Santa Fe: Oh the Art, Ah the Wine!

The American Southwest is a magical place and no place more so than the oldest capitol city in the U.S., as well as the oldest European settlement west of the Mississippi – yes, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Founded c.1609 by Don Pedro de Peralta, a conquistador from Spain, today it is the cultural capitol of the Southwest. It celebrates the history of the Native-American peoples of the region, as well as its Spanish colonial past, its Mexican past, and its American present. Art reigns in Santa Fe, whether it is in the galleries, on the streets and parks, as when Indian Market happens (August) or Spanish Market (July), or just the Native American artists who set up shop under the ramada of the Governors’ Palace, just off the Plaza in the downtown area. That artistry also includes fine dining and some very good wines. Let’s explore.

Southbound view of a typical Southwestern mesa, this one on the border of Colorado and New Mexico. (Photo by M.Vernelle) Hover over image to magnify (that mountain).

It goes without saying that the grand vistas of blue-violet flattop mountains spotting the terrain are to be expected because almost everyone has seen the wonderful work of Georgia O’Keeffe. If not, then once you arrive in Santa Fe, prepare to go to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 217 Johnson Street in Santa Fe (timed-tickets required) okeeffemuseum.org However, there are other icons of the Southwest to visit.

These pieces by Bill Worrell are among his Makers of Peace series

Certainly when arriving downtown to begin a gallery hop, one sees these gigantic metal pieces outside of the Worrell Gallery. The story goes that Bill Worrell (1935-2021) was caught in a violent rainstorm when canoeing on the Pecos River in 1979. He and his companions took shelter under a rock cliff and discovered petroglyphs, the ancient rock art of the Southwest. Worrell was inspired to interpret this prehistoric rock art in metal. His work has become iconic, and seeing these large pieces outside the gallery is as good a welcome to the Southwest as one might get.

Autumn Tree Stand/La Mesilla by Stann Berning, in watercolor and gouache. Photo credit Stan Berning. stanberningstudios.com Hover over image to magnify.

Of course, Santa Fe is noted for its various landscape artists, whose styles range from the strictly representational (see OfArtandWine.com “West, Southwest: Bierstadt, O’Keeffe, and Baum” ) to that which is more abstracted. Here in Berning’s work, the basics of a landscape are all there: blue sky, a stand of trees, some brush on a shallow riverbank, and a reflection. The artist creates distance with shape and colors, with the green of the trees distinquishing them from those orange ones just behind. They, in turn, from the indistinct forest of orange that itself sits in front of a distant range of blue-violet mountains, which peek through on the right corner. In the foreground, the indication of water has neither the color of the sky or the orange trees but rather fades into an indistinct pinkish-beige, which allows that colorful stand of trees to stand out against the blue of the sky. It is landscape interpreted by the artist’s eye.

However, landscape is not all there is to see. Some of the most exciting new and different work is done by Cara Romero, who uses photography to tap into the cultural mix of the Southwest to draw forth exciting images. Romero lives and works in Santa Fe, but was born into the Chemehuevi tribe in California. In Oil Boom (just below), the central figure seems to be caught up in the grimey brine of oil sludge. His arms seem to be raised in protest, while the lower body resembles a big glob of crude. The model floats because the photo was done underwater. The model is another Santa Fe artist who deals with social protest, Cannupa Luger, a native of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota, which went through the protests in 2016 against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The contrast between the surface images of oil rigs pumping away and the damage done underneath brings the startling reality of the situation into perspective.

Oil Boom (upper image) and a Water Memory (lower image) both are underwater photography by Cara Romero for article by Gussie Fauntleroy, “Tapping the Regenerative Power of Art.” cararomerophotography.com

In her Water Memories series, Romero explores the powers of water. Most humans think of water as something that restores one, hence why we love hot springs, or the ocean, or just a swimming pool. Maybe it is just pre-natal memory, but the way water surrounds us and holds us is a powerful experience. Romero’s floating woman rises to the surface like some primordial creature destined to remind us that life on this planet began in the waters. Romero uses the Water Memories as a way to comment upon climate change and the rising waters of the oceans, as well as the flooding experienced on some tribal lands because of dam building.

When speaking of the primordial, Mark Spencer, goes there. This can be seen in First Flowers #1, in which he envisions what one of earth’s first flowering plants would have looked like. It, too, is depicted near a large body of water with a sky of gathering dark clouds (from some smoldering volcano?) and to help in the reproductive process, a hummingbird, surely a recent (at that time) descendant of a teradactyl.

First Flowers #1 by Mark Spencer. Photo credit to Peter Ogilvie Hover over image to magnify.

Spencer also comments on what is happening to the planet in terms of climate change.

Blue Baroque by Mark Spencer Photo credit to Peter Ogilvie from article “Nature Versus Human Nature” by Gussie Fauntleroy. Hover over image ot magnify. markspencerart.com

In a barren landscape, cracked earth stretches to a horizon from which night is falling upon a line of dusty looking clouds. In the midst of this hopelessness sits a wonderous object of blue frills with a soft greenish interior that looks oddly alive. As mysterious as the bleak obelisque in Kubrik’s 2001 Space Odyssey, rather than being ominus, it seems to offer a strange hope for rebirth, change, and the miraculous. “Hope springs eternal even under overwhelming circumstances…,” says Spencer. His Blue Baroque in this desolate landscape certainly gives one things to ponder.

DRAWING NOT PAINTING

“I came to the conclusion that the world didn’t need another painter,” said James Drake

That fateful comment was made by an artist who decided that drawing was the basis of everything “painting, sculpture, even film.” Drake does wonderful things as you can see in the piece below called Exit Juárez, in which he shows a body being tattooed the old fashioned way – by hand – with a toothbrush with bristles replaced by a needle.

Exit Juárez by James Drake from article “Making His Mark” by Nancy Zimmerman, photo by Peter Ogilvie. Hover over image to magnify.

It was James Drake’s work that I chose to use as a social media teaser for this blog article on Santa Fe and art. As someone who likes to draw but never had great success with the human figure, I was in awe of this artist’s skill and chose these pages from Trend Magazine‘s article “Making His Mark,” about James Drake, to show his talent. The work in total is called Can We Know the Sound of Forgiveness. Forgiveness is as naked a truth as we wll ever know, so his choice of these figures is quite appropriate.

For more of a studio visit to see James Drake’s work, go to this article on southwestcontemporary.com.

Cafe des Artistes on Lincoln Avenue in Santa Fe, NM

No, the above is not a painting. It is where you go to rest and contemplate the art that you have seen while cruising the galleries of downtown Santa Fe. There is a lot going on in terms of art in the galleries both downtown and on the famous Canyon Road, as well as in these artists’ studios. So when you go to Santa Fe, grab a gallery guide, and any of the magazines that fill you in on what is happening with art in the area. You will be glad you did.

Special thanks to my friend, designer and pastel artist, Sandra Pérez, a long-time Santa Fe resident who was my hostess with the mostest. Find out more about her work in this article from The Art Blog on vernellestudio.com.

Articles used for this post are from Trend, Art+Design+Culture and to read more fascinating information on the arts go to trendmagazineglobal.com

Images of artwork are used in accordance with Fair Use Policy for purposes of critique and discussion.

Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com and etsy.com/shop/VernelleArt Studio.

Ah, the Wine!

New Mexico as seen by Kavel Rafferty for Wine Enthusiast winemag.com

As Rafferty’s illustration points out, New Mexico is a fanciful collection of many things, including that little drawing of a wine bottle and glass. Wine grapes in New Mexico! Isn’t it too much of a desert for that? Au contraire mes chers amis! New Mexico’s sandy soil allows for excellent drainage, while its desert climate allows for hot days and cool nights, which the vines love as that keeps the acidity in the grapes. That climate also keeps pests and rot away from the vines, while the high altitudes (400 to 6,700 feet) produce thicker skins, giving stronger tannins and more concentrated color. The only downside is the potential for freezes in spring and later in the harvesting season. Of course, that might prompt some to do what the Germans did in the 1700s when faced with a hard freeze – make ice wines. (Read about the creation of ice wines in this post ofartandwine.com.)

Casa Rondeña Winery on Chavez Road near Albuquerque, NM. Photo by David Goldman for unsplash.com

Don Pedro de Peralta founded Santa Fe in 1609, and the growing of wine grapes came in 1629. Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Santa Fe became the primary wine producing regions in what became the state of New Mexico. La Chiripada Winery is the oldest in New Mexico and located in the Rio Embudo Valley about 50 miles north of Santa Fe in the direction of Taos. The name means
“a stroke of luck,” and given that the vineyards are at 6,100 feet, their location in a good micro-climate is indeed lucky. Though the growing season is short, La Chiripada produces good Rhone reds and Kabinett Rieslings, along with their famous Primavera (spring) wine which goes well with those equally famous New Mexican chiles.

