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The Old Masters Gallery Approximately 22 paintings from Dresden’s Old Masters Picture Gallery will be among those featured in the exhibition, among them works by world-famous artists such as Rembrandt, Seghers, Rubens, Van Dyke, Utrecht, Ribera, Velasquez, Titian, Tintoretto, and Lucas Cranach the Younger. The following works will certainly be highlights of that exhibit: “The Procuress” by Jan Vermeer
Little is known about Jan Vermeer, the 17th century Dutch painter famous for capturing the quiet beauty of domesticity. Just a few colorless official papers remain to document the life of one of art history’s most enigmatic figures. Vermeer likely pursued painting alongside a career as a picture dealer and innkeeper, businesses that he inherited from his father. As an artist, he remained in obscurity for over a century, and died under sever financial duress, having fathered 15 children during his lifetime. In “The Glory of Baroque Dresden” exhibition, Jan Vermeer’s “The Procuress” – just one of 35 paintings ascribed to him – marks a historic milestone in the history of art exhibition in the American South. Painted in 1656, it is one of only three paintings signed and dated by the artist and is just underwent its first major restoration since 1956, when it was returned to Dresden by the Soviet Union. The painting is one of the largest of Vermeer’s canvasses and depicts a young woman, a soldier, and a reveller thought by many art historians to be a self-portrait of the artist. While a known self-portrait by Vermeer was destroyed in a fire at The Hague in 1696, there are compelling reasons to believe that he inserted himself into the painting – ssuch as its likeness to a similar self-portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn (1629), the most prominent artist of his time. “The Procuress” is also seen as a transition work between Vermeer’s early historical paintings to those for which he is famous – the serene, warm images of domestic life that dominated the central part of his career. Like with his other works, Vermeer is known to have implemented the “camera obscura” in the composing of his canvases. Many of his paintings feature exaggerated perspectives, where objects in the foreground loom incongruously large and shimmering highlights look slightly out of focus. Vermeer is known to have been in contact with many of the optical scientists of his day, including Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), a designer of microscopes who became executor of the artist’s estate. Recently, several historical novels and films which take Vermeer paintings as their inspiration – such as Tracy Chevalier’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring” – have led to widespread interest in the painter. Set in a tavern, "The Procuress," like many of Vermeer’s other works, has a narrative quality that has attracted speculation about its subject matter and the relationship behind it. Links:
“Samson Proposing the Riddle at the Wedding Feast” by Rembrandt van Rijn
Rembrandt’s dramatic canvases and emblematic style make him one of the most beloved artists of all time. Many of his greatest works were created in his Baroque period, where crowded compositions and dramatic scenes dominated his paintings. These early paintings – completed at a time when the artist was one of the youngest master painters in Europe – make use of his distinctive chiaroscuro style, the pairing of extreme darks and lights to make a dramatic effect Rembrandt is represented in the exhibition by his work “Samson Proposing the Riddle at the Wedding Feast.” In the painting, the artist beautifully recreates the feast at which the Old Testament character Samson posed the allegorical riddle: “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” While the Philistine guest could not come up with the answer, the young bride enticed Samson to give her the answer. Filled with charming details, the painting dramatically portrays both Samson and the wife, who waits confidently at the painting’s focal point for her triumphant moment. “Diana’s Return from the Hunt” by Peter Paul Rubens
The most-sought after Northern European painter of his time, Peter Paul Rubens was a character of formidable distinction. Born the son of a lawyer in Siegen, Germany, his family fled religious persecution to Holland, where he was educated at a Jesuit school. Not just a painter, Rubens embodied the renaissance ideal through his work as a diplomat, a linguist, and a scholar. After the death of his wife Isabella in 1626, Rubens served as diplomat to the King of Spain, helping to establish a peaceful relationship between Spain and England. He was later knighted by English King Charles I. Rubens revolutionized the way that painters approached their art by composing smaller, detailed oil studies of larger works before embarking upon his larger-than-life canvases. He used these modelli to determine the appropriate color, lighting, and composition of his works. His rich, vivid colors and the lively movement of his paintings has had a lasting influence on Western art to this day. A number of works by Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens can be found in the State Art Collections of Dresden. His sensuous “Diana’s Return from the Hunt” is just one that will be on show in Mississippi next spring. With a group of three companions, the goddess of hunting and virginity comes across a group of satyrs in the woods, who with their fruit represent earthly lustfulness. Despite the boundary that is created by Diana’s staff, one of the wood satyrs offers the young ladies a piece of fruit from his bountiful harvest. Painted in the Rubens workshop around 1616, this painting includes fruits and animals by Frans Schnyders.
Early Italian Renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna was born around 1431 in Vicenza and was later adopted by painter Francesco Squarcione. Claiming that his adoptive father had long exploited his talents, Mantegna liberated himself from the painter at the age of 17, setting up his workshop in Padua. At the time, much of Italy held a fascination for the study of Roman antiquities, an interest that often played itself out on Mantegna’s canvases. His work as a painter, draftsman, and engraver made him a much-appreciated master as far north as Nürnberg, where Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer was known to have emulated his style. Mantegna’s art signals the transition from the early to the high Italian Renaissance. Painted around 1485 during a period when Mantegna served as court painter to the Gonzaga family of Mantua, “The Holy Family” is a typical work of the painter in that harkens back to reliefs of antiquity. Mary holds Christ while John the Baptist peeks out from below, brandishing the banderole. Historians have yet to decipher whether the figures to the right and left of Mary’s are St. Elizabeth — John’s mother, and St. Joseph — Christ’s foster father, or Mary’s parents Joachim and Anne. |
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