Tag Archives: painting

A Master of ‘Swish’

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Yesterday we spent most of the day in Lucca, mainly because we both had dental appointments. Apart from that, we walked around a little, did some shopping, managed a tasty oriental kebab, sorted out our telefonini and—since the weather was gloomy—decided it was the perfect moment to visit an exhibition at the Cavallerizza, (the former riding school), which has become one of Lucca’s main venues for art shows, rather like Palazzo Blu in Pisa or Palazzo Strozzi in Florence. The exhibitions there are usually original and fascinating, and this one certainly was.


This exhibition continues a thread that began with the Puccini posters a couple of years ago, linked to the world of the Belle Époque—the “beautiful times.” That period has been everywhere lately: the great show at Palazzo Blu, the Toulouse-Lautrec display at the Innocenti in Florence, and now this one in Lucca. This time the focus is on Giovanni Boldini, the Italian painter who perhaps sums up the Belle Époque better than anyone.


Boldini is, in a sense, the Italian equivalent of John Singer Sargent: master of swish, elegance, and dazzling portraiture, especially of women in extraordinary dresses. (Boldini knew Sargent and even painted a fine portrait of him). He was lucky to live at a time when women’s fashion was perfect for painting, lucky to meet so many beautiful women, and luckier still to have affairs with some of them. His paintings capture movement, life, and glamour through long, flowing brushstrokes, a sense of speed, and a nervous, brilliant energy.


But his work is not only about fashionable society. Of course there is high life, elegance, and display, but there are also intimate portraits of young women, quiet scenes in orchards and gardens, and tender, almost enchanting countryside views, even if these are fewer. At times he moves close to Impressionism. He was influenced by the Macchiaioli, the Italian Impressionists, but only as part of his range. He could use their techniques when he wished, yet above all he remained himself: the swish, the flow, the long strokes, the elegance.


Sadly, Boldini’s eyesight deteriorated toward the end of his life. He died in the 1930s at almost ninety. After the First World War he painted very little, and in a way that suited him. I don’t think he ever really felt at home with the new fashions of the 1920s—the flappers, the short dresses, the sharp lines. There are one or two portraits with those dreadful cloche hats, but they are not what we remember him for. His true world was the Belle Époque.


We were really glad we went to this exhibition which also displayed several paintings of his contemporaries placing his own uniqueness into perspective. It was far more impressive than we expected, and we fell in love with many of the paintings. I was completely struck by one in particular—a woman just after her bath. The beauty of her body, the form, the softness… it was deeply sensual. Yes, it is sexual, but sexual with elegance and culture, not the crude vulgarity that passes for sexuality today. This was refined, sophisticated, and deeply human.


It is a wonderful exhibition, and I would recommend it to everyone. It is beautifully done and truly memorable—a perfect escape from all the gloomy things that surround us: the news, the weather, the economy, everything. It lets you plunge into the Belle Époque, even while knowing that that period itself had many problems—disease, hypocrisy, poverty, moral contradictions—most of which are not shown here.


And perhaps that is why Boldini was so loved. He gave people a way out. He gave life, movement, and elegance. He glorified women, made them radiant, modern, and beautiful. And if beauty is truth, then perhaps truth is beauty too.

Beautiful Beato

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It’s been more than sixty years since Florence last dedicated a major exhibition to the Renaissance painter Beato (Fra) Angelico. The new show at Palazzo Strozzi feels unmissable in at least two ways:

  1. it changes how we look at Fra Angelico, and
  2. it brings together works that have been restored, reattributed, and even reassembled after centuries of separation in museums across the world.

For anyone who loves early Renaissance art, the exhibition is not just a display — it’s almost a rediscovery.

It Is unfortunate, even tragic, that so many Italian early renaissance paintings have been dismembered. The altarpieces would have had a main painting and be surrounded by smaller panels or predelle illustrating scenes from the lives of the main protagonist. So many of them were sold off by ruthless local art dealers only to find their way to collectors in America and northern Europe. This exhibition has several of these altarpieces to be reassembled, temporarily. When paintings began to be done on canvases and predelle went out of fashion for religious themes then dismemberment disappeared..or did it,? How many of these pictures were actually cut up and their strips sold separately?

