The Dream of Jacob by José de Ribera.

The Dream of Jacob

The Dream of Jacob was painted by José de Ribera.This painting was commissioned by Jerónimo de la Torre

who was Philip's IV State secretary for the Flanders' affairs. It was made in 1639 in Naples, during the visit of the author to Italy. At the moment, it's displayed at the Prado Museum.

The Dream of Jacob

Source: http://www.artrenewal.org/pages/artwork.php?artworkid=9536

Its size is 179 cm high x 233 cm wide and it's made up with oil over canvas painting. It's a religious painting.

The painting represents the patriarch Jacob sleeping supported on his left arm. Following the Genesis' story, Jacob is having a strange dream about a celestial staircase where angels are going up and down. Jacob is placed in the center asleep in the most realistic way, as if he was a shepherd. In fact, the celestial stairs are the strong spotlight which lights up Jacob's face. The angels of these celestial stairs are almost invisible.

In this photo we can see the angels in the celestial stairs.

Source: https://www.museodelprado.es/visita-el-museo/15-obras-maestras/ficha-obra/obra/el-sueno-de-jacob/

He creates areas of lights and shadows which are very contrasted by two spotlights of light. The nightfall natural one which gave to the painting beautiful blue, yellow, orange tonalities and a powerful flashlight which illuminate the protagonist's shape exalting his relaxed expression. The painter used a geometric cross composition and a foreshortened figure. In this painting, Ribera gets closer to the illumination and the colors of the Venetian School.

This is a Baroque painting because its features are realism and religiosity. The main commissioners were the kings and the Church; in this case, the commissioner is a secretary of the king. Oil was used to paint on canvas and there were also contrasts of light and shadows, foreshortened figures and a complex composition. In this painting we can see almost all this features.

Ribera lost his initial tenebrism and started painting with similar characteristics to the Venetian school. He was influenced by Caravaggio at first, but then he was influenced by Van Dyck and other painters. The local painters, such as Velázquez and Murillo, took the works that Ribera sent to Spain as a reference and some other painters like Fragonard, Manet and Henri Matisse... copied his works. In Italy he was known as Lo Spagnoletto («El Españolito»). This painting belonged to the Jerónimo de la Torre's family until 1718. In 1746 it was found among all queen Isabel of Farnesio's paintings. She bought it as a Murillo's canvas and it was attributed to this painter for a long time. 

Portrait of José de Ribera. 

Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_Ribera

Bibliography:

http://www.artble.com/artists/jusepe_de_ribera/paintings/jacob's_dream

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob's_Ladder

http://www.wikiart.org/en/jusepe-de-ribera/jacob-s-dream-1639

https://www.museodelprado.es/visita-el-museo/15-obras-maestras/ficha-obra/obra/el-sueno-de-jacob/

http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/v2/obras/863.htm

http://arte2bac.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/jose-de-rivera-el-sueno-de-jacob-2/

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_sue%C3%B1o_de_Jacob_(Ribera)

http://www.lastanosa.com/userfiles/La%20pintura%20en%20las%20colecciones%20de%20Vincencio%20Juan%20de%20Lastanosa.pdf

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_de_Ribera

To end with Baroque: Rembrandt's The Night Watch flash mob

This is a flash mob made last year in Amsterdam to commemorate the re-opening of the Rijksmuseum, where you can find many of Rembrandt's paintings. We watched this video in 4th ESO C-D the other day, but José Luis forgot to include it. I hope the people who didn't watch it can enjoy it now. 

4th November (Tuesday)

Hello!
Today in the class of Social Sciences Paqui explained us the instructions for the Baroque Project. We all have two works (that can be work of architecture, sculptures and paintings). This two works have been chosed by our teacher. We have to write an individual post on both works writing the information about they.After this Paqui has revised our homework for today, that was to complete a scheme from the Baroque Art with the book's contets.

When she finished to revise, we started to correct this scheme that have five parts:

Chronology: This style was developed in the 17th century and a part of the 18th century.

General features: This style had movement; realism representations; complexity; interest in surprising the audience; curved lines, concave and convex; and predominance of colour and light over drawing. And Paqui explained us that this style had just the opposite characteristics of the Renaissance Art.

