Museum Art Recreation Challenge--Part 1.

Back in April when lockdown was just getting started, an art-recreation challenge burned its way through the internet.  Apparently all it takes for people to be interested in art is being locked up with their spouse for a month or two.  Like everyone else, I had run out of things to do after about a week, so as part of our homeschool Egypt Day I decided we would do some picture recreations.  As you know, we dress up in this house, so it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that we kind of got into it.  I posted our pictures on FB and the response was overwhelming.  So we did another one.  And another.  Before I knew it the recreations were no longer a fun one-off.  The diversion had gained a life of its own.  Since we were facing multiple weeks with absolutely nothing to do except not kill each other, we dove in.

The project evolved over time. At first it was just pictures.  Next comparison photos were added, and then, after a request for information about the art, descriptions became part of the package as well.  I'm not an art historian, and I learned along with the rest.

This is the result.  All told, we did around 50 pictures.  Because of the sheer amount of information and images, I'm breaking this into four separate posts. 

Take a breath, because here we go.

Bust of Nefertiti

Limestone and Plaster

Sculpted by Thutmose, the court sculptor of Akhenaten's court in Amarna in 1345 BCE. 

 Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, the heretic king of the 18th Dynasty.  He changed the capital of Egypt from Thebes to Akhetaten (later known as Amarna), a city he built to honor the sun-disc, Aten.  He and Nefertiti also led a religious upheaval, changing the religion of Egypt from the previous pantheon of more familiar deities (Ra, Isis, Osiris, Horus, Set, Hathor, etc.) to the monotheistic worship of the sun.  All of these changes were later undone by their son, Tutankhaten--better known as Tutankhamun.  Nefertiti was known as a great beauty, but was also powerful and influential in her own right; she was a co-ruler with her husband.  There is even a theory that she ruled briefly as  Pharaoh after her husband's death. 

The Great Sphinx of Giza

Limestone monolith

Believed to be carved between 2558-2532 BCE

Everyone is familiar with the Sphinx, a creature with a lion's body and a human head, that guards the pyramids of Giza, Egypt.  The original monolith ("one stone") was carved from the bedrock underneath the sands of the Giza Plateau.  It has been restored with layers of limestone blocks.  The sculpture is enormous, measuring 240 feet from front paws to tail, 66 feet tall and 62 feet wide at its rear haunches.  It is the oldest known monumental sculpture in Egypt, only slightly younger than the Great Pyramid, and is believed to have been built during the reign of Pharaoh Khafre of the Old Kingdom.  However, since there are no inscriptions, it is hard to be certain about the sphinx's origins. The term "Sphinx" is not Egyptian, but Greek, named about 2,000 years after the original construction.   The Great Sphinx is the largest of many sphinx statues across Egypt.  It is aligned on an East to West axis.  It has been subject to much weathering over the years, and multiple times over the centuries has had to be excavated from the drifting sands.

Venus de Milo

Marble

Carved by Alexandros of Antioch between 130 and 100 BCE.

Generally considered to be Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of Love and Beauty (Venus is her Roman name), there is also some speculation that this is a sculpture of Amphitrite, a sea-goddess worshipped on Milos in the Hellenistic age.  Whoever it is, this sculpture was discovered on the Greek island of Milos in 1820.  Fragments of her arms were found with the statue, but were lost between its discovery and transport to France.  She was found in two pieces and restored; she now resides in the Louvre.  While obviously a beautiful example of Hellenistic art, Venus' fame is more the result of great propaganda than anything else.  After multiple famous sculptures in Napoleon's art collection were returned to their countries of origin--including the celebrated Medici Venus--this less famous statue was given a stellar PR campaign to help preserve France's reputation as a repository of important Classical art.  The campaign was so successful that this version of Venus--and there are many, many of them--has become the definitive version.

Ophelia

Oil on Canvas

John Everett Millais, 1851-52

A depiction of the tragic death of Ophelia, a character driven mad by grief in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, this painting is considered an important work of the 19th Century because of its accurate natural details. It heavily influenced the works of artists ranging from John William Waterhouse to Salvador Dali.  The flowers are especially significant, as they are part of the Victorian Language of Flowers, where every flower has a meaning.  The red poppy, the most prominent in the picture, represents sleep and death--a fitting touch for the subject of the painting.

Millais was a child prodigy who grew up to be one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, a loose association of artists who preferred the richer colors and more Classically influenced art of the early Italian Renaissance to the simpler, more staged, and--to them--less inspired works that came after the artist Raphael.

As far as the recreation, it took nearly an hour and every green towel and army blanket in my house to turn the girls' bathtub into a pool. Their prop brooms from Halloween were cannibalized to become branches, and the large bush is Christmas garland looped around and sewn to the blanket.  This was the first truly in-depth staging we did in this adventure, and it set the bar for pictures to come.

