Pop Art:

While the term Pop Art is widely known nowadays, its artistic scope and the issues it raises are nonetheless frequently misunderstood. Pop Art in Britain refers to a group of artists who began appearing on the scene in the mid-1950s. This identity was formed around The Independent Group, an intellectual circle consisting of the painters Eduardo Palazzo and Richard Hamilton, the architectural partnership of Alison and Peter Smithson, and the art critic Lawrence Alloway. In its theoretical explorations, The Independent Group focused on a theoretical exploration of technology, hence the recurring references to science-fiction in British Pop Art. 

American Pop Art had no explicit linkups with British Pop Art and refers to a tendency that arose from individual initiatives. Though it was not a structured movement in the sense of a group putting on collective shows, it does however have certain coherence. In general terms, it emerged from the work of Robert Rauschenberg and, chiefly, Jasper Johns, and is characterized by an interest in ordinary objects, irony, and a faith in the potency of images. American Pop Art has its home specifically in New York, where at the outset artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol exhibited, then James Rosenquist, George Segal and Tom Wesselman... 

Abbreviation of Popular Art, the Pop Art movement used common everyday objects to portray elements of popular culture, primarily images in advertising and television. The term Pop art was first used by English critic, Lawrence Allow in 1958 in an edition of Architectural Digest. He was describing all post-war work centered on consumerism and materialism, and that rejected the psychological allusions of Abstract Expressionism. An attempt to bring art back into American daily life, it rejected abstract painting because of its sophisticated and elite nature. Pop Art shattered the divide between the commercial arts and the fine arts.

The Pop Art movement originated in England in the 1950s and traveled overseas to the United States during the 1960s. Richard Hamilton and Eduardo Paolozzi, both members of the Independent Group, pioneered the movement in London in the 1950s. In the 1960s, the movement was carried by Peter Blake, Patrick Caulfield, David Hockney, Allen Jones, and Peter Phillips. In the early sixties, Pop art found its way to the United States, seen in the work of Jim Dine, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg. It developed in the United States as a response to the wealth of the post World War II era and the growing materialism and consumerism in society. The most recognized Pop Artist, Andy Warhol, used a photo-realistic, mass production printmaking technique called seriagraphy to produce his commentaries on media, fame, and advertising.

Pop Art made commentary on contemporary society and culture, particularly consumerism, by using popular images and icons and incorporating and re-defining them in the art world. Often subjects were derived from advertising and product packaging, celebrities, and comic strips. The images are presented with a combination of humor, criticism and irony. In doing this, the movement put art into terms of everyday, contemporary life. It also helped to decrease the gap between "high art" and "low art" and eliminated the distinction between fine art and commercial art methods.

Philippines Art

Fine Art

  

                                 Four Trees

                           Starry Night


                                     

                Irises, Saint-Remy      

           Farm Garden With Sunflower

          Starry Night Over The Rhone 

                           Rest Print

                             Nature Morte

            Rhythm, Joie de Vivre

      The Seated Man, or the Architect

                            Moon Light



                   Almond Branches in Bloom

Michelangelo, the Genius Artist

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was possibly the greatest artist that ever lived. Besides his inherent genius, which alone would have paved the road to his greatness, two events helped him rise even higher: to be born during the most fertile period in Western art in the most artistically developed country of the time: Renaissance Italy.

Not only was Michelangelo a sculptor — his preferred art — he was also a supreme fresco painter — The Creation and The Last Judgement, both in the Sistine Chapel are his — as well as an architect and poet.

He began his career in Florence while the city was at its height, under Lorenzo the Magnificent and moved to and fro Rome, soon to reach its apogee under a series of great popes: Julius II and Leon X, the latter a Medici and a Florentine.

Birth and Early Life

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, his full name, was born on 6 March 1475 at Caprese, while his father was still Podestà of Chiusi and Caprese, a charge he fulfilled until 30 March of the same year, after which the family returned to Settignano, not far from Florence. His mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato del Sera, who died  in 1481, while Michelangelo was still a child.

At last, in 1488, his father gave in and, realising his son’s interest for painting could not be quenched, enrolled him in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio for a period of three years, where, against the normal practice of the times, Michelangelo received a salary.

Apparently it was during this period he began his career as a sculptor. He had access to the collection of Sculptures in the Medici Garden, a connection which eventually drew him into the Medici circle.

