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 In 1847 Sir Charles Eastlake published his two volumes, Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters.  Today it has been reprinted by Dover in paperback.  Among his insights into the techniques of  Renaissance masters were observations … Continued

          Here are two maternity paintings, two Madonnas, each reflects their time and each reflects some shared symbolism, in terms of color, subject, posture and design.  In Gerard David’s Maternity painting, painted around 1500, Mary wears blue, ultramarine blue. She … Continued

Ancient Greeks spoke of the perfection of basic geometric shapes( Socrates via Plato), the circle(sphere)and the square(cube) and others. Leonardo da Vinci relied on the unifying compositional effects of the triangle. Many paintings’ design unity is owed to geometric shapes like the … Continued

   When Monet decided to paint winter he looked for snow because, the glare of the yellow light of the sun on the snow causes us to see an after image of blue-violet. The subject was loaded with possibilities for … Continued

      Leonardo had written advice to artists on many subject in his treatise on painting.  Artists like J.M.W. Turner and John Constable read his work and responded in paint and conversation to the most controversial  aspect of da Vinci’s … Continued

             In the 17th century in Italy were many great landscape painters, Domenichino, Carracci, Dughet and the two most influential, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain.  They all operated with a formula of composition that descended through … Continued