The DU Friday Afternoon Challenge for your beautiful minds: A Face in the Crowd!

[CTyankee]

Here are some memorable standouts in a group, in famous works of art. See if you can identify the artist and the name of the work.

...and, as always, folks, please do not cheat...

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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[lapislzi]

1. Does "some Hapsburg half-wit" qualify for #3?

Looks like a Rubens, but not my area of expertise. Remind me to tell you about my crazy art teacher some day, and his Rubens stories...

[CTyankee]

7. #3???

n/t

[DCKit]

8. It's "The Hapsburg Nose"...

though the actual Hapsburg nose isn't even that attractive. The artist used up his artistic license for the year on that one.

[CTyankee]

39. Rubens is present in this Challenge...

and I'd love to hear about the crazy art teacher and his Rubens stories...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Damn, I know I recognize at least a couple of these!

The second one is called "3rd Class travelers" or something like that. I cannot for the life of me recall the artist!

[CTyankee]

4. You're almost there with the correct answer, Peggy! Leave it to you to know

the most socially conscious artwork of the group! (with the possible exception of #4)

[Angry Dragon]

5. The Third-Class Carriage by Daumier

Used your hint and did a search

You get the points

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Is number 6 by Modigliani? n/t

[CTyankee]

6. You know, it DOES resemble Modigliani, but it is not. Several centuries separate this work

from Modigliani's...and that's a hint...

[OffWithTheirHeads]

9. #3 is "Self portrait" by Mitt Romney.

[Brickbat]

10. No. 3 answer is...

from the Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David.

[CTyankee]

14. Do you not love this painting? How terrific is it! Yes! It is from that painting!

Amazing...

[Brickbat]

19. Truly, a masterpiece.

[CTyankee]

28. Have you seen this painting?

[Brickbat]

31. Many years ago, on a trip to Paris.

I saw a lot of wonderful art on that trip, but as a teenager traveling with my parents through Europe, I spent more time than I should have sulking because I wasn't doing "cool" stuff.

OTOH, I do remember seeing this, as well as other masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa, Winged Venus and so on. I may have been sulky, but I did appreciate art, even then.

[CTyankee]

32. I was 16 when my mother took me to Paris and I too didn't want to go!

Winged Victory nearly knocked me off my feet! I was not expecting that!

I didn't see Coronation on that trip (or didn't remember it) but I did see it a year ago in my second trip to Paris. Impressive work.

I am hoping to go with my teenaged granddaughter to Spain next March and visit some great works in the Prado and Reina Sofia in Madrid. She will resist, but "resistance is futile" I will tell her...at LEAST she will see Las Meninas by Velazquez, the 3rd of May by Goya and Guernica by Picasso...shees...

[OffWithTheirHeads]

15. Same thing.

[CTyankee]

20. KInd of over the top stuff! But, man, do you really NOT want to see what it was like?

BAd ass that he was, Napoleon was somebody you'd kinda like to look at (if he was gonna be crowned anyway). BIG, historical painting, in the Louvre, and how grand can you get?

You gotta love it...

[OffWithTheirHeads]

35. Oh hell yeah! But the liklyhood that I will ever get to see the Louvre is slim to none.

Do I appreciate what folks could create without power tools or even artificial light? I stand in awe in wonder.

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. I think I've seen it before

[HopeHoops]

11. Jimmy Hendricks

[Brickbat]

12. No. 4 answer is...

Delacroix's Massacre of Chios. I knew it was a Delacroix by looking at it but I had to go through the works to find the face.

[CTyankee]

16. Yes! Sad, tho.

The eyes are, to me, a dead give-away. Are you a fan of Delacroix? This painting is not one of Delacroix's most famous. There are many others that are more famous and more loved (i have my own!). So I'm interested in how you know and like this particular painting...

[Brickbat]

18. Yes, it was the eyes that did it for me.

His faces are like no others. I didn't know the painting -- I wondered if it was a face I had never seen in one of the better known ones, such as Liberty, bien sur. It also strongly reminded me of Orphan Girl at the Cemetery, which, I now see, was a study for the massacre painting. So then I went to eugenedelacroix.org (lovely!) and found the painting.

[CTyankee]

22. I described the eyes of a "woman of Algiers" as being "black as figs" in a paper I wrote on that

work by Delacroix when I was in grad school. He had that look down, didn't he? Orphan Girl has a similar, kinda wild, look. He must have sought that out, to get that effect down so well, I keep thinking...but maybe as a Romantic painter, it was just effect, and did not have a center to his beliefs...

[hfojvt]

36. I thought I recognized that face

but I don't know where I would have seen it. Perhaps it was in Francis Schaeffer's book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Should_We_Then_Live%3F

[hedda_foil]

13. #6 ..

I think it's El Greco.

[CTyankee]

17. There is that resemblance but it isn't El Greco. I can't quite understand it...

this was painted at a very different time from El Greco, so I don't quite get the connection, but I do see the connection...

[kenny blankenship]

21. 1 is by Mantegna

Didn't recognize the work, but his style. Looking up his pics it says
"Barbara Gonzaga", but the more interesting face belongs to another woman. I don't suppose anyone knows her name.

[CTyankee]

24. Yes, it is the Gonzaga family and its retinue by Montegna, a famous 15th century work.

There are lots of people in this painting. I don't know who she was. As a woman, of course, she was discounted as an important person in the painting...

[Brother Buzz]

23. Number two: Rembrandt's Olive Garden?

As usual, I got nothing.

[CTyankee]

25. It's by a French painter of the mid 19th century, named Daumier. He felt very strongly for

the poor in France and painted scenes that brought to life their struggle just to survive.

I thought this painting would be perfect for a DU challenge question. Daumier so well painted the terrible situation of the poor in France of his day. He recorded this for history in his paintings.

This is just one of his very important works. I find him very affecting, as a progressive...

[IcyPeas]

27. I almost thought it was of Van Gogh's early works

(like from the potato pickers/eaters era)

[CTyankee]

29. You know, it was an era between the Romantics and the post Impressionists like Van Gogh.

I wonder how much Van Gogh would have been influenced by Daumier and the other Realists. Not sure. Photography was a big intervention between the two and that could have been a big difference in the styles. I never took an Art HIstory course but I wish I had. Ithink it would have been helpful to me and fabulously interesting!

[lapislzi]

43. I thought the same.

Although I knew I was wrong.

Never forget that Van Gogh was, heart and soul, Dutch. He carried that sensibility with him to France. He has more in common with the Dutch Masters (not the cigars) of the seventeenth century than with any French painter.

[CTyankee]

48. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is phenomenal. It is vast.

I became "undone" at the very end of my visit, looking at one of his wheatfields with birds. That was quite a journey through the canals. I certainly got the feel of the colors of the Netherlands, the changing skies, the browns and greys and beiges (I was there in mid October). For all that, tho, Van Gogh managed those brilliant blues and yellows...

[panader0]

26. Damn! I was stumped again.

Maybe if you get into the Impressionist period I will do better.
Kudos to all you smart DUers who knew answers!
Thanks for the test CT. Keep 'em comin'. Even when I fail the test I am learning.

[CTyankee]

30. Were you an art history major? I'd be interested to know where your background is from.

I have no real background in art history, just stuff I do on my own now that I am retired and have lots of time of my hands!

Tell me more...

[ellisonz]

34. Wild Ass Guess

#5 Sistine Chapel - Michelangelo

And with that I got nothin' - a good Friday to you!

[CTyankee]

38. Thank you, ellisonz! But it is not a Michelangelo...

[burrowowl]

37. K&R

[CTyankee]

40. Well, folks, #5 and #6 have yet to be guessed...

I'm going off to tutor but will return later...

HINT: the artist of #6 also created two of the most famous paintings of the Early Renaissance, both of which are in the Uffizi and are among the two or three works of art that visitors to Florence flock to see...

[lapislzi]

41. Hmm...early Renaissance, you say?

That is interesting, because I would have guessed later due to the elongation of the features. Very mannered. But, even Mickey Angel was twisting his figures towards the end of his career.

I don't know who the artist is, and I've never cheated in one of your challenges. It's much more fun reading the replies.

I knew #4 was Delacroix, but I was too lazy to look up the images.

Is #1 Artemisia Gentilleschi? I saw her exhibit several years ago at the Met and it was fabulous!

[CTyankee]

44. I looked up his dates. He lived in the second half of the 15th and early 16th century but is

listed as an Early Renaissance artist. You are right about the mannered look of this painting. It is so unlike his very famous works, which are always described as "charming." That is one of the reasons I decided to show it. It is part of an altarpiece, dated 1488. I can see how, by itself, this detail could be interpreted as Mannerist (not one of my favorite periods!). BTW, it is part of a "sacra conversazione." Also in his very own room at the Uffizi.

#1 has been guessed. It is the Gonzaga family and its retinue, by Andrea Montegna.

I agree completely with you on Michelangelo's later works. It's hard for me to like them because of the "floating in space" characteristic of Mannerism and also with what Mary McCarthy wrote sarcastically about Mannerism's "candy mint" colors (lots of Pontormo is like that...ugh).

[pinboy3niner]

42. #5: Rubens, The Consequences of War

Image is a detail from a larger work (the next-to-last image) here:

http://www.peterpaulrubens.org/

[CTyankee]

45. You got it! Good on ya!

What gave it away (other than the general Rubens-y look to it)?

I love the back story on this painting. Rubens had spent some years as a diplomat trying to avert wars. He was doing an honorable job, serving his country. That is one of the reasons I like this painting. I feel a natural empathy toward him for it...

[suffragette]

46. I keep getting to these threads late lately

Just want to say I still enjoy them

[CTyankee]

47. I'm glad you make them. You have contributed a LOT to them in the past!

Great to see you!

[suffragette]

49. Lovely to see you and from your hints #6 Botticelli Barnaba altarpiece

Never would have gotten it without hints.
Such an unBotticelli expression though the colors are still in his zone.

[CTyankee]

50. I'd love to see an analysis of this painting to understand why St. John looks so pained in it.

It's almost as if he is there to remind everyone that, tho this is a Virgin Enthroned with Child, St. John will witness and suffer greatly at the foot of the Cross as well. I understand that Botticelli was very religious, so that explanation would make some sense. However, since I am not a religious person and was not brought up in much religion, it has to be a wild guess on my part.

[suffragette]

51. Sounds like you're going in a likely direction to me,

lapsed Catholic that I am.

I was trying to think of what modern painting this reminded me of and oddly, it made me think of the Modigliani nude I saw at the Courtauld. Definitely not in mood, but the they could almost be father and daughter in their facial resemblance.

[CTyankee]

52. I wouldn't doubt that Modigliani studied the Early Renaissance artists. It sounds logical that

there would be some influences here and there...