The WhiteRock Family Digital Art Gallery is presented in sections containing eight images each of famous paintings by
great artists. The works are arranged according to what are generally accepted and what the author thinks are the
best or the most important by the artists who are themselves presented according to the significance of their respective
contributions to art.
Some factors have to be considered in order to understand the criteria of the selection of the works that are included
in this gallery. Examples of these are the influence of Western philosophy in the development of aesthetic taste and the
adoption of Western values and culture in the selection of artistic subjects, the inspiration that religious faith has
provided in the creation of great art and the wealth and power of the Catholic Church to commission the services of the
greatest artists of the Renaissance and beyond.
On the other hand, the human form has always been a subject of endless intellectual speculation and this includes the
creation of tasteful art. Along this line, different cultures also have different standards of defining what is "tasteful."
These factors help explain the exclusion of certain aesthetic values and cultures in this selection as well as its liberality
over the selection of certain subjects that some individuals may otherwise find inappropriate.
Art may be objective, but the process of selecting cannot be but subjective. Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Welcome to The WhiteRock Family Digital Art Gallery.
This section includes works by the following painters:
Joan Miro
Paul Klee
Nicolas Poussin
Sandro Boticelli
Piero della Francesca
Paul Klee
Nicolas Poussin
Sandro Boticelli
Piero della Francesca
Three others soon.
Click on the image to view on black background; the title of the work to go to the source.
The name of the artist and location of work link to sources of more information.
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Oil on canvas (1924-5)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY
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The Harlequin's Carnival is an oil painting rendered by Joan Miró between 1924 and 1925. It is one of the most
outstanding surrealist paintings of the artist, and it is preserved in the Albright–Knox Art Gallery.
Created between 1924 and 1925, The Harlequin’s Carnival is one of Joan Miró’s best-known pieces. Harlequin is the name
of a well-known Italian comic theater character that is generally identified by his checkered costume. The ‘carnival’ in
the title of the painting may refer to Mardi Gras, the celebration that occurs before the fasting of Lent begins.
In 1924 poet André Breton formed the Surrealist movement. Around the time of the group’s formation Miró started
to paint in the surrealist style. Surrealism focused on dreams and the subconscious as artistic material, and Miró was
able to draw from these ideas. He painted the subconscious, but also his own life experiences and memories. To combine
these two sources he draws on his imagination to create magical elements in his paintings.
This painting is centered on a harlequin at a carnival. Although the harlequin resembles a guitar, he still retains some
of his harlequin characteristics such as a checkered costume, a moustache, an admiral’s hat, and a pipe. The harlequin in
this painting is sad, which could be due to the hole in his stomach. This detail may refer to Miró’s personal life
experiences, because at this point in his life he did not have much money for food and was on the brink of starvation.
This is a painting of a celebration; all the characters seem to be happy due to the fact they are playing, singing, and
dancing.
Some of the objects in the painting are anthropomorphized, and some seem to be moving and dancing as well. One
example is the ladder to the left of the painting, which has an ear and an eye. According to Miró, the ladder is a symbol
of flight, evasion, and elevation. The green sphere to the right of the painting represents the globe because Miró,
according to him, was obsessed with the idea of “conquering the world.". The cat at bottom right represents Miró’s
actual cat, who was always next to him as he painted. The black triangle in the window in the top right corner
represents the Eiffel Tower. The painting includes many other fantastical and magical elements such as mermaids, fish
out of water, dancing cats, shooting stars, a creature with wings in a box resembling a die, floating musical notes, and a
floating hand. There are many strange forms and squiggly shapes that seem to be moving or floating around the
canvas. The beauty of the painting is in its widespread composition; every corner of the painting seems to be filled with
some object, character, or shape, which makes the entire painting come to life.