La Chiripada (lachiripada.com)

La Chiripada does not stop with just producing good wines. It has also taken advantage of the beautiful natural environment of that river valley by joining with Far Flung Adventures to provide a Wine and Waves package that can include river trips (paddleboat, oars, or kayak), biking, or hiking, along with wine tasting and food pairings.

The Vineyards of Vivác Winery vivacwinery.com

At 6,000 feet, Vivác also has one of the world’s highest vineyards. The name means “high altitude refuge.” This photo shows what makes this New Mexican vineyard such a special site. That magnificent outcropping of rock at the end of the field of vines puts one squarely in Georgia O’Keeffe territory. Started by two brothers, Jesse and Chris Padberg and their wives, the idea of becoming vintners arose from Jesse’s visit to Chile and his wanting to do something with a degree in Spanish Literature. A call to his brother, a maker of fruit wines, prompted more enthusiasm. They wound up creating three Estate Vineyards, which allow them to craft their own wines with everything done by hand. Yes, by hand, and through their studies at UC Davis and with the International Wine Guild, they have built a team that combines “science and art” to create their wines. On top of that HGTV included Vivác Winery among its 22 most beautiful wineries.

Gruet (pronounced Grew-ay) was founded by a Frenchman, Gilbert Gruet in 1984 and specializes in making sparkling wines using the traditional méthode champénoise developed in France. The winery is located in Albuquerque but has a tasting room in Santa Fe at the Hotel St. Frances, 210 Don Gaspar Ave. The wines range in prices from $15 to the $125.00 Magnum trio shown here. Contact the winery when in Santa Fe for tasting appointments. (505) 989-9463


One of the best ways to sample some of New Mexico’s wine offerings is to visit a wine bar or attend the annual Wine and Chile Fiesta (September 21-25, 2022). Several of the best places to get good wines by the glass are 315 Restaurant and Wine Bistro, Hervé’s Wine Bar, and Terracotta Wine Bistro. Often listed at the top of the 10 Best list for tasting wines, 315 Restaurant and Wine Bistro serves French-based cuisine, including French Fried Chicken and Steak and Frites, along with a great list of interesting, high quality wines. Hervé’s Wine Bar has 5 flights of wine, each are four, 2oz pours, and range from flights of reds, to Heritage wines, to Sparkling wines, along with a range of glorious food. Finally the Terracotta Wine Bistro has over 200 bottles of wine with 25 of them available for by-the-glass purchase. This provides good opportunities for tasting a variety of wines.

The Wine and Chile Fiesta is an annual event in Santa Fe and though the combination of chile and wine might make one wonder, in fact, there are a number of sensational food combinations to experience. Though it was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is back in full force. Check the website to see Who’s Pouring and Who’s Cooking santafewineandchile.org and this little video from 2019 youtube.com

Obviously there is more than enough to see and to do in Santa Fe. The art is great, and the food and wine are fabulous. Santa Fe says Bienvenido!

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and    CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022

Coming Soon: Distrupted Realism, a review and Winemaking Innovations

What happens when an artist wants to write about art? He/she starts a blog! (I can relate.) John Seed did not want his artistic insight dummied down to suit local coverage of house and garden art shows, so he returned the $50 he’d received for his review and started blogging. He wound up doing a successful art blog for Huffington Post. In his adventures with art, he came across a phenomenon that corresponded to the times we are in, where focus is often distracted by the over-stimulation in our lives. He began to interview artists and from that came Disrupted Realism. We will take a look at the idea and the art, as well as talk about winemaking innovations, as art and wine are always reaching new frontiers.

A Man of La Mancha, and Wines of Castilla.

Gentleman with a Hand on his Chest by El Greco, 1580. Museo del Prado. Hover over image to magnify.

The person depicted here is actually unknown. The possible candidates range from the Marquis de Montemayor, significant figure in Toledo, to Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote to a portrait of the artist, El Greco, himself. While trying to figure out whose portrait this really is can be a fun investigation, it is more important to look at what El Greco does in this mysterious portrait that has caused the artist to be called a precursor to modern art.

Though El Greco’s work was done in the 16th century, a century known for the Mannerist style, which involved sometimes odd color combinations and elongated figures, in modern times his work has been the inspiration for Expressionism. When we look at some of his work, we see a painter who seemed to see the world in phantoms, with almost ghoulish color combinations and tortured physiques.

Laocoön by El Greco, 1614. Museo del Prado

Laocoön is a great example of the statement made above. The flesh tones of the figures are in shades of gray with a bare highlight of pinkish white. The way that the figures seem pulled down the sides of the paintings looks more like something from the 20th century. In Thomas Hart Benton’s The Boy (below) one sees the same wavy lines and long outstretched arms, which cause the figures to seem in movement. In El Greco’s painting the elongated shapes of their naked bodies seem tortured as they struggle with the snake. The way the muscles are represented creates a wavy quality to the figures which helps to create that sense of movement.

The story of Laocoön and his sons and their fight with this great serpent is best known from a Hellenistic sculpture in which the figures show every part of their bodies straining in their fight with the snake. Of course, with El Greco, one also gets treated to one of his many versions of the landscape around the city of Toledo, where he spent the rest of his life after 1577.

The Boy by Thomas Hart Benton, 1948,
Laocoön

So we can see that El Greco had ideas about painting that seemed far ahead of the 1500s. I would say that is true of almost all of the Mannerist paintings of that time (see OfArtandWine.com “La Bella Maniera”). Mannerist painting put aside the dictates of nature to focus on the psychological and emotional aspects of the subject matter. El Greco was a very religious and emotional man. He is quoted as saying, “I paint because the spirits whisper madly inside my head.” His advice to artists was even more pointed, “You must study the Masters but guard the original style that beats within your soul and put to sword those who would try to steal it.” (quotes from elgreco.org)

Let’s return to the Gentleman with his Hand on his Chest. The mystique of this painting, which is so emblematic of Spanish culture that it was honored in a Spanish postage stamp, is a quiet portrait of dignify. The grayish background and the black of the clothing leave us nothing to look at but the face and above all the magnificent hand, both of which are surrounded by the bright white of the ruffled collar and the frilly lace sleeve.

The gold of the sword hilt is echoed somewhat in the color of the subject’s face, which acts as a color coordination between the top and the bottom of the painting. However, the focal point, and the one that is printed on T-shirts and tote bags (I have a tote from the Prado Museum with that hand printed on it) is that fabulous hand.

Detail of the hand from Gentleman with his Hand on his Chest

Any artist will tell you that hands can be very hard to paint. It is not just a matter of propotions, coloring, and shadows. It is a matter of expression, for as we all know many of us “talk with our hands,” as the saying goes. So the hand in this portrait must tell a story that matches the face. The person in the painting is rather sad-eyed and unsmiling. He seems to be in his 30s and obviously from the look of his crisp lace trimmings and the golden sword hilt, he is from the upper echelons of Spanish society. In fact, an alternative name for the painting is Nobleman with his Hand on his Chest. One of the reasons that it is speculated that this is a painting of Cervantes is the absence of any depiction of the left hand and forearm. Cervantes lost his in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 when the Venetians and the Pope beat back an attack by the Ottoman navy.

Sadness in the eyes and that straight face bring a serious, quiet aspect to the painting, one that is thoughtful. The way the hand lies so gently on his chest at the level of his heart would seem to symbolize a person of deep feeling, perhaps deep faith. Long. thin fingers suggest more the hand of a writer or poet than one of a soldier, whose fingers would be more muscled. The pale color of it (lighter than the subject’s face) brings the hand even more to our attention. The back of the hand is smooth and retains some of the plumpness of youth, while the knuckles wrinkle appropriately and the ends of the fingers tapper to the small well-manicured finger nails.

Though this man carries a sword, his hand seems much more likely to have wielded a pen. For these reasons, there are art historians who believe this is a portrait of Cervantes. However, it could be anyone of noble birth, perhaps that Marquis of Montemayor. The main thing is that this hand surrounded by that delicate lace trim is the essence of quiet elegance. The way the artist has highlighted it as white against black draws our attention to it as the key to the character of the sitter for this painting.

El Greco’s sparing use of color here creates the mystery in this painting. The artist had a tenuous relationship with color, saying, “It is only after years of struggle and deprivation that the young artist should touch color – and then only in the company of his betters.” This is a telling statement from someone who lived and studied in Venice, the home of beautiful color in painting, as seen in Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese. The artist obviously approached color with a bit of fear and trepidation.

El Greco (1541-1614), the Greek, as he was called in Spain, bore that name because of the difficulty in pronuncing his real name for the non-Greek speaking Spanish. Domenikos Theokopoulus was born in Crete which was then a possession of the Venetian Republic. He learned painting in Venice, the home of Titian, moved on to Rome, and finally to Spain. Though he dreamed of being a court painter in Madrid, that did not work out (perhaps his painting style was too idiosyncratic). He moved on to Toledo where he gained comissions for both religious works and portraits.

