A contemporary art gallery in Saint John, New Brunswick, dedicated to the showing the best Atlantic Canada art and projects. We make videos about our programming, art history, ideas and the art world.
Jones Gallery Lecture Series is the public education wing of our gallery. We believe that art history should be accessible and understandable and, importantly, free! See more about our Lecture Series here: www.jonesgallery.ca/arthistory
Jones Gallery Lecture Series Speaker: Sarah Jones
Sarah Jones (BA, MA Art History, Queen's University) is a visual artist, art historian and curator. She has participated in solo and group exhibition across Canada and abroad, and her work is held in the public collections of the University of New Brunswick and the New Brunswick Art Bank. Sarah is a recipient of numerous grants and awards, including funding from ArtsNB and Canada Council for the Arts. Sarah and her brother, Caleb Jones, are co-owners of Jones Gallery in Saint John, NB.
The character seen in the famous portrait at the Louvre is not that of Lisa del Giocondo or Mona Lisa, but that of Isabelle d'Aragon and Sforza, the daughter of the King of Naples Alphonse II d'Aragon. Isabelle married her cousin Gian Galeazzo Sforza, the heir to the Duchy of Milan, to consolidate the ties between the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan. So, it is the portrait of a princess and not a commoner. Leonardo da Vinci was at that time in the service of Ludovico Sforza, the uncle of Gian Galeazzo who exercised regency at the court of Milan. Isabelle's young husband disappeared prematurely at the age of 25 without being able to exercise power, allegedly assassinated on the orders of his uncle. German historian Maike Vogt-Luerssen tells us that after her widowhood, Isabelle and Leonardo formed a secret couple and had 5 children. Therefore, it was his beloved's portrait that Leonardo da Vinci painted, which explains why he took it to Amboise in France and kept it until the end of his life, like keeping a family photo nowadays. There was thus an emotional connection with Isabelle that did not exist with Lisa del Giocondo, whose portrait was only a commission. The research I myself have done on the landscape indicates that it is based on an authentic location, which would confirm Maike Vogt-Luerssen's theory, as it undoubtedly pays homage to Isabelle d'Aragon's family origins. It seems obvious to me that the identity of the character in this portrait has been confused between an actually received commission, that of the silk merchant's wife, and the portrait of Leonardo's partner, which is the one seen today at the Louvre. All of this is probably now well known to the so-called specialists of Leonardo da Vinci, who do not want to acknowledge the inconsistencies of the official version because they have spent their entire lives defending a version they now know to be outdated. As Mark Twain said, "It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." www.kleio.org/de/geschichte/renaissance/monalisa/ml_fakten/ www.equinoxmagazine.fr/2021/11/28/la-joconde-serait-catalane/
I went to this museum in Rome and spent long minutes in front of this work. There were no visitors because it was still the end of Covid and many borders were still closed. In the room, it was just me and this canvas. I'll never forget that experience.
This is just embarrassingly bad, she makes up things about Julius II that just aren't true, from simple things as to why he grew his beard to his inner thoughts and motivations. To Anyone who has studied Italian Renaissance and Julius II this is painful to watch and scandalous that she injects her personal biases
I'm really amazed of how many inaccuracies this person makes in this "lecture". I mean, who are her audience and what is her background to be called "curator" with so many inaccuracies and silly statements? The equestrian statue in Campidoglio "Hadrian", really?
It's nice indeed when the artist Eugene Boudin receives attention for what he did for Monet. Very seldom mentioned or a line or two on Boudin. But there's more to the story for even though Monet was very thankful to Boudin for "removing the vail from his eyes", it was the Dutch artist J.B. Jongkind who would finalize the education of Monet eye, and Monet would name Jongkind his true master! I would recommend the book EUGENE BOUDIN ...G. Jean -Aubry with Robert Schmit (Author of the Boudin Catalogue Raisonne)
Not sure why Courbet's name is mentioned in the Monet group as he mainly operated in his own camp... though he did give advise to Monet while Monet was working on the huge canvas Lunch painting.
Interesting presentation, from which I learned. Re Caravaggio's 'lowering Christ into the tomb' and Michelangelo's 'Pieta', a sculpture around which one could walk (absent 'security'!) and so see the figures from all of the possible 360 degrees. Yes, Caravaggio has us at about 45 degrees from 'full frontal' view; both technically challenging and dramatically effective. Caravaggio has given us one of the 360 possible views! Michelangelo, all of them.
Let me add a few points. Caravaggio did not "invent this "look": he brought it to Rome from the north. What horrified the Roman painters was that he used models-Rome was still under the influence of Michelangelo who maintained that an artist must work only from imagination, working from models was cheating. Add to this that Caravaggio used mirror projections to outline his figures onto the canvas, a technique he learned from the Flemish painters. via the Lombardy painters under whom Caravaggio studied. One more tid-bit: the three men that are raising the cross are the same model, used in different poses. Caravaggio often did this; you can easily spot one model used three times in the maestro's Death of the Virgin.
I don’t mean to sound negative, but this talk should have been better prepared. “Where to start?” the speaker says repeatedly, suggesting “I know SO much about this art.” The speaker should *plan* this (where to start) beforehand. You can’t really wing it with an extremely packed, symbol-rich painting like this one. (Most symbols here are today anachronistic, but Bosch is Bosch!) There is some good info here, and the speaker is not unlikable, but I feel my time has been largely wasted. Speaker seems to not understand Christian-Catholic iconography or traditions (e.g., fish as Christian symbol, here mockery). These require some scholarship, and we mostly don’t get that here. This is I guess fine for middle schoolers, but scholarly this is not. Sorry.
I know nothing about art really and was utterly blown away by this museum when I went to visit in May of 2023; extremely overwhelming and also exhausting if you're not in good shape (we walked 16000 steps in just one day at Uffizi and downtown Florence). You will enjoy this museum way more if you watch a few videos like this prior to going and great advice about focusing on a smaller segment of the works rather than trying to fly through this huge museum.......great video!
Caravaggio fascinates and enraptures us with his combination of sacred and profane, flesh and spirit, apotheosis and degradation, ecstasy and agony, light and shadow. An impulsive, sanguine, feverish painter
went back to your lectures after finding your channel 3 years ago and theyre just as great as i remember! i appreciate your efforts to share your knowledge of art history with others and hope to see more :^]
Pieta was struck 17 times by a mentally ill man with a stone hammer. You did not mention that Michelangelo chose this stone himself high in the quarry.. You fragmented very important details
I really appreciate the presentation and effort and I’m sure the presenter has a long road ahead of her to deal with this tipe of format. Some positive feedback : -reduce stating obvious impressions that everybody would say and say at least 3 important aspects of one specific subject. - as much as I value the enthusiasm try to make the presentation controlled in planning - years and timelines are always good to start so you don’t digress - never discourage other places for people to visit - there’s a fine line between being friendly likable and imposing intellectual superiority. People want to listen about valuable information from a legitimate professor/historian not my best friend who went to visit florence in the summer. All the best and further successes!
