Van Gogh | Still Life with Grapes, 1887

Vincent van Gogh
Date: 1887; Paris, France

Style: Post-Impressionism
Genre: still life

Media: oil, canvas
Location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Albert Edelfelt | Naturalist painter

From promising young Finnish painter to European celebrity, Albert Edelfelt was Finland’s first cosmopolitan art icon. His work was admired by, among many others, Vincent van Gogh. Declining a professorship at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, Edelfelt’s greatest passions were the Parisian lifestyle and summers spent in his native country.

• Childhood and study years

Albert Edelfelt was born in 1854 into an aristocratic Swedish-speaking family. Despite this background, his childhood was financially strained. The father of the family died when Albert was only fifteen, leaving large debts behind. Nevertheless, Albert’s mother supported his artistic interest and ambitions throughout his formative years as a painter.

Though Edelfelt received art tutoring while studying languages and history at the Imperial University in Helsinki, he found art teaching in Finland backward. There were few art collections and the country lacked an inspiring artistic culture. He eventually gave up university and enrolled in the Antwerp Academy of Art in 1873. After studying historical painting for six months, he moved to Paris to continue his learning process.

Ancient India

Per Storia dell'India si intende la storia del Subcontinente indiano e in un'accezione più ristretta si intende invece la storia della Repubblica dell'India.

Ad essere rigorosi non si potrebbe parlare della Storia dell'India intesa come Repubblica dell'India se non a partire dal 15 agosto del 1947, data di nascita di questo Stato dopo un lungo asservimento coloniale.

Non avrebbe però senso analizzare la storia della repubblica indiana se non tenendo conto delle sue vicende sotto il periodo coloniale e a partire dalla comune storia di tutto il Subcontinente indiano.

Non si potrebbe capire l'India moderna senza analizzare complessivamente la storia della (o forse sarebbe meglio dire delle) civiltà indiana.

Inoltre anche dopo il 1947 la storia indiana è rimasta strettamente legata al resto del subcontinente, specialmente al Pakistan, con cui ha combattuto ben quattro guerre e al quale tutt'oggi contende la regione islamica del Kashmir.

Rembrandt | Flora, 1634

Flora or Saskia as Flora is a 1634 painting by Rembrandt, showing his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh as the goddess Flora.

It is now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

This painting was documented by Hofstede de Groot (1863-1930), a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator - in 1915, who wrote:

Vittorio (vidan) Dangelico, 1965

Nato Vittorio Dangelico a Perugia, in Italia, Vidan ha mostrato il talento artistico ed una grande passione per l'arte in tenera età.

Incoraggiato dai suoi genitori e da suo zio, l'artista di fama mondiale Pino Daeni, si formò in alcune delle migliori scuole d'Italia, tra cui il Liceo Artistico di Milano e l'Accademia delle belle Arti.

Quando Pino si trasferì negli Stati Uniti nel 1979, Vidan lo seguì nel 1988.

Head of Medusa | Studio of Antonio Canova, 1806-1807

On view in the Museum's Carroll and Milton Petrie European Sculpture Court is the marble version of Perseus with the Head of Medusa that Canova (1757-1822) carved for Countess Valeria Tarnowska.

He wrote that he was also shipping a plaster of the Medusa head, lest the marble one add too much weight to the statue's outstretched arm.

The countess could attach the lighter plaster to the arm instead, and, placing a lit candle inside the marble one, which is hollow, she could watch the eerie light effects.

Antonio Canova | Head of Medusa (Studio) 1806-1807 | Metropolitan Museum of Art

Vincent van Gogh | Window in the Bataille Restaurant, 1887

Title: Window in the Bataille Restaurant
Author: Vincent van Gogh
Date: 1887; Paris, France
Style: Post-Impressionism
Genre: interior
Media: chalk, ink, paper
Current location: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands