Guernica is a well-appraised painting by the acclaimed artist Pablo Picasso. This mural sized painting was artist’s reaction to the real life bombing on the town of Guernica in Spain during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. The painting and its world-tour during the year helped largely to bring the world’s attention towards the ongoing civil war and its harsh consequences. Today, the painting has become the anti-war symbol. According to some reviewers, the painting was the greatest accomplishment of Picasso’s career for its impacts on the world about the bombing. Picasso and his fellows pushed Cubism ahead with entirely accepting the art-movement and the represented art is a piece of cubist art. The Real Guernica Bombing Bombing of Guernica happened on 26th April, 1937. […]
Centuries Archive
Vitruvian Man is Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous drawing and maybe world’s most popular drawing, too. It represents the proportion of an idle human body. There are two drawings of a naked men superimposed on each other with arms and legs spread out on different angles. Around the men, there are two geometric shapes, a circle and a square. Both, shapes touch at significant points to the men’s drawings, quickly making us realizing that there are some calculations hidden in an average human body. Vitruvian Man is now a representative of a perfect human body and sometimes it also stands for a perfect human as well. It is a huge accomplishment for a mere piece of paper and the artists who drew it. Though, the “fun […]
Sometimes referred also as Barbara Dmitrievna Mergassov Rimsky-Korsakova, the “Madame Barbe de Rimsky Korsakov” is a portrait of Russian aristocrat woman. It was painted in 1864 by the German painter Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Identity of the Woman At some places, it is suggested that the woman is the same person who married to the famous Russian music composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov due to the same endings of the name and the same time-period of their births. But, there is no full evidence about it as some important sources suggests Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova to be the composer’s wife. Other speculations are that she also appeared in Russian writer Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel Anna Karenina. But, the identity of the portrayed woman isn’t firmly definite. Art analysis The portrait […]
La fornarina was a skillful depiction by high-renaissance artist Raphael. It resembles with Leonardo’s Mona Lisa in terms of the posture, use of the model and the alleged idea behind the portrait. It also includes some elements of popular painting style Chiaroscuro which Raphael borrowed from Caravaggio. La Fornarina, Raphael’s Mistress It is said that the model seated for the portrait was Raphael’s real life model called Margarita Luti. The title of the painting means “the baker’s daughter”. According to Giorgio Vasari, the renaissance period art historian, Raphael was “a very amorous man’ and often looking for ‘amorous pleasures’. Allegedly, during his life he had many mistresses one after another, including daughters of his patrons. Margarita Luti appeared in Raphael’s another portrait La Velata as […]
Peter Paul Rubens, the 17th century Flemish Baroque painter painted the first version of the biblical subject Massacre of the Innocents in 1612. It took him two years to finish the painting. It showcases the intense scene of King Herod’s (Herod the Great) soldiers killing the infants of Bethlehem during his reign. Massacre of the Innocents The subject of the painting is the intense massacre of the infants during the time of Herod the Great who after a prophecy, got furious that a Jew boy (Jesus) would uproot his grand reign. After getting outwitted by the Magi, and not knowing which baby would be the reason of his diminishing reign, in fury, he ordered to kill all the infants under age of two. It was […]
Leonardo executed very few works during his lifetime compared to other renaissance artists. A major reason is that, he was involved in way too much other works associated with science of human anatomy, botany, physics, armory, architecture and many others. But, on the other hand, his deep research and observation in each field helped him between his various fields at some points. The field of painting includes almost everything the nature has to offer and Leonardo just observed everything from fossils, mountains to the moon. Deriving information and hidden facts (for his time) from sources, mostly his every painting came out as a masterpiece from the artistic view point. His every new composition, color, style and new techniques were followed by the Leonardeschi. Sfumato After […]
Whistler’s mother is an oil-on-canvas painting by American-born painter James McNeil Whistler revealed in 1871. The real name of the painting is Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, but in general, it is more famous as Whistler’s Mother. It is now reckoned as one of the most famous paintings in the world and has been described as an American Icon and “Victorian Mona Lisa”. It is a painting depicting artist’s mother, Anna McNeil Whistler. She is sitting on a chair with ease- her left side towards us- and looking straight. The emotions on the face of quite, cold and the natural discerning peace are portrayed vividly. As if, she is living her most quiet and peaceful years. After the revelation, the painting got much […]
Lady with an Ermine is one of the four ladies painted by Leonardo, other three being Mona Lisa, La belle ferronnière and Ginevra de’ Benci. The Lady with an Ermine has segments of Pentimento as by radiography. A window has been detected on the upper right side, which was deleted later on by the artist. The painting consist some work called “Moti Mentali” meaning mental emotions. The term was mostly referred to Leonardo’s work and means the artist’s ability to depict the real mental thoughts, emotions and disposition of the subject on his/her face. That’s the painting has been described as “signaling a breakthrough in the art of psychological portraiture.” Another noticeable element is artist’s little use of his well-known style of Sfumato around the subject’s […]
The Scream bought three things into limelight: Edvard Munch, the painter of the artwork; importance of impressionism and the town of Oslo where the artist got his inspiration to depict such a radical subject achieved never before so firmly. The gloomy nature of the artist himself is reflected explicitly in the painting. In his personal life, Edvard Munch was much of a depressed person who also got an inevitable treatment for his mental illness for eight months in a hospital. After that, his mental condition and gloomy thoughts changed to a great degree and his paintings became more optimistic with positive colors and subjects. Though, this painting was painted when he was fighting with his depression. On a little walk near a lake with his […]
Pablo Picasso’s second most expensive painting of all the time. The boy sitting in blue clothes with red-brownish background and flower paints on the wall is having a smoking pipe in his hand and a garland on his head. Picasso was around 24 years old when he painted this art-piece. Moreover, the painting belongs to his Rose Period. Apparently, it was the time, when Picasso was painting the natural figure before he jumped into the Cubism Movement, which gave us the Guernica. The latest price of the panting in May, 2004 was around $104 million ($129 million with adjusted price inflation), which was highest price for a painted sold at an auction. The recent trend to buy a painting at big price tag just because the […]





















