Art History post - Piero della Francesca - Baptism of Christ

Baptism of Christ, Piero della Francesca, 1450, National Gallery in London

Hello everyone,

It has been a long time since I wrote an art/art history blog post and this is something I really enjoyed doing on the blog and sharing some of things I know about paintings. I have spent the last few days trying to decide which painting to share with you all. I have so many favourites that it is hard to pick something but in the end I decided to write about this beautiful painting by Piero della Francesca called The Baptism of Christ. This was one of the first paintings I learnt about and I think it might even be the first painting I ever wrote an art history essay about!

One of the reasons I really love this painting is when I first started learning about it it really wasn't a painting that appealed to me at all. I remember thinking "well this is going to be boring". It wasn't a subject matter that I was particularly interested in or the style and I think I just thought it was going to be old and boring! But, the more I learnt about this painting the more I grew to love it. It was the first painting that I studied first and then went to see in the National Gallery in London and it actually gave me goosebumps!

There is so much you could write about this painting but I hope that this blog post will just give you a little taster!

The Artist: Piero della Francesca

Self portrait of the artist taken from one of his other paintings,  The Resurrection  c.1460

• Born c.1415/20 - 1492 in Borgo Sansepolcro which is town in Tuscany, Italy.
• He was also a mathematical theorist and although a respected artist at the time with high profile patrons, he was most well known for this.
• His work is considered to be part of the Early Renaissance and the medium he is most known for is Painting and Fresco (which is a type of mural painting which you paint directly into wet plaster).
• He was believed to have gone blind in old age
• He was buried in Sansepolcro.

What for and how?

The painting is tempera on panel (poplar). The painting was painted before the invention of oil paints so would have used coloured pigments (this was often ground up insects, semi precious stones etc) with a binder such as egg, honey, glue etc to make a paint.

The painting was painted onto wooden panel. At the time, this was the most common way of painting. It requires a rather lengthy process to prepare the panel to be ready to be painted on including sanding, coating the panel and applying gesso (which is a bit like a primer).

Poplar wood was most commonly used in Italy for panel painting. The Mona Lisa is also painted on Poplar.

The painting was the central section of a polyptych (which is an altarpiece formed of many panels). The painting was commissioned by the Camaldolese abbey in Sansepolcro (his home town) for the chapel of Saint John the Baptist (inside the abbey).

Ghent Altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, 1432 as an example of a polyptych. You can see the many different panels which make up this altarpiece. They are usually hinged so you can fold the altarpiece.

What is happening in the painting?

Christ is in the centre being baptised by John the Baptist which is fitting for it's original setting of the chapel of Saint John the Baptist inside the Camaldolese abbey (now cathedral). Christ has his hands clasped in prayer and John is gently pouring the water on Christ's head. The painting is very linear which creates a still, calm feel and you sense that the scene is quiet and peaceful. If you were to take a pencil and draw all the lines on the painting you would find many straight lines such as the long bodies, the trees etc as well gentle archs which gives the painting its calm feel. Francesca had a love of geometry and the mathematical beauty and harmony so he uses this in his paintings. Directly above Christ is a white dove which symbolises the holy spirit. It is possible that originally, above the painting was another painting representing God and the heavens which would have then completed the holy trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In the background is believed to be the rolling hills of Borgo Sansepolcro which was both Francesca's home town the town in which the abbey who commissioned the painting was located. The congregation of the church would have therefore recognised the landscape. The stream could symbolise the River Jordan which is believed to be where Jesus was baptised. 

To the left of Christ is three angels witnessing the baptism and behind John is another man removing his shirt to also be baptised.

Hope you enjoyed this little introduction into this painting. It is even more beautiful when you see it in person!

Would love to hear your thoughts on this blog post. Did you enjoy it? Did you know this painting before you had read this or not? Should I make art posts a regular feature?

Thanks for reading

The Dorothy Days X

Erased de Kooning Drawing - Robert Rauschenberg - An Art blog post!

Erased De Kooning Drawing, Robert Rauschenberg, 1953.

The work is in the collection of SFMOMA and the image above is copyright of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation with the photograph by Ben Blackwell. 

Hello everyone,

While I was unwell it was what would have been Robert Rauschenberg's birthday. I have not blogged about art in ages so, even though his birthday has now come and gone, I thought I would share with you this clip of Rauschenberg talking about his piece Erased de Kooning Drawing. I once gave a presentation on Rauschenberg and since then have always found his work interesting. This is mainly because his work pushes the boundaries of art and what can be considered art, an area in which I always love writing about.

Robert Rauschenberg (22nd October 1925 -12th May 2008) was an American artist. He is not normally considered to be part of any one artistic movement but his work was extremely influential especially to the Pop Artists. His work is often discussed because of his use of appropriation. In art, appropriation is when an object or image is taken from one source and made into art with little or no changes being made. This is image or object is normally a 'non-art' object but is appropriated and becomes art. One of the most famous examples of this is Marcel Duchamp's Fountain in which he places a urinal on a plinth and signs it 'R. Mutt 1917'. This ordinary object them becomes a work of art. Here Rauschenberg takes an artwork by one of the most famous artists of the time from the Abstract Expressionist movement, Willem de Kooning and erases it. He therefore is appropriating De Kooning's work but unlike Duchamp, where the urinal was before a non-art object, the object was already an art piece before he appropriated it. He transforms a work of art into a totally different work of art therefore allowing new and different interpretations to what was originally intended.

