The Divine Artist
The Renaissance tendency to describe great artists as “divine” is usually considered a rhetorical device to express society’s admiration for the inexplicable talents of a great master.{ref1} Though no doubt true, many artists interpreted the term differently, not through Church doctrine as society did but through the interiorized beliefs of mystics and saints with whom they felt at one (See The Inner Tradition.) The visual evidence for this is overwhelming. Art all over Europe suggests that artists really did think of themselves as divine, not because they had vast egos (which no doubt they had) but because we are all made in the image of God, however well disguised. Just as a saint follows Christ’s path and is an image of Christ that ordinary believers can imitate, so artists undergoing the agony of creation identify with Christ’s suffering too. Their portrait of Christ is thus an image of their own self.
All Articles (Alphabetical by Artist, then Title)
Baudelaire's linking of Painting with cosmetics in the nineteenth century was not a novel idea, as long believed, but one with a very long history indeed
Titian’s Mary Magdalene(s) (c.1530-60)
Even in the remaining fragment of a much larger canvas there is still much to see
Titian’s Noli Me Tangere fragment (1553-4)
Relax. Look past the superficial forms to see what's really there.
Titian’s Pope Paul III and His Grandsons (1545-6)
Artists sometimes depict themselves as an extraneous figure, often in the foreground and not part of the written story.
Titian’s Transfiguration (1560-65)
Whatever the reasons for his style, Van Gogh made full use of the distortions
Van Gogh’s Church in Auvers-sur-Oise (1890)
Landscapes, if art, are never just landscapes. Are they even landscapes? The Chinese call them "Mindscapes"
Van Gogh’s Snowy Landscape with Arles in the Background (1888)
This picture uses so many of the themes and methods explained on EPPH that I can note only a few. Try exercising your own perception on the rest.
Veronese’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c.1572)
Sometimes one of the secrets of art is so obvious, no-one sees it
Veronese’s The Marriage at Cana (1563)
Everyone agrees that this work by Verrocchio breaks new ground but why? And what does it mean?
Verrocchio’s Christ and St. Thomas (1467-83)
Artists often identify with other artists, using them as an alter ego. Here is an exceptionally clever one.
Whistler’s J. Becquet, Sculptor (1859)
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