Tea at Trianon: A Marvelous New Exhibition of Verrocchio

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

A Marvelous New Exhibition of Verrocchio

He was Leonardo's teacher and master. From ArtNet:

Unless you’re an art history major, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of the Florentine Renaissance painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. But you’ve certainly heard of his greatest pupil, Leonardo da Vinci. Though his star student would go on to outshine him in the art historical canon, Verrocchio is nevertheless regarded as one of the most influential artists of his generation, one whose technical and conceptual contributions to the arts paved the way for the High Renaissance in the early 16th century. And now, for the first time ever, a survey of his work has landed in America. On view now through January 2020 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, “Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence” brings together more than 50 of the master’s artworks, including drawings, sculptures, and paintings. (Read more.)