Paintings and Music

We have watched a number of art documentaries recently on Amazon Prime, hosted by Waldemar Januszczak, a British critic.  We have watched a 4-part series on the Renaissance, a 3-part series on the Rococo, and several  one-offs on individual artists, such as Holbein and Dobson.  We still have several more to watch, including ones on Manet and Gauguin.  We have also constantly visited great American art collections in Detroit, Chicago, Toledo, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and many others, and have explored the paintings in London, UK, in great detail, as well as the Prado (several dozen visits over a summer spent in Madrid), and, most recently, two visits to Vienna, mainly to see works by Bruegel the Elder.  We hit the jackpot both times; in the fall of 2017 we saw the Vienna paintings, as well as a major loan exhibit of his works on paper at the Albertina; then, in the fall of 2018, a stunning and unprecedented exhibit of his paintings and graphic works.

The collection I know best, however, is the one housed in the Detroit Institute of Arts.  I just finished reading one of the many publications about that great art museum.  This one was called European Vistas, Cultural Landscapes, and discusses many of the great landscapes in the museum.  The DIA is where we really got our art education, and the Detroit Symphony and other musical organizations over there (we live just across the river from Detroit) gave us our music background.  I have heard virtually every major living pianist thanks to Detroit, some of them many times.

When I returned from the first visit to Vienna, I began showcasing some of my favourite paintings from Detroit here (look back to October or November 2017).  I am going to resume that feature, beginning today, and will try to put up a different picture each time I blog (time permitting).  So here is painting number one....

 The Finding of Moses, by Salvatore Rosa, ca. 1660-1665.

158 cm x 255 cm.  

This is a very large painting, and one of my very favourites!  It is one of the finest landscapes Rosa ever painted, and when you come across it in the gallery, you are struck by the drama of the sky, the rocks, and the trees.  The human action seems dwarfed by nature.

Detail of above.  The detail makes a complete painting, with the human actions now getting top billing.  However, even if this was the whole painting, it would still be considered a fabulous landscape!

 Detail of the right side.  Very much like a painting from the late 1800s.

 Detail of the top right side of the picture.  

What kind of artist could paint in such a Romantic style, but in Baroque times!  Next entry we will meet the man in person, as Detroit also has his self-portrait!

Speaking of concerts, we have six great ones coming up, March through May.  Four of them are at Orchestra Hall, featuring the DSO.  Among works we will be hearing are Mahler's 5th Symphony (for another blast of Austria), the Beethoven 4th Piano Concerto, performed by Helene Grimaud, whom I adore, Prokofiev Symphony #4, an all-Vivaldi concert, Brahms 4th Symphony, the incomparable Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (there is also a terrific solo piano version), and Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra.  We also have two chamber concerts in there, one of them Bartok and Haydn with the Julliard Quartet, in very intimate surroundings at Wayne State University (where I attended part time for 7 years to earn my M. Mus.), and next day to hear the Julliard again, performing a Beethoven quartet, and one by Dvorak.

And around the house we are continuing with the listening program of 104 Haydn Symphonies (our 2nd time around), the complete works of Brahms, the complete organ works of Buxtehude, the complete works of Britten, and the Mozart Piano Concertos and operas.  My own piano program is getting its final polish.  As soon as I can get some good reading glasses, I will announce a date.  And of course Deb continues to win awards and fans, this time with her web series featuring Yorick the Skull!  I get to reprise my role as Hamlet (a TV host).  In fact, my bit part as Hamlet was in a movie of Deb's that showed in Stratford Upon Avon, England.  So I can now say, with authority, that I have played Hamlet in Stratford, England!!

Mapman Mike