Ilé Ifé, Where the Gods Came Down to Earth.
We do not know his name, but his dignity speaks volumes. This is the head of the Ooni of Ifé, home of the Yoruba in Nigeria,around 1300 A.D.
top of page
Search
Marjorie Vernelle
- Jul 20, 2019
- 5 min
The Mysterious Maya, Sitting in the Eye of the God of Blood
Who dare but a figure sitting in the corner of the eye of a god? The Maya. That is just one of the mysterious things about their culture.
23 views1 comment
Marjorie Vernelle
- Jul 13, 2019
- 6 min
Artemisia Returns and Goes Visiting.
After 300 years, this great female painter is making the rounds this year of schools, libraries, doctor's offices and even prisons!
32 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Jul 7, 2019
- 6 min
Berthe Morisot: The Pensive Gaze
Edouard Manet captured it - that gaze, eyes a bit unfocused, looking but not seeing, with the mind lost in thought.
23 views2 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Jun 29, 2019
- 5 min
Goya, the other Spanish bad boy.
Not all of the assembled poor and common looked at the saint. No some looked down on their betters, the assembled royals of Spain, c.1798
100 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Jun 22, 2019
- 5 min
The Indecent Proposal: Susanna and the Elders, as seen by Tintoretto, Gentileschi and Benton
The apocryphal tale goes like this: Two old men spy on a beautiful woman and accuse her of adultery when she won't have sex with them.
791 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Jun 16, 2019
- 5 min
Frida Kahlo: Accidents and Identity
"There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley. The other was Diego. Diego was by far the worse." Frida Kahlo
450 views2 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Jun 9, 2019
- 5 min
Caravaggio's Angel
Caravaggio was a bad-boy painter if there ever was one. But as he had his lows, so did he have his highs, like this most beautiful of angels
390 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Jun 2, 2019
- 5 min
Amarna: Ancient Avant-Garde
When art breaks the rules in a big way and goes far beyond its normal bounds, we call it avant-garde. But this is not a modern development.
107 views2 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- May 26, 2019
- 6 min
Cezanne, Delacroix, Monet, Renoir, Picasso: In the Artists' Studios
Artists studios are unique places, stores of creative energy and its products. Visiting the studios of famous artists amplify this feeling.
120 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- May 18, 2019
- 6 min
Jan Van Eyck: The Arnolfini Wedding?
Why are the figures in the Arnolfini Wedding standing all dressed up in a rather ordinary bed chamber with a dog and old clogs thrown aside?
183 views2 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- May 12, 2019
- 5 min
Toulouse-Lautrec: Beyond the Posters
My favorite of Lautrec's pastels is Le Lit. I look at it and wonder if this was from Lautrec's real life or just wishing it was.
377 views5 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- May 5, 2019
- 4 min
The Books of Timbuktu
For ages it was deemed impossible to find, requiring either a blistering crossing of the Sahara if coming from the north, or an equally...
28 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Apr 28, 2019
- 4 min
Vermeer and Fabritius: Painted Silence
I always wondered what it was like in Delft that day, October 12, 1654. When I think of Delft, I think immediately of Vermeer and his...
24 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Apr 21, 2019
- 6 min
Notre Dame de Paris is gone (for now), but we still have Chartres.
Note: This post was composed the week before the beautiful heart of France, Notre Dame de Paris, burned. I dedicate this to another...
16 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Apr 14, 2019
- 5 min
Canaletto and Guardi, Face-Off in Venice
Now, I don't like to play favorites, especially when talking about great artists, but between these two views of St. Mark's Square in...
495 views0 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Apr 7, 2019
- 3 min
Hiroshige, Hokusai and The Waters of Japan.
Water, an essential of life on this planet, has never been easy to deal with. We take it for granted until we either don't have enough or...
31 views2 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Mar 31, 2019
- 4 min
Van Gogh in the Rain
Living in the South of France, painting and studying art history, I easily assumed that every museum would have a Van Gogh. I mean they...
40 views2 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Mar 17, 2019
- 3 min
A Brief Homage to Francis Bacon on St. Patrick's Day.
Well, it's St. Patrick's Day, and when I look at the work of the best-selling painter of Irish descent, whose Three Studies of Lucian...
27 views2 comments
Marjorie Vernelle
- Mar 13, 2019
- 3 min
A Mid-week Art Bonus: Cy Twombly - Kiss, Kiss, Baby!
She, Rindy Sam, a Cambodian-French artist, told the court it was an act of love. She might have done better to have called it a crime of...
981 views0 comments
bottom of page