S. DALY'S PORTRAIT (2013)Painting by Artush
Was the portrait or the artist's self-portrait born first?
The question I propose above is answered simply by consulting Wikipedia, as it is now well established, certain, and somewhat taken for granted how the genre of the portrait, present since the earliest civilizations, such as the Egyptian, precedes by centuries the spread and popularity of the self-portrait, which was established mainly during the Middle Ages, although it reached actual artistic dignity and maximum diffusion in the later Renaissance. Consequently, it is perhaps possible to imagine the painters of the earliest epoch immortalizing their colleagues, although this act cannot be considered as an acknowledgement of the artistic role of the effigies in question, since only the self-portrait was officially accorded such value. In fact, precisely from the Renaissance, the era of greatest popularity of the latter genre, the figure of the sculptor, painter, etc., was transformed from that of a mere craftsman bound to the application of technical knowledge alone, to that of an individual of high cultural dignity, whose intellectual depth was made explicit precisely by his work. It follows, that, in such a humanist context, the artist began, both to feel the desire to sign his works to celebrate himself, and to receive appreciation for his self-portraits, aimed at giving importance not only to his technical skills, but also to the portrayed subject himself, now worthy of the honor of being depicted, recognized and celebrated. At this point, I want to return to the artist portraying an artist, considering how, certainly after the Renaissance, this genre took on a value similar to that of the self-portrait, in that, almost certainly, those who portrayed a colleague saw in him, in addition to a potential friend, an esteemed point of reference in the art of his time, as well as an undisputed source of inspiration to be celebrated, honored and disseminated. Therefore, it is possible to consider some portraits of artists made by well-known painters, which illustrate for us, in addition to the stylistic discourse, the relationships that ran between the exponents of art of the same period, as well as the role in the creative world assumed by the maker and the subject immortalized.
TEASING VAN GOGH (2019)Painting by Benoît Dutour
WINKS, PICASSO (2023)Painting by Richard Routin.
Why does everyone want to portray Vincent van Gogh?
Returning to the discussion above, in order to find out which artists had been portrayed the most by fellow painters, as well as unveil the relationship between the maker and the effigy, I took as an example the popularity of effigies such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, who were surely beaten by the particular recurrence with which Vincent van Gogh was immortalized. Nevertheless, I want to begin the analysis comparing artists' portraits and context of execution, starting with the first Spanish master, depicted, both by Juan Gris, and Salvador Dali. Regarding Gris's Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1912), the work is presented as a tribute to Picasso, a master whom Juan immortalized with palette in hand, showing all his respect for the man whom he recognizes as the leader of the artistic circles of Paris at the time, as well as the innovator of Cubism, of whom Grisè proposes himself as an undisputed pupil. In fact, Juan's style harkens back to Picasso's analytic cubism and its characteristic deconstruction of reality, accompanied by a simultaneous point of view of objects and a crystalline structure, aimed at fragmenting the subject of the painting dated 1912 into various planes and simple geometric forms, organized within a compositional structure governed by diagonals. Pablo himself is also the subject of Portrait of Picasso (1947) by Dali, a painting that, unlike the one described above, because of its surrealist and monstrous stylistic features, would seem to suggest how the Catalan artist hated, rather than loved, the Andalusian, when, in fact, Salvador greatly admired the older master's work, even though he perceived towards his countryman an unquestioning competition, probably aimed at conquering the throne of Spanish art. At this point the following question remains to be resolved: how can it be inferred that Dali's monstrous Pablo does not represent an attempt to eliminate the feared adversary? Picasso's respect for integrity is revealed to us by a few details: the fleshy, spiraling ram's horn in place of the ear is a symbol of vitality, leadership, and recognized authority, while the long ring of gray hair extending like a finger from the mouth, ending in a spoon containing a musical instrument, celebrates one of the most cherished motifs of Picasso's art: the mandolin. Speaking of Warhol, on the other hand, creators of his portraits are his friend Basquiat, who, despite the unrealistic and stylized forms with which he depicts the king of Pop art, for example in Dos Cabesas, tries his hand at the genre to pay homage to his mentor and idol, and Alice Neel, a painter who wanted to repurpose the features of some esteemed figures in art, evoking, in Andy's case, an event in the painter's life, who, portrayed with huge, mortuary and dramatic scars, brings us back to the 68' epidose in which Valerie Solanas shot him. Finally, let us swear by the master who, according to what I have been able to investigate from the Internet, seems to be among the most popular of the artist's portrait genre: Vincent, who was portrayed by Paul Gauguin, a friend and admirer, with whom he also had an actual artistic project, but also by Peter Russel, a painter who portrays him realistically, and Toulouse-Lautrec, an artist who renders him through the use of chalk. What emerges from the portraits of the latter painters? If Russel chooses Vincent as a model to make explicit their Parisian friendship, as well as their sort of artistic collaboration aimed at experimenting with Impressionist techniques, giving voice to the history of the art of the 1880s and its most prestigious exponents, Toulouse-Lautrec tells us about a bond based on a shared passion for Japanese prints, as well as the creation of works careful to capture the essence of Paris at the time. In any case, just to answer the initial question, i.e., why everyone wants to portray Van Gogh, I wanted to imagine with the tormented master turned out to be, in addition to being extremely talented, infinitely interesting precisely because of his inner discomfort, a mental condition that, when skillfully used in the arts, creates artists from an extremely personal point of view and therefore decidedly innovative, intense, unforgettable and magnetic. Finally, Artmajeur's contemporary painters also continue to pay homage to their idols, immortalizing some of the most famous artists of all time, just as Crea Martin, Francioni Mastromarino and Gabriele Donelli did.
