I did a post at one time about paintings of crimson Cardinals enjoying life,  being humans,  and generally going wild (HERE),  so I thought I'd continue the fun with a post about monks doing the same,  but this time painted by a single artist,  the German,   Eduard von Grützner (technically Polish now, as he was born in Gross Carlowitz, a chunk of what was formerly Prussia).  The guy had style.  He had a huge range of subjects in his art,  but he also did a large number of depictions of monks at various stages of play.  I dig that.

With my typical caveat about negative opinions on religious subjects and figures,  von Grützner goes well beyond people's potential prejudices in this area.  His monks are eminently human,  showing all the joy and foibles which are the hallmark of the human being.  His colours are warm and muted,  his lines are organic and lively,  and there's a spry liveliness to all his figures that just make one feel good.  One thing we know from his work;  monks are fun.  And fat.  And potentially alcoholic!   Even being the 200% tetotaller that I am,  I still find these chaps HIGHLY amusing.

I hope you will enjoy his stuff as much as I do;  he's worth your art-looking time.

I really, really love classic Russian academic art.  It digs into my guts,  and though entirely representational,  it plays with my emotional interior as much as any impressionist ever could.  To imagine a thing that never existed,  with people conjured up from the imagination (with the help of marginally paid models), while also inspiring deep feeling and contemplation is the real gift of these guys.  You can't photograph what has never existed,  no matter what the (so-called) modern art folk say.

Now,  if I were going to pick a singl favourite,  it would certainly be the stunning master Ilya Repin (1844 - 1930).  His paintings live inside me,  and his technique is unparalleled, while at the same time existing mainly to create the story on his canvas.  The next three are the ones I present here. Together they're a juggernaut of imagination, with differing artistic temperaments, but aesthetically connected (in my fevered mind, anyway) by more than simply their first names.  Historical themes are their bread and butter,  along with the orientalist paintings that ruled their era.

If you enjoy their work,  please consider researching their histories;  fascinating fellows, all.

Vasily Vasilyevich Vereshchagin (Васи́лий Васи́льевич Вереща́гин) 1842 - 1904

I have a conundrum on my hands.

Recently I did a post about one of my favourite Flemish painters,  Frans Snyders.  I mentioned his unique, individual, singular style, blah, blah, blah.  Well,  on a research jaunt for another post,  I ran into what I thought were his paintings; ones that I'd not seen.  They actually turned out to be those of his brother-in-law, Paul De Vos, from Antwerp.

Apparently (!!!),  he was HEAVILY influenced by Snyders.  So much so, in fact, that I'm mildly suspicious of my identifications;  I am not an expert by any means, and there is so much similar.   I'm confused.  As an amateur lover of the canvas and brush, I get painted into these little corners more often that I would care to admit.

So, I recommend that you decide for yourself.  Below are what have been identified by various sources on the web as de Vos,  and you can find my post and the images of Frans Snyders HERE.   Whatever the case,  the chaos of each provide a similarly startling experience,  so,  as the kids say,  it's all good.

Of all the artists in history,  I have a deep affection for the work of Flemish artists.  Why?  Well, along with Russians,  the Dutch and Flemish painters simply have what it takes to get inside my guts and build a nest.  They crawl in there,  then they start tugging at the bits of spiritual entrails inside me,  tearing at the unnameable gobbets that hang from my innards.

In other words, they get to me.

Foremost on that front is the 16th/17th century artist Frans Snyders.  The man took chaos and turned it into a visual symphony.   He grasped the real world and showed it to us at it's most brutal;  men killing animals,  animals killing animals,  animals engaged in hideous social cacophonies rarely witness in real life...yet somehow more true than life.  His specialty was excess.  If there was a table with butchered game,  it had corpse after corpse of a dozen or more types of animal and bird.  If an animal was being attacked,  it was locked in a terrifying, frenzied melee'!   I find that overwhelming hyper-reality invigourating.  There is nothing staid about Snyders' work.  Honestly,  I find it difficult to look at his paintings for too long, as they tap into something bestial inside me.  It's unsettling.

On the other hand, he has a fondness for paintings of hogs, which, as a former Banjo player,  I find highly amusing.

Here is a new name to me.  Though I'd seen one of his paintings,  The Flight of King Gradlon, based on a semi-historical Breton King,  I had no idea who had done it.  I was looking for images of the incredible painter Gustave Surand, and I stumbled on Luminais.

