Friday, October 26, 2012

Who painted this? #1

Who Painted This? #1

This is
  • a challenge for all those who like their art history and think they've looked at a few paintings in their time
  • the first in a series of occasional posts which bring paintings I like and/or some paintings by an unexpected artist to the front page of this blog.  
I'm looking for:
  • the title
  • the name of the artist
  • the date - the more accurate the better
  • how you worked it out
The last bit is key! Before I go on - participants in this guessing game are asked to refrain in the first 24 hours from using any available technology to search on the image.  Let's go back to using that old fashioned resource for recognising paintings - namely our "brains"!

I have changed the title of the file for anybody who was thinking of checking that out!

So - here's the first painting.  Feel free to hazard a guess while you're trying to work it out. I guarantee you've all heard of this artist and it's nobody obscure!

You have until 6pm GMT on Saturday to guess it.  If nobody has got it by then you can 'have at it' and bring in the big digital brain to bear on the subject!

I'll update this post when somebody has got it.

17 comments:

  1. How are we to let you know? Through comments? (I shan't say the answer - apart from anything else, I'll need to look up the date in a book!)

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  2. p.s. as the artist in question was born in 1571 and this is an early work I'm guessing around 1591-1596

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  3. Use the comments facility to say who you think it is.

    The first person who gets it right will be identified in my weekly "who's made a mark this week?" on this blog with a link to their website or blog or both - whichever they prefer.

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  4. It Basket of Friut by Caravaggio date circa.1600. Caravaggio was one of the first painters I studied.

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  5. off the top of my head I'd say Carravagio because of the light in it and the way the fruit is painted reminds me of his other paintings. I think he painted around the end of the 1500's but I've no idea what it's called or when it was painted exactly. good luck everyone! what a great idea Katherine!

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  6. I'm pretty sure it's from Caravaggio.
    The title must be something like :
    "still life with fruit basket", "still life with fruit" or"fruit basket".
    The date? C. didn't live very long.
    I guess 1596 or 1597.

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  7. My guess is Martin Heade, a botanical artist from the late 1800s. Yet the background treatment is very contemporary, and I haven't seen work of his without a dreamy atmospheric quality. I love this game, Katherine!! thanks!

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  8. Correct!

    I was sure Jane was going get it - she knew exactly who it was within minutes of it being posted!

    There's some uncertainty as to the date - I've seen it cited as somewhere between c1596 and c1600.

    If you want to see a bigger version try http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Canestra_di_frutta_(Caravaggio).jpg
    pr full resolution http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Basket_of_Fruit-Caravaggio_%28c.1595%29.jpg

    Its home is the Biblioteca Ambrosiana - a historic library in Milan.

    I felt sure most people would associate Carravagio with figures, history paintings and tenebrism rather than still life.



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  9. This painting is by Caravaggio, don't know the title - probably something akin to The Fruit Basket. I know it's by Caravaggio because of his distinct painting style, and the little known fact, that he painted the mould on the leaves exactly has they appear in nature, thus allowing plant pathologists today to correctly identify the mould species on the grape leaves. This painting was painted - probably late 1598/99?? anyway, late in the 16th century. How do I know? I am interested in pant pathology and once had to do some research on pathogens, and came across this painting Does it work? You bet! Any painting that is painted so realistically that it gives this information more than five centuries later - Works!

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  10. I wish I had seen this earlier. I googled Basket of Fruit fine art in the images... I had guessed 16th century before I googled it so I had an idea. Its really quite an incredible painting. (Thanks for the info on the mould.) I LOVE THIS GAME! Thank you for making it.

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  11. Basket of Fruit (c.1599) is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), which hangs in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana (Ambrosian Library), Milan.

    from Wikipedia

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  12. It is Caravagio as others have said - I recognised it from a book. Caused quite a storm at the time for it's depiction of decay - he was a naughty boy. 'Basket of Fruit' 1598 - 99.

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  13. Ah well, I'll know how to do this the next time! How did I know it was Caravaggio? Really don't remember specifically - guess I've just always liked the picture. Seems I put it a wee bitty early - none of my books have this particular painting, so I was guessing :(
    All commentors can all pat ourselves on the back!

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  14. Oh, and I misread the instructions - thought we couldn't use the inernet at all, rather than just not to identify the picture! Duh to me.

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  15. I think I maybe need to make that clearer next time. Googling text is allowed - trying to find a match for images is not!

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  16. Hi -- that's easy! Do I write the name here? Caravaggio! It's the first "still life" painting, at least that's what "they've said" in Western art. It was at the Met in NY years ago when they had a large Caravaggio show. I think it's just called a Basket with Fruit. Fifteen Ninety-Six is the date.

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