Portal:Arts
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age, in the Museo del Prado in Madrid. The work's complex and enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted. Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analysed works in Western painting. Las Meninas shows a large room in the Madrid palace of King Philip IV of Spain, and presents several figures, most identifiable from the Spanish court, captured, according to some commentators, in a particular moment as if in a snapshot. Some figures look out of the canvas towards the viewer, while others interact among themselves. The young Infanta Margarita is surrounded by her entourage of maids of honour, chaperone, bodyguard, and two dwarfs. Las Meninas has long been recognised as one of the most important paintings in Western art history. The Baroque painter Luca Giordano said that it represents the "theology of painting", while in the 19th century Sir Thomas Lawrence called the work "the philosophy of art".
Credit: Maurycy Gottlieb
Robert Peake the elder (c. 1551–1619) was an English painter active in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of James I. In 1604, he was appointed picture maker to the heir to the throne, Prince Henry, and in 1607, serjeant-painter to King James I, a post he shared with John De Critz. Peake is often called "the elder", to distinguish him from his son, the painter and print seller William Peake (c. 1580–1639) and from his grandson, Sir Robert Peake (c. 1605–1667), who followed his father into the family print-selling business. Peake was the only English-born painter of a group of four artists whose workshops were closely connected. The others were De Critz, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, and the miniature-painter Isaac Oliver. Between 1590 and about 1625, they specialised in brilliantly coloured, full-length "costume pieces" (example pictured) that are unique to England at this time. It is not always possible to attribute authorship among Peake, De Critz, Gheeraerts and their assistants with certainty.
The Arts Portal
The arts refers to the theory and physical expression of creativity found in human societies and cultures. Major constituents of the arts include literature (including drama, poetry, and prose), performing arts (among them dance, music, and theatre), and visual arts (including drawing, painting, filmmaking, architecture, ceramics, sculpting, and photography).
Some art forms combine a visual element with performance (e.g., cinematography) or artwork with the written word (e.g., comics). From prehistoric cave paintings to modern day films, art serves as a vessel for storytelling and conveying humankind's relationship with the environment.
Featured article
Featured picture
Credit: Maurycy GottliebJews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, an 1878 painting by Maurycy Gottlieb depicting Ashkenazi Jews praying on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. The artist has painted himself (to the right of the seated rabbi, looking outwards) among the people of his hometown of Drohobych.
Did you know...
- ... that Aythorpe Roding Windmill (pictured) is the largest surviving post mill in Essex, England?
- ... that Bill Flemming called over 600 events as a broadcaster for the ABC Sports' Wide World of Sports during his career?
- ... that the 1994 French–Romanian film An Unforgettable Summer depicts the persecution of Bulgarians by Romanian Army personnel, in a metaphor of the Yugoslav wars?
In this month
- 9 April 2000 – Jackie Evancho is born. At the age of 10, she becomes the youngest singer in history with a platinum album, O Holy Night.
- 10 April 1900 – Scottish soprano Mary Garden makes her professional debut singing the title role in Gustave Charpentier's Louise at the Opéra-Comique in Paris
- 11 April 1869 – Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland, designer of the Nobel Peace Prize medal, is born near Halse og Harkmark
- 12 April 1937 – Abdülhak Hâmid Tarhan, an early 20th-century Turkish playwright and poet who was one of the leading lights of the Turkish Romantic period dies in Istanbul
- 23 April 1616 – William Shakespeare (pictured), often considered the greatest English playwright, dies in Stratford-upon-Avon at the age of 52
- 29 April 1968 – Hair, which defined the genre of the "rock musical", has its Broadway premiere at the Biltmore Theatre
News
- April 16: Notre Dame in Paris catches fire
- March 31: Turkey's President Erdogan proposes converting Hagia Sophia Museum to mosque
- March 29: Toronto Comicon 2019 welcomes fans with celebrities, creativity, cosplay
- March 25: Fur fans flock to Toronto's Furnal Equinox 2019
- November 29: Wikinews attends 2018 Bangalore ComicCon
Featured biography
Featured audio
Instrumental version of the most famous song from the 1921 musical Shuffle Along, recorded during its original Broadway run. Later used as a presidential campaign song for Harry Truman.
Categories
WikiProjects
Selected quote
| “ | That there is a social problem presented by obscenity is attested by the expression of the legislatures of the forty-eight States, as well as the Congress. To recognize the existence of a problem, however, does not require that we sustain any and all measures adopted to meet that problem. The history of the application of laws designed to suppress the obscene demonstrates convincingly that the power of government can be invoked under them against great art or literature, scientific treatises, or works exciting social controversy. Mistakes of the past prove that there is a strong countervailing interest to be considered in the freedoms guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments. | ” |
Related portals
Things you can do
- Check the recent changes page for improvements, other changes, and vandalism to these articles
- Article requests: Requests articles (arts and entertainment)
- Deletion discussions: Listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Arts
- Expand: check Art stubs to expand
- Notability: Articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability
- Requested pictures: Arts topics, requested pictures