In the international peer-reviewed journal JAMA Psychiatry, James C. Harris, MD, writes that for Miró, “painting was
a means to express his inner life through visionary art." This is a reference to Miró’s style of painting, automatism,
essentially painting without planning the subject or composition. In this process the artist paints whatever comes to
mind, thereby painting his subconscious thoughts. Once the shapes are on the canvas, the artist is able to create images
out of the forms based on his imagination. In 1931, Miró said, “I’m only interested in anonymous art, the kind that
springs from the collective unconscious." This quote tells us a great deal about The Harlequin's Carnival, since it was
Miró’s first surrealist painting. Through this painting Miró is trying to convey his subconscious, which inadvertently
reflects on his life experiences. By analyzing this painting the viewer learns of Miró’s sadness, happiness, and creative
imagination. wikipedia
The Harlequin's Carnival video from Fundacio Joan Miro on YouTube
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Paul Klee
Oil on canvas (1932)
Kuntsmuseum, Bern
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Ad Parnassum (1932) is considered to be Paul Klee's masterpiece and the best example of his pointillist style; it is also
one of his most finely worked paintings. Ad Parnassum was created in the Dusseldorfer period. With 100 x 126 cm (39 x
50 in) it is one of his largest paintings, as he usually worked with small formats. In this mosaic-like work in the style
of pointillism he combined different techniques and compositional principles. Influenced by his trip to Egypt from
1928 to 1929, Klee built a colour field from individually stamped dots, surrounded by likewise stamped lines, which
results in a pyramid. Above the roof of the "Parnassus" there is a sun. The title identifies the picture as Apollon's and
the Muses' place.
Around 1930 Klee often made use of this pictorial structure, which recalls the Pointillism of the late nineteenth
century. 'Divisionism' was his name for it. A further geometrical element appears within the 'divisionist' structuring -
a triangle which, with no definite outline, exists solely by virtue of variations in the tonal gradations applied to the
little squares. As a result, the picture seems multi-layered, spatial and suffused with light. One genealog of modern
colour-light painting would progress from Georges Seurat to Klee. However, Klee was hardly interested in the
theories of colour so essential to Seurat. He simply made use of a pictorial method which, although its possibilities
were soon exhausted, helped him to create a number of masterful works. paulklee.net
The Latin phrase gradus ad Parnassum means "steps to Parnassus". The name Parnassus was used to denote the loftiest
part of a mountain range in central Greece, a few miles north of Delphi, of which the two summits, in Classical times,
were called Tithorea and Lycoreia. In Greek mythology, one of the peaks was sacred to Apollo and the nine Muses,
the inspiring deities of the arts, and the other to Dionysus. The phrase has often been used to refer to various books
of instruction, or guides, in which gradual progress in literature, language instruction, music, or the arts in
general, is sought. wikipedia
Paul Klee: Ad Parnassum, 1932 from MuseumofFineArtsBern on YouTube
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Oil on canvas (1932)
Kuntsmuseum, Bern
______________________________________________________________________
Ad Parnassum (1932) is considered to be Paul Klee's masterpiece and the best example of his pointillist style; it is also
one of his most finely worked paintings. Ad Parnassum was created in the Dusseldorfer period. With 100 x 126 cm (39 x
50 in) it is one of his largest paintings, as he usually worked with small formats. In this mosaic-like work in the style
of pointillism he combined different techniques and compositional principles. Influenced by his trip to Egypt from
1928 to 1929, Klee built a colour field from individually stamped dots, surrounded by likewise stamped lines, which
results in a pyramid. Above the roof of the "Parnassus" there is a sun. The title identifies the picture as Apollon's and
the Muses' place.
Around 1930 Klee often made use of this pictorial structure, which recalls the Pointillism of the late nineteenth
century. 'Divisionism' was his name for it. A further geometrical element appears within the 'divisionist' structuring -
a triangle which, with no definite outline, exists solely by virtue of variations in the tonal gradations applied to the
little squares. As a result, the picture seems multi-layered, spatial and suffused with light. One genealog of modern
colour-light painting would progress from Georges Seurat to Klee. However, Klee was hardly interested in the
theories of colour so essential to Seurat. He simply made use of a pictorial method which, although its possibilities
were soon exhausted, helped him to create a number of masterful works. paulklee.net
The Latin phrase gradus ad Parnassum means "steps to Parnassus". The name Parnassus was used to denote the loftiest
part of a mountain range in central Greece, a few miles north of Delphi, of which the two summits, in Classical times,
were called Tithorea and Lycoreia. In Greek mythology, one of the peaks was sacred to Apollo and the nine Muses,
the inspiring deities of the arts, and the other to Dionysus. The phrase has often been used to refer to various books
of instruction, or guides, in which gradual progress in literature, language instruction, music, or the arts in
general, is sought. wikipedia
Paul Klee: Ad Parnassum, 1932 from MuseumofFineArtsBern on YouTube
Nicolas Poussin
Oil on canvas (1637-38)
Musée du Louvre, Paris
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Et in Arcadia ego (also known as The Arcadian Shepherds) depicts a pastoral scene with idealized shepherds from
classical antiquity clustering around an austere tomb. The translation of the phrase is "Even in Arcadia, there am I".
The usual interpretation is that "I" refers to death, and "Arcadia" means a utopian land. It would thus be a "reminder of
death."
During Antiquity, many Greeks lived in cities close to the sea, and led an urban life. Only Arcadians, in the middle of
the Peloponnese, lacked cities, were far from the sea, and led a shepherd life. Thus for urban Greeks, especially during
the Hellenistic era, Arcadia symbolized pure, rural, idyllic life, far from the city.
However, Poussin's biographer, André Félibien, interpreted the phrase to mean that "the person buried in this tomb
lived in Arcadia"; in other words, that the person too once enjoyed the pleasures of life on earth. This reading was
common in the 18th and 19th centuries. William Hazlitt wrote that Poussin "describes some shepherds wandering out
in a morning of the spring, and coming to a tomb with this inscription, 'I also was an Arcadian'." wikipedia
The scene is set in an atmospheric landscape, known as Arcadia, where some shepherds have found a tomb. Arcadia is
actually a barren, mountainous region of Greece, but through references made to it by the Roman poet Virgil (whose
Eclogues take place in Arcadia), it became idealized as a blissful pastoral paradise, and a symbol of perfect happiness.
The crouching figure is tracing the letters chiselled into the stone, "Et in Arcadia Ego". Most art critics agree that
the message on the stone has been left by Death, and the shepherds are coming to realize that this means that even in a
blissful paradise like Arcadia there is death. The richly-dressed female figure already understands this truth, and she
looks on sympathetically.
In addition, the action of the crouching shepherd is believed to be a reference to the origin of painting, believed to
have occurred in the first tracing of a person's shadow on a wall. Perhaps Poussin wanted to convey that painting is one
of the only ways to record a state of perfect happiness. It is possible that the red, yellow and blue robes of the two on
the right might represent the primary colours of painting and be a sign of hope. At any rate, the painting seems to be
saying that the discovery of art was the creative response of Man when he found out the shocking truth about the
inevitability of his death.
From left to right, the figures grow in understanding. The two stooping shepherds pointing to the letters help us to
focus on the central message of this work, while their knees and elbows balance each other. The woman, who could be
an allegorical figure (representing the art of painting that is challenging death's claim to rule over Arcadia), looks
like a figure from the classical past. Her face is in profile, recalling a Roman bust or statue, and her pose is as
motionless as a marble sculpture. Encyclopaedia of Art Education
Nicolas Poussin, Et in Arcadia Ego video on Khan Academy
Sandro Boticelli
Tempera on canvas (c. 1486)
The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
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The painting depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea fully-grown (called Venus Anadyomene and
often depicted in art), arriving at the shore.
In the centre the newly-born goddess Venus stands nude in a giant scallop shell whose size is purely imaginary, and
also found in classical depictions of the subject. At the left the wind god Zephyr blows at her, with the wind shown
by lines radiating from his mouth. He is in the air, and carries a young female, who is also blowing, but less forcefully.
Both have wings. Vasari was probably correct in identifying her as "Aura", personification of a lighter breeze. Their
efforts are blowing Venus towards the shore, and blowing the hair and clothes of the other figures to the right.
At the right a female figure who may be floating slightly above the ground holds out a rich cloak or dress to cover
Venus when she reaches the shore, as she is about to do. She is one of the three Horae or Hours, Greek minor goddesses
of the seasons and of other divisions of time, and attendants of Venus. The floral decoration of her dress suggests she
is the Hora of Spring.