Another point to realise is that Beato Angelico and his contemporaries’ paintings were to be guides to worshipping eternal verities (as several miraculous images still do in the manner of orthodox icons) rather than providing an entertaining afternoon visit in the local art gallery. Are we then to kneel before them here in their palazzo setting? Perhaps not but let us at least worship their divine inspiration from a very fine artist.

What Makes Fra Angelico So Special?

I’ve found myself reflecting on this a lot while walking through the rooms of the exhibition. Why does Angelico speak so strongly to us today? Why does he suddenly seem so modern, fresh, and relevant?

What makes him unique — technically, spiritually, symbolically — and why has his reputation been growing so rapidly in recent decades?

For these reasons, surely:

1. A Painter of Both Innovation and Prayer

Fra Angelico (born Fra’ Giovanni da Fiesole) is that rarest of artistic figures:
a painter of deep contemplative spirituality and a pioneer of Renaissance technique.

He manages to be simultaneously a meditative, almost mystical presence and an innovator in perspective, colour, and spatial clarity.

He paints with the aim of making us pray with our eyes. His works radiate a peaceful intensity that brings the viewer to a reflective pause.

2. A Bridge Between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Angelico stands at a delicate turning point in art history. One can still feel the medieval world in his radiant colours, his use of gold, and his refined decorative details. And yet he steps confidently into the Renaissance with meaningful perspective, calm and believable human figures, and a new sense of natural space.

It’s as if Beato Angelico brings the devotion of the Middle Ages into harmony with the emerging realism of the Renaissance.

Why His Fame Is Rising Again Today

In the past 20–30 years Beato Angelico’s reputation has undergone a major revival. This is thanks to restorations that have revealed luminous original colours and shimmering gold once dulled by centuries. New scholarship has highlighted his sophisticated theological knowledge and overturned old ideas about his supposed “naivety.” He is now seen as a poet of the sacred, not merely as a Dominican friar who happened to paint.

Beato Angelico’s Painting Technique: Light, Colour, and Contemplation

1. Pure, Luminous Colours

Angelico worked mostly in tempera on wood panel or in fresco. His palette included lapis lazuli for blue, cinnabar for red, and generous applications of gold leaf, often stamped and tooled.

The effect is a glowing, almost supernatural radiance.

2. Faces Modelled with Tender Precision

His figures are soft, balanced, and emotionally calm.

This serenity is his unmistakable signature. Each face feels like a moment of prayer frozen in paint.

3. Perspective Used with Restraint

Beato Angelico applies perspective not to impress, like some contemporaries such as Masaccio, but to organise the visual space and lead the viewer gently toward the central theological idea.

His pictorial architecture is simple, clear, and deeply intentional.

4. A Meditative Working Method

Vasari — with his usual mix of truth and mythology — wrote that Fra Angelico prayed before each painting session and would “never change a face unless he believed he could make it more spiritually perfect.”

Whether literal or symbolic, it captures the essence of his approach.

The Symbolic Language of Beato Angelico

Angelico’s works are rich with symbolic vocabulary drawn from medieval tradition, Scripture, and Dominican theology.

1. Light

Light is never harsh or dramatic. It represents divine presence: calm, steady, benevolent.

2. Colours with Theological Meaning

  • Blue: divine truth, the purity of Mary
  • Red: love, sacrifice, Christ’s blood
  • Gold: eternity, heaven
  • White: revelation, spiritual illumination

His colours are not decorative; they teach.

3. Simple Architecture

Spaces are bare, bright, and proportioned — visual metaphors for Dominican simplicity and contemplation.

4. The Enclosed Garden (Hortus Conclusus)

A frequent symbol of Mary’s purity, especially in Annunciation scenes. The plants themselves often carry meaning: roses for divine love, lilies for purity, palms for martyrdom.