In this clip Rauschenberg talks about how the work came to be.




'The power of Erased de Kooning Drawing derives from the allure of the unseen and from the enigmatic nature of Rauschenberg’s decision to erase a de Kooning. Was it an act of homage, provocation, humor, patricide, destruction, or, as Rauschenberg once suggested, celebration?'
- SFMOMA

Rauschenberg once said 'An empty canvas is full' and here, even though the canvas only has traces of the original artwork, the canvas is still full of meaning. As the SFMOMA puts it, 'Erased de Kooning Drawing eludes easy answers, its mysterious beginnings leaving it open to a range of present and future interpretations.' 


Hope that you enjoyed this blog post.

Let me know what you think about the work in the comment section below and if you would like to read anymore about this work please take a look at the SFMOMA website which I have linked. It is full of information and is where the image and video is from.

The Dorothy Days Xx

Happy Birthday Rodin

Happy 173rd Birthday Rodin! 

Photo Credit - Dalbera

Happy Birthday Hokusai

Happy birthday Katsushika Hokusai (born 31st October 1760) !

The Great Wave off Kanagawa - Hokusai - woodcut - c1829 - 32

Above is his most famous work, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Isn't it just beautiful? To celebrate his birthday I thought I would share with you all 5 facts about Hokusai

1. Over the course of his life Hokusai used over 30 different names (this was common with Japanese artists of this period but not to this extent!) 
2. His work, and Japanese art in general, was hugely influential to the Impressionists. Many of these artists collected Hokusai's woodcuts including  Degas and Gauguin.
3. Shortly before his death aged 89 he is quoted as saying "If heaven gives me ten more years, or an extension of even five years, I shall surely become a true artist." 
4. The Great Wave off Kanagawa is part of a series called Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji in which Hokusai recorded mount Fuji in varying weather conditions, at different distances and in different seasons. The 36 woodcuts were printed in a publication of his work but were so popular that another 10 were later added.
5. Hokusai's style changed many times throughout his artistic career and sometimes as frequently as from one painting to another.

The Dorothy Days

Something beautiful for you to enjoy today....

Springtime by Claude Monet, 1872, Oil on Canvas

Maybe it is a bit strange to be posting a Spring time painting in Autumn time but to me this painting is so beautiful that I just had to share it. The painting is by Claude Monet and shows his wife, Camille Doncieux under a canopy of lilac trees. Look at the dashes of fleeting light on her dress which shine through the leaves from the tree she sits under, so beautiful! She looks so peaceful reading while shading herself from the sunshine and resting in the cool of the tree. The grass looks lush and green and she seems unaware of at peace with her husband sketching her. Just three years after this painting was painted Camille became ill and died from suspected pelvic cancer in 1879. 

The Dorothy Days

Art to cheer you up on a gloomy rainy day

Hello everyone,

Today it is raining like mad here in England. I love listening to the rain but the rain today is the kind of rain which is really fine so gets you soaked but doesn't have all the lovely sounds of 'proper' rain. The sky looks miserable and it is really chilly here too. All in all it is a rather gloomy day! So I was thinking of things that I could post on here which would cheer us all up and I thought what better than some beautiful art to share with you all.

I have picked paintings which are all very different but hopefully you will enjoy looking at.

This is a work by Henri Matisse called  View of Notre Dame, 1914. It is an oil on canvas work and is now in the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)

This is one of my favourite art works. When I first started studying art history I was taken to the National Gallery to see some of the art works. This is one of pieces which really blew me away. It is a million times more beautiful when you see it up close and the colours are amazing. It is a portable altarpiece and was painted in c 1395. The artist is unknown and they also do not know if it is French or English. It is known as the Wilton Diptych. I have to stop myself rambling on here about how amazing this piece as I love it so much! Maybe I will write an art post soon on it :) 

Wheat Field with Cypresses - Vincent Van Gogh - 1889 - National Gallery - London

 Girl with Ball by Roy Litchenstein 1961. This is one of his earliest pop art pieces and is taken from an advert in the New York Times. It is now in the MOMA

Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway which is a painting by  JMW Turner painted in 1844. It is now in the National Gallery in London.

Hope this cheered you up a little on this gloomy Friday afternoon and hope that you are all looking forward to the weekend ahead. Have a great one!

The Dorothy Days X

What better way to start a Tuesday....

Hello everyone,

As most people are going to be back to work today I thought we could all do with some cheering up so what better thing to cheer you up with than a Monet's waterlilies. The colours are even more incredible when you are standing next to the real thing.  

Have a great week everyone,

The Dorothy Days Xxx