He may have worn his artistic pride a bit too much on his sleeve as this quote would indicate. “I suffer for my art and despise the witless moneyed scoundrels who praise it.” Regardless, his influence was keenly felt in modern times, as can be seen by the Picasso take off on the famous El Greco portrait of the Gentleman.

Portrait of a Painter, after El Greco, by Pablo Picasso, 1950. Hover over image to magnify.

While the Picasso portrait has two hands (one for the paint brush and one for the palette), the overall color combinations and position of the figure are very much as he says, “after El Greco.” It is not just Spanish painters like Picasso and Sorolla who took note of El Greco, but a list of other modern painters. To see that influence clearly, go to the link on “El Greco and Modern Painting,” a presentation by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. museodelprado.es

The main lesson one can take from El Greco’s career and body of art work is to be true to one’s self. Listen to one’s own inner guidance and let intuition guide your creativity. Take inspiration where you find it, and remember what the master said, “Art is everywhere you look for it, hail the twinkling stars, for they are God’s careless splatters.”

Sources for this post are the following:

“El Greco Paintings” theartstory.org

“El Greco and Modern Painting” museodelprado.es

“El Greco Quotes” el-greco.org

Images used in this post are either in Public Domain or used in accordance with Fair Use Policy for purposes of review, critique, and discussion. The Dreamstime.com photo is a free download.

Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com and etsy.com/shop/VernelleArt Studio

Castilla and La Mancha Wine Region.

Vineyards of Vinicola de Tomelloso in Castilla-LaMancha winetourism.com

One may think of La Mancha as a dry region filled with windmills and eccentric noblemen who go about tilting at them. Well, perhaps Don Quixote did that, but if you go to La Mancha or the whole of the Castilla-La Mancha area, what you are likely to find are vineyards and affordable wine. About two thirds of the wine produced in this area are reds. However, good vino blanco (white wine) can also be found. The area produces a lot of bulk wine; however, you can find those $100/bottle red wines labeled vino de pago, a new appellation, for wines from single-vineyard areas.

Interestingly, the wines produced in this area, which had been known for being inexpensive jug wines, began to improved when the California touch was added. This occured in the 1990s when vines were brought in from the Golden State, along with different winemaking techniques. The red wines of the area are known for a bit of a “grilled toast” taste and are made from Syrah, Cabernet, Bobal, and Garnacha grapes. The white wines are normally aged in oak which gives them a creamy, nutty taste with a touch of peach or apricot. The Airen grape is the favorite white grape used in the region though Chardonnay grapes are also cultivated.

Ah yes, castles in Spain and vineyards in the Meseta Central.

The topography of the land offers a lot of diversity in terms of growing regions, from dry plains with old bush vines to rocky highlands with high altitude varieties. The weather is very hot and dry in the summer and quite cold in the winter. Irrigation is minimal; however, diseases that plague other areas also find this area to be inhospitable, an advantage for the vintners. Castilla-La Mancha is focused on creating great varietal wines which is quite an improvement in terms of what is available for purchase. However, some of its bulk wine is actually the base for fortified wines like sherry and port.

Pisto Manchego, a Spanish dish from the land of Quixote.

When it comes to foods, this area goes for the basics. The dish above is a type of Spanish ratatouille with onions, green and red peppers, tomatoes, eggplant and zucchini. Other items would include hearty foods pork, lamb, and beef meat dishes, but there is paella as well. The area is also known for manchego cheese, which comes from the milk from a local breed of sheep called Manchega. For a thorough run down on Spanish foods from starters to desserts, including good mixed wine drinks (think excellent sangria) go to spain-recipes.com

Though the land of the Meseta Central seems rather inhospitable, the Spanish have taken what the Moors from North Africa called “parched earth” manchxa and turned it to useful purposes to find a place for themselves in the world of wine.

To take a short virtual trip to the area try this video: Spain, Castilla-La Mancha, Albacete. youtube.co

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and   CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022

Coming Soon: Santa Fe, New Mexico: Oh the Art, Ah the Wine.

Well, as promised, a trip to Santa Fe is scheduled for this month. Of Art and Wine will report on the art and the wine in the area and any exciting events that are coming up. I return after the 25th so look for my post after that date

Hasta luego!

Wilderness Pony by Mary Bowers.

Art History C.S.I.: The Night Watch as a Crime Scene. For the Love of Wine!

In 2013, in the midst of Amsterdam, crowds lined both sides of a street for a very special event. No, there were no visiting foreign dignitaries showing off to the crowd, nor any local ones of import. It was simply a team of husky men slowly rolling a huge crate down the street. The crate contained what is now called a Dutch national treasure, and all the people could see of it were the huge printed versions of what was inside, plastered on each side of the huge crate. (See Andrew Graham Dixon’s Night at the Rijksmuseum -section 2/4 given here youtube.com) So had the Dutch gone a bit around the bend? No, not at all. What was inside of the giant crate was Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, a 17th century painting of a company of civil guards, who supposedly helped protect the city, but which was more a company of good old boys who went on patrol.

Photo of Stefan Kasper who as the 10 millionth visitor to see The Night Watch got to spend the night. bbc.com Hover over image to magnify.

While the picture above is rather amusing, it is also a good way to gain some perspective on how revered that painting is in Holland. One also sees how different Rembrandt’s painting is in terms of others in that genre. The genre was portraiture but specifically paintings made of the members of these different companies of civilian guards or of trade guilds, which were commissioned for the grand celebrations held at the end of each 3-year period, when new officers were elected. The old guard, literally was celebrated and the new installed, and quite a merry time was had by all. Certainly the painting on the far wall shows all the members of one company, each standing so that his face can be clearly seen, since each member paid for his own portrait. Some merriment was going on, but most of the men stood up straight and showed off their finery in a fairly dignified manner. Then look at the Rembrandt. No wait, here let me get you good examples so you can really see the difference.

The Meagre Company by Frans Hals and Pietre Codde, 1633-1637. Hover over image to magnify.

Okay, now here is a piece done “the right way,” according to the custom of the day. The key players stand out and are well posed. Each person’s face is nicely lighted, so everyone gets his money’s worth. Well not everyone, poor Frans Hals, who was always a bit short on dime and on time, took the commission in 1633, and had 34, 35, and 36 to finish it. However, with most of it done, he failed to deliver as the due date neared. So poor Hals (and he was always rather poor as he had a large family) had to repay all the money, some of which the guard gave to Codde to finish the last bits. At any rate, this example is given just so you have a clear vision of what one of these portraits was supposed to look like. For more see the Web Gallery of Art article www.wga.hu

The Night Watch by Rembrandt, 1642. Hover over image to magnify. bbc.com

Now, let’s look at The Night Watch. This painting does not concentrate on static poses but rather seems to picture the guard going on patrol. There are men loading guns, a drummer to tap out the beat for their march, another with a giant flag, and the rest talk, point, and are otherwise busy. No one has lined up to show off his finery and his face, though as I have pointed out, they each pay for their portraits. However, the key figures, the leader of the company and his second stand out. In the center and well-lit are Frans Banninck Cocq, the captain of Amsterdam’s civil militia, and with him, dressed all in golden yellow (even the hat and boots match), is his lieutenant Willem Van Ruytenburch. As opposed to the banquet scene in Hals, these guys are going on patrol. However, in looking at the picture futher, should the residents of Amsterdam really feel safe?

The Night Watch detail. Hover over image to magnify.

Okay, so let’s just drill down on this very interesting section of the painting. Let’s take Banninck Cocq. He was a politician as well as the captain of the militia. Later he became mayor of the city, so he was a real mover and shaker in Amsterdam. Here in his black suit with a red sash, he seems to be giving instruction or at least commenting to his lieutenant, Van Ruytenburch, who is a more problematic character here. While yellow was seen as the color of victory, the fancy quality of this golden outfit seems rather out of place for guard duty. Of course, one can make much of the fact that the only other character in yellow is the girl, and both she and Van Ruytenburch are highlighted in bright light. That bright light cast a shadow of Banninck Cocq’s hand, which shows in an interesting place in terms of his lieutenant’s anatomy. The shape of the lance carried by Van Ruytenburch could also be taken as interestingly symbolic. Adding all of this up might lead one to think that Rembrandt was commenting on something he knew or had observed about this company and the relationship of its two leaders.

If you ever get the chance to go to Amsterdam, do go to Rembrandt’s house. When you do, you will be shown an area above the room where those who came to sit for portraits had to wait until the master was ready to paint them. In that area the artist could have a view of who was waiting and could hear what they were saying. In terms of The Night Watch, the question arises about what Rembrandt may have seen or heard that caused him to create this rather mysterious, suggestive painting that was so out of the ordinary for that genre of painting.

