Mattia Preti / “Saint Veronica with the Veil” / 1655-1660 / Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Michiel Sweerts (1618-1664) "Self-portrait" (c. 1654) Oil on canvas Baroque Located in the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio, United States

Double Portrait, English School, 1650

Average delulu at 1 a.m in the morning with @glutominnn

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617-1682) The Annunciation, ca.1650 Museo Nacional del Prado

Interior with a Woman Seated by a Hearth, Jacobus Vrel, circa 1654

Oil on panel 64.5 x 47.5 cm (25.39 x 18.7 in.) Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔗𝔯𝔦𝔲𝔪𝔭𝔥 𝔬𝔣 𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔱𝔥. ℜ𝔲𝔡𝔬𝔩𝔣 𝔐𝔢𝔶𝔢𝔯, յճՏօ.

"Allegory of the Vanity of Earthly Things," c. 1650, unknown French artist

This is one of my all-time favorite Baroque works, but there's, like, no scholarly works on it, so here's an excerpt from an essay I wrote on its meaning, entitled "Shadow and Light: Tenebrism and Chiaroscuro in Depictions of Femininity in Baroque Art":

"While candles in Baroque art tend to serve a similar purpose regardless of context– a literal and symbolic way to expose some otherwise obscured truth– this is used to wildly different effect throughout varying traditions. For example, the candle became a universally-recognized element of vanitas and memento mori paintings– related genres which utilized carefully-curated still lifes as a way to create physical manifestations of the inevitability of death. Items such as books, candles or lamps, skulls, and timepieces became synonymous with these late Renaissance and Baroque-era genres. Skulls, once again, serve as a constant reminder of death and the limitations of the human body, books as a symbol of the limited use of accruing earthly knowledge, and timepieces as a very tangible representation of the unstoppable, unforgiving nature of existence. While the vast, almost complete, majority of paintings within these genres are still lifes, a handful include human or humanlike (e.g. angelic) figures. One such example is the enigmatic Allegory of the Vanity of Earthly Things by an unknown French artist. This painting, while clearly referencing vanitas and memento mori paintings through the familiar naming convention (i.e. “Allegory of …”) and the direct reference to vanity in the title, as well as the selection of objects, evades direct categorization. The female figure is unnamed and unrecognized. Because of the relation of Mary Magdalene to vanitas paintings, one could make the argument that the figure is meant to be a representation of Mary. However, depictions of Mary Magdalene throughout history nearly universally depict her with long, flowing, curly, often blonde or reddish hair (with Artemisia Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy being a perfect example). Additionally, when Mary Magdalene is depicted as the subject of vanitas paintings, she is generally the one contemplating the macabre items. In this painting, the woman seems to be wordlessly communicating with an individual to the audience’s left. As she tilts the mirror– a symbol of truth, obsession with the self, and most importantly, prediction– towards this phantom audience member and points to the skull with a faint, knowing smirk, she seems to be very intentionally and explicitly indicating the point of the work– death is inevitable. If the predictive, mystical capabilities of mirrors– as well as the truth-revealing properties of the candle– are considered, one could even interpret the woman as a harbinger of death."

If anyone knows anything more about this painting, I would love to hear about it! I've developed a strange obsession with it.

various fairfaxes and a drawing from my english civil wars hiking au which i never posted :-) [id under cut]

[image description:

the first image is a digital drawing of a group of men on a light brown background. they are all wearing hiking-appropriate clothing. from left to right: a young man swinging from a tree; arrows pointing at him read ‘weirdly passionate about hiking’ and ‘like 15′. a man leaning against a tree; arrows read ‘grumpy’ and ‘only here for family bonding with father-in-law’. a man with a cane and one arm in a sling, leaning over to read a map; arrows read ‘has injured himself on every hike so far’ and ‘designated driver’. a man reading a map with a serious expression; arrows read ‘annoyed about everything except hiking and sometimes also hiking’ and ‘only one who can read a map’. a man with his hands on his hips looking at the viewer; arrows read ‘arranges hikes and then doesn’t go on them’ and ‘good at arguing’.

the second image is a collection of four digital drawings of thomas fairfax, a man with long dark hair, a moustache, and a beard. he is wearing seventeenth-century clothing. one is a full-body coloured drawing of him sitting in a chair facing away from the viewer with his legs folded and his hat on his knee. the other three are uncoloured: two are headshots of him as a young man and an older man, and the third shows him sitting at a table reading a piece of paper with an expression of concentration.

the third image is a coloured digital portrait of thomas fairfax as an older man. he is clean-shaven and has long dark hair and a scar across his cheek. he is wearing a dark doublet and a large white falling band, and is looking to the left of the image with a serious expression.

end image description.]

▪︎ Charles I.

Artist: After an engraving of by Wenceslaus Hollar (Bohemian, Prague 1607–1677 London)

Date: 1650-1670

Culture: British

Medium: Silk and metal thread on silk

Meekness

Eustache Le Sueur

Oil on Panel, 1650

Jacob van Loo (1614-1670) "Group of Musicians" (c. 1650-1652) Oil on canvas Dutch Golden Age Located in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain

Bronze Vase with Roses, Pedro de Camprobin, 1640-60

An Italian carved giltwood 'Medici' frame, Florence, circa 1650

overall: 125 x 110cm.

interior only: 85.5 x 70.5cm.

Still life with fruits, c.1650 by anonimous