5. Angels

His angels are transparent, delicate, pastel-coloured — not terrifying messengers, but beings of peace and harmony.

How Beato Angelico’s Symbolism Developed

Angelico’s visual language emerges from three great traditions:

  1. Dominican spirituality, with its emphasis on light, truth, and poverty;
  2. Late medieval Florentine art, with its gold, elegance, and narrative clarity;
  3. Early Renaissance innovations, which he absorbed at San Marco amid the influences of Masaccio and Brunelleschi.

Angelico distilled all of this into a style that is both humble and transcendent — a form of visual meditation.

If the Palazzo Strozzi exhibition proves anything, it’s that Beato Angelico is not just a painter of the past. He is an artist whose clarity, peace, and beauty still speak powerfully to us today.

We left this marvellous exhibition illuminated — in both secular and spiritual understanding — and ever more captivated by Beato Angelico’s beautiful paintings.

The image shows The Last Judgment.

  • The painting was commissioned by the Camaldolese Order for the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence, and is now housed in the Museo di San Marco in Florence. 
  • The composition is divided into three main sections: Heaven (top center), Paradise (left), and Hell (right). 
  • In the center, Christ is depicted in judgment, surrounded by saints and angels blowing trumpets. 
  • To Christ’s left (viewer’s right), demons round up the damned on a barren landscape, while to his right (viewer’s left), the saved and saints are led into a beautiful garden. 

PS The exhibition ends in January 2026

La Belle Epoque : Descriptions of my favourite paintings exhibited.

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  • The painting depicts a young woman reclining with a doll beside her. 
  • Antonio Mancini was a prominent Italian painter known for his realistic and expressive portraits. 
  • The inclusion of a doll in such paintings was a traditional custom in Southern Italy, symbolizing happiness, fertility, and good wishes for a new family. 

The painting is titled Electricity (or Elektriciteit) by the Belgian artist Alfred Stevens, created around 1890. 

  • The artwork is an oil painting on canvas and measures 116.5 by 81.5 centimeters.
  • It depicts a woman with long red hair holding a black cat, with a stormy or dark cityscape in the background.
  • The painting is a notable example of Symbolism and Art Nouveau, often associated with themes of modernity and the mystical aspects of electricity.
  • It is currently housed in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France.

Giovanni Boldini: Provocation.

Three ladies conversing.

The image shows a detail of the painting “Girl with a Black Cat” by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. 

  • The oil on canvas painting was completed in 1885. 
  • Boldini was a genre and portrait painter known for his “Master of Swish” style due to his flowing brushwork. 
  • The painting is noted for its vibrant red background, which makes the figures of the girl and the black cat stand out. 
  • The girl’s expression is captivating, and the cat’s eyes are described as vital and hypnotic. 
  • The original artwork is held in a private collection. 

The image is a painting titled Figure of a woman (Léontine De Nittis) by the Italian artist Giuseppe De Nittis. 

  • The subject of the painting is Léontine Gruvelle, the artist’s wife, friend, and model. 
  • De Nittis was a renowned Italian Impressionist painter, famous for his elegant depictions of Parisian high society in the late 19th century. 
  • He died at a young age, thirty-eight, but achieved significant success both in Italy and abroad. 
  • Many of his works, including this one, are housed in the Pinacoteca Giuseppe De Nittis in Barletta, Italy, following a donation by his wife after her death in 1913. 

The image is a portrait painting titled “Portrait of Lady Eden” by the American artist John Singer Sargent. 

  • The painting was completed in 1906. 
  • It depicts Sybil Frances Grey, who became Lady Eden after marrying Sir William Eden. 
  • Lady Eden is shown seated at a table, holding playing cards in her hand. 
  • The finished painting is part of the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. 

The image is a photograph of the painting “Reading by the Sea” (also known as In lettura sul mare or Dreams) by the Italian artist Vittorio Matteo Corcos. 

  • The oil on canvas painting was created around 1910. 
  • It depicts a man and two women dressed in white, with the woman in the center seated on a green chair looking directly at the viewer. 
  • The painting is considered an important work of 19th and early 20th-century Italian realism. 
  • The work’s original title was “Dreams” and it was considered somewhat controversial at the time of its exhibition due to the woman’s bold, unconventional pose and direct gaze. 

The image is a painting titled The Chat (also known as The Gossip or Suada in Korean) by the Italian Impressionist painter Federico Zandomeneghi. 

  • The artwork is an oil on canvas painting. 
  • The original dimensions are 54 cm x 65 cm. 

The image is a painting titled La Coccoli by the Italian artist Vittorio Matteo Corcos. 

  • The artist, Vittorio Matteo Corcos (1859-1933), was known for his elegant and realistic portraits during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  • The painting depicts a young child on a beach interacting with a crab, embodying a moment of quiet observation.
  • The work is characteristic of the Belle Époque era, capturing a sense of innocence and the leisurely lifestyle of the bourgeoisie.
  • Corcos worked in both Paris and Florence and contributed significantly to the artistic movement of the time with his refined and detailed style.

Youth: Giorgio Kienerk

Alceste Campriani: garden in Lucca

Fields around London (also known as Fields near London), created by the Italian artist Giuseppe De Nittis. 

  • The painting was created circa 1875. 
  • It is an oil on canvas painting and is categorized under the Impressionism art style. 
  • The work is a genre painting depicting people enjoying leisure time in a vibrant, blooming field. 
  • The painting is held in a private collection. 

Young Woman with a Blue Ribbon (also known as Girl with a Blue Ribbon or Jeune Fille au ruban bleu) by the French Impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. 

  • The oil on canvas painting was created in 1888. 
  • It is housed at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon in France. 
  • The work is characteristic of Renoir’s return to a gentler, more delicate style after his Impressionist phase. 
  • The model’s name is unknown, but she is believed to be the same young woman who appears in other Renoir works, such as Les Grandes Baigneuses. 

 “Dreams” (or Sogni in Italian). 

  • Artist: Vittorio Matteo Corcos, an Italian painter. 
  • Date: It was painted in 1896. 
  • Subject: The painting depicts Elena Vecchi, the daughter of a friend of the artist. 
  • Location: It is held in the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome, Italy. 
  • Reception: The painting caused a stir when exhibited in Florence in 1896 due to the subject’s modern pose, which was considered quite indecorous for the period. 

 Sogni (Dreams) by the Italian artist Vittorio Matteo Corcos, created in 1896.

  • The painting depicts a young woman in a light green dress seated on a wooden bench, resting her chin on her hand.
  • It is considered a masterpiece of Italian portraiture from the late 19th century.
  • The work is part of the collection at the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (National Gallery of Modern Art) in Rome, Italy.
  • The woman in the portrait is thought to be the Countess Annina Morosini.

Vittorio Matteo Corcos. This particular work is a landscape piece, which is less typical of the artist, who is primarily known for his portraits of aristocratic and upper-bourgeois women. 

  • The artist is Vittorio Matteo Corcos (1859–1933), an Italian painter. 
  • He was known for his portraits and genre paintings, often depicting finely dressed young men and women. 
  • While his fame is tied to his depictions of women, his work also includes landscapes like this one, which reflect a connection to naturalism. 
  • The painting captures a village scene with a focus on a tiled roof and smoke rising from a chimney.

Eleonora Duse

 “Edith Warren Miller” created by the French artist Jules Joseph Lefebvre. 

  • The artist, Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911), was a prominent French figure painter, educator, and a leading academic artist during his time.
  • The subject of the painting, Edith Warren Miller, was a socialite and the wife of a wealthy American banker.
  • The painting is a notable example of Lefebvre’s work, known for its elegant style and realistic depiction of the sitter.
  • The artwork is part of the permanent collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Alfred Sisley, The Seine at Daybreak (La Seine au point du jour). 

