Idolized and emulated by Vincent van Gogh, Jean-Francois Millet was a realist who mainly portrayed peasant life, inspecting it with a compassionate eye, and rendering his humble models as the heroes of their environment. Therein, of course, lies the problem for Millet’s critics: his scenes may often appear too endearing and idealized, bordering on sentimental. [...]
Stephen Magsig’s many urban scenes share one common feature: despite the realism, they possess an eerie, foreboding atmosphere. Depicted locations appear to have just been abandoned, as if evacuated due to an impending catastrophe. During this unseen turmoil, the artist locks the procession, and documents what has been left behind. Perhaps this mood is characteristic [...]
Jeremiah is the most touching of all the prophets on the Sistine Chapel Ceiling. Especially when compared to the purposefulness of Ezekiel and the focus of Joel, he reveals weakness, weariness and despair — his posture betrays inner suffering. This is a powerful psychological portrait, that epitomizes the anguish and emotional pain of witnessing the [...]
Here the expanse of open space marks a departure from Tracy Helgeson’s usual themes in rural landscape: large groups of trees, impressive barns, powerful color contrasts. This piece is almost an opposite of the crowded “Dark Blue Barn,” where space can hardly breathe, so confined it becomes by the barns and the trees. Together, these [...]
The intense focus with which Michelangelo depicts the biblical prophets, including Ezekiel and Jeremiah, helps to distance them — on a visual as well as on a notional level — from hedonistic physicality of the sibyls. In a way, the discrepancy between Jewish prophets (clarity of motion, simplicity and singularity of focus) and Greek ones [...]
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