Architecture: The architecture in this style had curved lines, spirals, ellipticand oval floor plans, solomonic colums, contrast of lights and shadows... Paqui drawn the diferents componets of the architecture. And then we seen some examples of this, like the square and colonnade of saint Peter of the vatican by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in Italy and the Versailles palace by Le vau, Mansar  and le nótre, in France.

                                           
http://www.arqhys.com/contenidos/versalles-palacio.html


http://fr.academic.ru/dic.nsf/frwiki/707863

Sculpture: The purpouse in this style was representing movement, capturing feeting movements, provoking surprise and emotion in the public. And we seen also examples, like Apolo and Daphne by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Paqui us the history of this sculpture when Daphne flee from Apolo and become a tree. And Fontana Di Trevi, by Nicolas Salvi, where the people throw coins.

http://mitosandmyths.blogspot.com.es/2012/09/apolo-y-dafne-presentacion-de-los.html


http://sobreitalia.com/2008/05/08/la-fontana-di-trevi-encanto-historico-y-cinematografico/

Painting: The features were use oil painting, predominance of colour over drawing use warm colours, contrast o light and shadows, realism, movement, complex, compositions in order to sock the audience...And also we seen some examples, like Death of the Virgin, by Caravaggio that was an estrange painting because the painter have used a young prostitute for represent the old Virgin, and The calling of Saint Matthew also by Caravaggio.
   
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muerte_de_la_Virgen_(Caravaggio)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Calling_of_St_Matthew_(Caravaggio)

And we copied some words in the glossary:
to sock-impactar
solomic column-solomonica
baldachin-baldaquin
ball room-salón de baile
to flee-huir
fleeting-fugaz
solemn-solemne
fold-pliegue
cloth fold-pliegue de los tejidos
newt-tritón
oil painting-óleo
foreshortened figure-escorzo

And have an exam next friday so we have to study a lot!

Bye!

The figures in The Meninas and Dorset's version

Here you have the names of all the figures who appear in The Meninas: 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Velazquez-Meninas-key3.jpg

The apparent centre of the painting is (1) Infanta Margarita Teresa, five- year old at the moment. She his attendent by two ladies-in-waiting or meninas, Doña Isabel de Velasco (2) and Doña Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor (3). This one is kneeling before Margarita and offering her a drink. To the right, there are two dwarfs, who acted as jesters: Maribarbola (4) and Nicolás Pertusato (5), who is bothering the dog. Behind this group, Doña Marcela de Ulloa (6), Margarita's chaperone and a guardadamas or bodyguard (7), who hasn´t been identified. In the background, to the right, the man in the doorway is José Nieto Velázquez (8), the queen's chamberlain and head of the royal tapestry works. One of his tasks was opening and closing the doors to the monarchs. Velázquez (9) portrayed himself in his workshop and retouched his chest some years later, when he was accepted as member or the Order of Santiago. Finally, the mirror in the background reflects the figures of Philip IV (10) and his wife Queen Mariana of Austria. 

There is a smaller version of The Meninas in the United Kingdom, preserved in the country house of Kingston Lacy, in Dorset. Its colours are lighter, the light is less strong, the monarchs are noy reflected in the mirror and there are pencil lines in the Infanta's face

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/02/velazquez-las-meninas-pradio-museu-madrid

This painting was supposed to be a copy of the original one. But last October, professor Matías Díaz Padrón, former curator of El Prado Museum, affirmed that this painting might have been a model painted by Velázquez before finishing the big one, maybe to show the king the definitive version. However, there is no agreement about this. Other experts say that the Dorset version was painted later, because it reflects the definitive version and not the retouches made by Velázquez. Another opinion says that this version was painted by Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, Velázquez's son-in-law. 

