Another post of my DC photos. It is always interesting

to see an actual work of art rather than a reproduction.

Certainly looking at this painting you realized what

a great artist da Vinci was and how far ahead of most

of the other artists he was at depicting people.

Because the gallery was arranged chronologically

we could see it would be 100's of years, in our minds,

before people were depicted as people and not the

rather chubby personifications of classical myths or

biblical stories.

 Ginevra de" Benci

 by

Leonardo da Vinci

  

The next group we really enjoyed were the Northern Europeans.

I love the little crowds amid the winter landscapes. It is such

a romatic image everyone dressed up, no cold.

Sorry the photos an pretty bad but

I could not resist.

details from Adam van Breen (ca.1585-1640)

Skaters on the Amstel with a View of Amsterdam

"After the brief bivouac of Sunday,
their eyes, in the forced march of Monday to Saturday,
hoist the white flag, flutter in the snow-storm of paper,
haul it down and crack in the mid-sun of temper.

In the pause between the first draft and the carbon
they glimpse the smooth hours when they were children--
the ride in the ice-cart, the ice-man's name,
the end of the route and the long walk home; "

The Stenographers

P.K. Page

 

Detail of the interior of a Gothic Church

 Dirck van Deelen

He seemed to do a lot of church interiors.

"Walking sometimes in the streets of the town
I live in and thinking of the people who
lived here once and fill the space I fill —
If they'd painted white trails on the sidewalk
everywhere they went, it would be possible
to see them now."

                              Method for Calling up Ghosts

Al Purdy