CLAUDE MONET (2023)Digital Arts by Nicolas Chammat
CONVERSATION WITH MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI (2019)Painting by Frédéric Martin
Frédéric Martin: Conversation with Michelangelo Buonarroti
In the figurative survey of French painter Frédéric Martin we find a series devoted to portraits of well-known masters, subjects that most likely indelibly marked the work of the artist from Artmajeur. In this set of works, where the features of painters such as Rubens and Rembrandt stand out, the great Michelangelo, a genius depicted by referring to the masterpiece, of the same subject, by Daniele da Volterra, certainly could not be missing. The latter incomplete painting, dated about 1545, in which the Italian craftsman, sculptor and plasterer, also the author of a bust depicting Buonarroti, immortalized the master at the age of seventy, describing his features and left hand with great accuracy, lacks detail in the bust and background, however. Similarly is Martin's interpretation, in which he adds the presence of the dripping red paint on the dress, as well as the conspicuous bandage, which mysteriously encircles Buonarroti's head. This very detail made me wonder what might have happened if Michelangelo had met Van Gogh, who, an expert in bandages worn strictly to cover missing ears, depicted himself in a similar condition in Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, an 1889 oil painting created to immortalize the extreme consequences to which the end of the friendship, as well as the artistic partnership, between the Dutchman and Paul Gauguin led. At this point, returning to Michelangelo and Daniele da Volterra, I would venture to surmise that the artist in Artmajeur could perhaps have imagined some sort of collusion taking place between the two, an episode, which, probably due to the fact that the Braghettone covered Buonarroti's nudes, would have led Michelangelo to cut off his ear in an extreme gesture of protest.
LEONARDO DA VINCI 2021)Sculpture by Francioni Mastromarino
Francioni Mastromarino: Leonardo da Vinci
Francioni Mastromarino's work appears to be a sculptural interpretation of Leonardo da Vinci's well-known self-portrait dated 1512, an iconic masterpiece preserved at the Galleria Nazionale d'Italia in Turin. Made of red plaster, it depicts the artist at about sixty years of age, although the effigy appears to be of a further advanced age. In addition, Leonardo, who appears immortalized with long, white hair, is caught looking ahead in an enigmatic expression that straddles the line between contemplation and extreme sadness. Such ocular ambiguity is conferred by the blurred realization of the gaze, an expedient used at the time to bring to life the features of philosophers, so much so that many have wished to see in the portrait a depiction of the Almighty or something related. Constituting such features are thin, intricate lines, made through the use of red chalk on brown paper, the medium on which the best-known depiction of Leonardo da Vinci, a master caught in the individualism of the humanism of his era, came to life. Speaking instead of a portrait of an artist who wished to depict the aforementioned master, well known is the Lucan one, a painting by an unknown author dated 1474, aimed at depicting Leonardo at the age of about forty-five, depicted three-quarter-length with a flowing beard and a black hat, within an undefined background. Finally, the work, discovered in 2008 in a closet in a private Italian home, is also known to resemble another portrait by Leonardo, namely that of Cristofano dell'Altissimo, dated 16th century and kept at the Uffizi Gallery.
PORTRAIT OF HENRI MATISSE (2017)Painting by Gabriele Donelli
Gabriele Donelli: portrait of Henri Matisse
Artmajeur Donelli's artist's work sought to pay homage to multiple well-known masters, who also most likely had some influence within the stylistic development of the Italian painter. The portrait in question depicts Henri Matisse, an artist from whom Donelle perhaps inherited the chromatic vitality realized in broad color backgrounds. The subject of the aforementioned cartoon has been captured as he is intent on working in his studio, equipped with a brush and palette, within in a bare ambiene dominated by blue and a few other colors, which animate a figure partly realized in black and white. After this description, it is a must to talk about Matisse's best-known portrait, namely the one that, once again characterized by vivid colors, was painted by André Derain in 1905. The masterpiece in question immortalizes the French master frontally, capturing the presence of a pipe, which hangs from the right side of the subject's mouth, while Henri's eyes are framed by an almost invisible pair of glasses. The artist, depicted with short hair and a long beard, comes to life against a yellow and green background, devoid of other figures or furnishings. This portrait, in addition to showing us the features of the aforementioned master, tells us a story, as it was conceived during a vacation of Derain near Collioure, a resort in the south of France, where André and Henri portrayed each other, giving concrete life to that artistic "fellowship," which led Derain to approach the use of strong, non-naturalistic colors, applied with small, separate brushstrokes.
Olimpia Gaia Martinelli