The girl in this company of men may simply have been someone on the street who got caught up in this mass of movement. However, one notices that she is carrying a chicken and there is some indication that there may be the butt of a pistol jutting out from under the chicken. (I’ve not been able to get a good enough photo detail of that.) At any rate, that chicken may be symbolic of a certain profession she might be engaged in. Now Rembrandt gave her the face of his wife, Saskia, which would seem a strange association given the role this girl might play in this drama. Only Rembrandt knows why he chose his wife’s face for this character. However, some say that the girl is simply a mascot for the company or just a symbolic representation of the company as the chicken claws relate to the Kloveniers Guild to which this company belonged. At the very least, the lighting on her and Van Ruytenburch and their color coordination in dress seem to be a meaningful connection in regard to the feminine.

The other odd thing seen in that detail is that the man behind Banninck Cocq fires a musket (notice the red/orange sparks of fire) right past the ostrich plumes in Van Ruytenburch’s hat. Somehow, neither Van Ruytenburch nor the captain he is talking to seem to notice this loud noise right behind their heads. One then wonders what or who was this guy shooting at? Certainly, with this big group of militiamen all milling about, if one fires a gun off, it is bound to hit something or someone. So was this intentional and planned, which is why the two officers do not pay any attention to it?

Well, film director Peter Greenaway has taken a long hard look at Rembrandt’s masterpiece and come up with some interesting conclusions about Rembrandt having overheard a plot to murder one of this company’s members while he was in his hidden perch above his clients’ waiting room. Greenaway explains many of the oddities in this painting as the painter’s desire to expose this evil doing and that it was the cause of Rembrandt’s precipitous fall from favor and into poverty.

There is another film by Greenaway, a documentary, called Rembrandt, J’accuse, which serves as a companion piece to the film and explores the combined benefits that the members of this company would gain by killing one of their companions. Greenaway’s documentary posits that Rembrandt outted a murder conspiracy (oh, it was just an accident when out on patrol) and that the main culprits were Banninck Cocq and Van Ruytenburch, who wanted to silence one of the company who knew too much. Given the homo-erotic symbolism of the shadow hand and the head of the lance, not to mention Van Ruytenburch’s fancy outfit, ostrich plumes and all, one can imagine what the cover up concerned. (See article in the Toronto Star thestar.com.

The tragedy of course is also that Rembrandt’s outting by innuendo a man who was a leading politician (Banninck Cocq became the mayor of Amsterdam in 1650) made himself a powerful enemy. 1642 became a turning point in Rembrandt’s career. Not only was there dissatisfaction with the portrait, as so many of the men’s faces were hard to see, and that is not what they paid for, but also 1642 was the year that Rembrandt’s beloved Saskia died. Rembrandt’s fortunes steadily declined, causing him to sell off all of the antiques and curiosities that he had collected and finally his house as well. His high spirits and flamboyance had not suited very protestant Amsterdam, so his fall brought righteous satisfaction to some. Though he was always a great painter, his latter years were indeed difficult.

Rembrandt Self Portrait, 1659. Hover over image to magnify.

The picture above says it all. We see the greatness of the painter and the obvious traces of his distress etched into his face. As for The Night Watch itself, it went through a number of changes, one of which involved trimming part of it off on either side. However, over the years, regardless of what story the painting may have been attempting to tell, the great mastery of Rembrandt’s skill in painting has won it a place in the hearts of the Dutch people, hence there willingness to line the streets to see the crate carrying the painting be wheeled slowly and carefully from one location to another. The Andrew Graham Dixon video mentioned above shows how the gigantic painting was hoisted up, through a special slot cut in the floor, to its pride of place position in the museum.

The articles used for this post are in the links above. I have also used my own art history notes taken during a 2011 course on Dutch painting for which we took a “field trip” from Avignon, France to Amsterdam to see the works we had been studying. The Night Watch was then in a special location in another building, as the renovation of the museum was not finished. However, it hung opposite of the Frans Hals painting, The Meagre Company, in order to make the startling contrast in styles and show Rembrandt’s creative genious.

All art works used in this post are in public domain. Photo credits are given in the links to the websites of origin.

Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com and etsy.com/shop/VernelleArt Studio

For the Love of Wine: Wine in 17th Century Holland.

Dutch Ships in a Calm Sea. c.1670 Hover over image to magnify.

The 17th century was the height of the Dutch trading empire that brought, as author and historian Simon Schama says, The Embarrasment of Riches, which is also a title of his wonderful book on that period in Dutch history. Schama posits that the Dutch nation, formed from seven different small entities of which Holland was just one, was the product of two adversaries: the 80-year war with Spain and the sea. The Dutch famously reclaimed land from the sea in order to produce what they needed to survive – not to mention to grow tulips. The long war with Spain was another matter. During that war, the town of Antwerp was used as a supply depot and distribution center for the shipping of merchandise that Spain sold to the rest of Europe. The 16th century saw Spain’s fortunes increase because of its activities in the Americas, hence its key role in trade. The only role the Dutch could have was to be middlemen in that trade. However, in 1591 Spain decided to cut the Dutch out of that role. That led to the formation of the Dutch East Indies Company in 1602, and in 1609 the Dutch governent blocked Spain from any access to Antwerp, which had remained a supply center for Spanish trade.

Pieter Claesz Banquest with Lobster, 1659. Hover over image to magnify.

Once the Dutch began trading in the far east and moved trade centers to Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the embarrassment of riches went into overdrive. With a fleet of 10,000 merchant ships by 1648, the good times rolled, but with a Dutch protestant touch. The Claesz painting here (for more on Claesz see this ofartandwine.com post) shows a rich meal of fresh lobster, some oysters, fruit, bread, and wine. It is a sumptuous meal with signs of partially eaten items, a peeled lemon, an open oyser, and broken bread. Notice how the plate is so close to the edge of the table. That food that was on its way to being devoured and the items on the edge of the table were symbolic of the cycles of life. One could describe it as a process of entropy or going from the whole to the fragmented, broken, or destroyed. It was used as a reminder to people that even though they lived in great wealth and abundance, it was all ephemeral – here today and gone tomorrow. Even so, the Dutch did indeed enjoy their wine and the lovely glasses they drank it from.

When it came to wine, the Dutch traders found that they could take wines from Spain, France, Italy and southern Germany and make good money trading it to England, Sweden, the Baltic, and even northern Germany. Rotterdam, which sits on the northern end of the Rhine, became the main depot for the distribution of wine. French wines and brandy were particularly valued and good wines of any origin were looked upon as luxury items. (Painting of a wine roemer by Claesz, 1642)

While the Dutch were also beer drinkers, and yes, they traded in spirits as well, wine was a very special item, and the 17th century Dutch dominated the wine and spirits trade. As I mentioned, wine was looked upon as a luxury. Bad or low quality wine was known as slootwater or ditch water. Most of what was imported was “new wine” or wine that was not to be aged. That had to do with potential storage difficulties. When in the 30 Years War, access to sweet Rhine wines was limited, the Dutch traders took Sauterne made from white grapes and stalled the fermentation process to keep the sugars in and make it a sweet wine. It is estimated that in a one-year period, 1667-1668, there were 22.6 gallons of wine consumed per person (literally for everyone, man, woman, and child). Of course it was the adults that did the drinking, and one sees the effects of that wine consumption in the work of artist Jan Steen.

Besides being a wine merchant, the wine trade was the source of three other profitable professions. One was being a wijn roeiers, or basically someone who measured quantities and quality of wine for tax purposes. It is their figures that create the picture of wine consumption stated in the previous paragraph. Another profession was that of the painters, like Claesz, who made a good living painting banketje or banquet paintings so that the wealthy citizens could show off their wealth in paintings of their elegant glassware and sumptuous table offerings. It was a way to have their wine and drink it, too. Finally, the nerdowells as always found a way to take advantage, which means that smuggling was a profitable profession. This also means that the actual consumption of wine (and spirits) was actually higher than that counted by those wijn roeiers with their gauges.

While the Netherlands currently has just a fledgling wine industry, it again has to deal with the difficulty of the climate and its location, which both affect the wines that can be produced. Of Art and Wine (April 10, 2020) took a look at the wine industry in “Carel Fabritius’ Beloved Goldfinch and Netherlands Wine.”(The bottle is an antique onion-shaped Dutch wine bottle.)

So yes, for the love of wine, the Dutch have had a long history of making things work, whether it is getting around trade restrictions imposed by war, dealing with making wines sweet when the sweet ones they wanted were not available, or striking out on their own winemaking adventures. One can only say Bravo!

Articles consulted for this post are the following:

“Dutch Burghers and Their Wine: Nary a Sour Grape” by Henriette Rahusen for the National Gallery of Art www.nga.gov This website also offers a very nice film on the Dutch and wine in the 17th century.

