Hi, DUers! A post-Christmas Friday Afternoon Challenge for you: “The Beautiful Couples!”

[CTyankee]

Name the artist and the work AND at least ONE of the two major aspects that they all have in common!

...and without cheating!

1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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5.
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6.
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[fascisthunter]

1. I really don't know... but should actually

I bet #6 inspired Maxfield Parish's style somewhat.

[CTyankee]

4. You might be right! Nothin's new...

[fascisthunter]

67. never, but the artsists are always original

in being who they are, regardless of style.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I think the last one

might have been done by Pinky.

[Shrike47]

3. I was gonna say what they have in common is bare butts, but # 5 blows my theory.

[seabeyond]

5. lots of closed eyes. and there is a fluidness in all. nt

[CTyankee]

8. No, but there ARE lots of closed eyes!

Interesting about the fluidness you see...it's a style thing...

[Shrike47]

6. #4 is Cupid and Psyche by Francois-Edouard Picot

Are they all Greek myths?

[CTyankee]

7. Hey, good for you? Do you know this painting?

No, they are not all Greek myths...

[Shrike47]

13. No, I just thought of the pairing and found it.

I love these Friday afternoon challenges but I have poor visual memory so I always have to look.

[Lithos]

9. A stab

1. The Ghosts of Paolo and Francesca Appear to Dante and Virgil - Ary Scheffer
2. Cephalus and Aurora - Francois Boucher
3. The Loves of Paris and Helen - Jacques-Louis David
4. Cupid and Psyche - Francois Picot
5. The Bolt - Jean Honore Fragonard
6. Aurora and Cephalus - Pierre-Narscisse Guerin

Commonality - Rococco style

On edit - my wife helped a lot.

[CTyankee]

10. Is this your specialty? You have them right of course...but I wonder...

if you know them so well, why did you mess up so badly on the style?

I will await your explanation on that...

[Lithos]

12. My wife knew the pictures

I tried to guess the commonality...

L-

[CTyankee]

15. well, perhaps your wife knows the real commonality of style here...

[Lithos]

35. She said you would be looking for Neoclassicism

Even though Boucher is pretty much tied only to Rococo.

L-

[CTyankee]

44. Boucher and Fragonard are in the Rococco era. Three others are in neoclassicisim.

She and you forgot the first one by Scheffer. He was a Romantic era artist (theme and style informs this painting).

[Tikki]

11. Dogs love to hang out with the family in the boudoir....

#2.


Tikki

[jberryhill]

14. I just want to say "Titian"

So....

Titian.

[CTyankee]

16. sorry I can't accommodate you here with more Titian...

[Aerows]

17. All of them look sort of blurry

and all of them except 2 look a little damaged. Beautiful, though.

Were all of these done in water color instead of oil and that accounts for the blurriness and some of the fading?

[CTyankee]

18. No, they are all oils.

It's interesting that you say that because I think these works were all pretty well sheltered from the elements (just because of their era), unlike so many frescoes and earlier paintings that used more delicate paint materials.

[Aerows]

19. LOL

Just making an observation. I never get any of these right, but I always enjoy looking and giving a crack at it. Is one of the common things where they are displayed?

[CTyankee]

20. Actually, you are right! Do you know where that is?

[Aerows]

21. OMG! I actually guessed something right?

No, I don't know where they are, but they all kind of have the same type of lighting on them so I thought maybe they are all being displayed in the same place. LOL.

[CTyankee]

22. well, take a guess. You will probably be right!

[Aerows]

25. I was going to say the Louvre

but pinboy3niner beat me to it. He seems to be right quite a bit, so I'll go with that.

[CTyankee]

27. Oh, don't worry, you got a big one with your earlier guess...

[pinboy3niner]

30. I only got it because you pointed me toward location, location, location

I thought one was in the Louvre, but I had no idea about the others. Nice work, partner!

[Aerows]

32. It was the lighting that lead me to that idea

I enjoy these but this is the first time I ever got something right!

[pinboy3niner]

70. You did good

Hang in there, sister. This art dunce started with simple searches, and gradually got better at it. You're already picking up on stuff that I missed. Before you know it, we'll have to issue you your own Art Detctive raincoat...

[pinboy3niner]

23. The Louvre?

I think that's where the Boucher is.

[CTyankee]

24. It certainly is!

Sorry you came after the not so big finish here...I was hoping for more, shall we say, conversation?

Oh, well. Maybe you know the OTHER commonality...and NO, they are not all Roccoco (only 2 actually)...

[Aerows]

28. Yeah and "they all seem kind of blurry"

is already taken, so obviously it is something else LOL!

[CTyankee]

31. You know, I always get the image on Google blurry first but then it "self corrects" on my computer.

But I don't know anything about computer stuff...

[Aerows]

33. You probably have some type of photoshop

filters installed that correct it for you, or an application dedicated to viewing images.

[CTyankee]

46. If I do, I'm lucky, because I don't know that I got that!

I certainly didn't know there was an app for that...I am pretty much tech challenged! LOL...

[pinboy3niner]

36. The use of illumination?

That's just a stab in the dark, so to speak, but the way the artists illuminated the subjects is very noticeable here.

[CTyankee]

43. it is not that complicated, really...very simple...

[CTyankee]

45. You know, that's true. There is no chiarascuro!

but that isn't it. The answer, however, is so simple, really...

[jberryhill]

26. Naw, the Boucher...

...is in a tub with the baker and the candlestick maker.

[CTyankee]

29. Boucher was more about butts really...this wasn't one of them but his biggie at the Louvre was...

I don't display it because I think the girl in it is just too young...

[jberryhill]

38. That's why I'm more of a Titian kind of guy

I don't know if Titian did any miniatures.

[CTyankee]

47. I meant age-wise. I don't display art if I think it exploits children....

nobody should...

[jberryhill]

64. How old is the cherub in #6?

[CTyankee]

65. Usually cherubs are not sexualized in the way that girls are.

Altho the concept of a cherub as an "assistant" of Venus is quite common, the cherub usually doesn't represent an object of child rape. As you know, it is usually in a playful way. AS in playful little angels, puttii.

[pinboy3niner]

34. I thought he went home to Texas

Though I hear he took up painting...

[Aerows]

37. You are thinking of the

big butthead, not the one big into butts.

[CTyankee]

40. Is there a reason you posted this here?

What is the point?

[Ms. Toad]

41. They are all Rubenesque? n/t

[CTyankee]

42. No, Rubens was earlier, in the Baroque era. This was later. However,

I can see how you would make the connection. The difference is that Rubens women are much fleshier than these. I wonder if there was a cultural difference between the era of art and also of the location (Rubens was in Antwerp Belgium).

[Aerows]

48. So ultimately, what was the answer?

Or has no one gotten it yet. I know I'm all out of ideas.

[CTyankee]

49. Simply that all the artists on this thread are all French...

I wish it had been more about the works themselves. That would have been much more interesting.

I had envisioned and hoped for an art thread with my Challenges that would stoke an interest in discussing/discovering art. I am disappointed that there has been a turn of events, as I see it, on this particular Challenge. I won't say anything more, at least now now. I have to think this through...

[Aerows]

50. Oh, is that why all of them are displayed at the Louvre?

Hey, I think one of the posters cheated. Many of us are sincere about enjoying these threads - I do and I've been following them for over a year and just enjoy the beauty you bring to us, and the education. You can't keep people from cheating, but those that enjoy these and genuinely want to improve their knowledge and appreciate art and culture will challenge themselves and not cheat.

Sorry that happened. Some people seem to think "winning" is more important than learning and enjoying the journey. Poorer are they.

[CTyankee]

53. Yes, that is why. I just thought it was interesting after perusing a big art book on the Louvre.

Glad you like the Challenge. I liked it too. I'm just rethinking the whole project. It really IS pretty easy to cheat, I know that. It's just discouraging to even think that someone would want to do it. Seems so self defeating. What on earth do you get from it?

Oh well....thank you for your kind words...I do appreciate them!

