Alonso Sánchez Coello (1531-1588) Renaissance painter

Sánchez Coello, Alonso (Benifairó del Valls, Valencia - Spain, 1531/32 - Madrid -Spain, 1588) is a fundamental figure in the history of Spanish painting🎨.

He was the first to bring portraiture to the peninsula, where he followed the model developed by Anthonis Mor in likenesses of the Habsburg family.

Some of his paintings were included in the most important portrait galleries developed during the reign of Philip II, including those at the El Pardo and Alcázar Palaces, both sadly lost to fires in 1604 and 1734, respectively.

Today, his works hang in the Museo del Prado, in Spain’s royal foundations, including the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales and in museums and collections in Austria and Bohemia.

Karl D. Witkowski (1860-1910) | Genre painter

Karol (Karl) Dominik Witkowski (16 August 1860, Yazlovets, now Buchach Raion - 17 May 1910) was a Polish🎨-American🎨 portraitist and genre painter🎨, better known in the USA as Karl Witkowski.

He painted scenes of contemporary daily life in America.

Karol Dominik Witkowski was born to a Polish family in Jazłowiec (Jaslowiec), near Buchach, Czortków (Podole, Poland, now Ukraine).

As young boy he showed unusual talent in making drawings and his parents sent him to school in Chortkiv (12 miles from Yazlovets).

In 1879 he enlisted in the Austrian Army (in 19th century southern Poland was occupied by Austria and named Galicia), where he gained popularity by making portraits of his fellow soldiers and commanding officers, including a portrait of General Duke William of Württemberg and portrait of Lieutenant Field Marshal Emanuel Salomon of Friedberg - Mírohorsky (this army officer also was a genre painter, it is possible, why later in USA Karl Witkowski became genre painter).

Ronit Baranga, 1973 | Israeli sculptor

Ronit Baranga is a contemporary Israeli artist who lives and works in Israel. As a sculptor and installation artist, she creates figurative art on the border between living and still life, dealing with emotional states and relationships.

Her work has been displayed in museums and galleries around the world and is a part of many museum and private collections. Key exhibitions include Banksy’s group exhibition "Dismaland" and numerous solo and group exhibitions in New York, Istanbul, Taiwan, China, Germany, Tel-Aviv and Australia.

Baranga holds a B.A. in Psychology and Literature from Haifa University, studied Art History in Tel-Aviv University, and Fine Arts in Beit Berl College ('HaMidrasha'), Israel.

Madre Teresa di Calcutta: "Ama la vita così com'è"..

Ama la vita così com'è

Amala pienamente, senza pretese;

amala quando ti amano o quando ti odiano,

amala quando nessuno ti capisce,

o quando tutti ti comprendono.

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg | Alcyone's Farewell to her Husband - From Ovid's Metamorphoses, Song XI

Renoir | Reading Woman on the Bench, 1905

• "Resto al sole non tanto per eseguire dei ritratti in piena luce, ma per scaldarmi e per osservare. Così, a forza di vedere l'esterno, ho finito con l'accorgermi solo delle grandi armonie senza più preoccuparmi dei piccoli dettagli che spengono il sole anziché infiammarlo".
• "So I am staying in the sun - not to paint portraits but while I am warming myself and looking hard at things I hope I will have acquired some of the grandeur and simplicity of the old masters [...] So, by looking around outside, I have finished by seeing only the broad harmonies, and am no longer preoccupied with the little details, which only extinguish the sunlight, instead of increasing its brilliance".

Auguste Rodin / Shakespeare | Romeo and Juliet, 1905

Silenzio! Quale luce irrompe da quella finestra lassù?

È l'oriente, e Giulietta è il sole.

Sorgi, vivido sole, e uccidi l'invidiosa luna,

malata già e pallida di pena

perché tu, sua ancella, di tanto la superi in bellezza.

Non essere la sua ancella, poiché la luna è invidiosa.

Il suo manto di vestale è già di un verde smorto,

e soltanto i pazzi lo indossano. Gettalo via.

È la mia donna; oh, è il mio amore! se soltanto sapesse di esserlo.

Michelangelo Buonarroti | Sol io ardendo all'ombra mi rimango | Le Rime

Sonetto 1 | Molti anni fassi qual felice, in una

Molti anni fassi qual felice, in una

brevissima ora si lamenta e dole;

o per famosa o per antica prole

altri s'inlustra, e ’n un momento imbruna.

Cosa mobil non è che sotto el sole

non vinca morte e cangi la fortuna.

A man who's happy many a year, one hour

- even less! - undoes; all's lost in grief and worry.

Another basks in his family name; that glory

is out in a flash as blacker heavens lour.

None so alive but death cuts short the story;

nothing so sweet but fortune turns it sour ...