Higher Resolution Mancini Scan

Here's a nicer reproduction of Mancini's boy sent to me by Greg Lahti.  I think it gets the point across far better.  Thanks Greg!

The Best paintings I've Ever Seen: Antonio Mancini

I didn't know Mancini's name before seeing this painting, but later realized it was the same guy that painted another of my favorite pieces "resting" at the Chicago Institute (my post about the Chicago Institue).  The reproductions available online are miserable, but this is one of the most arresting objects I've ever encountered.  It commands the room it hangs in at the Philadelphia Art Museum, and I think I gasped when I first saw it.  Its monumentality is startling and the longer you look it doesn't let you go.  

The candy cane- striped pole by his foot almost looks out of place, like something you've never seen in an old painting.  The delicate handling of the wallpaper patterns couldn't be more differently handled than the chunky, globby hair mass.  Even the pupils of the eyes are convex blobs of paint that catch actual highlights on them.

I think one of the worst contributions of French impressionism and modernism to painting is the overuse and strict copy of color.  Imagine this painting with a saturated palette of bright colors, it would kill the melancholy.  The only pure colors are a few red notes in the still life.  To me the saddest statement in the painting is the scraggly peacock feather, pitifully drooping from under his arm.

Some things I visited at The Art Institute

Here are some things I always enjoy at the Chicago Art Institute. I shot these with my iphone during my recent visit. I forgot to visit the Ossawa Tanner somehow. Maybe I missed the American wing.

William Bouguereau

Munch

Manfredi's "Cupid Chastised". One of my all-time favorite paintings, and among the most influential to me. That's me in front to get a sense of scale. Definitely my favorite painting in the collection.

At once an image of pain and violence as well as a loving depiction of human flesh.

Looks like a restorer messed up the glazes on the blue sash in cleaning it.

Can't remember who, but it's cool and large.

The Peacocks create some cool tension sticking their heads out here and there.

I love the pointing finger cutting right into this beautiful head.

Titian. At a close look, you can see the herringbone pattern in the canvas weave. I like the flying head in the background.

I always like the gesture in this head.

A grisaille study for my favorite Degas composition.

A closeup shot of Mancini's fancy knifework in "Rest". Very inspiring. I love when youthful beauty and a presence of death coexist in a figure. the golden effect in the highlights is nice.

Teachers of Mine: Stephen Early

Okay, I'll tell you straight up as a guy who loves the figure that painters who are heavy on figure will get more intense and interesting reviews on this blog than still life, portrait, and landscape painters. I must express my excitement about Stephen Early's figure paintings. Stephen Early is one of the people I worked most closely under during the workshops I took at Studio Incamminati, along with Lea Wight and Kerry Dunn. I am particularly inclined toward his work and his teaching because of his inclination toward the figure in motion, as well as his slight emphasis on form over color.

The above painting is one of the most exciting contemporary figure paintings that I've seen in person. I had seen reproductions of it several times before seeing it in person and did not take any particular notice, but there is such a pearlescent subtlety of color and form that the tones are not easily translated to pixels photographs. The transitions are much softer and delicate than they appear here, and the textures are built up in the hair in a way that makes it seem tactile.


I got to see the mime paintings around the studio and on the easel. Some are quite small, even miniatures, although I don't remember which ones. I find them very quiet and introspective The white makeup opens up interesting color possibilities too.

He builds form almost with patches or "pieces" of color, like slapping patches of clay onto a sculpture, which are eventually modeled into the round. See the little study to the right. It's a way of working I hadn't really thought of before, and I find it a very useful approach at times.


Gorgeous.



Steve uses a drawing technique in which he begins with a 1/2 charcoal dust and 1/2 graphite dust ground tone. He thin draws with graphite and erases out the lights. I use this myself now, and it works beautifully. It is a quick way to get lots of form.


A graphite tone was slapped in with denatured alcohol and then worked into if my memory serves me correctly.


Very cool little grouping.


Steve produced this as part of a portrait project for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, featuring portraits of children with craniofacial conditions. He used the below painting by Antonio Mancini as a guide.


Antonio Mancini is Steve Early's great hero. This portrait of a boy with tin soldiers hangs at the Philadelphia Art Museum.


Incidentally the boy with tin soldiers sits next to this other Mancini, which is one of the most inspirational paintings I've ever stood before.

While I'm at it, below is possibly my favorite painting from the Art Institute of Chicago. Also Mancini.