Madonna And Child On A Throne was a double altarpiece of Italian painter Duccio. The first one (made in 1302) was originally preserved in the Siena Palace of the Republic, but now lost now. The second one (made from Oct.9, 1308 to Jun.9, 1311) was made for the Siena Cathedral, which was one

of the largest altarpieces at that time. The positive leniency panels were painted by the patron saint of Siena to worship the mother and son surrounded by the saints and angels. Below was the direct opposite the altar table, depicting 7 scenes of Christ childhood; it was painted with delta frontal virgin life scenes of the life of Christ were painted on the back. The main screen and the most narrative painting are now preserved in Cathedral of Siena museum.

Madonna And Child On A Throne was Duccio’s greatest work. This work was entrusted by the Siena Cathedral and made from 1308 to 1311. When the work was completed, Siena line team escorted Madonna And Child On A Throne to the cathedral, small shops were out of business and steel bells were ringing. But this masterpiece in the future had gone through the fate of dismemberment. Now the world’s several museums were in possession of its local fragments. Both sides of Madonna And Child On A Throne had the paintings: the positive side was composed of three parts. The main part was the scene that Madonna ascended the throne surrounded by angels and saints. The above and below mainly described the later life of Madonna and deeds of Jesus’s childhood (now disappeared without a trace); the back of the painting was Jesus’s mystery. The positive part of body was made with the golden tune, with red and black, the whole scene was beautiful and brilliant. Madonna was wearing a black cloak and sat on her knees benevolence, on both sides of the distribution of angels and apostles symmetrically, the throne decorated with exquisite openwork pattern. The whole painting fully displayed the glory and beauty of a country. Despite of the influence of Byzantine stylized, the composition of this painting was somewhat cautious, the advantages and the depiction of the characters made it an early example of fine small elegant style.

Even if the object was the King, he would never be lenient. Let alone ingratiate with them, all the good and ugly things had nowhere to hide. Francisco de Goya (from 1746 to 1828) swayed a ruthless realistic brush.

He painted many portraits for various famous people, depicted their characters penetrating. The King of Spain Charles IV still granted him the title of “The foremost painter in Spain”.

Once, Goya was summoned to the palace for painting portraits for the King.

Charles IV praised him and said that “You’re the greatest painter in Spain, only you qualify to paint for the royal family. Today, I request you to draw a family portrait for me, if you paint well, I will reward you”.

Goya agreed to take over this work. Charles IV was pretty satisfied with the painting when Goya gave it to him. Suddenly he found that there was something wrong with the painting and said seriously: Why there are only 6 hands with 14 people, where are the hands of these people?

“I do not know either.” Goya replied.

Charles IV pointed to the picture angrily and said:” I command you to fill up all these disappeared hands.”

Goya shook his head which meant that refusing to do it, Charles IV was so angry that he evicted him from the palace.

Someone heard about the anecdote later and came to ask him why he did not paint the hands. His answer was excellent, he said that:” Those so-called princes are parasites only good at opening their mouths and eating, they have no hands. That’s a fact.”

One day, a doctor who was admiring Goya commissioned him to depict a portrait for him. When Goya finished, he said gladly:” I hear that you are very principled and do not easily draw the hands for people. But you draw both my hands on this painting, I’m greatly honored. Thus I will pay huge sum of money to thank you”.

“Is that true?” Goya uttered a sneer and said:” Do you know why I paint both of your hands on the picture? Do not be happy too early. I just want to let everyone to see the hands of “murderer”. So, do you still want to thank me?”

At this time, the doctor’s face turned green. It turned out that the doctor seemed like an elegant gentleman. But in fact, he was a ruthless murderer. He once murdered his friends in order to take away the beautiful and charming wife of his friend.

The hands on the picture glowed evil red blood faintly.

It appears that, painting the hands or not means harsh criticism. The most valuable thing was that, as a court painter, Goya was able to attack the decadent rulers and ugly, dark sides of the society ruthlessly and cleverly. This made his portraits take off the hypocritical cloak and become a mirror reflecting “realities.”

 

 

 

 

 

The sex painter Gustav Klimt was fond of playing with women, it was well known.

Now and again, you could see two or three models were hanging about with their underwear or even naked in his studio. It was said that Klimt sometimes might stop painting and look for a model to play sex games to stimulate his inspirations of painting.

He never married, but there were 14 persons came out to division his property after his death and claimed that they were all his illegitimate sons. Although Klimt owned various women, but there was one woman who stayed at his side for 27 years long and never left or forsake. She was Emily.

So, what was the relationship between Klimt and Emily?

Klimt’s little brother married Emily’s little sister. They two are also deeply attached to each other, but their relationship had not been formalized. Except the annual vocation at the Atlantis, there was no direct evidence to prove that they had physical relationships.