“The Dutch Wine Trade in the 17th Century” by Aaron Nix-Gomez on History of Wine webpage, hogsheadwine.wordpress.com

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and   CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022

Coming Soon: El Greco: A Man of La Mancha, and the Castilla, La Mancha Wine Region.

Detail of El Greco’s Nobleman with His Hand on His Chest, 1580.

One of the most famous hands in painting, this one by El Greco, the Greek immigrant to Spain who became one of its most famous painters. He is known for his many portraits of Toledo, a key city in the Castilla, La Mancha wine region.

The Landscape of Imagination and Terroir in Winemaking.

Grizzly Gulch Valley, Okansaung, Vermont by Joseph E. Yoakum

This painting is the cover photo for a very civilized item, a book on art, which is normally a calm and reassuring thing. We have them on the coffee tables in our livingrooms after all. However, when one looks at this terrain and then reads the title of the book, What I saw, one can become a bit unnerved. Where on earth does one find anything like this? I know it says Vermont, but really? The artist, Joseph E. Yoakum, says he saw this, but where? My sense is that the artist perhaps felt the energy of the place and represented that symbolically by the energy in his art, which relies heavily on imagination.

Vermont Ski Resort area including Grizzly Gulch. Hover over image to magnify.

Here is a photo of that area mentiond in the name of the painting. We see mountains and forests in grays and the white and blue of the sky. In looking at Yoakum’s work, we get the thrust of mountains, done in his ballpoint pen work in vertical lines, black on gray. The idea of rock having been pushed up from the earth comes to mind. The ridges and ravines in the area give it a hard unwelcoming look. The definite feeling of a natural descent through this rocky landscape is apparent as one sees trails everywhere. The hills in Yoakum’s work exaggerate this barren landscape, which when covered with snow would be great for skiing (hence the only view I found of the area was a ski resort map), but would otherwise be rather desolate. The artist seems to have sensed this, for he shows the hills like giant claws that seem to be grasping and tearing apart the valley that lies between them. The river flows down at a death defying angle, channeled by the striations in the blue land on either side of it. The whole effect is dizzying. Then there is the name, Grizzly Gulch Valley, which evokes the idea of sharp grizzly claws ripping and tearing. With all of this combined, one can actually see what Yoakum saw on a metaphorical level.

Mt. Vesuvios of Apennes Alps near Naples, Italy, c. 1970. Joseph E. Yoakum, pen and colored pencil on paper. (The spelling is the artist’s)

Though Yoakum traveled quite a bit in his life, his life in 1970 was confined to his storefront apartment on the south side of Chicago. I doubt that even in his earlier life he saw the scene above. One thinks of the Bay of Naples, with the oddly shaped mountain, which blew its own peak off in 79 A.D., and the huge city that lies at the base of that dangerous mountain. Yoakum, in his mind’s eye, has given us an energy representation of the region. The white strip that flows down and divides into two streams is reminiscent of a lava flow, though not in red. The red is in the shape of a mountain. Notice that the other mountains on the left are green with some in pale yellow. Also on the left is what looks like a purple bridge. It is not clear what the tree-like markings are that one sees through the trellis on that bridge, but one does get the overall feeling of countryside. On the right side are things that look like rock formations.

One can only guess at what Yoakum saw as he envisioned this area, but the striations on those shapes might indicate violent earth movement. Certainly the way this landscape is shaped creates a funnel for a downhill output of lava from the mountains. While this piece has color added, it again can be seen as symbolic: the red for the volcano, the mountains in greens and yellows on the left, and on the other side, the destructive aftermath of any volcanic eruption, represented by oddly shaped, crusty rock formations. However, as always, one must ask, if this is what Yoakum saw, why did it come to him this way?

To say that Joseph Yoakum (1891-1972) was an extraordinary man is an understatement. Born in Walnut Grove, Missouri, one cannot say that he really grew up there. In 1901 at the age of 10, he literally ran away with the circus, the Adams Forepaugh Circus. He wound up doing a stint with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show (perhaps there is where he developed his leanings toward Navajo culture). From there he joined the Sells Floto Circus and traveled to China in 1902 at the age of 11.

Needless to say, he did in fact see many things. He returned from his adventures in 1908. In 1918 he joined the U.S. Army and was sent to Quebec and then to France, where he worked on repairing railroads. Once the war was over, he returned to the U.S. and until the 1960s lived what would seem like an ordinary life, married twice, and moved around the country a lot. It is not until 1962 when he was “motivated by a dream that told him to create art” that he began to do so. This was the time after the death of his second wife, when he moved into that storefront on the south side of Chicago. In 1967, a professor of anthropology from Chicaco State College, John Hobgood, stumbled upon Yoakum’s storefront in the windows of which were Yoakum’s drawings. This discovery brought about an art show at the gallery, The Whole, and an article on Yoakum in the Chicago Daily News, “My Drawings Are a Spiritual Unfoldment.”

The 1960s was a time in which there was more emphasis on non-Western art, such as African, Middle Eastern and Native American art. The focus was on the cultural and spiritual imperatives of the artists rather than looking at so-called “primitive objects.” It was also a time of black awareness and the Black Is Beautiful movement. Yoakum, who was African American, probably inherited some Cherokee blood from his father’s side of the family, but veered more to the Native American side. Though supposedly having Cherokee blood, he renamed himself, Nava-Joe and claimed that he was born in Window Rock, Arizona. Though he had obviously lived his life as a Black man, he created this imaginary Native American existence. Some have said that he just thought that Nava-Joe sold art better than “old Black man.” However, Yoakum disassociated himself from African-American culture in favor of Native-American culture or his perception of that culture. In so doing, he stepped outside of the growing interest in African-American art and stepped away from the various artists involved in producing that art. For a fascinating look at this identity issue and Yoakum, see the excellent essay, “Back Where I Were Born: Joseph E. Yoakum and the Imaginary Indian,” by Kathleen Ash-Milby in the book What I Saw.

Paradise Range near Damascus, Syria.
Wilks Land in East Sector Antarctica
The two pieces above show how varied Yoakum’s imaginary visits to far off places were.

Yoakum’s “exciting to ponder, difficult to describe art” ( quote of Jim Nutt, an artist and client of Yoakum) became very popular among the artists involved in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), many of whom bought his drawings. Artist and SAIC professor, Whitney Halstead, became particularly close to Yoakum and strives to place Yoakum into an art historical context (see reference below). However, Yoakum is hard to peg. His imaginary landscapes are more sophisticated than “naive” art, and they did not fit into the category of African-American art traditions of social issues and history that the work of Jacob Lawrence spearheaded. Rather like Norman Lewis, who became an Abstract Expressionist, something completely outside the box that African-American art was place in, Yoakum dived deep into the imagination to do these landscapes of the places he saw in his mind.

Tornado In Action in Iola, Kansas in 1920 by Joseph E. Yoakum

Here is Yoakum dealing with something he must surely have known in physical reality growing up as a child in Missouri: tornadoes. We see how he has lined the earth to represent perhaps the furrows of planted crops. We see that the tornado had ripped a wide space in the middle of the picture, disrupting the continuous horizontal furrows of the field. Here and there are strange objects, perhaps ones that had been sucked into the vortex of the tornado and spun out of the top to land as debris scattered over the area.

Whatever one thinks of Yoakum’s life and his artistic works, his vision of landscape takes the viewer on a far journey into the imagination. His art was originally considered Outsider Art, which is art produced by those who do not come through the normal avenues into the art world. However, he is someone who strove to do what he could with the materials he had, often working on buff colored letter paper called “Fifth Avenue,” which he purchased from his local F.W. Woolworth store. He used simple pen and ink, and sometimes Weber Costello pastels, which he preferred to watercolor as the latter was harder to control. From those simple inexpensive materials and his grand imagination, which is what probably led him to run off with the circus back in 1901, he left us a treasure trove of mind-scapes to enjoy and to ponder.

One final note: the beauty of his work has been noticed in Europe where the company Lemaire has a line of clothing featuring Yoakum’s art work. It is called “Ssense,” and I leave you with pictures of some very expensive pieces printed on silk. The company refers to Yoakum as Native American, so it seems that he has finally gotten the ethnic identity he imagined himself to be. flaunt.com

Images of Yoakum’s work are used in accordance with Fair Use Policy for purposes of review and critique.

Resources used in preparation for this article are as follows:

Joseph E. Yoakum What I Saw by Yale University Press with the help of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Menil Collection, Houston. The book is a collection of essays, including to one mentioned above by Kathleen Ash-Milby and the art history one by Whitney Halstead.

For more on Yoakum’s work try these links:

www.outsiderartfair.com; newyorker.com; and artforum.com.

Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com or her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com and original art goods at etsy.com.

Terroir, a word with one meaning but many different attributes.

