate houses with pine-tree, fir-tree and juniper branches.

с Новым годом

A Russian mystic

The Ballets Russes series is on holiday for the observance of a Fiery Furnace.

I’m not a Biblical scholar so had no idea that in the Hebrew book of Daniel, Chapters 1- 3 to be exact, there are three young Jews named Hananiah,  Azaria, and Mishael who are saved by an angel from being burned alive in a fiery furnace by the Babylonians. 

The Art Nouveau painting is very dark in hue. Naturally I assumed it is of an Eastern Orthodox Fiery Furnace Christmas  Pageant performed at a nighttime matins service on the two Sundays before the Nativity of Christ. The story of the fiery furnace is later read in a vesperal Divine Liturgy celebrated on Holy Saturday.

Costume devotion of Fiery Furnace before Christmas Liturgy in Russian Orthodox Church, or simply Пещное действо, was painted by Nicholas Roerich, a Russian mystic, painter, philosopher, scientist and writer with an incredibly lengthy Wikipedia page. 

Costume devotion of Fiery Furnace before Christmas Liturgy in Russian Orthodox Church, Nicholas Roerich. 1907

I guess most famously he established the Roerich Pact - a treaty  for  the Protection of Artistic and Scientific Institutions and Historic Monuments. The most important idea of the Roerich Pact is the legal recognition of the fact that the defense of cultural objects is more important than the defense in its traditional meaning, and the protection of culture always has precedence over any military necessity.

NOTE: Wikipedia states “The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (November 2011)” 

Presumably the dispute is over the legal recognition of the fact that the defense of cultural objects is more important than …  is not necessarily a fact. Roerich is quite an interesting fellow despite the fact he was a Czarist who was thrown out of the “Motherland” following the Bolshevik Revolution.

 The International Centre of the Roerichs is currently celebrating 75 years of the Roerich Pact. The ICR is an international public organization ◊ Associated member with UN DPI ◊ Associated member with INTO  Institutional member of International Council of Museums (ICOM) ◊ Member of pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage EUROPA NOSTRA. 

Among the many awards Nicholas Roerich received are the Russian orders of St. Stanislaw, St. Anne and St. Vladimir.

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Merry Christmas!

Ballets Russes: Afternoon of a Faun

This is an amazing coincidence! Remember when I found the web journal {feuilleton} with a post simply named Chiaroscuro which, in turn, led to my post Farsa di chiaroscuro?  

I do. In his web journal, artist and designer John Coulthart catalogues his interests, obsessions and passing enthusiasms. He has an abiding fascination with the Ballets Russes, or so he says on his post Images of Nijinsky.

Costume Study for Nijinsky in his Role in La Péri by Léon Bakst

Actually, he’s in awe of Sergei Diaghilev, whose company Ballet Russes is. Coulhart’s post is so awesome and so relevant to my blog that I’m copying and pasting it in its entirety. I hope he doesn’t mind.

I have an abiding fascination with the Ballets Russes, Sergei Diaghilev‘s company which electrified the art world from 1909 up to the impressario’s death in 1929. One of the reasons for this—aside from the obvious gay dimension and the extraordinary roster of talent involved—is probably Diaghilev’s success in carrying the Symbolist impulses of the fin de siècle into the age of Modernism without losing any richness or exoticism along the way.

Diaghilev’s arts magazine, Mir Iskusstva (1899–1900), was as much a product of fashionable Decadence as The Savoy, and its principles were easily transported into the world of ballet.

Looking around for images of dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky in his celebrated (and notorious) role in L’Après-midi d’un Faune turned up not only Leon Bakst’s luscious drawing but some marvelous Beardsley-esque pictures by George Barbier (1882–1932).

I’d seen some of Barbier’s work before but didn’t realise he’d created a whole book devoted to the dancer. Artists like Bakst, Erté and Barbier show how Aubrey Beardsley’s art might have developed had he not died prematurely in 1898. You can see the full set of book plates here.