American Gothic

Oil on beaverboard

Grant Wood, 1930

This painting was inspired by a house in Eldon, Iowa; the artist wanted to show the kind of people who might live in the house.  Often supposed to be a farmer and his wife, it is actually intended to be a farmer and his daughter.  The artist's sister and their dentist served as the models.  This is one of the most recognizable examples of 20th century American art, and has been parodied many times.

The Gothic refers to the Gothic style of architecture, which is characterized by tall, vertical lines and pointed arches, as seen in the original painting.  Most often these characteristics are found in the buildings of the Middle Ages, particularly the great cathedrals; it was the top window of the house that originally attracted Grant Wood's attention.

Grant Wood was noted for his depictions of the rural Midwest. His painting style was influenced by Flemish artist Jan van Eyck.

The Lady of Shalott

Oil on Canvas

John William Waterhouse, 1888.

One of Waterhouse's most well-known paintings, the painting shows a scene from Lord Tennyson's poem of the same name.  Elaine of Astolat lives in isolation under a curse that forbade her to go outside. Heartbroken and pining for Lancelot, the great knight of King Arthur's court, she leaves her tower to seek her destiny and certain death.

Waterhouse was heavily influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, as evidenced by the dramatic use of color and the detailed emphasis on nature.  Waterhouse had a tendency to paint multiple scenes of the same subject; he painted two other scenes from Lord Tennyson's poem.

*Fun story for this one. So the snow is roughly two and a half feet deep right here. I’m in snow shoes, but I need to get lower for a better angle, so I sit down. Big mistake, because then I can’t get up because I can’t get my weight centered over my snowshoes and I just keep sinking deeper into the snow. I finally yell for Brenna to come help me. Now, for some inexplicable reason, Bren insisted on taking off her boots getting in her barge—so she is trying to inch forward to get her boots on the snow out of frame. She overreaches and falls out of the boat, still barefoot, but now barefoot in two and half feet of snow. She starts squawking in indignation and flapping on the nose of the kayak. I’m still floundering about, laughing my frozen butt off, hoping I don’t sink low enough to suffocate. Several neighbors pass by and watch us struggle, but thanks to social distancing, leave us to our doom without so much as an insincere “Need help?”

Finally, I tell Bren to get inside because her boots are now full of snow and her feet are still bare and she has awful circulation. I manage to dig the ice out of the snowshoe fasteners and take them off, post-holing my way back to the porch with the boat, which luckily glides right over the snow.

I was promptly informed there will be no more boat pictures unless they’re on the porch.*

Portrait of Whistler's Mother

Oil on Canvas

James McNeill Whistler, 1871.

As you can guess from the title, this is a portrait of the artist's mother, Anna McNeil Whistler.  It is one of the most famous American works outside the States; it belongs to France and resides in the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.  Iconic in its own right, it has been called a Victorian Mona Lisa.  The image is the basis of a statue erected in 1938 as a tribute to mothers.  Like American Gothic, it has been parodied and replicated multiple times.

Whistler was an American artist who despised sentimentality and allusions in his painting, preferring that art should stand on its own--"art for art's sake." He often compared painting to music and referred to his works in musical terms.

Priestess of Delphi

Oil on Canvas

John M Collier, 1891.

Another example of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, the Priestess of Delphi has a dramatic use of color and a subject that references Greek legend and mythology.  The Priestess is one of the Pythia, Greek high priestesses of Apollo at Delphi.  Querents would come to the temple and ask their questions of the priestess; she breathed the fumes that came from the cracks in the ground and speak oracles in tongues that were interpreted by priests. 

John Maler Collier was an English Artist and author who was one of the preeminent portrait painters of his time--some of his subjects included Rudyard Kipling, Charles Darwin, two future Kings of England (George V and Edward VIII) and two Indian Maharajahs.  When he wasn't painting heads of state and prominent thinkers, he tended toward powerful (usually nude) women from history and myth. Some of his non-portrait subjects include the Borgias, Clytemnestra, Lillith, and Lady Godiva.   

La Fuensanta (The Fountain)

Oil on Canvas

Julio Romero de Torres, 1929.

Julio Romero de Torres was a Spanish painter from Cordoba in the early 1900s.  He combined Realism and Impressionism to make his style; he was famous for his depictions of Andalusian beauty.  His model in the portrait, Maria Teresa Lopez Gonzalez, started posing for Torres when she was fourteen and quickly became one of his favorites. If you enjoy this picture, I don't recommend researching them with your kids. 

*Most importantly, yes, that is my crockpot and popcorn pan making their modeling debut.*

Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)

Oil on poplar panel

Leonardo da Vinci, 1503-06, perhaps finished 1517.

Perhaps the most famous painting in the world, Mona Lisa is considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance.  Also known as La Gioconda, it is most often attributed as a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.  La Gioconda means "the jocund (happy) one," and, since da Vinci had a thing for terrible puns, was also a pun on the feminine form of Lisa's married name.

