Architectural California

Southern California photographer Lewis Baltz died at age 69  on November 22, 2014.

New Monterey, 1968

Santa Cruz, 1970

Palo Alto, 1973

Irvine, 1974

In 2009 he summed up his long career in one sentence for an interviewer from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art –

“I used photography to distance myself from a world that I loathed and was powerless to improve.”

André-Antoine Bernard

Jacques-Louis David
Portrait of André-Antoine Bernard
1795

A small collection of European drawings from the large collections at the Getty Museum. The 1795 drawing above was made in prison. Both Jacques-Louis David and André-Antoine Bernard had committed all their energies to the French Revolution. During 1793 and 1794 they both sat on the Committee of Public Safety. This small group of Revolutionary politicians, led by Robespierre, sent thousands of French citizens to death on the guillotine. Many of these same middle-class revolutionaries also signed special warrants authorizing the execution of the King and Queen.   

Guercino
Christ Preaching in the Temple
c. 1625

Guercino
Study of a Seated Young Man
c. 1619

Agostino Carracci
Kneeling Figure
c. 1582-85

Agostino Carracci
Cupid Overpowering Pan
c. 1590

Agostino Carracci
Triton Blowing a Conch
c. 1600

Nicolas Poussin
Forest Path
c. 1635-40

Laurent La Hyre
Liberation of St. Peter
c. 1647

Anthony van Dyck
Entombment
c. 1620

Giorgio Vasari
Nude Stdy 
c. 1555-65

Pieter Jansz Saenredam
Choir and North Ambulatory at the Church of Saint Bavo, Haarlem
1634

Isabella of Portugal

Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden
Portrait of Isabella of Portugal
c. 1450

Gentile da Fabriano
Coronation of the Virgin
c. 1420

Bernardino Fungai
Madonna and Child with Two Hermit Saints
1480s

Alessandro Allori
The Abduction of Proserpine
1570

Fra Bartolommeo
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt with St. John the Baptist
c. 1509

Lorenzo Lotto
Madonna and Child with Two Donors
c. 1525-30

Anthony van Dyck
The Apostle Simon
c. 1618

Peter Paul Rubens
The Virgin as the Woman of the Apocalypse
c. 1623

Gerrit Battem
Figures on a Frozen Canal
1670s

Three artifacts at the Getty Museum from each of three faraway centuries. There will be a prize for anybody who can discover any linking principle here (beyond personal caprice).

Bird Catchers

François Boucher
Bird Catchers
1748

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Fountain of Love
c. 1785

Joseph Wright of Derby
Penelope Unraveling her Web
1783-84

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Houses near Orléans
c 1830

William John Godward
Mischief & Repose
1895

Camille Pissarro
Houses at Bougival
1870

Alfred Stieglitz
The Hand of Man
1902

Vincenzo Gemito
Medusa
1911

Adolf de Meyer
Glass & Shadows
1912

Three artifacts at the Getty Museum from each of three recent centuries (and chosen with the special freedom accorded to any random know-nothing member of the general public).

Beyond Baroque

Christ Child
Genoa
carved and painted wood
c. 1700

St. Joseph Carrying the Christ Child
Naples
creamware
1790s

The Getty Museum collections of Italian art – moving farther into the 18th century. Surfaces are newly prominent – patterning prevails over storytelling.

Sebastiano Ricci
Triumph of the Marine Venus
c. 1713

Marco Ricci
Storm
gouache on leather
c. 1715

Francesco Solimena
Death of Messalina
c. 1708

Sebastiano Ricci
Perseus with the Head of Medusa
c. 1705-10

Giovanni Foggini
Laocoön
bronze
c 1720

Antonio Canova
Apollo Crowning Himself
marble
1781

Antonio Canova
Herm of a Vestal Virgin
marble
1820-21

Antonio Canova (1757-1822) used his Neoclassical  vocabulary to combat the prevailing mania for busy surfaces. Posterity has delivered mixed reviews, some finding his work cold and static, others finding balance and repose.

Apollo was carved when Canova was 24 years old. It was created in Rome, but traveled at an early date to France. The Getty acquired Apollo Crowning Himself  in the early 1990s.

Vestal Virgin was completed when Canova was 63 years old. It was created in Naples and remained there until 1937, subsequently traveling to Switzerland. The Getty acquired Herm of a Vestal Virgin in 1985.

High Baroque

Pier Francesco Mola
Vision of St. Bruno
c. 1660

A small sample from among the many glorious Getty Museum paintings that originated in 17th and early 18th century Italy.

Palma Il Giovane
Venus & Mars
c. 1605-09

Giovanni Lanfranco
Moses with the Messengers from Canaan
c. 1621

Francesco Maffei
Rinaldo's Conquest of the Enchanted Forest
c. 1650

Lodovico Carracci
St. Sebastian Thrown into the Cloaca Maxima
c. 1600

Orazio Gentileschi
Lot & his Daughters
c. 1622

Domenichino
Way to Calvary
c. 1610

Giulio Cesare Procaccini
Coronation of the Virgin
c. 1604

Guido Reni
Joseph & Potiphar's Wife
c. 1630

attributed to Alessandro Algardi
Bust of Maria Cerri Capranica
marble
c. 1640

Bernardino Mei
Christ Cleansing the Temple
c. 1655

Carlo Dolci
St. Matthew Writing His Gospels
1670s

Sebastiano Ricci
Tarquin the Elder Consulting Attius Navius
c. 1690

Sebastiano Ricci
Venus & Dog
c. 1700

Luigi Garzi
Hercules & Omphale
c. 1700

Sebastiano Conca
Adoration of the Shepherds
1720

Sebastiano Conca's Adoration of the Shepherds is one fine example of that Baroque mini-genre representing the Divinity of the newborn Christ Child as a supernatural light-source.