After the death of Julius II in 1513, the two Medici popes, Leo X (1513-21) and Clement VII (1523-34) preferred to keep Michelangelo well away from Rome and from the tomb of Julius II, so that he could work on the Medici church of San Lorenzo in Florence. This work was aborted too, although Michelangelo was able to fulfill some of his architectural and sculptural projects in the Laurentian Library and the New Sacristy, or Medici Chapel, of San Lorenzo. The Medici Chapel fell not far short of being completed: two of the Medici tombs intended for the Chapel were installed Tomb of Giuliano de' Medici and Tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici, and for the 3rd Michelangelo had carved his last great Madonna (unfinished) when he left Florence forever in 1534.
 

It was during this period, while he was planning the tombs in the New Sacristy, that the sacking of Rome occurred (1527), and when Florence was besieged shortly after, he helped in fortifying the city, which finally came back into Medici hands in 1530. While the siege was still on, he managed to get away for a while to look after his own property. He incurred the displeasure of Alessandro de Medici, who was murdered by Lorenzino in 1537. This event he commemorated in his bust of Brutus.
 

In September 1534, Michelangelo settled down finally in Rome, and he was to stay there for the rest of his life, despite flattering invitations from Cosimo I Medici at Florence. The new Pope, a Farnese who took the name of Paul III, confirmed the commission that Clement VII had already given him for a large fresco of The Last Judgment over the altar of the Sistine Chapel. Far from being an extension of the ceiling, this was entirely a novel statement. Between 2 projects about 20 years had passed, full of political events and personal sorrows. The mood of The Last Judgment is somber; the vengeful naked Christ is not a figure of consolation, and even the Saved struggle painfully towards Salvation. The work was officially unveiled on 31 October 1541.
 

Michelangelo's last paintings were frescos of the Cappella Paolina just beside the Sistine Chapel, completed in 1550, when he was 75 years old, The Conversion of Paul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter. Michelangelo's crowning achievement, however, was architectural. In 1537-39, he received commission to reshape Campidoglio, the top of Rome's Capitoline Hill, into a squire. Although not completed until long after his death, the project was carried out essentially as he had designed it. In 1546, Michelangelo was appointed architect to St. Peter's. The cathedral was constructed according to Donato Bramante’s plan, but Michelangelo became ultimately responsible for its dome and the altar end of the building on the exterior.
 

He continued in his last years to write poetry, he carved the two extraordinary, haunting and pathetic late Pietas, one of them The Rondanini Pieta in Milan, on which he was working 6 days before his death. He died on 18th of February 1564 at the age of 89 and was buried in Florence according to his wishes.
 

Michelangelo's prestige stands very high nowadays, as it did in his own age. He went out of favor for a time, especially in the 17th century, on account of a general preference for the works of Raphael, Correggio and Titian; but with the early Romantics in England, and the return to the Gothic, he made an impressive return. In the 20th century the unfinished, unresolved creations of the great master evoked especially great interest, maybe because in the 20th century “the aesthetic focus becomes not simply the created art object, but the inextricable relationship of the artist's personality and his work.”

