A beautifuly Spring day at the Getty Center with Jim

Getty was showing it's Spring on Thursday where my friend Jim and I roamed around admiring the art, architecture, and the foliage.  I enjoyed the exploration of the Baroque paintings (years 1600 to 1750) in the collection. Baroque art is "characterized by great drama, rich deep color, and intense light and dark shadows....when the action was occurring."   Baroque painters also includes Vermeer whose 30 paintings that exist today are paintings of everyday life, less dramatic and with milder colors that we witnessed by viewing the visiting Vermeer.

We also reviewed the Impressionists and Post Impressionists and other 19th century paintings that are a part of the collection.

The Wisteria was beautiful and showered us with scented petals as we ate our lunch.

"Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" 1663-64 by Johannes Vermeer, Dutch, 1632-1675

"Saint Bartholomew" 1661 by Rembrandt Harmensa, von Rijn, Dutch, 1606-1669
The Saint is dressed in 17th Century clothes with only the knife, the instrument of his martyrdom, as a hint that he was one of Christ's twelve apostles.

"An Old Man in Military Costume" 1630-31 by Rembrandt....

"The Card Players," about 1625 by Jan Lievens, Dutch, 1607-1674

"Head of a Woman," 1654 by Michael Sweerts, Flemish,, 1618-1664
I like this woman very much....perhaps she lived up the block on Cornell St. in Des Moines when I was growing up.

"Christ Crowned with Thorns," 1620 by Gerrit van Honthorst, Dutch, 1590-1656
This is a good example of the dramatic use of chiaroscuro light effects that Caravaggio initiated in Italy.

"The Eternal Feminine," 1877 by Paul Cezanne, French, 1839-1906
This sightless eye sockets, this woman dominates the entire room including the bald headed artist painted in the foreground.

"Study of a Model, 1818 by Theodore Giricault, French, 1791-1824
The model is depicted with a directness and empathy.  This model was later used in the artist's painting "The Raft of Medusa."