Civic Studies » fine arts

Carlo Crivelli, Lamentation

Peter — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:12:59 +0000

In every painting entitled “Lamentation” that I recall or can find with a Google image-search, Jesus lies prone, usually with a shroud behind him, and Mary looks downward at his limp body. She usually has companions: most often Mary Magdalen, because the relevant Gospel passages (e.g., Matt. 27:61) place the two women together from the […] Continue reading →

the dignity of democracy

Peter — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 16:53:20 +0000

My favorite object in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition “Power of the People: Art and Democracy” is Paul Shambroom’s Maurice, Louisiana (Population 642) Village Council, May 15, 2002 (shown above). This large exhibition presents works from ancient Athens to contemporary America, including some famous and powerful objects. In this context, Shambroom dignifies democracy as […] Continue reading →

Mrs. Dalloway with a smartphone

Peter — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 17:10:12 +0000

Mrs. Dalloway created the Zoom link herself. There was so much to do for the evening’s virtual meeting: outreach, slides, breakout-group assignments. Scrolling social media, Clarissa came upon a lovely vacation photo of an English garden. How calm the air can be early in the morning, like the flap of a wave, the kiss of […]

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Cezanne’s portait of Gustave Geffroy

Peter — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 12:40:32 +0000

In “Cézanne’s Doubt” (1946), Maurice Merleau-Ponty discusses Paul Cézanne’s portrait of the critic Paul Geffroy (1895-6), which led me to some congruent reflections. Merleau-Ponty notes that the table “stretches, contrary to the laws of perspective, into the lower part of the picture.” In a photograph of M. Geffroy, the table’s edges would form parallel lines […]

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one supple line

Peter — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 13:57:23 +0000

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than a quarter of a million Americans work professionally as graphic designers. Each designer produces many images, many of which are reproduced widely. Of course, other countries also have designers and commercial artists. Thanks to them all, we are awash in billions of images: illustrations, logos, advertisements, […]

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Svetlana Alpers, The Art of Describing

Peter — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:03:21 +0000

My family and I are going briefly to the Netherlands soon. In preparation, I reviewed Svetlana Alpers’ The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (1983), which has helped me to think about pictures since I first encountered this book in the 1990s. Alpers’ theory is subtler than my summary, but a good way to introduce it might […]

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Verdant mountains usually walk

Peter — Mon, 13 May 2024 14:05:58 +0000

In a museum not far from our house, there is a painting entitled “Zen Saying” by the great teacher Hakuin Ekaku (1685-1768). Author of the koan “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”, Hakuin “was the most influential Rinzai Master in Japanese history” (Kasulis 1981, p. 105), and Rinzai is one of the three […]

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the coincidences in Romola

Peter — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 16:09:47 +0000

In George Eliot’s Romola, we see events from the perspective of four major characters (one at a time): Tito Melema, Baldassarre Calvo, Tessa, and Romola herself. Four people can have up to 3! = 6 bilateral relationships. In Romola, each of these six potential connections is filled out with several independent interactions. Just for example, […] Continue reading →

Zenobia of Palmyra

Peter — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 20:11:22 +0000

Supposedly, many American men think more than once a day about the Roman empire. This seems implausible, but I must admit that Rome often comes to my mind. For instance, I recently read Zenobia; Shooting Star of Palmyra by Nathanael Andrade (Oxford University Press, 2018). A powerful female monarch from Syria, Zenobia has been a […] Continue reading →

three great paintings in dialogue

Peter — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 16:28:26 +0000

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC displays The Feast of the Gods by Giovanni Bellini with additions by Titian (1514/1529), The Old Musician by Edouard Manet (1862), and The Family of Saltimbanques by Pablo Picasso (1905). These major works talk to each other.* We might say that the Bellini is a work of […] Continue reading →