Andrea Del Sarto

Born in Italy in the year 1486 A.D. Andrea Del Sarto's oil on wood painting measured 81 inches by 70 inches and is exhibited in Florence's Galleria degli Uffizi.

It's called

Madonna Of The Harpies

and has halos, winged angles, flowing robes, a pedestal, St. Francis and St. John.

The central grouping, flanked by the two saints, is of the Madonna holding a naked baby Jesus in her right arm and a book in her left hand. She stands on an octagonal pedestal decorated with harpies (they look like angels with frog legs).

Del Sarto's choice of color pigments is pure genius because it makes the robes of the Madonna and St. John come to life. Also, his judicious placement of shadows draws the viewer's attention to the central characters in the piece.

If this work ever goes up for sale and you have the means and wherewhital to acquire it for your collection go for it... you won't be disappointed.

Del Sarto died in 1530.

P.S. If you have occassion to visit London, why not pay a visit to the National Gallery and look for another Del Sarto masterpiece called:

Portrait of A Young Man

. It is a 22 inch wide by 28 inch high oil on linen painting created in the same year as the Madonna painting.

While the vibrant colors of the Madonna Of The Harpies are absent, you'll still be able to study the skin tones and the superb rendering of billowing fabric.

Albrecht Altdorfer

If you like the surrealistic paintings of Salvador Dali you'll marvel at Albrecht Altdorfer's painting: Alexander's Victory.

It was finished in 1529 A.D. using oil and tempera paints on a wood substrate.

The work hangs in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany and measures 48 inches across and 62 inches high.

In the bottom half of the painting is a sea of soldiers. There are flags and horses, spears, banners, tents, chariots, trees, castles, mountains and cities.

The top portion has an amazing blue sky with a crescent moon in the top left corner and a sun that appears to be setting over the horizon with reds, oranges and yellows.

Floating in the sky above the incredible scene is an ornate plaque with Latin words.

Off to either sides of the framed plaque float sashes and from the bottom center of the frame is a tassle with a pull-cord that terminates with a metallic ring.

It's the heavenly plaque that makes the scene look so surreal.

If you every go to Munich check this masterpiece out. You won't regret it.

P.S. Some people call this painting Battle Of Issus.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

The artist was born in the Netherlands in 1836 and spent his active artistic life in England. He died in 1912. But during that life time he created some spectacular oil paintings.

There are two that are exceptional.

1) Unconscious Rivals; finished in 1893 this is an 18 inch by 25 inch work of art.
It hangs in the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in the UK. He paints human subjects, and their robes, with great attention to detail. His technical ability also allowed him to paint marble statues so convincingly that a photograph of the statues would not be better. Flowers, sky and architectural elements are realistically rendered and his method of framing superb.

2) A Favorite Custom; finished in 1909 is an oil painting on panel that measures 18 inches across and 26 inches high. Two female swimmers are in the crystal clear waters of a Roman bath. Water pours out of a spout that looks like a smiling gargoyle-like mask. In the distance robed individuals enter the bath. The artist gives the viewer a taste of a classic old world scene and does it with incredible skill.

Both pieces have to be seen to be appreciated.

Oh yes, the second painting hangs in London's Tate Gallery.

From Sell Info Products Online dot com this is LeBlond, Gerard LeBlond.

There's something about top quality renaissance art that is lacking from modern art.

Hi, my name is LeBlond, Gerard LeBlond from sell info products online dot com (www.sellinfoproductsonline.com) and that special "something" has to do with attention to detail. Let me get more specific.

In front of me is a copy of Josef Albers' 1972 oil painting called "Study For Homage To The Square". The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art was the owner back in 1999.

Let me describe the work in detail.

Don't worry this won't take too long.

24 inch by 24 inch orange square (takes up the entire canvas; oops I should have stated that the substrate is not canvas bu masonite... like the veneer on a cheap kitchen counter-top) with a slightly darker colored orange square just below center, with a slightly smaller reddish orange square just below center, with a last deeper red-orange square just below center. The squares are nestled within one another

That's it!

This piece doesn't inspire because I could commission a class of 4th graders to create works of art based on the above description and I predict that at least half of the class would come close to producing a near exact replica of the Albers' piece.

I bet I could get just as good of results by telling the fourth graders that they only have 20 minutes to execute the painting and that the ones who follow the instructions most closely will get a shiny Kennedy half dollar.

Heck, forget the fourth graders...

I could knock off a respectable replica in half the time.

Now, let us compare the Albers work with a truly inspirational piece by Albertinelli called The Visitation.

Oil on wood measuring 232 cm x 146 cm (91 inches by 57.5 inches) with the top 25% of the piece curved upward.

The piece includes classic architectural elements in the form of columns, arches, bases, capitals, molding and stairs.

It also has grass near the bottom and clouded sky peaking through the arches of the structure that predominates the scene. In the foreground are two women: Mary the mother of Jesus and her cousin Elizabeth (the mother of John the Baptist).

The flowing folds of the women's gowns, capes and veils are perfectly executed and the colors are vibrant and appealing to the eye.

Even if the observers know diddly-squat about the bible's new testmant they, assuming they possess an appreciation of artistic technical proficiency, will stop and wonder about the subjects and about the skills the artist had to master to pull off this beautiful tableau.