Today’s Picture, 11/11/13

At the Art Institute of Chicago, November, 2013. 

10 Comments on “Today’s Picture, 11/11/13”

  1. It seems clear the sculptor missed the moment — the model was just about to hold her nose…

  2. I also like pie. I have also developed a new appreciation for creme brulee, because I can bathe custard with cool blue flame.

  3. After walking through art museums, I’m always left with the thought that women were so very manly and homely in olden times. I don’t know what happened around the 1900’s, but thank heavens.

  4. @Kilroy –Maybe the sculptors preferred the sturdier women as models? What with beauty being the eye of the beholder, I can’t agree that just because a woman doesn’t look like a Lladro figurine, that makes her homely. But maybe I’m just uncomfortable using the word “homely” to describe any woman. I didn’t think the woman in the sculpture above was unattractive.

  5. Or maybe the ideal of “beauty” has shifted over the centuries. But walk back in time through the great portrait artists, and you’ll notice that the women don’t hold the same characteristics of beauty that are commonly identified today.

  6. This piece is in the same room as Nydia, the blind girl escaping Pompeii. The marble’s imperfections give the works “complexions”. Nydia has freckles.

    Thanks for taking me back there. I miss that museum.

  7. The Leonardo Taft sculpture in the background is one of my favorites. The Art Institute is amazing. Thanks.

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