  • The work was painted around 1877 or 1878. 
  • Sisley was known for his dedication to painting landscapes outdoors (en plein air), capturing the transient effects of light and atmosphere. 
  • This painting depicts a small riverside settlement with a chimney pluming above, focusing on the river and the sky. 
  • Sisley’s style in this work is characterized by delicate brushstrokes that capture the nuances of light and color, especially in the detailed rendering of the clouds and water. 

 Portrait of Mme Helleu Reading a Letter, created by the French artist Paul César Helleu. 

  • The painting depicts the artist’s wife and frequent model, Alice Helleu, reading a letter. 
  • Paul César Helleu was a celebrated society portraitist during the Belle Époque era. 
  • Helleu’s work often focused on feminine grace and the elegance of high society life, as described by Marcel Proust. 
  • The work is executed in oil on canvas and has appeared in various auctions and art collections. 

Portrait of the Countess de Leusse, née Berthier, an 1890 oil on canvas work by the Italian artist Giovanni Boldini. 

  • Artist: Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931)
  • Year: 1890
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Subject: Countess de Leusse, born Berthier 

The work is a notable example of Boldini’s style, which captured the elegance and dynamism of high society during the Belle Époque.

 Kitchen Gardens at L’Hermitage, Pontoise by the French Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro. It depicts a rural scene with a woman working in a vegetable garden, capturing the natural beauty and a traditional way of life in the area. 

  • Artist: Camille Pissarro
  • Style: iompressionism
  • Subject: A scene in a vegetable garden in Pontoise, France
  • Date: Painted in 1873
  • Location: The original painting is housed at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh

Sleigh Ride (also known as Sledding or Corse di slitta) by the Italian artist Giuseppe De Nittis. 

  • Artist: Giuseppe De Nittis
  • Title: Sleigh Ride (or Sledding, Corse di slitta)
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Style: Impressionism
  • Current Location: Pinacoteca Giuseppe De Nittis, Barletta, Italy

The image is a famous Impressionist painting titled In the Garden (also known as Woman and Child Seated in a Garden) by the American artist Mary Cassatt. 

  • Artist: Mary Cassatt (1844–1926), a prominent American painter and printmaker who lived much of her adult life in France and was a key figure in the Impressionist movement. 
  • Subject: The painting depicts a tender moment between a woman and a young girl seated on a bench in a garden setting. 
  • Style: The work is characteristic of Cassatt’s mature Impressionist style, featuring a high vantage point, a bright color palette, and loose, visible brushstrokes. 
  • Date: The painting was completed around 1903 or 1904. 
  • Theme: Cassatt is widely admired for her perceptive portrayals of the intimate bonds between mothers and children, a recurring subject in her art. 

The image is a detail from the painting La guardiana di tacchini (The Turkey Keeper) by the Italian Impressionist painter Federico Zandomeneghi. 

  • Federico Zandomeneghi was born in Venice in 1841 and later moved to Paris, where he was influenced by the Impressionist movement and artists like Edgar Degas. 
  • The painting, also known as Jeune fille aux dindons (Young girl with turkeys), was created between 1890 and 1895. 
  • It depicts a young girl sitting outdoors, seemingly focused on knitting or a similar task, with turkeys visible in the foreground.
  • Zandomeneghi’s work often focused on capturing everyday moments of contemporary life, particularly featuring female subjects. 

Portrait of a Lady Jacques-Emile Blanche

La Mare, effet de neige (The Pond, Effect of Snow) by Claude Monet. 

  • It is an Impressionist oil-on-canvas painting created in 1874.
  • The painting depicts a snow-covered landscape with a pond or river bank, utilizing Monet’s signature soft brushstrokes and focus on light and atmosphere.
  • The scene captures a cold, misty day, with trees lining the bank and a hint of an industrial area in the distance.
  • The work is part of a series of snow effect paintings by the artist.

