Rainna's explorations in art.

  Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas, 1656            Diego Velázquez Las Meninas was painted with oil in 1656. Now the painting is in Museo del      Prado in Madrid.                         Velázquez was the royal painter for King Philip IV, but this is not a royal painting. However, the                  painting contains the royal family. This painting is more of an advertisement for the painter's ability to                  manipulate the medium. He does this through incredible detail and complex composition.  The painting does not meet the standard royal portraits. Traditional royal portraits are usually done with a solo subject, but here you see the infanta with her parents, two handmaids waiting on her, Velázquez himself as he is painting a portrait of the queen and king, a man in the back doorway, and the two dwarves next to the dog. There are too many elements to this painting for it to be just a simple royal family portrait.       The 10’ 5” x 9’1” painting looks quite the

    Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with two Angels ,1460-1465    Fra Filippo Lippis Madonna and child with two angels has to be hands down my favorite Madonna and child paintings I've seen. He was a monk who was pardoned from his monk duties by Pope Leo X, because...well, he liked to invite nuns over to be his "models". After his freedom, he married a nun, Lucrezia Buti, who became the model for his madonna. The two had a two child together, which one  could have potentially been the model for Christ.       Mary, who is in  the foreground, has a very humanistic feel to her face and interacts with Christ, her son. The figure of Mary looks more lively and like a real woman, instead of Giotto's, or Duccio's and many other early renaissance interpretations  of Mary and Child .       An angel in the foreground looks as if he could start giggling as the angels lift Christ. The second angel is tucked away under Christ's arm, which is such an odd placement f

  Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun,Madame grand,1783      The Rococo art period has always been my favorite time frame, with its youthful pastel colors. Art in France during the 18th century has a certain aesthetic of melancholy love that shivers down my spine.  Madame grand  is a painting of a young aristocratic woman painted by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1783. The portrait  Madame grand  expresses the French love for beauty and high-class society.       This portrait is of Catherine Noël Grand, a young French aristocrat blessed with beauty, but no brains. She was creative and could play the piano, hence the music sheet she's holding in her portrait. The painting is sometimes referred to as the  music lesson  because of the sheet of music. When Madame Grand appeared in Paris with her husband, George François Grand, she caught the attention of wealthy men and  Vigée Le Brun. We are not sure who commissioned her portrait to be painted by Vigée Le Brun; it could have been her herself or one o