Limburg vineyards in the Netherlands for production of medium-bodied reds with fruity tones.

As in Joseph Yoakum’s landscape paintings, land is variable, and that isn’t just a matter of terrain, but of terroir. Terroir (pronounced tare – WAHr) loosely refers to “a sense of place.” That seems rather vague, but if we break it down a bit, a sense of place involves more than location. It would involve an overall feeling of environment. One would consider the climate, the people who live there, the type of vegetation and animal life of that area, and certainly any special products. When it comes to wine, the idea of special types of wine that are grown on certain types of soil which affect their flavor adds dimension to the term terroir. Since this is a French word, best that we go to French wines to talk about it and compare its effects.

Vineyard for Beaujolais wine. Photo credit to Pierre-Axel Cotteret on unsplash.com

Vinevest.com describes terroir this way: “‘Terroir’ is a French word that signifies the natural conditions of a vineyard like soil composition, elevation, sun exposure, climate, and other unique characteristics.”  Some of the other characteristics often have to do with the winemaking culture of the area. In countries with a long tradition of winemaking, regional traditions involve the blending of grapes in certain precise quantities, as well as which grapes are aged in oak and which remain in stainless steel tanks.

For instance, a Côte de Provence rosé is made from four different grapes and in precise percentages: 45% Cinsault, 35% Grenache, and 15% Syrah, and sometimes 5% Mourvèdre. Notice that this is a regional blend of grapes that comes from years of developing this particular wine. In addition, while most of the grapes are aged in stainless steel tanks,  8% of the Syrah grapes are fermented in oak barrels to enrich the natural flavor but not overwhelm it with the buttery taste that can come from oak. The Mourvedre

grapes, which are only 5% of this blend, are added in to soften the taste. The whole fermentation process takes a short time, and the wine is meant to be drunk young. (See Of Art and Wine, The Painter of “Indecisive Colors and Côte de Provence Wine.)

Now, let’s take the case of two wines from the Loire Valley, Sancerre and Muscadet. One of the main factors in the taste of these two wines, both of which are great with seafood, is that they grow in different types of soil. The Loire Valley generally has a limestone-based underpinning. But Muscadet, which comes from the Melon de Bourgogne grape grows in the Loire south of Nantes where the soil is more granite than limestone.

As opposed to Sancerre, which has a flinty, citrus-tinged taste, that sometimes has a smoked flavor, Muscadet has a saline taste as though touched by salty sea air. In the case of Muscadet, its grape which came originally from Bourgogne (Burgundy), was a grape which in the middle ages the Burgundians banned from their soil. The grape wound up in the Loire Atlantic, where it found a good home as its salt was great with briney seafood. (See OfArtandWine.com post “Botticelli on the Half Shell with Sancerre or Muscadet).

Photo credit to vinovest.com

The article “Terroir: What Is It, and How Does It Affect Your Wine?” (click link above) names four basic physical characteristics of terroir: climate, soil, terrain or topography, and organisms in the soil. (Please note that I am not alone in my addition of local winemaking culture, as Winefolly.com also includes tradition as one of the elements in the definition of terroir.) These elements of terroir play a role in the pricing of wine and whether or not it is granted a defined appellation of origin (AOC Appellation d’Origine Controlée). This AOC qualification indicates quality and with that a higher price per bottle.

Unfortunately, when it comes to wines grown in the New World and other places where the original cultures were not winemaking cultures, there is no baseline by which to measure the qualities of terroir needed to go into defining specific ones. However, we do see some distinctions, for instance, in the winemaking regions of the Pacific Coast. California produces a variety of wines in regions throughout the state, while Oregon is known as a mono-grape culture since it focuses on the production of fine Pinot Noir. Washington has concentrated on red wines, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Syrah, and Merlot. Hopefully, as those winemaking regions develop more history with cultural winemaking knowledge particular to each region, along with the climate and soil requirements, terroir will begin to have meaning there, too.

So the shape of landscape takes on a variety of meanings, whether in the imaginative art of someone like Joseph Yoakum or in the complex elements contained in the definition of terroir. Both of these complex items give us the benefit of their “exciting to ponder, difficult to describe” essence and allow us to savor the richness that comes from complexity.

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and    CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022.

Coming Soon: Art History C.S.I.: The Night Watch as a Crime Scene. For the Love of Wine!

The Night Watch by Rembrandt, 1642. commons.wikimedia.org

This painting has become an emblematic Dutch national treasure, which far from a static portrait of one of the companies or guilds in 17th century Holland, is a portrait with a number of mysteries, including a gun that is being fired. Come explore the mysteries of The Night Watch and look at the world of the Dutch Wine Trade.

The World’s Most Beautiful Bridal Chamber, plus Wines for Weddings.

Well, it’s that time of year when wedding bells ring, and happy couples start a new life together. Back in the early Renaissance the same type of thing happened, but if it concerned a prince, duke, or marquis, as in this case, Marchese Ludovico Gonzaga II, things could definitely take a magnificent turn toward the spectacular. In fact, the famous Camera degli Sposi (often called the Bridal Chamber because it was set in what was Gonzaga’s bedroom at the time) was more a commemoration of the whole family that had sprung from the marriage of Gonzaga and Barbara de Brandenburg.

Camera degli Sposi by Andrea Mantegna, 1465-1474. Hover over image to magnify.

As can be seen above, this “bedroom,” which later became an area where the marchese would hold private audiences, is a painted wonder for several notable reasons.

PORTRAITURE

Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506) was noted for his ability to capture the human image. His painting is so structured that it sometimes seems architectural and rather “dry,” and for his day, he seems to have been something of a rather brutal realist, with the facial features often being criticized as lacking “grace.” Of course, as Leonardo da Vinci would point out, grace and reality don’t often happen together. One example of such is the portrait of Carlo de Medici.

Cardinal Carlo de Medici by Andrea Mantegna, 1466. Hover over image to magnify.

Though “His Grace” the cardinal certainly looks like the important man he was, Mantegna has captured also a man whose face has moulded itselt into the hard cynicism that came from the dangerous politics of his time. The face shows the underlying structural detail of the man’s face, his strong square jaw, the prominent bowed nose with the two hard lines descending from the end of the nose to the sides of the downturned mouth, and the hard, icy, blue eyes. The high cheek bones form the base of the hollow of the eyes, that hollow filled in by the puffy skin (bags, as we say) just under the eye. What one has is a rather accurate portrait of the man painted from the inside out, which allows the personality developed from his personal history to be worn on his face. He doesn’t look like someone you would want to have to ask for a favor.

Ludovico Gonzaga
Barbara de Brandenburg

Once again these portraits of the marchese and his wife have been seen as lacking in grace. However, they were quite accurate in terms of what Mantegna saw, so much so that the marchese, Ludovico II, had members of his family stand close by their portraits so that guests could see the verisimilitude in the portraiture.

PERSPECTIVE

The 15th century was full of dynamism in terms of the discovery and rediscovery of various artistic principles. The search for perpsective animated a number of artists, in particular Paolo Uccello and Andrea Mantegna. Mantegna seats the Gonzagas over a real hearth so that when one looks at the figures, one must look up. Taking that perspective into account, the artist painted the figures as though one were actually looking up at them from below, which means that one sees a bit under some of the objects and the hems of the garments.

One aspect of perspective that Mantegna was particularly adept with was foreshortening. For those who may have forgotten their first drawing class, foreshortening is the effect of drawing an object that seems to be lying flat or pointed in your direction. It changes the apperance of the length of the object. Mantegna’s Lamentation of Christ c. 1470 puts a fine point on the wonders of how a well-foreshortened figure looks.

The dead Christ and three mourners.*tempera on canvas.*68 × 81 cm .*1470-1474

Mantegna has fun with the foreshortening in the oculus at the top of the painted trompe l’oeil dome where he has figures looking down on those who are looking up. Notice in the picture below that there are some precariously placed items which might just fall on the spectators who dare stand underneath the dome. One figure seems to be unloosening a planter, and those heavily foreshortened cherubs have various parts of their naked baby bodies positioned to allow both biological elements #1 and #2 to fall upon the spectators. Nothing like an artist with a cheeky sense of humor (see oculus below).

The oculus in the Camera degli Sposi with foreshortened cherubs. Hover over the image to magnify.

TROMPE L’OEIL

The real magic of Andrea Mantegna’s chamber is that all of the vaulting of the ceilings, the oculus opening that allows the sky to reign over the whole room, and the delicate molding that surrounds various cameos of Roman emperors, are all tricks of the eye, yes, trompe l’oeil. Mantegna had studied as a young apprentice with Francesco Squarcione, where he learned the tricks of the trade used to do decorative painting, including what we now call trompe l’oeil. He pulled out all the stops when it came to the Camera degli Sposi to make what was a relatively small room in the ducal palace look indeed palatial. Take a moment to look at all of the arches and the tondos with figures in them. Mantegna’s love for the sculptural and his clever use of perspective take over as he turns this room into a fantasy of sorts.

