Art Gallery Exhibit

[isabelladangelo]

I finally got downtown to go see the Venice exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Other than the guards (whom all looked shocked when my purse converted from a backpack to a purse ::sighs::), it was a pretty delightful and very facsinating exhibit. I loved looking at the x-rays of the paintings and seeing some of them for the first time up close!

One of my favorite ones to look at was The wise virgin which realm_of_venus has up on her site. The lines on the front of the dress always confused me. You have the two lines going across and the one straight down the middle. Turns out, that's because it's not the "italian" style that most of us think of. It actually looks a heck of a lot more like this style with the overdress off to the sides showing the full underbodice out to the front. The darker horizontal lines on the wise virgin's dress are actually laces. You can just barely see the dark blue of the true overdress to the sides of her. The center seam is really just a center seam however.

Another really cool painting to see up close was Titian's Noli Me Tangere which shows Mary Magadelen in a red gown almost crawling on the ground reaching towards Jesus. The neat thing about this one is the x-ray of it. Originally, Titan had Jesus walking away, not twisting back towards Mary. I prefer the one he ended up painting.

The next few I got to see were Portrait of a Lady, Another portrait of a different lady, and Ginevra de' Benci are all part of the permenant collecion. But I noticed something very interesting about all three...they all wear a chemise, then a sheer layer, and then the gown. It's a bit hard to see on Ginevra but you can see the chemise peeking out on her shoulder and near the front. It's very apperant in person that they all have at least three layers on. I wouldn't be surprised if they all had the chemise, corset, sheer layer, then gown.

Another really neat one to see was Neroccio's Portrait of a Lady which is also permenant collection. You would not believe how far off the color is in the link. The front insert is NOT some black lace looking type thing over the velvet, which is kinda how it looks in the picture. But it's really a nice gold jacquard with black designs. It's hard to tell, even in person, if it's really an insert or a seperate under gown.

One of the exhibit paintings I found interesting was Titan's Flora because of the chemise. When you look very closely at it, you can see the frayed edges around the neckline. It looks like it was gathered, stay stiched with a strip of fabric that was NOT folded over the edge like bias-tape. Instead, the strip of fabric looks to only ahve been applied to the outside and let the top of the chemise fray. It's really the only way I can explain how it looks.

And one of my favorites because I'm a pale skinned brunette :-) the gypsy Madonna. This really is just outstanding in person.

Well, after walking everywhere yesterday (from the Metro Center, to the National Gallery, to the Sackler, and then to the Smithsonian Metro stop, and then from River road to home which was another half mile, argh! and don't even get me started on how I got on the wrong bus...) my legs are ready to kill me. Darn Moor...gave myself and my cousins Ethopian hips that won't stand walking for more than 2 miles... </lj-cut)

Comments

[feymaker.livejournal.com]

Now I know what I'm doing this weekend! Thanks for the heads up I didn't even realize they had a Venice exhibit open.