Art History Carnival May 2012

Welcome to the May edition of art history carnival!

art history

Our first post is an examination of the “fête galante”, which is “a genre of painting that portrays upper class society celebrating or enjoying outdoor gatherings and amusements.” If the enormous popularity of PBS’ Downton Abbey is any indication, this genre of art has certainly not lost its appeal. Lauren presents The Pilgrimage to Cythera captured the 18th century posted at Marie Antoinette’s Gossip Guide to the 18th Century, saying, “This post takes a close look at Watteau’s famous Pilgrimage to Cythera discussing the artist’s technique and inspirations and introduces some unanswered questions left for the viewer to consider.” I guess everyone enjoys a good “fête galante” and this post is a delightful exploration of the genre!

Helen Webberley presents ART and ARCHITECTURE, mainly: inter-war American landscapes: Grant Wood posted at ART and ARCHITECTURE, mainly, saying, “Last year I examined a series of landscape paintings that seemed to share nothing but their inter-war timing. Paul Nash, Eric Ravilius, Harry Epworth Allen, Reuven Rubin, Dorit Black and Rita Angus came from Britain, Australia, Israel and New Zealand.
These landscapes’ boldly presented hills and roads emphasised their treatment as mass and form. And like cubist painting decades earlier, the mountains became interconnecting planes of varying depth. What about on the other side of the Atlantic? American artist Grant Wood (1891–1942) also painted bold landscapes, creating a sense of vast and easy movement. In evolving a style of artificial geometries, clean surfaces and relentless patterns, Wood was a true Art Deco painter!”



Susan Benford presents Rembrandt Paintings in the Rijksmuseum posted at Famous Paintings Reviewed – An Art History Blog, saying, “Rembrandt paintings are the most famous artwork in (and the indisputable pride of) Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, dedicated to showcasing the best of the Dutch Golden Age…these four Rembrandt paintings – plus “Night Watch” – are some of the most outstanding artwork in the Rijksmuseum.”



Mark White takes his readers on a scenic tour of some beautiful examples of how walking has been portrayed throughout art history in his piece Walking Back to Happiness: Walking and Art posted at whitemarkarts.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of art history carnivalusing our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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7 thoughts on “Art History Carnival May 2012

  1. I hadn’t been sure of the value of blogging carnivals at the beginning, but each month has revealed something new. Now you have shown that whitemarkarts is an exciting find. Thanks.

    • @Hels – Thanks! It’s always exciting to receive submissions from blogs like whitemarkarts that I might have missed otherwise. There are so many great art blogs out there!

  2. I loved these submissions. Thank you for hosting this event. I subscribed to the Duchess of Devonshire’s 18th Century gossip blog as a result! You do a great job of introducing the posts.