As a way of experiencing the Humanities beyond your classroom, computer, and textbook, you are askedto attend a cultural event and report on your experience.
Probably the most important museum in the city of Baltimore, the Baltimore Museum of Art exhibits today 90.000 works of art, offering free entrance to all. Among the most interesting collections that are available for the viewers to enjoy is that of European artworks entitled: A Grand Legacy: Five Centuries of European Art. As the collection is fortunately open and not part of the three-year renovation project of the museum, I was able to visit it on December 9. I was immediately impressed by the diversity of the works of art of the collection. Dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries, there are representative works for every major European movement in art. The viewer can see paintings from famous artists like Botticelli, Titian and Rembrandt, and even a statue by Rodin. Among the various works however, I have decided to focus on two paintings: Rinaldo and Armida by Sir Anthony van Dyck, and Princess Anna Alexandrovna Galitzin by the female painter Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.
Each painting has a special quality in its own right. Van Dyck’s painting is considered the most important masterpiece of the collection and one of the best works the artist ever made. It was created in 1629 and was commissioned by the king of England, Charles I. A student of Rubens, Van Dyck’s work is inextricably linked to England and the reign of Charles I, whose regime he documented in his paintings (Waterhouse, 1978, 70). His portraits and other paintings were used as a visual propaganda by the king and the artist was treated as an English aristocrat for the rest of his life (Waterhouse, 1978, 71). It is in this context that we can best understand Rinaldo and Armida. Based on the Renaissance poem Jerusalem Delivered by the Italian Torquato Tasso, a copy of which Charles I owned while he was imprisoned, the painting seems to have been linked with the English monarchy of Charles. The poem is set in Jerusalem during the first crusade, a period of heroes and heroic actions according to the beliefs of many Christians, a period consistent with the image Charles I wanted to have and present for his reign (“Rinaldo and Armida”). At the same time, the painting is a great example of the Baroque style that flourished all around Europe during that period. Movement, energy, drama and emotion, all characteristics of the Baroque (Tansey and Kleiner, 1996, 818), are represented masterly in the painting through the facial expressions and postures of the figures and through the choice of colors.
Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun on the other hand, is one of the most successful portraitists of her time and one of the few pre- 20th century women artists whose work and name have survived to modern times. Her paintings are always important additions to any museum collection. When examined within the historical, social and political context in which the artist lived and worked, Lebrun’s portraits become even more interesting giving the viewer glimpses into European history and putting faces to people who lived centuries before our time. Lebrun became famous for creating graceful and often idealized painting of royals and the nobility of France and in a time where women were usually totally dependent on men and even considered inferior to them, she managed to make a name and a living on her own and live independently (Tansey and Kleiner, 1996, 900). Her fame reached the other courts of Europe and the portrait of Princess Anna Alexandrovna Galitzin in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art is from her stay in the Russian court.
Any visit in a museum is a rewarding experience. It is a way to connect with the past and its remains and a way to look into those people who occupied earth long before we arrived. It is these feelings exactly that I had leaving the Baltimore Museum of Art approximately two hours after my arrival. Being able to do some further research on two art works after my visit was another rewarding experience as I was able to place the paintings in their historical, social and cultural context and was able to better understand them, the artists that created them and the period during which they lived and worked.
REFERENCES
Rinaldo and Armida (n.d.). In Artble. Retrieved from
Tansey, R. G. and Kleiner, F.S. (1996) Gardner’s Art Through the Ages. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.
Waterhouse, E. (1978). Painting in Britain, 1530-1790. Middlesex and New York: Penguin Books.
