durando-togo

Richard Durando-Togo, Women at the Market, Oil on Canvas, Framed and signed.

Attentive observer, may I challenge you to find some unusual elements in this panel painting? One detail has to do with the symbolic use of color, the other with a later adjustment of the image. Indeed! The Blessed Virgin is not dressed in her usual sky blue cloak, which refers to her purity, but in a red robe. During the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the Virgin often wore such a red garment to refer to the Passion of Christ. After all, the blessing Christ child with his orb would shed his blood for the redemption of mankind. The second strange element catches the eye when one looks closer at the little Jesus. It appears that he was originally depicted completely naked, but got on a transparent loincloth over time. In the past there were several times when nudity in art was subject to some form of censorship. For example, the supervision of Christian art was strongly encouraged by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). This assembly was dealing with the inner-ecclesiastical reform of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the important theologians who followed the council’s guidelines was Joannes Molanus (1533-1585). He did not consider the nakedness of the Christ Child to be edifying and pointed out that children could be endangered in this way. He may have been referring to the dangers of paedophilia. During the 19th century, puritanism emerged. A famous example of a moral preacher was Pope Pius IX...

Willem Muys was a Dutch, 18th-century painter of history pieces, portraits and cabinet pieces. Above all, he appears to have been active as a painter of ‘wallpaper’. Until the mid-18th century, ‘wallpaper’ was not painted on paper but on coarsely woven linen. Wealthy citizens had their mansions or country estates adorned with ‘wallpaper’ with landscapes, exotic birds or chinoiseries. Willem Muys mainly painted ‘wallpaper’, which means that few of his works have been preserved. They are hardly represented in public collections. The works of his sons, Nicolaas en Robbert, both painters, are a little less rare. The painting with Rebecca and Eliezer...

Preparation for Carnival: a three day festival of insatiable eating, drinking and carousing that preceded the forty days of Lent, a period of penitence when the pious drank only wate...

Around the middle of the 19th century, the missionary Thomas Savage and the anatomist Jeffries Wyman described a new animal species – the Troglodytes Gorilla – in their Boston Societ...

The portrait represents a man, estimated to be 60 years of age, standing turned to the viewer's right, looking at the viewer with a commanding expression. He has a moustache and beard and wears a high fur cap. He wears a brown mantle over a whitish shirt and, over it, a heavy gold chain...

This charming bucolic landscape bathes in a soft yellow light. A lady on horseback, accompanied by a boy on a donkey, stops near a shepherd. The herd looks at two fishers and quietly...

Original painting. Acrylic, oil and paper on high quality linen canvas stretcher. Finished off with a soft glossy varnish. 70 x 90 cm 27.5 x 35.4". The corners are painted and it’...

"Flare," by Alpay Efe, is an original oil painting. It comes with the frame depicted in the images.

Introducing "Monochromatic Musicians - In Deep Blue" by the renowned artist Koko Hovaguimian. This captivating oil painting transports the viewer into a world of evocative artistry, ...

In this series, Audrey Anastasi has shifted her focus away from naturalistic domestic settings to a dark, enigmatic, and some might say, unsettling, pl...

Painter. 2011, oil on canvas, 80x60 cm

Comfort, 80x60cm