A painted ceiling made to look as if it held architectural wonders, but which is really trompe l’oeil. Hover over image to magnify.

Mantegna did not leave out other participants in the household. Here we see a fine steed and several dogs, probably used for hunting, being held by their grooms. Behind them is a fanciful landscape. The artist shows the versatility which made him a favorite for quite a long time. Ultimately his work was seen as being a bit too decorative and somewhat passé. The artist however, had a long career in Mantua, arriving there in 1460 and dying there in 1506.

Before leaving the master’s art, let’s do look at the beauty of some of his purely decorative work, as in this bountiful garland. Do use the magnifier.

The Altarpiece of St. Zeno, detail by Andrea Mantegna. Click the image to magnify.

Sources for this article are as follows:

“Art in Tuscany: Andrea Mantegna” travelintuscany.com

“Frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi, Ducal Palace in Mantua (1471-1474)” Web Gallery of Art www.wga.hu

Mantegna by Alberta de Nicolo Salmazo for Citadelles et Mazenod, 2004.

For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the About Page or the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle. Go to the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com and for my original art goods see etsy.com/shop/VernelleArtStudio.

Who’s getting married in the morning…

Champagne Fireworks. Photo by Miriam Zilles on Unsplash.

Wines for weddings, now that is a hot topic right about now with well-planned spring and summer outdoor nuptials coming up. So where does one start? Well one of the best things to do is to set up some general guidelines. Decide if you are going to have a professional barman/maid host for you. That person or company can help you with a lot of the decision making about how much and what type of beverages to have. In particular, it is important to know your guests, which means what kinds of taste do they have, how many may be beer drinkers, and how many may want a soft drink (children, grandma, great aunt Betty, for example). To see how a bar with a barman/barmaid works take a look at this video, Wedding Bar – Beer and Wine youtube.com

The Champagne Toast

Set ’em up, barkeep. The champagne toast is all important. Photo credit to Tristan Gassert on in Unsplash.

Normally, it is suggested to separate the champagne quantities from the white, rosé, and red wine choices. As the champagne is used for the special toast, you can count how much you will need by the glass size. Generally a champagne flute will hold 4 ounces of champagne. With approximately 25 ounces in a bottle, you could get about 6 glasses from a bottle. Divide that into 6 into 150 (the normal number of wedding guests) and you’d need to have 15 bottles.

Now, the choice of champagne can include other sparkling wines like cremant, cava, and prosecco, many made with the celebrated French méthode champenoise, though they don’t bear the name champagne due to treaty restrictions. However, since the U.S. is not a part of that treaty, you can use a fine American one which has the word champagne on the label. My suggestion is Gruet. It comes from Santa Fe, New Mexico, runs around $15-$20/bottle, and is divine. Yes, it also comes in pink!

Red, White, and Rosé

White wine to enjoy as something to sip or to go with a light meal. Photo credit to Matthieu Joannon on Unsplash.

Generally it is advised to think of the ratio of white and rosé wines to red wine as a ratio of 2/3 to 1/3. Yes, it is summer, but you will have red wine drinkers and a nice Pinot Noir would work well for them. The wine that seems to be the safest in terms of appealing to a wide variety of tastes is a white wine, Sauvignon Blanc, with really good ones from California and New Zealand; however, Pinot Grigio is also a good possibility. I would even suggest an Off-dry Riesling. The Off-dry version of this wine has just a touch of sugar but is dry rather than sweet. It is acidic so it pairs well with anything savory. That means if your crowd likes light to moderately spicy treats to eat, this could be a great wine to serve with that type of food. You can get a choice of fine ones from Washington State’s Chateau Ste Michelle for under $10.00.

Again, in terms of how many bottles, it is estimated that people will each drink 2.5 to 3 glasses. Now, that is an average, but it means that you can count on about 1/2 bottle per person. For 150 people that is about 75 bottles. Again, remember to know your guests. If you have heavy beer drinkers, you may cut back on the wine. If you are serving very light fare to eat then go heavy on the white and rosé and very light on the red.

Cocktails, anyone?

The White Wine Spritzer thespruceeats.com (see the recipe)

The most trustworthy advice I can give is to limit the cocktails to a choice that can be made with wine. The summer favorite of course is the wine spritzer. The recipe given by Colleen Graham and tested by Sean Johnson for the Spruce Eats has only 92 calories, 9 g carbs, 0 fats, and 1 g of protein. Beyond that there are canned spritzers in a variety of flavors. Your rosé wine could be used in the spritzer cocktails for an added touch of celebratory color for a bit of romantic la vie en rose.

Finally when trying to keep costs down and still have enough wine and good quality wine, there is a new trend in which various small entrepreneurial companies are offering the place, the tools, and the basic products for you to make and bottle your own wine for your wedding. This idea ties nicely into another specialty of the modern wedding industry, making your own labels with some memorable graphic or poetic content written on the label. DIY Wedding Wine on youtube.com has videos on both.

So congratulations to all the grooms and best wishes to all the brides!

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and      CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022

Coming Soon: The Shape of Landscape Painting and the Meaning of Terroir in Winemaking.

Cover of Joseph Yoakum’s wonderful book of landscapes.

We tend to have a well-defined idea about what landscape painting is, but there is more than one way to see what it is that the land looks like. There is also more than one meaning for the French word for land, terroir, and that is especially important when it comes to making wine.

Painting’s Curious Color – Blue, and Wines of Noble Rot

(THE DISCUSSION OF THE COLOR BLUE CONTINUES FROM THE PREVIOUS POST)

Blue, blue, blue, so common it is that we do not think much about it, but if we look at how it appears in our language, it would seem that we think of it a lot. For instance, look at these common phrases: blue moon, sky blue, feeling blue, the blues, midnight blue, blue ribbon, blue blood, deep blue sea, blue jeans. We could go on into terms in other languages, but I am sure you have gotten the point by now: Blue is big!

In color theory, blue is often seen as a color that is non-threatening, as it calls up feelings of calm and serenity. It is a color preferred by men and is used to represent stability and reliability. (Is that why they prefer suits in deep blue?) On the other hand, it is also a color that indicates sadness or aloofness. No wonder that the music form that wails about lost love, betrayal, and heartbreak is called The Blues, and when we complain of a low period in life, it is said that we are “singing the blues.” Blue, however, is a color that seems to spur productivity. On the other hand, it certainly chills one’s appetite, as food served on blue dishes discourages one from eating, probably because dangerous foods like poisonous mushrooms often turn blue as you cut into them, and food also turns blue as it spoils. But enough of spoils, let’s look at a few famous paintings where blue plays a role.

Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665. Mauritshuis Museum, The Hague. Hover over image to magnify.

In looking at some famous paintings that feature blue, it is amusing to see how our attention on the details refocuses over the years. For instance, here in Vermeer’s famous, The Girl with a Pearl Earring, that pearl, which is rather hard to see, has become the focal point. However, the original title was probably Girl with a Blue Turban, as it was one of two paintings done “in the Turkish fashion.” Yes, the emphasis was on that brilliant patch of light blue that turned darker as it wrapped around her head. Certainly given the somber tones of the rest of the painting, the blue is an attention grabber. Everything else in the painting, except the red of her lips, is rather neutral, and the background is solid black. That blue surrounds her face and brings the viewer’s attention to it where one becomes engaged by the mystery of her expression. Is she about to speak? Or has she just said something and is waiting breathlessly for a response?

The Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough, 1770. Hover over image to magnify.

There was a time when this was the most famous painting in the world. Supposedly it was a type of demonstration piece to show off the artist’s talents. Gainsborough may have used his nephew as the model, though some say it was the son of a wealthy merchant. However, the youngster is dressed in 17th century clothing to mimic the look of paintings by Sir Anthony van Dyck, a painter whom Gainsborough admired greatly. That means most probably this was a painting designed not as a private portrait commission but as a way of exhibiting the artist’s painterly skills. But why the blue? Well, Gainsborough’s chief rival, Sir Joshua Reynolds, thought that blue, a cool color in the 18th century, should only be used to enhance and bring out the richer tones of warm colors. Gainsborough’s response was all blue for the main figure, with those warmer tones having secondary importance. It became quite the sensation and remains so today. London’s National Gallery is currently showing off The Blue Boy once again in Room 46 until the 15th of May, 2022.

Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888. Hover over image to magnify.

When we think of the night sky, most of us consider it black. That may be because we have not looked at it in a creative way. However, we have Vincent Van Gogh to show us the way. Van Gogh painted this night scene under the illumination of a gas lamp, a then new-fangled lighting system. Through the light of the gas lamps, the night took on a different look with a different color, that of a deep blue with aquamarine and turquoise highlights. Here, blue shows itself to be a worthy substitute for black and gray and makes the lights of the city (Arles), and the stars in the sky mirror images of one another. The shimmer of the waters of the river creates a sense of movement, which is seen by that lamplight. Here blue reigns supreme.