Emily, this incredible woman with beauty, talent and taste was also the business partner of Klimt. She and her little sister opened an avant-garde style clothing store in Vienna and Klimt designed clothing and jewelry on behalf of the store. He fully supported Emily to a fashion designer.

Someone pointed out that, since they were like husband and wife, why did not they get married? And the more surprising was that, why he kept seeking the satisfactions of the sensory organ from the other women?

Perhaps he was starved of loving but he did not dare to take responsibilities. Perhaps Emily was the one he could love but not the object that he could create lust. Or maybe he could not entirely affirm his love on her.

Maybe Klimt was not able to promise her a bright future, but he integrated with her by the painting “The Kiss”. It was said that the elliptical spiral on her clothes was the symbol of female genitalia and the long box of the man’s clothes was the symbol of male genitalia.

Klimt was born in an industrial art family; his father was a gold crafter and copperplate arborist. And his early enthusiasm to decorative painting and the Byzantine mosaics made him interested in decorating his paintings with gold leaf and opened his golden period. The protagonists were coated by the pupa and totally immersed in the golden eternal happiness.

Tracing back to 1902, when Klimt made the painting “Beethoven frieze” public, he declared that this was a kiss to the whole world. But when came to this painting “Kiss”, his kiss no longer belonged to the people around the world, it only belonged to the woman he deeply loved. He confessed passionately in front of the world- I love this woman, with this soulful century kiss.

Surprisingly, this painting “The Kiss” was not considered as low-level erotic painting and was bought by the Government of Austria at its first exhibition. Maybe it turned the strong passion into praise of divine love and became famous.

Emily used her own form to keep this relationship after the death of Klimt. She remained a “Klimt room” with his easel, kimono and hundreds of sketches in there. But the door was locked up forever, and only leaving this golden kiss to witness the golden period of their mysterious love.

 

 

Balthus was a French painter. His primitive name was Balthasar Klossowski. He was his pseudonym used after attending art. He once was referred to as “the greatest painter of the 20th century” by Picasso. He was born in a Polish noble family. His parents both had made many achievements in arts. His father Erich was an art historian and painter, his Jewish mother was a painter. His brother who was 3 years older than him became a famous surrealist novelist, critic and painter.

As a painter, he received great artistic edification since he was very young. Symbolism painter Pierre, Fauvist master Matisse and musician Stravinsky and other celebrities in the Paris Art World were guests of his family in his childhood. They often came to his home and communicated with his parents about arts.

Due to the advantaged and unique growth environment, Balthus had a wide range of interests about arts from childhood, especially had a strong fascination with painting. He published a set of comic book which created according to the Chinese stories at 13. Albeit it could not be called excellent works, but his singular temperaments of becoming a great painter had been fully revealed.

He was a lonely but very wealthy painter. Most time of his whole life, he lived in a mountain village in Alpine Valleys in the western Switzerland. He and his Japanese wife had a reclusive and solitary life, with a complicated and confusing layer of mysterious color. The personality traits of Balthus were reflected in his art works clearly. He was good at revealing the mental activities of the people at ordinary life scenes. Paranoid psychological from the childhood was often reflected in his paintings.

His works were indifferent, sly or crafty, which seemed to contain inexplicable senses of thinking. This kind of thinking was extremely profound and also integrated with poetic lyrical atmosphere. The more objective impact was no one could tell the creative intentions of the painter. He held his first art exhibition in Pierre Paris in 1934 and received extensive attentions of the art world immediately. It seems that he was obsessed with such theme that the young girls closing to puberty, the heart evoked the desires for opposite sex, sex means seemed like the half-awake state. Since then, he established a supernatural, impersonal emotional psychological of painting which probing deeply of human minds deliberately. There was a blurred melancholy diffusing in the pictures.

Although Balthus never had received official education, the traditional classicism painting had profound impacts on him. No matter the appearances or the layouts of his works all reflected deep classical brands. The Saint Andre cross appeared in his paintings with the form of deformational body. The head,

feet, knees and elbows of the model formed the unique visual mode. That was probably a concept that image extended to space unlimited This concept of unlimited space and time was not created by Balthus, it could be traced back to the variant art of Baroque era. But we can not sure that whether Balthus got references from it or not.

The universe of Van Gogh lasted forever in the work Starry Night . This is an illusion which exceeds any trails the Byzantine or Roman artists had

1889. He was admitted to this sanatorium after the second crash of his nerves. His state of illness was good and bad sometimes, he was full of emotions when he was in his right senses and kept painting ceaselessly. The main colors are blue and violet and beating the shining yellow regularly. The dark green and brown cypress in the foreground means the vast night in the world. Vincent Van Gogh inherited the great traditions of portraiture; this is uncommon in the artists of his generation.