The subject is not strictly the "Birth of Venus", a title only given the painting in the nineteenth century, but the next
scene in her story, where she arrives on land, blown by the wind. The land probably represents either Cythera or
Cyprus, both Mediterranean islands regarded by the Greeks as territories of Venus.
Although the pose of Venus is classical and borrows the position of the hands from Greco-Roman sculptures, the
treatment of the figure, standing off-centre with a curved body of long flowing lines, is in many respects from Gothic
art: "Her differences from antique form are not physiological, but rhythmic and structural. Her whole body follows
the curve of a Gothic ivory. It is entirely without that quality so much prized in classical art, known as aplomb; that is
to say, the weight of the body is not distributed evenly either side of a central plumb line. . . She is not standing but
floating. . . Her shoulders, for example, instead of forming a sort of architrave to her torso, as in the antique nude,
run down into her arms in the same unbroken stream of movement as her floating hair."
Venus' body is anatomically improbable, with elongated neck and torso. Her pose is impossible: although she stands in a
classical contrapposto stance, her weight is shifted too far over the left leg for the pose to be held. The proportions
and poses of the winds to the left do not quite make sense, and none of the figures cast shadows. The painting depicts
the world of the imagination rather than being very concerned with realistic depiction.
Botticelli's art was never fully committed to naturalism. He seldom gave weight and volume to his figures and rarely
used a deep perspectival space. Botticelli never painted landscape backgrounds with great detail or realism, but this is
especially the case here. The laurel trees and the grass below them are green with gold highlights, most of the waves
regular patterns, and the landscape seems out of scale with the figures. wikipedia
Boticelli, The Birth of Venus, video from Smarthistory. Art, history, conversation on YouTube.
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Tempera on canvas (c. 1486)
The Uffizi Gallery, Florence
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The painting depicts the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea fully-grown (called Venus Anadyomene and
often depicted in art), arriving at the shore.
In the centre the newly-born goddess Venus stands nude in a giant scallop shell whose size is purely imaginary, and
also found in classical depictions of the subject. At the left the wind god Zephyr blows at her, with the wind shown
by lines radiating from his mouth. He is in the air, and carries a young female, who is also blowing, but less forcefully.
Both have wings. Vasari was probably correct in identifying her as "Aura", personification of a lighter breeze. Their
efforts are blowing Venus towards the shore, and blowing the hair and clothes of the other figures to the right.
At the right a female figure who may be floating slightly above the ground holds out a rich cloak or dress to cover
Venus when she reaches the shore, as she is about to do. She is one of the three Horae or Hours, Greek minor goddesses
of the seasons and of other divisions of time, and attendants of Venus. The floral decoration of her dress suggests she
is the Hora of Spring.
The subject is not strictly the "Birth of Venus", a title only given the painting in the nineteenth century, but the next
scene in her story, where she arrives on land, blown by the wind. The land probably represents either Cythera or
Cyprus, both Mediterranean islands regarded by the Greeks as territories of Venus.
Although the pose of Venus is classical and borrows the position of the hands from Greco-Roman sculptures, the
treatment of the figure, standing off-centre with a curved body of long flowing lines, is in many respects from Gothic
art: "Her differences from antique form are not physiological, but rhythmic and structural. Her whole body follows
the curve of a Gothic ivory. It is entirely without that quality so much prized in classical art, known as aplomb; that is
to say, the weight of the body is not distributed evenly either side of a central plumb line. . . She is not standing but
floating. . . Her shoulders, for example, instead of forming a sort of architrave to her torso, as in the antique nude,
run down into her arms in the same unbroken stream of movement as her floating hair."
Venus' body is anatomically improbable, with elongated neck and torso. Her pose is impossible: although she stands in a
classical contrapposto stance, her weight is shifted too far over the left leg for the pose to be held. The proportions
and poses of the winds to the left do not quite make sense, and none of the figures cast shadows. The painting depicts
the world of the imagination rather than being very concerned with realistic depiction.
