Spencer Alley: January 2015

Saturday, January 31, 2015

The best birthdays that I have are the ones that coincide with a family Valentine-making party, as happened today. Mabel was so rich in ideas for Valentines that she was able to help Grandpa with his Valentines at the same time that she was making her own Valentines. And in addition to that, she was gathering and sorting the Valentines of all five makers into separate piles in a safe place away from the mayhem of the work table.

I scanned Mabel's Valentines first, and others will appear soon. The florescent orange dot-stickers were popular with everyone, but it turns out the scanner cannot read that particular color (and I offer this explanation especially for Mabel, who will be the first to notice).

Mabel also conceived the heart-shaped chocolate birthday cake with red icing. She fashioned the pipe cleaner decoration on its top herself, but Grandma in her kindness and creativity actually executed this cake-plan in her own kitchen and was able to present the astonishing-looking and delicious confection seen below.

When the Valentines were done, the birthday party started, with singing and candles and cake and presents, many presents. Mabel gave me three pipe-cleaner people (one large, two small) along with several other pipe-cleaner sculptures in almost every color there is. She folded them inside heavy red paper and with her own hand in all-capital letters wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY like a banner across the present.

Friday, January 30, 2015

Raphael and After

Raphael
Christ in Glory
c. 1519-20

Raphael
Figure with Axe
c. 1512

Raphael
Hercules & Hyrdra
c. 1508

Raphael
Hercules & Nemean Lion
c. 1508

Raphael
Leda & Swan
c. 1507

Raphael
Crouching Figures
c. 1513-14

Raphael
study for Parnassus
c. 1509-10

Raphael
study for Miraculous Draught of Fishes
c. 1514

Raphael
study for Christ's Charge to Peter
c. 1514

Raphael
study for Massacre of the Innocents
c. 1510

The drawings above are autograph works by Raphael himself, according to curators at the Royal Collection. The drawings below were made (like yesterday's images) by later copyists.

after Raphael
Jonah and the Whale
c. 1520-23

after Raphael
Angel from Heliodorus fresco

Thursday, January 29, 2015

After Raphael

from The Judgment of Solomon

Carlo Maratta (1625-1713) became the most prominent artist of the Roman baroque, following the death of Bernini in 1680. To modern eyes Maratta's painting-style can seem predictable and mechanical, but the quality of his drawings is astonishing. All examples here are from an album in the Royal Collection, acquired in Italy for George III. In this series of drawings, Maratta isolates figures and costume-details from the frescoes and paintings created in Rome by Raphael at the beginning of the 16th century. The originals were already about 150 years old at the time when Carlo Maratta sat down to copy them.

Justice (with ostrich)

from The Mass at Bolsena

Prudence

Reclining nude

from The School of Athens

from The Crossing of the Red Sea

from The Disputa

from The School of Athens

Sacrifice of Abraham

from The School of Athens

Temperance (with bridle)

from The Transfiguration

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Fountains at Juvisy

Fountains at Juvisy
1902

Albumen silver prints by Eugène Atget (1857-1927). The photographs were taken in the first part of the twentieth century, mainly in Paris and in the former royal parks near Paris.