Fine Canvas Art Blog

Die Erscheinung by Gustave Moreau, 1875

French / Inspirational prints / Paintings (Reproductions) / Symbolist - 1 year ago - troycapc

This a reproduction of Gustave Moreau’s "Die Erscheinung" or "L’apparition" of 1875.  The title refers to the apparition of the head of John the Baptist to Salome, the daughter of Herodias, whose famous dance was the occasion for the execution of the Baptist by Herod Antipas.  Moreau was one of the leading French Symbolists.  He exhibited in the Salon of 1853 when he was twenty-seven years old and his first truly Symbolist painting was the Oedipus of 1864.  He became a professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1891 and died on April 18, 1898.  His workshop became the Musee national Gustave Moreau in 1905.  This masterpiece is on display there.

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Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, Caravaggio, 1605

Caravaggio / Inspirational prints / Italian / Paintings (Reproductions) / Renaissance - 1 year ago - troycapc

This print is from the small altarpiece, one of a handful of original works by Caravaggio in the United States.  It was painted toward the end of the artist’s career in Rome in about 1605.

The conception of the image is itself remarkable, for the Baptist had hardly ever before been portrayed as an isolated, seated figure who lacks, moreover, his usual attributes of halo, lamb and banderole. Stark contrasts of light and dark accentuate the perception that the figure leans forward, out of the deep shadows of the background and into the lighter realm of the viewer’s own space.

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