Botticelli's art was never fully committed to naturalism. He seldom gave weight and volume to his figures and rarely
used a deep perspectival space. Botticelli never painted landscape backgrounds with great detail or realism, but this is
especially the case here. The laurel trees and the grass below them are green with gold highlights, most of the waves
regular patterns, and the landscape seems out of scale with the figures. wikipedia
Boticelli, The Birth of Venus, video from Smarthistory. Art, history, conversation on YouTube.
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Oil & tempera on panel (probably 1455-60)
Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino
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The theme of the picture is the Flagellation of Christ by the Romans during his Passion. The biblical event takes
place in an open gallery in the middle distance, while three figures in the foreground on the right-hand side
apparently pay no attention to the event unfolding behind them. The panel is much admired for its use of linear
perspective and the air of stillness that pervades the work, and it has been given the epithet "the Greatest Small
Painting in the World" by the art historian Kenneth Clark.
The Flagellation is particularly admired for the realistic rendering of the hall in which the flagellation scene is
situated in relation to the size of the figures and for the geometrical order of the composition. The portrait of the
bearded man at the front is considered unusually intense for Piero's time. wikipedia
The painting measures a modest 2 feet by 2.5 feet. Art experts believe that the work was commissioned in order to
promote solidarity between the Eastern Christian Church and the Western Church of Rome, in view of the Ottoman
attack on Constantinople. A perfectly composed piece of Biblical art, it depicts the scourging of Christ before the
Crucifixion, a punishment ordered by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, who sits on the left (he is also thought to
represent Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, leader of the Eastern Church in Constantinople). According to scholars the
painting is set in the portico of Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem, whose dimensions and character were allegedly
carefully researched by the artist.
What is strange about the overall scene is that Christ is portrayed as a small figure in the background, while the
three much larger men standing in the foreground to the right seem far more important. The exact identity of these
figures remains uncertain, though the two older men are believed to be important political or religious figures in
Urbino. The younger man in the middle may be an angel, while the man on the extreme right may be Ludovico Gonzaga,
the ruler of Mantua. Note his magnificent damask robe, with its blue and gold thread, which reveals the artist's
regard for luxurious fabrics and for the most fashionable styles - quite unlike that of many Florentine painters who
tended to eschew such features entirely. Encyclopedia of Art Education
Meditation on 'The Flagellation of Christ' by Piero della Francesca from Philip Hartigan on YouTube.
Oil on canvas (1849-50)
Destroyed during World War II, Dresden
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The Stone Breakers was a work of social realism, depicting two peasants, a young man and an old man, breaking rocks.
The painting was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1850. It was destroyed during World War II, along with 154
other pictures, when a transport vehicle moving the pictures to the castle of Königstein, near Dresden, was bombed
by Allied forces in February 1945. wikipedia
If we look closely at the painting (painted only one year after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote their
influential pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto) the artist's concern for the plight of the poor is evident. Here, two
figures labor to break and remove stone from a road that is being built. In our age of powerful jackhammers and
bulldozers, such work is reserved as punishment for chain-gangs.
Courbet wants to show what is "real," and so he has depicted a man that seems too old and a boy that seems still too
young for such back-breaking labor. This is not meant to be heroic: it is meant to be an accurate account of the abuse
and deprivation that was a common feature of mid-century French rural life. And as with so many great works of art,
there is a close affiliation between the narrative and the formal choices made by the painter, meaning elements such
as brushwork, composition, line, and color.
Like the stones themselves, Courbet's brushwork is rough — more so than might be expected during the mid-
nineteenth century. This suggests that the way the artist painted his canvas was in part a conscious rejection of the
highly polished, refined Neoclassicist style that still dominated French art in 1848.
Perhaps most characteristic of Courbet's style is his refusal to focus on the parts of the image that would usually
receive the most attention. Traditionally, an artist would spend the most time on the hands, faces, and foregrounds.
Not Courbet. If you look carefully, you will notice that he attempts to be even-handed, attending to faces and rock
equally. In these ways, The Stonebreakers seems to lack the basics of art (things like a composition that selects and
organizes, aerial perspective and finish) and as a result, it feels more "real." Essay by Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker on Khan Academy
Gustave Courbet's The Stonebreakers video from Courtneydougherty1 on YouTube.
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