Mona Lisa's eyes is a mysterious code

Hidden behind the Mona Lisa's eyes is a mysterious code made of letters and numbers, according to a controversial claim by members of Italy's national committee for cultural heritage.
Magnifying high-resolution images of the world’s most famous painting would reveal hidden letters and numbers added by Leonardo Da Vinci, said Silvano Vinceti, president of the Committee.
“To the naked eye, the symbols are hard to distinguish, but with a magnifying glass you can see the letters LV behind the right pupil (the left when watching the painting). They could stand for his name Leonardo Da Vinci,” Vinceti told the Italian news agency ANSA.
Even harder to decode would be the symbols in the left pupil (the right when watching the painting).
According to Vinceti, they appear to be the letters CE or simply the letter B. Other symbols would be hidden in the landscape, more precisely in the arch of the bridge.
“They seem to be the number 72, or it could be an L and the number 2,” Vinceti said.
While it is quickly spreading over the Internet to the delight of Dan Brown’s fans, the claim has not gained much support among Leonardo scholars.
“I can’t offer any comment on the scientific value of this 'finding' since the scientific basis to support it are missing,” Carlo Pedretti, the world's leading scholar in Leonardo studies, told Discovery News.
“Under the microscope, the eyes of the original Mona Lisa -- not those appearing in magnifying high-resolution images -- do not present any cryptic sign, such as numbers or letters, but only the craquelure (or cracking) also visible to the naked eye,” Pedretti, who heads the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, said.
Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of the Museo Ideale in the Tuscan town of Vinci, where Leonardo was born in 1452, agrees.
“Scientific tests such as non-invasive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy have revealed many interesting features, but certainly no letters and numbers,” Vezzosi told Discovery News.
“People are so fascinated by this painting that they can see everything in it,” said Vezzosi, the curator of a traveling exhibition called “Mona Lisa Is Naked,” which explores the impact of the enigmatic lady on art while gathering portraits of a half-naked women with clear links to the famous (and clothed) Mona Lisa.
Completed toward the end of the life of Leonardo, who lived from 1452 to 1519, the Mona Lisa has raised
Some, including Vinceti, claimed that the woman with the enigmatic smile was a self-portrait, Leonardo Da Vinci in drag.
Others suggested that the sitter was either Caterina Sforza, the illegitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan; Isabella of Aragon, the Duchess of Milan; or Costanza d'Avalos, Duchess of Francavilla, a mistress of Giuliano de Medici.
In 2005, Veit Probst, director of the Heidelberg University Library, found evidence in notes written in October 1503 in the margin of a book that Leonardo’s model was Lisa Gherardini, a member of a minor noble family of rural origins who married the merchant Francesco del Giocondo.
Attempts to solve the enigma around her smile, described by the 16th century artist and writer Giorgio Vasari as "more divine than human," have included theories that the noblewoman was happily pregnant, suffering from asthma, had facial paralysis or that the smile was the result of a compulsive gnashing of teeth.
Another disease attributed to Mona Lisa is an inherited cholesterol disorder called familial hypercholesterolemia.
The disorder is highlighted by a wart-like lesion of the skin near the left eye (the right when watching the painting) which is basically a cholesterol skin deposit called xanthelasma.
Interestingly, none of the known reproductions of the Mona Lisa feature such skin lesion.
"We might come to the conclusion that none of the copies which have come down to us were based upon a direct confrontation with the Louvre picture, and hence were more than likely copies of copies," the late art historian James Beck wrote in a 2007 paper on the subject.

Mona Lisa's Mysteries

The Mona Lisa is 16th century oil painting created by the renowned Leonardo da Vinci. The work of art depicts an enigmatic woman gazing at the viewer, and it is said that if you move across the room while looking into her eyes, they’ll follow you. It is definitely one of the most popular paintings worldwide and has been the center of many artistic, religious, and theoretical debates. The French government currently owns the Mona Lisa and it is featured at the Musee du Louvre in Paris. The painting can also be referred to as La Gioconda or La Joconde.

The name of the painting stems from the name of the woman in the portrait, Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a wealthy businessman in Florence, Italy named Francesco del Giocondo. Mona means ‘my lady’ or ‘madam’ in modern Italian, so the title is simply Madam Lisa. Art historians agree that Leonardo da Vinci likely began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503, and completed it within 4 years. In 1516 the King of France, King Francois, bought the painting and it is thought that after Leonardo’s death the painting was cut down. Some speculators think that the original had columns on both sides of the lady, whereas other art critics believe that the painting was never cut down in size. It has been suggested that there were 2 versions of the Mona Lisa painting, but many historians reject the second version. The duplicate copy can be found at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. After the French revolution the painting was moved to the Louvre, and Napoleon had it placed in his bedroom for a short time before it was returned to the Louvre. The popularity of the Mona Lisa increased in the mid 19th century because of the Symbolist movement. The painting was thought to encompass a sort of feminine mystique.

In 1911 the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. The art thief hid in a broom closet until the museum closed, stole the painting, hid it under his jacket and walked out the front door. Eduardo de Valfierno was the mastermind behind the theft and has planned to make copies of the original and sell them as the real thing. Eventually, in 1913, he was caught when trying to sell the original to a Florence art dealer. The Mona Lisa is most famous for her facial expression, her enigmatic smile and da Vinci’s mastering of tone and color in the painting. There is much mythology and interpretations relating to the painting that mystify the world. Many art critics and art history buffs suggest that the Mona Lisa is actually a portrait of da Vinci himself in feminine form. In addition, most viewers see the meaning behind Mona Lisa’s smile very differently.
Mona Lisa mysteries
A zoomed-in image of Mona Lisa's left eye revealed a single brush stroke in the eyebrow region, Cotte said.
"I am an engineer and scientist, so for me all has to be logical. It was not logical that Mona Lisa does not have any eyebrows or eyelashes," Cotte told LiveScience. "I discovered one hair of the eyebrow."
Another conundrum had been the position of the subject's right arm, which lies across her stomach. This was the first time, Cotte said, that a painter had rendered a subject's arm and wrist in such a position. While other artists had never understood da Vinci's reasoning, they copied it nonetheless.

