You see, there's this guy.....
May. 20th, 2009 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gurdymonkeyAm I the only one who forms crushes on dead guys in art? I think the first was Albrecht Durer in one of my Dad's coffee table books.
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/durer/self/self-26.jpg
And there was Jean d'Allyue from the Cloisters with his ringlets and oh so French angelic features.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crus/ho_25.120.201.htm.
I managed to squeeze in a very brief stop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my Dad while I was in New Jersey two weekends ago. One has to remember I wasn't into Japanese art and costuming the last time I was there, so I made a point of checking out their Japanese collection - and it happened again.
Portrait of a Warrior, late 16th century, acquired by the Met in 2004, the display card (which I also photographed) reads:
"This newly discovered painting depicting an unidentified warrior is executed at a size usually reserved for portraits of emperors and shoguns, and it ranks among the largest and finest secular portraits from Japan. Although the family crest of wild orange is associated with the Shibata family of the late 16th century, the sitter's exact identity remains unknown.
"The unnamed samurai, clearly an important member of a warrior clan, is depicted grasping the end of his long beard, which was banned in the seventeenth century as an expression of antiestablishment sentiment and unwelcome individualism. His eyes seem to twinkle with mischievous pleasure. Such lively, informal representation was the norm in secular depictions of deceased people, while more formality was standard in portraits of those still living. Details of the sitter's robe and swords also point to a late sixteenth century date for the painting."
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/durer/self/self-26.jpg
And there was Jean d'Allyue from the Cloisters with his ringlets and oh so French angelic features.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crus/ho_25.120.201.htm.
I managed to squeeze in a very brief stop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my Dad while I was in New Jersey two weekends ago. One has to remember I wasn't into Japanese art and costuming the last time I was there, so I made a point of checking out their Japanese collection - and it happened again.
Portrait of a Warrior, late 16th century, acquired by the Met in 2004, the display card (which I also photographed) reads:
"This newly discovered painting depicting an unidentified warrior is executed at a size usually reserved for portraits of emperors and shoguns, and it ranks among the largest and finest secular portraits from Japan. Although the family crest of wild orange is associated with the Shibata family of the late 16th century, the sitter's exact identity remains unknown.
"The unnamed samurai, clearly an important member of a warrior clan, is depicted grasping the end of his long beard, which was banned in the seventeenth century as an expression of antiestablishment sentiment and unwelcome individualism. His eyes seem to twinkle with mischievous pleasure. Such lively, informal representation was the norm in secular depictions of deceased people, while more formality was standard in portraits of those still living. Details of the sitter's robe and swords also point to a late sixteenth century date for the painting."
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no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 03:38 am (UTC)I like him too.
See? Just my type.
Date: 2009-05-21 05:27 am (UTC)I'm dying to know what he's thinking.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 04:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 06:55 am (UTC)I've thought he was hot since the first time i saw his self-portrait decades ago when i was studying art history! I still think he looks hot! ...except i've read a bit about him and... mmm... he might not have been much fun, ah, but such curls!
BTW, that French dude's link has a problem. There's a period included at the end so it goes to no page. Removing the period makes it work.
You can have that samurai all to yourself, he's not my samurai. I like this guy's hair cut :-)
BTW, have you seen Gentile Bellini's portrait of a Turkish Janissary drawn from life in Istanbul, circa 1480? Reminds me a little of a certain more angular person we know from a nearby kingdom. BTW, i don't have a crush on the guy in the drawing...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-21 01:20 pm (UTC)The details in that portrait of the unknown samurai are exquisite.