This post is just to say...

[telophase]

...well, not to say much of anything but to serve as a place to store a copy of a painting that I fell in love with and want to remind myself exists later on, when I can see if there are prints available or something like that.



ZOMG JUST LOOK AT THAT FANTASTIC SATIN. The quality of the light! Her face is a wee bit yellow, but ZOMG THAT SATIN



The Princesse de Broglie, painted by Ingres.

Via The Dreamstress.

Comments

[lnhammer]

There's a point in Western art when artists finally mastered the technology of realistically rendering folds of cloth -- and suddenly, every painting had voluminous robes, as everyone had to show off just how well they could do it. Similarly, after the mastery of three-point perspective, painters included a lot of architecture, just to show how well they could do that. The architecture fad died off after a generation or so, but centuries later, painters remained addicted to elaborate robes.

Or maybe it was to painting for patrons who could afford elaborate robes. :-P

---L.

[telophase]

I remember when I first saw Paolo Uccello, with his insistence on sticking to strict 1-point perspective no matter how goofy it looked. MAH HORSE BUTTS LET ME SHOW YOU THEM. Also all the broken lances neatly falling into grids.

While I'm sure that in reality satin tended to look as wrinkled and creased as the picture above shows, I wonder if the Princesse really liked her skirt looking that crumpled for posterity or if it was mostly for Ingres to show off his satin-painting skills. (Perhaps it was one of those things like linen-wearers nowadays who crow "But linen is supposed to look like that!" when you point out that it shows wrinkle and creases that you wouldn't tolerate in other fabrics.)

[twillery.livejournal.com]

Eeee, you're right--it seems like you could touch it and it would *be* there! The chair, too! and the--is that a black velvet pillow in the chair? I love it when textures look like they'd feel...I would have enjoyed being a cat in that room^^

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Hee! I expect Ingres was all LET ME SHOW YOU MY M4D FABRIC-PAINTING SKILLZ!!

[lady-noremon.livejournal.com]

Eeeeee! :D

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Holy crap. They call them Old Masters for a reason.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Amazing texture work. The fabric is the most spectacular, but the skin tone is very smooth and soft-looking as well. I'm not sure that I agree with you on the yellowness of the skin being too much - she might have just had a very sallow complexion. (Of course, part of that could be a monitor issue on one or both of our ends...)