"L’Après-midi d’un Faune" program cover by Leon Bakst 1912

NOTE:  Yes. I was momentarily diverted from this post’s title, Afternoon of a Faun (L’Après-midi d’un Faune.) The ballet was first performed in the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris on May 29, 1912. Nijinsky choreographed and danced the main part himself.

In a Le Figaro review, editor Gaston Calmette wrote, “We have had a faun, incontinent, with vile movements of erotic bestiality and gestures of heavy shamelessness.”  To him, Nijinsky’s dance was  “the too-expressive pantomime of the body of an ill-made beast, hideous from the front and even more hideous in profile” and his paper started a campaign against the ballet.

In reply, the sculptor Auguste Rodin published a defense of the choreography and in a letter to Le Figaro, painter Odilon Redon expressed the wish that his friend (French symbolist poet) Mallarmé could have seen “this wonderful evocation of his thought.”

NOTE II: The costume study above is courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s HEILBRUNN TIMELINE OF ART HISTORY.

It says Léon Bakst was already an experienced portraitist, illustrator, and set designer in 1909 when he joined with Serge Diaghilev to found the Ballets Russes. This design for a costume to be worn by the renowned male dancer Vaslav Nijinsky (1890–1950) demonstrates Bakst’s involvement with Symbolism and Art Nouveau, as well as his dramatic use of color and sensuous line.

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Persequendum Est ~  Scaena II

 The Artistry of Leon Bakst  

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Ballets Russes: Cleopatra

Cléopâtre

Choreographic drama in one act

"Cleopatra" stage-design, Leon Bakst 1909

“The ballet is set during the reign of Cleopatra (51–30 BCE), Queen of Egypt, when two young lovers, Ta-Hor and Amoun, meet in the grounds of a temple. Their tryst is interrupted by the high priest of the temple announcing the arrival of Cleopatra and her court. On seeing Cleopatra, Amoun immediately falls in love with her. Ta-Hor attempts to re-engage her lover’s affections but to no avail. Amoun sends Cleopatra a message to which she responds that he can spend the night with her but in return he must drink poison in the morning. He agrees to the bargain and Ta-Hor later returns to the temple grounds to find the body of her dead lover.

“Cléopâtre was the most extraordinary production in the Ballets Russes’ 1909 season and signalled Léon Bakst’s mastery of sumptuous and exotic design. Against his powerful stage imagery of desert scenery and ancient Egyptian temple architecture and interior design, the dancers’ loose and abbreviated costumes glittered like jewels, animated by the physicality of their wearers.

Costume design for the ballet "Cleopatra", Leon Bakst 1909

“Bakst’s colour orchestration of gold, lapis blue, malachite green, pink, orange and violet was expressed in imagined Egyptian design motifs on the characters’ costumes, jewellery and weaponry. Dancer Ida Rubinstein’s dark, angular and unconventional beauty invested her role of Cleopatra with a mesmerising sensuality and, through Fokine’s choreographic innovations and Bakst’s revealing costumes, she and the other dancers showed that the whole body could be used for expressive effect. While the apparently bare sections of their bodies caused a sensation, the dancers were in fact wearing ‘fleshings’, flesh-toned silk or jersey inserts that simulated skin (and reduce the necessity and time for body make-up), a costumier’s technique used until 1912. These inserts seldom survive, nor are they evident in retouched contemporary stage photography.”

