Saturday, December 13, 2008

Art Appreciation

Vittorio Corcos - Sogni - 1896
One of the highlights of my recent trip to Italy was my visit to the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. I probably mentioned in an earlier post that my interest in checking out that particular museum was their collection of Futurist art from the period after World War I. But I was quite impressed with much of the collection, including the above picture (which I believe I've mentioned to a couple of the regular readings of this blog). Sogni translates into English as "Dreams." There's something quite striking about this painting (that is somewhat diminished by the reproduction, both in size and brilliance of the color and detail) and though it is hung in a corner of a gallery with some other, much larger images, this is the one that drew my attention. I generally go for the more experimental stuff (I'll post some later to give you an idea of what I mean), but of all the artwork I saw on the trip, this is the one that stuck in my memory. In fact I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Gallery catalog that had this image on the cover. I guess I didn't realize how much it was going to stick in my head-- and what higher praise can one give to a painting?

2 comments:

Lil' Sis said...

Dr John,
It is painting like this one that really stir my creative juices. Her "just at rest" pose is awesome...you could almost see her stand up any minute now when her companion shows up (well in my world anyway =). The whole painting is well composed and follows alot of the principles that I have learned through the years. Just lovely.
Lil' Sis

Anonymous said...

I agree - it's easy to see why this painting stood out in your mind. Wish it were hanging in my living room. Mom