Category: Eye Candy for Today

Deer’s Skull with Pedernal, Georgia Okeeffe In the Museum of Fine Arts Boston Though it looks almost like watercolor in the handling, particularly of the skull itself, this was done in oil on canvas. According the the museum’s page for this piece, “Pedernal” is the name of the flat-topped mountain in the background, which Okeeffe…

Interior of the Pantheon, Rome; Giovanni Paolo Panini In the National Gallery of Art, DC. Panini has used false perspective here to show more of the interior and the spectacular dome than would be possible otherwise, though from my recollection of my one visit some years ago, I’d say he’s also made the building feel…

The Magdalen in a Landscape, Adriaen Ysenbrandt In the National Gallery, London. Also on Google Art Project, downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons. Painted in the early 16th century, this delicately rendered devotional piece features a truly strange landscape, including a scene within a scene in which Mary is shown reading in a rather bizarre little…

Diana and Cupid, Pompeo Batoni Mid 18th century. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Use zoom or download links under the image. Diana and Cupid, Met Museum

Lofty Mount Lu, Shen Zhou On Google Art Project, downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons, Original is in the National Palace Museum. Ink on paper, 76 x 36 inches (194 x 98 cm). According to the accompanying description on GAP, the artist painted this to mark the 70th birthday of his teacher, in a compositional approach…

Still Life with Fruit and a Cup on Cock’s Legs, Abraham Mignon In the Rijksmuseum. Ostensibly a still life, Mignon’s not-so-still composition is actually teeming with insect, arachnid and mollusk life, in addition to the beautifully rendered plant forms and man made objects — not to mention the cock’s leg base for the decorative cup…