Some of my favourite works of art
Under Construction
last updated: 20/04/98
Index: Aegina | Uccello | Mantegna | della
Francesca | Vermeer | Beardsley | de Saint Phalle
Aegina (Aphaia Temple)
I found a very comprehensive site with pictures
of the sculptures now in the Glyptothek in Munich. Nice archaic
smiles, despite the gory subject matter.
Paolo Uccello
There are a number of websites on Uccello: a brief
biography, a
whole homepage with pictures and bibliography!, and a biography (in
Italian) with a few
pictures.
- one of his best pictures is actually right here in Oxford: The
Hunt in the Ashmolean (tiny reproduction plus poem),
- a great predella with lots of cute black devils is in the Palazzo
Ducale in Urbino,
- a weird picture of St. George on a beautifully rounded Uccello
horse, about to kill the Dragon (who hasn't got
any arms, only legs, but extremely nice green wings with a huge pink spot
on it, brighter on one side of the wing than the other), who's held on a
very fragile red leash by the princess - there are strangely patterned
patches of grass there as well, a rocky cave with a spring in it, a dark
wood in the background, oddly curling clouds, the moon and a walled white
city on the hills far away (in the National Gallery - again there's a tiny
reproduction of it plus a poem on the Net),
- on a larger scale, there the Battle of San Romagno: its three panels
are - in different states of restoration - in the National Gallery in
London, in the Uffizi in
Florence (on the net: picture
and short explanation, and another tiny picture
and short
note) and in the Louvre (the only one I haven't yet seen...)
Andrea Mantegna
- I like his Camera degli Sposi in Mantova best: on one wall
there
is a very interesting
portrait of the court of the time, including Barbara of Brandenburg (on
whom my friend Ebba is writing her dissertation - very very
interesting!!). On another
wall you can see dogs and horses and trees,
instead of the court architecture - all in bright colours (restoration
works finished only recently)!
- The ceiling's painted, too: including the famous fake "skylight".
Piero della Francesca
I've found one website with lots of tiny pictures.
- Some of my favourite paintings are those showing Madonna and
Child, the former typically statuesque and unmoved: especially the
Madonna of
Segnigallia in Urbino, and the Madonna and Child with Saints in the Brera.
Jan Vermeer van Delft
There is a good website with very many of
his pictures, and one with an article questioning Vermeer's use of the
camera obscura. Other links (and locations of paintings!) are on this general
comprehensive website.
- I really like the two paintings of his in the National Gallery,
both feature women and musical instruments - one in a very light room,
with a very nice picture of Amor (by a contemporary Dutch artist) on the
wall, the other in a shaded room with drawn-up tapestry (very
characteristic) - there's so much detail in them, and great handling of
light, esp. highlights, and a feel for texture, one can spend hours
looking at them!
- There is also (I believe?!) a painting of a nice red-brick house, seen
from the street, which is very atmospheric...
Aubrey Beardsley
I've so far found one very good website on Beardsley
and "decadence", with a number of good pitcures available, as well as
lots of background information. There's another page with some of
his less interesting pictures.
- Quite a number of his drawings are available in the Etchings and
Drawings Room in a wing of the Vic & Albert, everyone can order them up
to have a look at!
- Sometimes there's one or two on show in the Tate, too,
but as the drawings were meant to be published as prints anyway, you may
well get out a book: my favourites are the pictures (very roccocco!) to
Pope's Rape of the Lock, and the earlier one for Wilde's
Salome
- a good general collection is published by Dover (I prefer the "Later
Work").
Niki de Saint Phalle
You can also have a look at the original, brightly
coloured version of the background (to be established...) for this
page (c) Sophia Fowler.
* return to the top of this page | my
homepage
| my books page | my
films page.