[Aerows]

54. Here's an idea

Maybe on the next challenge, take a thematic element from a painting and only display a certain portion of it (the most important part - you are the expert, I'm sure you know what that is in each painting). Then as the paintings are guessed, display the whole image and guess what is the common theme. That way it's a harder to cheat.

Make sense? It could be fun for a one off. I don't know how to totally prevent cheating, but I don't know enough about art other than to suggest things that will throw Google Image search off. Using just the thematic elements and removing the rest and having folks guess which is the artist or the genre would work.

Hope that helps, and PLEASE don't stop these, CTYankee, just because some bonehead has to come in and cheat. Many of us that show up in these threads week after week truly enjoy them (even when, like me, they don't know very much). I've learned a lot from these threads. I still love some of the still life pics with the bold colors you've chosen.

[CTyankee]

56. Oh, thanks, I know folks like it...

and you are right, when I do more thematic elements it is harder to cheat altho one could by just doing a bit of research on one or two on Google. But even so, that's what I really want people to do, in order to enjoy the art even more, so I really don't object AT ALL when they do that!

And I have done "details' of paintings to illuminate a theme on a thread. So it can work out OK...

I cannot tell you how many DU folks have told me about their experiences with the art I display and how they affected them. It makes me so happy! I just love those posts! It' really is the whole point of the Challenge, because the challenge part is just a way to get folks involved....what I am really interested in is hearing about how people react/reacted to the art. I think it is important in our lives.It makes us more human.

[redqueen]

51. Since I now know the names of the paintings,

I was going to guess that they're all couples from legend and literature, but The Bolt throws that off.

I don't know much about art but I sure love looking at it. Looking forward to finding out the answer.
I need to seek out these threads.

[CTyankee]

55. The Bolt is a different genre from all the others. It is Fragonard and it is Rococco.

That, and the Boucher are both Rococco. The rest, except for #1, are neoclassical French. #1 is Romantic, an era that followed immediately AFTER neoclassical.

You are right that they are all, except for Fragonard, couples from legend and literature, esp. #1. The Fragonard appears to be just a flight of fancy on his part. He did stuff like that...

[elleng]

52. Fabric!

Just got here, yank!

[CTyankee]

57. Well, hi! I like your answer!

but I'm afraid there's too much flesh in these works of art to accomplish much of the fabric theme! Seems to be the neoclassical French theme doncha think?

[elleng]

59. Mais oui!!!

[CTyankee]

61. Altho on second thought I did look at the fabric more and it seemed to be pretty exciting!

It does have a nice feel to it, doesn't it?

[elleng]

62. Quite,

they all 'feel' good.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

58. I would say sfumato, but that is only on #6.

Looked up Boucher in my art history book (Gardner 5th ed.) and it talks about "Pink and sky-blue light". Then it talks about Fragonard and Chardin and Quentin de la Tour, and Houdon the sculptor.


I'm thinking of a painting of a girl being kissed by a cloud embracing her as representing sfumato, but can't find it in Gardner.

#1, 3 and 5 have lots of contrast but not quite to the point of chiaroscuro.

Am I close on any of this???

[CTyankee]

60. We are dealing here with a lot of Neoclassicistist painting by French artists following the French

Revolution, with the exception of the Boucher and the Fragonard which are the earlier Rococco (and how they escaped the guillotine I don't know...). They rejected chiaroscuro and sfumato which was from earlier centuries, most notably the Renaissance and the Baroque era respectively. Who knows why? They just wanted to go back to an earlier time where art had a classic theme, e.g. those of greek and roman gods. The exception here is the Scheffer, #1, which is early Romanticism (a direct follow on from Neoclassicism) which is more interested in the drama and even the stark tragedy of the human condition, here expressed in Virgil and Dante.

[jberryhill]

63. You say sfumahto and I say sfumayto...

[pinboy3niner]

66. ...let's call the whole thing oeuf

We're dealing with French artists, after all...

[redqueen]

68. Did I miss the answer?

thanks to pinboy3niner for kicking this back up

[pinboy3niner]

69. See #9 for the answers