"The wrist of the right hand is up high on the stomach. But if you look deeply in the infrared you understand that she holds a cover with her wrist," Cotte said.
Behind a painting
The infrared images also revealed da Vinci's preparatory drawings that lie behind layers of varnish and paint, showing that the Renaissance man was also human.
"If you look at the left hand you see the first position of the finger, and he changed his mind for another position," Cotte said. "Even Leonardo da Vinci had hesitation."
Other revelations include:

• Lace on Mona Lisa's dress
• The transparency of the veil shows da Vinci first painted a landscape and then used transparency techniques to paint the veil atop it.
• A change in the position of the left index and middle finger.
• The elbow was repaired from damage due to a rock thrown at the painting in 1956.
• The blanket covering Mona Lisa's knees also covers her stomach.
• The left finger was not completely finished.
• A blotch mark on the corner of the eye and chin are varnish accidents, countering claims that Mona Lisa was sick.
• And the Mona Lisa was painted on uncut poplar board, contrary to speculations.

In the larger picture, Cotte said when he stands back and looks up at the enlarged infrared image of Mona Lisa, her beauty and mystique are apparent.
"If you are in front of this huge enlargement of Mona Lisa, you understand instantly why Mona Lisa is so famous," Cotte said. He added, it's something you have to see with your own eyes.

GULJEE The famous Artist of pakistan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                      Gulgee, 1926-2007

For Gulgee, the famous and celebrated artist of Pakistan and the subcontinent, life has been a journey in more than one sense, giving him thrill and bliss that are both sensuous and ethereal. He has been to many places and done things that are varied and glorious. At the age of 79, though the visits have become fewer, he remains as zestful a traveler in the realm of the intellect and the senses as he was when the journey began quite early in life. In his inward journey, he remains and intrepid and ever curious.
Born in Peshawar, Gulgee went to Aligarh University to study civil engineering and came off with flying colours. His academic achievements in the university broke all past records and the outstanding stature attained remained unsurpassed. Higher studies took him to Columbia University where he completed post-graduate studies with straight A S and in record time, too. He was offered a full scholarship for doctoral studies by Harvard University, a recognition that any scholar would be proud of. When he successfully completed the academic spell in Harvard, partition had taken place and Pakistan emerged as an independent country.
Gulgee returned to Pakistan, after a short spell in Sweden, with the ambition to start a career that was close to his heart. It was not as an engineer but as an artist that the heart’s desire could be fulfilled. For a person who had prepared himself for a career that had bright prospects and immense prestige, to aspire to become an artist with an uncertain future was not only unusual but it also made him appear as a maverick.
Ismail Gulgee - The Gulgeez  Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz (twice), Hilal-e-Imtiaz, was an award-winning, globally famous Pakistani. He was Ismaili Nizari Muslim (Aga Khani) by faith. He was a qualified engineer in the U.S. and self-taught abstract painter and portrait painter. Before 1959, as portraitist, he painted the entire Afghan Royal Family. From about 1960 on, he was noted as an abstract painter influenced by the tradition of Islamic calligraphy and by the American "action painting" idiom.

The American-Pakistani artists Lubna Aga

Amongst the foremost contemporary American-Pakistani artists is Lubna Agha, whose images challenge the immovable qualities of traditional Islamic art and artifacts to provide a vibrant and ephemeral experience of two contradictory theme.

About Lubna Aga

An important figure in American Pakistan art circles, Lubna Agha’s work involves discourse with her personal history. Whereas the revival of miniature paintings and calligraphy characterize much of modern Pakistan art and contemporary Islamic paintings, Agha’s work draws inspiration from the rich tradition of the past where the meditative and ornamental qualities of the original media take on new meaning and intimacy.
Her art invokes a dialogue between the modern-abstract and the traditional forms and practices of Islamic paintings. This work taps into the profound energy found in ageless artifacts, architecture, manuscripts and motifs — from places as geographically disparate as South Asia and North Africa. She paints mainly on canvas and wood, applying an infinite number of painted pixels and organic shapes that evoke mosaic tiling, intricate carvings, and ornate metalwork.
The total copse of her work resists categorization. Deeply rooted in her personal history, the work is not constrained in the rigid constructions of a traditional heritage. The result is a contemporary visual language that is compelling, richly aesthetic, and stirring to the spirit.

Her paintings point to a new and personal direction in modern Islamic art. She has been the subject of numerous publications — critiques, monographs, and a biography. Her paintings are part of several private and public collections. Her work has been exhibited in art museums and galleries in her homelands of Pakistan and the United States, as well as Britain, Japan, Jordan, and Switzerland.     

some

Quotes by Famous Artists

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.
 Michelangelo

Death means a lot of money, honey. Death can really make you look like a star. 

Andy Warhol 

Picasso is the reason why I paint. He is the father figure, who gave me the wish to paint.
 Francis Bacon

 

I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me.  

 William Blake     

He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.

Leonardo da Vinci

Why do people think artists are special? It's just another job.
Andy Warhol
The problem with the youth of today' is that one is no longer part of it.
Salvador Dali

I loved working when I worked at commercial art and they told you what to do and how to do it and all you had to do was correct it and they'd say yes or no. The hard thing is when you have to dream up the tasteless things to do on your own.
Andy Warhol
I do hope I play out the contradictions that I feel, all the anxieties and dilemmas. If they're there in the work, then that's brilliant. Jenny Saville I try to be a truthful artist and I try to show a level of courage. I enjoy that. I'm a messenger. Jeff Koons

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.

Michelangelo

It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like achild.
 Pablo Picasso

No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.

Edward Hopper

Painting is an illusion, a piece of magic, so what you see is not what you see. I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint? It might be things, thoughts, a memory, sensations, which have nothing to do directly with painting itself. They can come from anything and anywhere.
Philip Guston

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
Francis Bacon

You have to systematically create confusion, it sets creativity free. Everything that is contradictory creates life.
Salvador Dali

Where I was born and where and how I have lived is unimportant. It is what I have done with where I have been that should be of interest.
 Georgia O'Keeffe

Really I do not know whether my paintings are surrealist or not, but I do know that they are the frankest expression of myself.

 Frida Kahlo

Only love interests me, and I am only in contact with things I love.

 Marc Chagall

It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.

Claude Monet

       

The Life and Times of Michelangelo

Birth and Early Life

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, his full name, was born on 6 March 1475 at Caprese, while his father was still Podestà of Chiusi and Caprese, a charge he fulfilled until 30 March of the same year, after which the family returned to Settignano, not far from Florence. His mother was Francesca di Neri del Miniato del Sera, who died  in 1481, while Michelangelo was still a child.

In 1482 Michelangelo began to attend the Grammar school of Francesco da Urbino, known as “The Greek”, due to his knowledge of that language. He was not a brilliant student, preferring to skip class and attend drawing lessons, to the exasperation of both his father and the schoolmaster. Around this time he became a friend of  Francesco Granacci (1469-1543) a pupil of Ghirlandaio, who would bring him in secret drawings by the master, so Michelangelo could copy them.

At last, in 1488, his father gave in and, realising his son’s interest for painting could not be quenched, enrolled him in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio for a period of three years, where, against the normal practice of the times, Michelangelo received a salary.

Apparently it was during this period he began his career as a sculptor. He had access to the collection of Sculptures in the Medici Garden, a connection which eventually drew him into the Medici circle.

Early Career

By the time he was 16 Michelangelo had already produced 2 relief sculptures: the Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs and the Madonna of the Stairs (both from 1489-1492, Casa Buonarroti, Florence), which show that even at an early age he already had evolved a personal style.
Around this time he was assaulted by the sculptor Torrigiani, an envious competitor, who, punching him, left him with his characteristic broken nose.
In 1492, after leaving the Medici home in Via Larga, following the death of Lorenzo, he began studying anatomy with the covert help of the Prior of the Hospital of Santo Spirito. A wooden crucifix, now at the Casa Buonarotti, has been attributed to him, a work he may have produced for the prior in gratitude for the support he received.
In July of the same year, planning to make a statue of Hercules, he bought a block of marble. No work ever being started, he eventually sold it some years later. 