If you want to read more about these other Meninas, here you have an article from The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/02/velazquez-las-meninas-pradio-museu-madrid

More about pentimenti

As we studied yesterday, Velázquez used to retouch his paintings many times. As he was the court painter, he had constant access to the paintings he had painted for the Crown and this allowed him correct what he didn't like or what he wanted to improve. As Ángela has explained on her journal, as time goes by, the oil mixed with linseed oxidizes and parts of the painting covered by the painter become visible and we can observe what the creative process of the painter was like. Here you have some more examples of Velázquez's pentimenti: 

-  Jester Calabacillas: the pumpkin on the right has moved in the definitive version

Source: http://0.tqn.com/d/arte/1/0/I/3/-/-/Velazquez-bufon-calabacillas.jpg

- King Philip IV: Many changes were made on this painting: the hat, the cloak and the right hand of the king have a different position with respect to the original one. 

Source: http://www.frick.org/sites/default/files/archivedsite/exhibitions/velazquez/conservation.htm

- Philip IV Hunter: the legs of the king and the harquebus had a different position originally:  

Philip IV Hunter

Source: http://www.foroxerbar.com/viewtopic.php?t=3779

- On Don Diego de Acedo, El Primo' s portrait, we can observe that while Velázquez was working on this canvas, he cleaned the brush in the background. Later, he covered the  background with a layer of grey colour, but now the dark lines are visible. 

Don Diego de Acedo, el Primo

Source: http://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archivo:Retrato_del_buf%C3%B3n_don_Diego_de_Acedo,_el_Primo,_by_Diego_Vel%C3%A1zquez.jpg

If you want to learn more about pentimenti, here you have some additional links: 

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/v/velazque/09/0901vela.html

http://100swallows.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/velasquezs-pentimenti/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentimento

Some Velázquez's masterpieces

Here you have some videos in English about some of Velázquez's most famous paintings: Vulcan's Forge, The Triumph of Bacchus or The Drunks and The Meninas. Pay attention to the pronunciation, because this is an aspect the most of you have to improve. On the links below every video, you can activate the subtitles in English to follow the explanation: 

Link to transcription: 

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history/art-history-1600-1700-the-baroque/spain/v/vel-zquez--vulcan-s-forge--c--1630

Link to transcription: 

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history/art-history-1600-1700-the-baroque/spain/v/vel-zquez--los-borrachos--the-drunks---1628-1629

Link to transcription: 

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history/art-history-1600-1700-the-baroque/spain/v/vel-zquez--las-meninas--c--1656

Something more about Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), known as Caravaggio, was the main Baroque painter in Italy. His nickname comes from Caravaggio, the place where he was born. His life was very troubled, full of fights, disputes and controversy. His paintings were mainly religious, full of realism, dramatism, with big contrasts of light and shadow and with the purpose of shocking the audience. Several of his works were rejected by their commissioners and sometimes he had to redo the paintings, because they were not accurate with religion. In 1606 he killed a man on a fight and had to flee from Rome, to avoid being imprisoned. Four years later he died from malaria in Sicily. 

Here you have some Caravaggio's works rejected: 

- Inspiration of Saint Matthew

  This first version was rejected, because Caravaggio painted Saint Matthew as an old common man and a very young angel helping him write his Gospel. The commissioners considered this representation of Saint Matthew to be disrespectful, because he appeared with bare feet, and they also considered the proximity of the angel to be obscene and too much erotic. That's why Caravaggio had to redo this painting in a more "acceptable" way

FIRST VERSION

Source: http://hubbychu.tumblr.com/

SECOND VERSION

Source:  http://hubbychu.tumblr.com/

- Madonna with Saint Anne

This painting was made for the Vatican, but the very realistic way of representing the women, the naked child and the snake were considered to be inappropriate. The painting was in the Vatican only for some days and finally it was sold to Cardinal Borghese

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madonna_and_Child_with_St._Anne-Caravaggio_(c._1605-6).jpg

-Death of the Virgin

This painting was commissioned by a Carmelite church, but when they received it, they rejected it and was sold to a private collector. The Virgin was represented as a young dead woman, instead of an old woman dying. The model for the painting was a prostitute who had drowned in the river and her body was swollen.The painting was considered to be immoral by the Church.

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_the_Virgin_(Caravaggio)

If you want to learn more from Caravaggio's turbulent life, here you have some links:

http://www.biography.com/people/caravaggio-9237777

http://www.caravaggio-foundation.org/biography.html


And on this short video you can see some of the paintings he made in his last 10 years of life: