Painters on Paintings

Altoon Sultan reflects on Piero di Cosimo's A Satyr Mourning over a Nymph (c. 1495), seen on a recent trip to the National Gallery, London. Sultan writes: "There I was, standing in front of this beautiful, tender, poignant painting, unable to stop weeping. It may be that my feelings were very close to the surface

John Goodrich considers Henri Matisse's Laurette in Green Robe (Black Background) in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Goodrich observes: "We ... may become aware of something particularly lively about this semblance of a woman in a chair: the sense of her weight, and how her forms expand rhythmically across the chair, which

Philip Pearlstein reflects on his transformation from an abstract expressionist to a figurative painter, a change owed in part to the study of Piero della Francesca. Pearlstein recalls that Piero's work "seemed to me to provide a kind of grammar of pictorial invention, parallel to the grammatical constructions of language that adventurous poets play with;

David Reed considers rarely seen details in several paintings by Caravaggio and how these details alter and intensify the potential meanings of the works. Reed writes; "Did Caravaggio realize that the self-portrait reflection in the “Bacchus” and the praying figure in “The Works” would not be visible under the standard circumstances in which the paintings

James McGarrell reflects on Jan Vermeer's The Artist in His Studio (1665-1670). McGarrell writes: "I find in all of his works, and in this piece specifically, a sequentially paced structure that directs a journey for the probing eye. Its entry is inevitably from the bottom edge because it is from there that, as crawling infants,

John Moore reflects on Pierre Roy’s Metric System (1933) in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Moore writes: "While objects like the transit in Roy’s work were undoubtedly found in his studio, the context, like the room in Metric System, was likely invented and existed only in his paintings. He apparently began by

Barkley Hendricks writes about painter Louis Sloan. Hendricks notes: "Louis Sloan was an under-recognized painter who happened to be a 'Black Artist' who didn’t do 'black art.' His main focus was the beauty of the planet; landscapes were an example of his raison d’etre ... His influence followed me into my studio many years after

Julie Heffernan considers Andrea Mantegna's Parnassus (Mars and Venus) (1497). Analyzing the composition, Heffernan observes: "Venus is not only posed in the middle of the square, she also comprises the central focus of the composition, and she seems to be slightly pushing Mars off the apex of rock that they are occupying. What is Mantegna

Curt Barnes writes about painter Morris Louis. Barnes writes that although Pollock and Frankenthaler made great achievements in "painting as phenomenon," Louis "remains the most vivid for me. The usually monumental size of his work could suggest a towering ego, yet somehow it needs to fill your field of vision, occupy an entire wall to

Lourdes Bernard writes about Peter Bruegel's Wine of St. Martin’s Feast Day (1566 – 1567).Bernard observes: "The painting’s unique composition is a departure from the other paintings by Bruegel. For example, in the Procession to Calvary, the landscape dominates the painting and acts as a container for the multiple dramas that unfold. In Wine of

Gregory Amenoff considers the cycle of seasons paintings by Pieter Bruegel. Amenoff writes: "In his Seasons cycle, Bruegel lifts much from [Joachim] Patinir structurally and stylistically, but he does something radical and distinct from his predecessor by animating his figures only according to the reality of the seasonal condition in which they appear. The characters