Return to Florence

Michelangelo’s brother Buonarotto visited him in Rome in 1500, reporting that he was still living in penury. The St Peter's Pietà, however,  had made his name famous and he returned to Florence in 1501 in glory. The period from 1501 to 1505, the length of his Florentine stay, proved to be extremely fertile.

in 1501 Michelangelo received a commission for a sculpture of a Madonna to be placed in the church of Notre Dame in Bruges and he was invited to visit the city in 1504.

In May of the same year he received a commission from the Cardinal of Siena (later Pope Pius II) for 15 statues for the Piccolomini altar in the Cathedral of Siena. Only four were completed, those of Sts. Paul, Peter, Gregory and Pius.
In August he was given, at his request, a gigantic block of marble which had been abandoned for 36 years at the Opera del Duomo. A statue had been begun by another sculptor, but so badly, that the whole piece was given as lost. Michelangelo, however, believed it could be saved and promised to deliver a statue in two years’ time. He started work on 1 September and was careful to leave some of the signs made by the previous artist. The figure was ready in April 1504 and proved to be the gigantic David, which was initially placed in front of Palazzo Vecchio. In the XIX century it was replaced by a copy, while the original was moved to the Museo dell’Accademia.

In 1503 he began a series of the 12 apostles for the Cathedral, but only the statue of Matthew, now at the Museo dell’Accademia, was ever completed.

In 1504 he was commissioned by Pier Soderini to paint a fresco in the Council Hall, in Palazzo Vecchio, opposite the one which had been commissioned from Leonardo. Michelangelo chose as subject the Battle of Cascina. This work was actually begun in 1504 but was not finished by the time Michelangelo was called to Rome by the new Pope, Julius II, but the cartoons became an inspiration for all contemporary artists. Only a few of these are still in existence, but we do have some copies of fragments, the best one being the one in Lord Leicester's Collection  at Holkham, Norfolk. As the fresco was to represent the Florentines surprised by enemy troops while bathing in the River, it became knows as “The Bathers”. It became a highly influential work, as it stresses almost exclusively the nude human body as a means of expression. 

Old Age

He began carving a third Pietà, which he intended for his tomb. Not satisfied with the quality of his own work, in the year 1557 he broke the statue and gave the pieces away. It was eventually put together again, being placed in its present location, in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (the museum of the cathedral of Florence).
In 1558 Michelangelo made a clay model of the Laurentian Library, sending it to be shown to Cosimo I for approval,
In 1559 a new pope, this time from the Milanese branch of the Medici, was elected and assumed the name of Pius IV.
In 1560 Michelangelo sent to Cosimo I drawings and a clay model of the Church of S Giovanni dei Fiorentini, which was eventually constructed under his supervision.
In the same year, his 85th, he offered his resignation to the pope as architect of St Peter’s, a dismissal which was refused. The following year the cornerstone of the Porta Pia, designed by him, was laid.
On 29 August it was feared he had died, following a seizure, but it all proved a false alarm and he was soon on his feet again. In 1563 he was reported to be in perfect condition, if a bit weak on his legs, living a normal life, and even, following a misunderstanding, being called before a judge to answer some minor charges. Because of his great age envious colleagues succeeded in taking from him some of his responsibilities at St Paul’s, altering the project to the extent it risked making the building unstable. Michelangelo, however, was kept posted and managed to call Pius IV’s attention to the problem and had it successfully solved and the incompetent architects removed from office.
In 1558 he made the so-called Palestrina Pietà, of which hardly anything is known. It was sculpted on an ancient Roman marble and up to 1938, when it was transferred to the Museo dell’Accademia in Florence, was in the Rosalia Chapel in the Barberini di Palestrina Palace.
On 5 February 1564 Michelangelo began to feel unwell, dying on the 18 of the same month, at the age of 89. He had been working until a few days before on  the so-called Rondanini Pietà, a near-abstract work in which mother and son merge and which is charged with the emotional intensity Michelangelo’s contemporaries called “'terribilità”. It is a world apart from the famous Pietà in St. Peters, a natural evolution, considering  sixty-five years separated one work from the other. This work is now to be found in the Castle in Milan.
Michelangelo’s body was placed in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome, being later transported in secret to Florence, where it arrived after 3 weeks. It was transported, in the presence of a large crowd, to the Church of Santa Croce. The funeral service took place in July, in the Church of St Lorenzo, and the artist was placed in his final resting place rest in the church of Santa Croce. His tomb dates from 1574