Talk about luck!  Such great style,  and such wonderful subjects!  As you may know,  I'm a sucker for a historical painting,  and even more so for depictions of legendary characters.  He strikes me as an ancestor of my hero N.C. Wyeth, but with a bit of Arnold Böcklin and Goya thrown in.

They're very exciting to me, and make me want to dig out some old historical novels and read until my eyes hurt.  I hope you enjoy them as much!

Having traveled to Asia extensively,  particularly to the various Muslim regions,  I consider myself at least reasonably acquainted with the various cultures and cultural expressions that can be found there.  I've played many of the musics of Asia,  and I'm a big fan of the carving traditions that can be found in all corners.  That said,  I'll admit to being a bit shocked when I discovered the Indonesian artist Raden Saleh Sjarif Boestaman.  His art is so generally contrary to the what I've come to expect.  It's very European in it's general style,  yet there's a very Asian feeling in it's execution;  if you look at enough images of Indonesian wood carving,  the kinship to the vibe of Raden Saleh's art can clearly be seen.  Layers upon layers of texture.

Born in Java,  his father was an Indonesian of Arab descent,  specifically Hadhrami Yemeni, so he certainly comes by his Orientalist themes honestly.  So colourful and full of dynamic action.  So many images of large cats attacking horses...I wonder if this was something that he himself feared at any point!

To learn about Hadhrami Arabs, go HERE

Time for more hot stuff! This batch has monkeys,  some badass ladies,  lions, cowboys, and nuns!  What more could want in their art selection?  I don't have any real modern art in here,  so if you like that,  I think you'll be disappointed.  I'm an unapologetic representational art-type of chap.

I'm particularly fond right now of Gaetano Belli's works...he's the one who painted the two sets wind-whipped women below.  So much colour and energy.   Antonio Gomez gets another shot at showing us some Mexicana fighters,  to go with Marat Samsonov's steel-tough "Little Sister" (read THIS).  Here's the list:

Having recently done a post for my Albanian woodcarver/Pipemaker friend Sidrit Skender Vaqari (HERE),  I thought I'd  give another shout out to the double-eagle in the form of contemporary artist Artur Muharremi.  Normally a painter of colourful abstractions,  to me his interesting works are his nudes.  They're brash,  they're stark,  and in spite of some of the angles he presents them in (I don't have any of the more extreme ones here),  I don't find them particularly sexual.  Perhaps that's just me.  I just admire the blankness and frankness of the colours;  idiosyncratic and highly contrasting choices, across the board.

His work reminds me of the illustrator Robert Mcginnis,  who was also famous for nudes with atypical colour schemes.  I don't know much about Muharremi other than what I see,  though I believe that his career started when the Communists were in control of the country,  and crossed into the relative freedom of current times.

He's on Facebook, and you can see (and purchase) more of his work HERE

Of all the themes that I collect when it comes to art imagery,  paintings that feature Cavaliers are some of my favourite.  There's something about their colourful gear and rakish charm that exudes excitement and flavour.  This kind of fighting man, of course,  is most well known from Alexandre Dumas' most-classic novel THE THREE MUSKETEERS,  but they're all over the map in western European literature and art.  The wide-brimmed hat,  the puffy shirts with the frilled collars,  brightly coloured clothing,  knee boots,  long, curly hair and pointed chin beard and mustaches, with the addition of the deadly rapier,  all are the hallmarks of their flashy image.  I think of today's concept of masculinity and there is much in conflict there with the way these many fellows present themselves. 

Can you imagine a macho guy like Russell Crowe, or the MMA champ Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell walking around in a frilly collar and silk knee-britches?  I really can't.  Yet,  the Cavalier brings this look off with a Byronesque charm edged with deadly seriousness.  Flash and dash to the extreme, and for the second post in a row,  I invoke the name Errol Flynn (read the other post HERE) to illustrate my point.  Style, masculinity and badassness all in one.

I hope you enjoy these!