• Producer: Les Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev
• First performed: As Une Nuit d’Egypte, 2 March 1908, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg
• Paris premiere: 2 June 1909, Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris
• Revival: 5 September 1918, Coliseum Theatre, London
• Costume design: 1909 Léon Bakst; 1918 Sonia Delaunay
• Scenery design: 1909 Léon Bakst; 1918 Robert Delaunay
  

  Costume design for the ballet "Cleopatra", Leon Bakst 1909

• Music: Anton Arensky, Alexander Taneyev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Glazunov, Modeste Mussorgsky, Nicholas Tcherepnin
• Choreography: Michel Fokine
• Libretto: Michel Fokine
• Main characters: Cléopâtre (Cleopatra), Ta-Hor, Amoun, Cleopatra’s favourite slave, High Priest of the Temple, Bacchantes, Servants of the Temple, Grecian women, Grecian men, Silenes, Egyptian women, Egyptian men, Jews, Syrian musicians

From BALLETS RUSSES: The Art of The Costume, National Gallery of Australia

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Persequendum Est ~  Scaena I

 The Artistry of Leon Bakst  

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A Bedouin postcard

 John Singer Sargent is somewhere in the Middle East, possibly the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordon.

Bedoins, John Singer Sargent c. 1904 - 1905

Ahlan Wa Sahlan!

A Bedouin is one who was born and raised in the desert or mountain wilderness and lives alongside nature in black tents or in caves.

Someone who raises goats, sheep, donkeys, horses and camels and who knows how to milk and shepherd the goats and to ride the horses and camels. One who knows how to use all kinds of herbs as food, drink and medicine. A person who can navigate and live with ease in the desert.

His life is simple – but his famed hospitality and generosity is no myth. A Bedouin accepts and appreciates what he has and is willing to share this. He is happy to give and to assist. He is proud of who he is and is loyal to his land.

A Bedouin sees bounty where you perceive barrenness and finds poetry in everything.

“It is more than a name, it is a way of life.”

– Nyazi Tours

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The Canal

John Singer Sargent in Venice

Palazzo Labia and San Geremia, Venice. John Singer Sargent 1913

This viewpoint of the Palazzo Labia and San Geremia is looking to the northwest at the convergence of the Grand Canal and the Cannaregio Canal.

Gondoliers’ Siesta, John Singer Sargent. 1904

 John Singer Sargent painted hundreds of watercolors of Venice – many from the perspective of a gondola on the canal. 

Venetian Canal, John Singer Sargent 1913

In his 69 years of life,  Sargent painted over 2,000 watercolors, roving from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, to Montana, Maine, Florida and the English countryside.  I love his watercolors. I think I’ll send myself postcards from his different locales every now and again.

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Innisfree

I guess I’m lazy today. This post is almost exactly the same as the [see below] blog post was on Friday, August 2oth, 2010. And yes, that really is the color of the blog title and inspirational subhead. UPDATE: I had to change from royal blue to a more palatable color. 

A POEM A DAY FROM THE GEORGE HAIL LIBRARY ~ SELECTED BY MARIA HORVATH

(William Butler Yeats by John Singer Sargent, 1908

“A POEM SHOULD BE WORDLESS / AS THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.” ~ ARCHIBALD MACLEISH (1892-1982), AMERICAN POET, FROM “ARS POETICA”

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“Sometimes I told myself very adventurous love-stories with myself for hero, and at other times I planned out a life of lonely austerity, and at other times mixed the ideals and planned a life of lonely austerity mitigated by periodical lapses,” W. B. Yeats wrote in his Autobiography. “I had still the ambition, formed in Sligo in my teens, of living in imitation of Thoreau on Innisfree, a little island in Lough Gill, and when walking through Fleet Street very homesick I heard a little tinkle of water and saw a fountain in a shop-window which balanced a little ball upon its jet, and began to remember lake water. From the sudden remembrance came my poem ‘Innisfree,’ my first lyric with anything in its rhythm of my own music.”

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,

And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,

Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;

 There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,

And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day

I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;

While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,

I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet and dramatist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1923

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Incidentally, both Yeats and Sargent were featured artists in The Yellow Book, a leading British journal of the 1890s; to some degree associated with Aestheticism and Decadence, the magazine contained a wide range of literary and artistic genres, poetry, short stories, essays, book illustrations, portraits, and reproductions of paintings.

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