Stared at through the ages...
Today, on its final day in Milwaukee, I have seen Raphael Sanzio da Urbino's "Woman With A Veil". Let me describe, if I may, the viewing of a true masterpiece.
A visit to an art museum is always a special thing, filled with the cultural and emotional relics of times gone past, anciently and recently. The Milwaukee Art Museum, I have always felt, is moreso this. What it lacks in the truly great names of the past, it more than makes up for in variety of display. One can easily grasp the history of art walking through its rooms. In fact, it was after such a thorough escapade, that we continued on to... to what?
Can it truly be described as a painting? Oh, there are so many portraits, and the MAM does not lack them. They show people, somber or active. Static or expressive, they do not, though, go beyond the realm of the canvas. There is realism, there is beauty, for sure.
However, entering the room that displayed "Woman With A Veil", one is outright struck. I have heard such criticisms as "Why one painting?" Let me say here and now that to display anything of worthy quality in the same room would take an institution of no less quality than the Louvre or the Uffizi. It cannot be done properly. One entered the room, stark, dark blue walls, light dimmed to near darkness... save for the light illuminating... can it be called a canvas? Call it a mirror reflecting beauty 500 years past. For the face in that image can not, could never be called a painting. It is She. It is a lady of refinement, but she is uncertain. What is she doing here, in this world of cell phones and digital cameras?
One hand she holds to her breast, almost catching her breath. The drapery of her dress flows over her arm as if it were the waters of the all-encompassing sea. She looks at you, yes, at YOU, the viewer. The tingle begins in the small of your back, and it spreads. She is human, she beguiles you. No matter where you go, you WILL remember her. She will be there, in your heart, in your mind. The veil not only wreathes her head, it wreathes the ages separating her and you.
Dave
A visit to an art museum is always a special thing, filled with the cultural and emotional relics of times gone past, anciently and recently. The Milwaukee Art Museum, I have always felt, is moreso this. What it lacks in the truly great names of the past, it more than makes up for in variety of display. One can easily grasp the history of art walking through its rooms. In fact, it was after such a thorough escapade, that we continued on to... to what?
Can it truly be described as a painting? Oh, there are so many portraits, and the MAM does not lack them. They show people, somber or active. Static or expressive, they do not, though, go beyond the realm of the canvas. There is realism, there is beauty, for sure.
However, entering the room that displayed "Woman With A Veil", one is outright struck. I have heard such criticisms as "Why one painting?" Let me say here and now that to display anything of worthy quality in the same room would take an institution of no less quality than the Louvre or the Uffizi. It cannot be done properly. One entered the room, stark, dark blue walls, light dimmed to near darkness... save for the light illuminating... can it be called a canvas? Call it a mirror reflecting beauty 500 years past. For the face in that image can not, could never be called a painting. It is She. It is a lady of refinement, but she is uncertain. What is she doing here, in this world of cell phones and digital cameras?
One hand she holds to her breast, almost catching her breath. The drapery of her dress flows over her arm as if it were the waters of the all-encompassing sea. She looks at you, yes, at YOU, the viewer. The tingle begins in the small of your back, and it spreads. She is human, she beguiles you. No matter where you go, you WILL remember her. She will be there, in your heart, in your mind. The veil not only wreathes her head, it wreathes the ages separating her and you.
Dave