Home Michelangelo's Oeuvre

Next

Michelangelo, the Genius

Portrait of Michelangelo by Jacopino del Conte (after 1535) at the age of 60
Birth name	Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
Born	6 March 1475(1475-03-06) near Arezzo, Caprese, Tuscany
Died	18 February 1564(1564-02-18) (aged 88) Rome, Italy
Nationality	Italian
Field	sculpture, painting, architecture, and poetry
Training	Apprentice to Domenico Ghirlandaio
Movement	High Renaissance
Works	David, The Creation of Adam, Pietà

The Father of Modern Art, (Francisco Goya)

de Zurgena, Madrid, Spain Private Collection

Francisco Goya, considered to be "the Father of Modern Art," began his painting career just after the late Baroque period. In expressing his thoughts and feelings frankly, as he did, he became the pioneer of new artistic tendencies which were to come to fruition in the 19th century. Two trends dominated the art of his contradictory; they actually were not. Together they represented the reaction against previous conceptions of art and the desire for a new form of expression. In order to understand the scope of Goya's art, and to appreciate the principles which governed his development and tremendous versatility, it is essential to realise that his work extended over a period of more than 60 years, for he continued to draw and paint until his 82nd year. The importance of this factor is evident between his attitude towards life in his youth, when he accepted the world as it was quite happily, in his manhood when he began to criticise it, and in his old age when he became embittered and disillusioned with people and society. Furthermore, the world changed completely during his lifetime. The society, in which he had achieved a great success disappeared during the Napoleonic war. Long before the end of the 18th century Goya had already turned towards his new ideals and expressed them in his graphic art and in his paintings.
As an artist, Goya was by temperament far removed from the classicals. In a few works he approached Classical style, but in the greater part of his work the Romantic triumphed.
Born in Zaragoza, Spain, he found employment as a young teenager under the mediocre artist José Luzán, from whom he learned to draw and as was customary, copied prints of several masters.
At the age of 17 he went to Madrid. His style was influenced by two painters who were working there. The last of the great Venetian painters—Tiepolo and the rather cold and efficient neo-classical painter—Antonio Raphael Mengs. In 1763 he entered a competition at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, and failed, as he did in the year 1766. In 1770, he want to Rome and survived by living off his works of art.

biography of palbo picasso. " It takes a long time to become young"

                                          Pablo Picasso
                                                Artist

Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881.
By the age of 15 he was already technically skilled in drawing and painting.
 Picasso's highly original style continuously evolved throughout his long career, expanding the definition of what art could be.
 In addition to painting, he would explore sculpture, ceramics and other art forms, and become one of the most influential artists of the 1900s.

Paintings from Picasso's blue period (1901-1904) depict forlorn people painted in shades of blue, evoking feelings of sadness and alienation.
 After his move to Paris in 1904, Picasso's rose period paintings took on a warmer more optimistic mood. In 1907 he and French painter George Braque pioneered cubism.
By 1912 Picasso was incorporating newspaper print, postage stamps and other materials into his paintings.
This style is called collage. By the late 1920s he turned toward a flat, cubist-related style.
During the 1930s his paintings became militant and political. Guernica (1937), a masterpiece from this period depicts the terror of the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war.

Following World War II, Picasso's work became less political and more gentle.
He spent the remaining years of his life in an exploration various historical styles of art, making several reproductions of the work of earlier artists.

Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at his home, Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougin, France. He was buried on April 10 at his chateau Vauvenagues, 170 kilometers from Mougin.

                   "It takes a long time to become young."

                                                                            ---- Palbo Picasso

                                                                                        

If you are aware of any Internet resources, films or books about Pablo Picasso or related subjects feel free to submit comments.

La première communion (First Communion) by Pablo Picasso

La première communion (First Communion) by Pablo Picasso (1896)

His first major painting, an "academic" work is First Communion, featuring a portrait of his father, mother, and younger sister kneeling before an altar. Picasso was 15 when he finished it.

Pablo picasso's First Drawing

 Pablo Picasso's First Drawing

Le Picador by Pablo Picasso (1890)

At the tender young age of 9, Picasso completed his first painting: Le picador, a man riding a horse in a bullfight.