Swiss Paint and Sound

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What was it like to be a woman painter in the eighteenth century? Perhaps the image of a decorator comes up in the mind of some males as if women were only good at formulating colour schemes for a new apartment. Here, however, we are dealing with one of the finest professional portrait and history painters who also happened to be a founder member of the Royal Academy. Moreover she was not even British but Swiss. Angelica Kauffman was born in Chur in 1741 and died in Rome in 1807 and came from a relatively poor family. Her father was a good muralist and his travels for work in central Europe enabled Angelica to pick up not only his skills but also four languages.

Not only in the visual arts but also in music Angelica started to excel: she was a good musician and singer but gave up opera when a priest told her it was a ‘seedy’ profession. Later in life Kauffman depicted this difficult choice in her life in the following allegorical painting:

When Angelica was sixteen her mother died and she and her father moved to Italy where she became a member of Florence’s Accademia delle Belle Arti. In Rome Angelica met the British community there and her portraits of them became popular. So popular in fact that she decided to come to the United Kingdom accompanied by the wife of the British ambassador. In London Angelica became friends with Sir Joshua Reynolds and through him was one of the founder members of the Royal Academy, the only woman member, apart from the celebrated painter Mary Moser, to be a Royal Academician until the twentieth century.

Although Angelica’s portraits of friends and notables were (and continue to be highly prized) with their incisive, harmonious and vivid colours combined with a multi-layered application of paint she regarded herself primarily as a painter of historical subjects such as the ones shown here:

Disappointed at the apparent lack of interest in these Kauffman moved to Rome. Her move was also prompted by two incidents. First was a satirical painting referring to her relationship with Reynolds which she managed to have withdrawn from a Royal Academy exhibition. Second was her short marriage to an impostor who tried to grab her money. (Later in life Kauffman remarried, this time happily.)

In Rome Angelica continued her professional career as a painter and befriended many cultivated persons including Goethe and Winkelman some of whose portraits she painted.

Angelica Kauffman’s funeral was a grand affair arranged by neoclassical sculptor Canova, recently the subject of a fine exhibition at Lucca’s Cavallerizza. Indeed, Angelica can herself be regarded as a neoclassical artist especially with regard to her historical canvases and the poses of the figures in her paintings which are inspired by ancient sculptures.

I was able to make up my own mind regarding Angela Kauffman’s artistry at the current Royal Academy’s exhibition on her. Visiting the two rooms containing both her portraits and history paintings and including engraved prints of her work which proved very popular during her lifetime I was suitably seduced by Angelica’s skills in portraying her sitters whether they be the nobility or Lady Hamilton or that great classical scholar Winkelmann, murdered in Rome aged fifty in 1768 by his gay lover.

Angelica Kauffman’s historical pictures showed her virtuosity in depicting anatomy (how could she as a woman have attended life classes at the R.A. in the eighteenth century?) and composing complex groups of personages. However, lacking deeper knowledge of the subjects presented, I found Angelica’s portraits much more interesting. Already I could envisage the transition from the Baroque to a lighter Rococo style and even the hints of an impeding proto romanticism in the more fluid brush-strokes.

What a woman! I thought. Beauty and brains combined in Angelica. Her character was apparently full of charm but also ambitious. She needed to be in an age when women had to be at least twice, if not three times, as good as men in carrying out their profession. It was a truly worthwhile visit to this Swiss painter’s oeuvre especially since so many of her paintings are in private collections and, therefore, not normally accessible to the general public.

It was a happy coincidence that Switzerland had already appeared on our cultural horizon a couple of days previously at an organ concert given in the church of Saint Margaret Lothbury by Marc Fitze, titular organist at the HeiliggeistKirche in Berne. On one of the finest classical organs in London, built by George Pike England in 1801, Fitze performed a very attractive repertoire ranging from Biber and Galuppi to Lefebure-Wely and Liszt. The concluding piece by romantic composer Jacques Vogt was a Fantasie-orage ‘Scène champetre’ depicting a storm over lake Lucerne. For this piece some stops, by means only known to organists, had their wind-intake modified to imitate the sound of mountain goats. It was all quite charming and realistic! Meanwhile, we are promised more thunderstorms over London today in what promises to be another disappointing Bank holiday.