While appreciated by da Vinci's peers and art collectors since its creation, the painting didn't garner international acclaim until it was stolen from the Louvre in 1911.  French Poet Guillaume Apollinaire and his friend, Pablo Picasso, were initially suspected but released after questioning.  The real thief was Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian who believed that his countryman's painting should be in an Italian museum, not a French one.  It took two years for the painting to be found; Peruggia did six months in prison and was celebrated as a patriot in Italy.  Now the Mona Lisa is insured for around $650 million and locked behind a glass security case.  Due to its popularity, a queuing system was implemented that provides each visitor roughly 30 seconds to see the painting.

A few interesting facts.  First, that her enigmatic smile disappears when you look directly at it because of a visual trick called foveal.  Because of the way our eyes interpret visual information, they are less adept at perceiving shadows directly--peripheral or indirect vision, however, is better at picking up shadows.  Second, Mona Lisa was originally painted with eyebrows and eyelashes according to high-resolution scans, but these have gradually disappeared over the centuries, likely because of paint deterioration or overcleaning.  Like all of da Vinci's paintings, the painting was reworked multiple times.  Third, the verisimilitude of the painting has to do with the soft blending da Vinci used to shape her features instead of hard outlines.

*Da Vinci is one of my favorites, and we'll be seeing more from him.  His paintings, however, are some of the most difficult to recreate because the light and atmospheric backgrounds are incredibly difficult to replicate.*  

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Oil on Canvas

Johannes Vermeer, 1665.

Another heavy hitter.  This is a tronie, a study of a person's head that is not intended to be a portrait of a particular person.  Like many other paintings of its age, the pigments have degraded over time--most notably, the background was originally a deep green, not mottled black.

Vermeer was a Dutch artist who was moderately successful in his own time.  He was a slow but luxuriant painter, producing fewer than 50 paintings using rich and expensive pigments.  His style was unique in that he built his colors in layers, glazing over the previous layer with contrasting colors that make the color more three-dimensional and "real."  Vermeer is especially respected for his ability to reproduce light and reflection in his paintings.  After his death he fell into obscurity until he was "rediscovered" in the 1800s; he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Oil on Canvas

Frank Dicksee 1901

If you immediately thought, "Wow, this looks like some of the other paintings she did that sound like they were painted by a ninja turtle," you'd be right.  La Belle Dame Sans Merci, a seductive and treacherous character in a poem by John Keats (and in an earlier 15th century poem by Alain Chartier that inspired Keats' work), was a very popular subject for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as well as other artists like Dicksee. The poem is about a fairy femme fatale that seduces noble men and then leaves them to go mad and die in the wilderness.

Sir Francis Bernard Dicksee was the son of painter Thomas Dicksee, who taught Frank and his sister Margaret how to paint as children.  Frank became a painter and illustrator best known for his dramatic renditions of literary, historical, and legendary scenes.  He was knighted in 1925.

Old Woman and the Dance of Death

Printing

Hans Holbein the Younger

This was a wildcard suggested by one of Brenna's friends.  It is a print made by Hans Holbein the younger, the court painter and engraver for King Henry VIII of England.  Holbein was famous during his lifetime as well as posthumously, and recognized as one of the great portrait masters.  He created a vast number of works and was incredibly versatile, working on everything from formal portraits and engravings to jewelry miniatures and monumental frescoes.  Renowned for his realistic skill, Holbein is where we get the images of the most famous people of his day.  He also added layers of symbolism, allusion, and paradox in his art.

Old Woman and the Dance of Death is part of a series of woodcuts that depicts the medieval allegory of the Danse Macabre as a reformist satire.  The central theme is that Death comes for everyone, including the pious and esteemed.  Holbein was very much influenced by the Reformation and Martin Luther, and it shows in his religious works.

Washington Crossing the Delaware

Oil on Canvas

Emanuel Leutze, 1851.

This is the classic depiction of General Washington and the Continental Army crossing the Delaware River in a surprise attack during the Revolutionary War.  The attack on the night of December 25th led to a victory over the Hessians in the Battle of Trenton.  Emanuel Leutze grew up in the U.S. and then returned to Germany, where he hoped to encourage liberal reformers in Europe with the example of the American Revolution.  He used American tourists and art students as models. Leutze painted three versions of the painting, as well as a companion piece, Washington Rallying the Troops.  Upon his return to the U.S., Leutze painted several other portraits and scenes of historical significance, such as the negotiation of the Alaska Purchase.

The composition of the painting is interesting.  The picture is full of dark tones, but Washington is almost haloed by the sky.  Flashes of red add richness.  Most importantly, the men in the boat present a cross section of the American colonies--European, African, and Native American people are represented in one way or another, and some suggest that the rower in the red shirt is meant to be a woman dressed as a man.  There are certain historical inaccuracies (the flag as pictured did not exist at the time, and Washington's standing stance is disputed).