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699 – 1779) was a well-known French painter in the 18^th century. His genre paintings are highly appreciated and he is regarded as a master of still life. From most of his paintings, we can see kitchen maids, children, and domestic activities, etc. Chardin had a widely influence on the modern art, He was one of Henri Matisse’s most admired painters; His works were of carefully balanced composition, soft diffusion of light.

Soap bubbles is a genre painting by Chardin in his early years. It depicts a poorly dressed boy blowing soap bubbles from indoor to outdoor. He was attentively and carefully blowing soap bubbles bigger and bigger. There is another child, around 3 or 4 years old, tiptoes and looks out from the window. The theme is ordinary and scenario is very simple. It is a kind of leisure and comfortable life, reflecting the pure and good feelings of the children in lower class.

The second half of the 18th century, civilian realism art appeared French Rococo art .They are both opposed to classicism that keeps away from the life and intend to reflect the real life. The difference between them is that the former is for the upper social class, while the latter middle and lower classes. Therefore, Chardin could be regarded as a member of civilian realism.

Chardin received high praise from Diderot. He specialized in still life paintings and genre painting. He attempted to reflect the interest of the city populace life through his still life paintings, and to reflect their hard-working, frugal good moral characters of through his genre paintings. His genre paintings were influenced by the Dutch School, but he tends to be more profound in thought. He was good at combining characters with their living environment. His representative works are Frau, Geschirr scheuernd, Girl with Racket and Shuttlecock and this painting Soap bubble.

 

 

The Grande Odalisque is an important work of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, If strictly required based on the classical style, there were many “deviant” places in this painting. First of all, the “range” of color had been severely damaged. The strong blue and the yellow naked skin on the background as well as the light and dark body and the pink tone were not harmonious. Secondly, the exaggerated form mentioned above. The female nude almost became the test of deformation beauty and completely betrayed the teacher’s training. Ingres’s student Duval had tried to defend him, he said: “I do not want to say, Mr. Ingres is romanticism. But I also affirm that he never did understand the ‘classical’.” Ingres seemed to show his independence in the face of the nature, but because of the firm belief of Ingres’s aesthetics, this performance led to people’s ambiguity for his ideas. Attack and criticism could

to duel with scabbard.” The critics De Kailateli spoke more pertinent and told Ingres’s students, “His maid’s back at least had three vertebras.” However, Ingres’s student Amauri Duval who once made the biography for Ingres said more positively, “He may be right, but so what? Perhaps this long waist made her so gentle and attracted the audience all of a sudden. If her body proportion was absolutely correct, it was likely not so attractive.”

Barge Haulers On The Volga is a masterpiece of Repin, and it is also known as his signature work. On the composition of this painting, Repin made the eleven barge haulers appeared on a yellow and high foundation by making full use of the terrain of the beach and the transition of the river bend. The barge haulers were just like a group of statues that made this painting with a magnificent profound tension.

Let’s have a close look at this painting. Barge Haulers On The Volga depicts 11 barge haulers dragging a barge by the Volga River. The barge is too heavy and the 11 men have to collapse forward in exhaustion on order to drag the large boat forward. And we can see that the weather is obviously hot.

There are many straight and curve lines in this painting. The painter created this work in such line to create thin and thick objects. Repin was good at using the lines in his paintings. And in Barge Haulers On The Volga, The straight line and the curve line match each other perfectly so that to create a wide field of vision. The barge haulers created by thin lines and thick lines showed us the hard work of the men. The main apart of this painting is the 11 barge haulers, from who we can feel what the painter want to tell us. Repin also used contrast of the colors to express his emotion.

Most of Ilya Repin’s works are famous, and the portrait of Musorgsky and Barge Haulers On The Volga is one of the most famous paintings. He was the leader of the Realism painting in the 19th century. His friends were many famous people such as Musorgsky, Tolstoy and Rubinstein. Repin is considered as the national painter and a rare virtuoso artist in Russia.

The Bather of Valpinçon was a painting depicting plump woman. This woman image which was full of love and beauty reflected the aesthetic view of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. The structure of figure in the painting was accurate and the texture of the skin was delicate. In color, neutral slants were used to give people with noble and quiet feelings. The creases in the bedspread, bed sheets and caps were extremely delicate and vivid, which

to talk in an impressive way. The sketch of the human body oil painting had a special aesthetic expression. The Bather of Valpinçon reflected that Ingres took advantage of the overall sense and exquisite feeling of the female body to express the simple, clean and concise human beauty.

 

In the biblical story, Jesus said to Pharisees, “They are blind guides; if the blind leads the blind, both shall fall into the pit.” The folk proverbs also said, “Both are doomed if the blind guides the blind.” In Parable of the

will be very difficult.

Some people thought that this painting by Bruegel was one of the European peak works in the 16^th century. Profound philosophies in the authentic art image were the artistic characteristics of Bruegel. Both the natural scenery and characters he created had the reality of Netherlands’s life, even if was exaggerated, it was never far from the fundamentals of real life.