The Broken Vessel (La Cruche cassée), Jean-Baptiste Greuze

Link is to downloadble large file on Wikimedia Commons, original is in the Louvre.

Though the actual meaning is open to interpretation, the general assumption is that the allegorical subject suggested by the gathered flower petals and broken vase is one of lost innocence and defloration.

Greuze has emphasized the young woman’s youth with the soft edges and delicate handling of her face and hands, contrasted with the more bold and painterly rendering of the vase, dress and flowers.

Somewhat lost here in the delicacy of the presentation is the strongly geometric draftsmanship evident in Greuze’s drawings and many of his portraits.

Flowers in a White Vase, Osman Hamdi Bey

Link is to zoomable version on Google Art Project; downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum.

European-trained Turkish painter Osman Hamdi Bey — who was active in the late 19th and early 20th century — gives us a delicately realized still life in a classical, almost Baroque manner, but with the direct brushwork evident among the painterly European styles of the time.