Swords, swords, and more swords!  In spite of the fact that a sword is essentially a long, skinny meat cleaver designed to cut human beings open and let their life juices drain out,  they have a kind of highly possessive magic,  don't they?  I have several swords;  I have two sword canes with excellent blades,  two new sabres with carbon steel sharpness,  and one antique English sabre that not only looks cool,  will cut one quite severely if mishandled!  I can totally see how the concept of Excalibur came about,  and how the Samurai, by all accounts, considered them a part of their soul.  It's a part of our DNA,  at least for boys;  it has been the bane of every hippie homeschooling  mother that boys with no TV or public school friends will pick up sticks and start doing their best Errol Flynn imitations...without ever seeing him in duelistic action.  I have lots of scars from such childhood battles. 

Art in general has benefited greatly from the depiction of this tool;  it has become an icon in classic painting on the level of the Lute and the chess set,  items that get popped in for colour in hundreds and hundreds of artworks.  It's a case of instant drama;  that thing in the scene that automatically implies that razor's edge between death and life,  and the contrast it adds in a scene of joy or fun is amusing...like, "yep, I'm having fun,  but I could open you like a piñata.  They're also wonderful in Movies!  THE MARK OF ZORRO, with Tyrone Power,  or THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, with the afore-mentioned Flynn?   Magical and exciting fun.

Here are a few of my fave sword images.

In the former incarnation of this website, CLAYTONOLOGY,  I had a thing called "Hot Stuff",  where I would showcase some of the images that I enjoyed a bunch.  I harvest the bountiful web for this sort of thing;  it's a huge banquet for the eyes to the person patient enough to search.  That's how this page developed, actually.  I was finding so many outstanding images that I felt the need to share,  hoping some like-minded folk might find them amusing, and enjoy them as much as I have.  The search itself has been a wonderful education,  and as I find new images,  they lead me to other new ones,  and then I discover an army of great artists of whom I had previously not heard.  

Well,  I've commissioned from myself a new "Hot Stuff" endeavour...I hope that you enjoy!  I don't prefer to supply bios or info on the work,  but with the internet and a few names,  there is a great bunch of fun in searching.  Here are the artists:

It's no secret that I love the Dutch and Flemish art;  they have what it takes to touch my heart.  One of the main reasons, I think,  is that they're masters with light.  Vermeer, of course, gets most of the attention,  but the Dutch in general do magic with the brush when it comes to lighting scenes.  Carl Holsoe is very much at the top of my list in this area.  Born in Arhus, Denmark,  He attended the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen.

Although he did portraits and landscapes,  what I love is his interior paintings.  Usually featuring a woman engaged in some quite activity,  especially reading,  he evokes a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere.  His lighting and muted colours work together to create this tranquility,  and at a level that I believe is unrivaled in the world of representative painters.  He certainly knows how to bring wall to life!  Witness his masterful arrangement of furniture and wall decor (I've never wanted plates on my wall so much as after looking at his art);  he knows what looks good in a home! 

I can't get enough of his wonderful world...he's made me look at my own domicile with an eye for peaceful living,  and it has done wonders.

No matter how you feel about religion,  no matter how you feel about Catholicism,  pro or con,  there's one thing that you have to admit:  Catholics have style.   It is my hope that the haters will set aside their biases and enjoy.

It may be obvious to say, but I do a lot of harvesting of images on the web; it was the sheer mass in my collection that inspired this blog.  The more I grabbed,  the more that I noticed very cool images of the cardinal in his scarlet robes.  The cardinal,  as viewed in these images,  is a very human chap;  pious, educated,  amused,  amusing,  serious,  fun,  artistic,  musical,  and has a good sense of la bonne vie,  or the good life.  I started putting them in a folder on my drive,  and it grew to a huge size!  Now seems like the right time to share these.  I have at least three times as many of them as presented here,  so I picked some of the most interesting and fun ones;  playing games,  playing music,  eating and interacting with pets.

So here they are, by artists such as Georges Croegaert,  Francois Brunery, Victor Marais-Milton,  Jehan Georges Vibert, Alfred Charles Weber,  Andrea Landini, Ernst Nowak,  and Paoulo Bedini.

(click image to enlarge, then use the arrow keys ← → to change images )

It's easy for modern people to forget that music has a long and magical history,  full of colour and an amazing array of instruments.  In these times of electric guitars, drum sets (and drum machines) and recorded playback,  most people don't seem to remember that even just a few generations ago that ordinary people played music locally.  There was no "making it" (unless you were some kind of court musician),  people had no singles on the charts (because there were no charts),  and to hear music,  a person either had to play,  or know someone who played.

This is a gentle reminder that music is a verb...