Pablo Picasso had a whole period in which his paintings were blue. This “Blue Period” was early in his career and started around 1900. The apocryphal tale was that the artist was so poor he could only afford blue paint, so all the paintings were blue. In actuality the story is much darker than that art history legend.

Picasso had a close friend, a young Spanish poet. His name was Carles Casagemas. The two young men carroused their way through Paris. Casagemas was involved with a woman who called herself Germaine (Laure Gargallo in reality). One night in a drunken bar scene, Casagemas threatened Germaine’s life with a pistol. In fact he fired it at her. She fell under the table (or shall I say dove under). Casagemas, thinking he had just killed her, which he had not, turned the gun on himself and committed suicide. When Picasso heard of the death of his friend, it started his blue period.

The painting above, The Old Guitarist, is almost Picasso as a blue El Greco. Everything is long and exaggerated. The palid blue of the skin and the bowed head over the guitar are an apt symbol of depression. One can almost hear a melancholy tune coming from the guitar as the old man strums out the sadness of his life. The painting is in fact a self-portrait of the soul of the then 20-year- old painter who had not yet sold any painting. The Blue Period was the first major body of work that Picasso turned out and the first development of a distinct voice for that artist, artsy.net. Of course, he went on to move into Casagemas’ vacant apartment and take up being the lover of the infamous Germaine. Even then, Picasso was Picasso.

Blue Nude II by Henri Matisse, 1952.

One of Pablo Picasso’s frenemies was Henri Matisse. Picasso actually bought some of Matisse’s work, but Matisse never bought Picasso’s. Matisse was a rather bourgeois gentleman who liked to live a well-ordered and busy life. He loved vibrant colors and was someone who was quite taken by jazz, in which the perfect moment of sensory experience of the music is called the Blue Note. Matisse even created a series of cut-outs called Jazz. Here the artist uses collage techniques to create a modernist nude, put together in pieces almost like a mosaic. Matisse experimented with color and with simplified forms. He loved seeing how the colors contrasted with one another, but blue became one of his most frequent choices. Whether it was the coolness of the color, or how he felt about jazz, as a music lover, blue became the color of many of his cut-outs.

Ah blue, that mysterious color that does not really occur naturally, that humans did not even see until they made it, that went from hot to cool with the passage of time, and which has a lifespan that fits within the limited history of civilized humanity, may be one of our greatest creations and may only be around as long as we are.

Images used for this article are either in public domain or used in accordance with Fair Use Policy for purposes of discussion or critique and review.

Articles and books used for this post are as follows:

Bleu: Histoire d’une coulour by Michel Pastoureau

“The Color Psychology of Blue” Kendra Cherry and Amy Morin verywellmind.com

“The Emotional Turmoil Behind Picasso’s Blue Period” Alexxa Gotthardt artsy.net

For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the About Page or the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle. Go to the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com and for my original art goods see etsy.com/shop/VernelleArtStudio.

What is noble about rot?

Noble rot on Riesling grapes. Photo credit to Tom Maack on Wikipedia.com

Ugh. Disgusting! Yes, that might be the first response to this picture of Riesling grapes infected with Botrytis cinerea, a fungus that infects grapes that are very ripe. Should this infestation continue, the grape harvest is ruined. This is particularly true when the weather is damp. However, just as clever viticulturists took a hard freeze back in 1794 to turn frozen grapes into ice wine, so too does the right handling of this rot make it the formula for some of the very best sweet wines.

While ice wines came from Germany, it was eastern Europe that produced the first botrisized wines. That got started in the 1500s in Hungary, with Tokaj becoming the area to first begin classifying its botrisized wines in the 18th century. (Here a photo of a bottle of Azsu Six, Photo by Meg Baggott.)

In northeast Hungary and southeast Slovakia, the rivers provide the cool morning mists that support the development of the Botrytis cinerea fungus. However, the trick is to then have warm sunny days, which helps to evaporate the water in the grapes, which the fungus has released by puncturing the skins. That means what is left is sugar. That is the making of a good sweet dessert wine.

Careful grape picking of Semillon grapes in France. winemag.com

Needless to say, the French, who are known for using the decaying processes of nature to gastronomical advantage (just think of roquefort cheese – a blue cheese by the way), were certainly not going to let the Hungarians have all the fun. In a process known in French as pourriture noble (noble rot), the Sémillon grape can be picked sometimes in successive sessions of handpicking (grape-by-grape) called tris, in order to get the very best grapes to make a category of sweet wine called Sauterne, which is a mix of Sémillon, Muscadelle, and Sauvignon Blanc grapes. The area most famous for this mix is Bordeaux.

SO WHAT DOES ALL THIS NOBILITY LEAD TO?

Ricotta cheese and berries cheesecake alwaysravenous.com

Sauternes are fine dessert wines, and one of the desserts to pair it with is a nice slice of cheesecake covered in fresh berries. Sauterne’s mix of honey and nut flavors blends well with cheesecake, ice cream, and fruit tarts. However, there are savory possibilities as well.

Roast duck, a good savory dish to pair with Sauterne. matchingfoodandwine.com

Fiona Beckett, of Matching Food and Wine suggests that all kinds of roasted fowl go well with Sauternes. Above there is a platter of roasted duck; however, a chicken can be basted with Sauterne and roasted to perfection, then served with a bottle of Sauterne. Chinese and Asian dishes are also recommended. Then of course, come the cheeses, of which roquefort is the first to come to mind. However, any number of other dishes work well with sweet wines like Sauterne or the Hungarian Tokaj, including foie gras, shellfish, and glazed pork. It is recommended to serve these dessert wines at 50-54 degrees Fahrenheit, though an aged Sauterne needs to be served a bit warmer.

So in these times of being economical, one must remember how inventive humans can be when faced with conditions that would normally destroy a valued item. If one handles things just right, what looks like a disaster can actually be a completely new item which has its own special value.

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and    CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022

Coming Soon: Mantegna and The World’s Most Beautiful Bridal Chamber, plus Wines for Weddings.

Andrea Mantegna’s Camera degli Sposi, the Bridal Chamber of the Marquis de Mantua, 1465-1474 Hover over image to magnify.

Heading into wedding season brings to mind the most famous bridal bedroom in the world. Done between 1465 and 1474 by Andrea Mantegna, this chamber was commission for the Ducal Palace in Mantua by the marquis, Ludovico Gonzaga III, in order to compete with other city-states that were commissioning such art. Naturally, with weddings comes the question of what wines to serve, and the answers can be surprising. See you for the next post.

The Curious Past of the Color Blue, plus Berry Wines

Interesting what we take for granted, isn’t it? For instance, when was the last time any of us stopped to think about the color blue? When one asks about it, what comes to mind most frequently is that the sky is blue. There! It is all around us, so everybody knows about blue. Not really. Blue is a color with a past. The ancient descriptions of the sky say it was colorless or white or just neutral. Little children often do not see the sky as having a color, or they use blue for a strip at the top of their drawings, with a brown strip at the bottom for earth, and a great white space in between (air?).

Part Vision by Norman Lewis, 1971. Hover over image to magnify.

Blue is a mysterious creature, perfect for expressing a vision, or at least part of one, as abstract expressionist Norman Lewis conceived of it. The painting above has us perhaps submerged in the “deep blue sea.” Or perhaps we are wandering about in a blue dream. There seem to be some objects, a tower, some shrubs, a hill. However, nothing is distinct in this shades-of-blue netherworld, which makes the painting all the more haunting.

Blue is not a naturally occuring color, and really very little on earth is actually blue, not the grasses, not most flowers, not animals or humans. Even the “blue of the sky” has nothing to do with any tactile material, but is simply a colorful trick of the eye produced when the length of the sun’s rays are long. When the rays are short, we see reds and oranges. We think of blue in modern times as being a cool color, but as Michel Pastoureau in Bleu, Histoire d’une couleur, states “…hot and cold colors are purely conventional and function differently according to the epoque (in the Middle Ages, for example, blue was a hot color)…”(p.7). The color has often been associated with green, a color much more familiar and commented upon by the Greeks and Romans, who by the way referred to the sea as “wine-dark waters.” Some tribal people when shown a series of green squares and one blue one, see the blue one as just another green square, a bit different, but green (“The Color Blue: History, Science, Facts” dunnedwards.com) While turquoise and lapis lazuli existed in certain areas on earth, it seems that people began to “see” blue when they started making the color, and that started 5500 years ago. Where? Egypt, of course.

The famous Blue Hippotomus (1981-1885 BCE) from the Metropolitan Museum, NYC and an Eye of Horus ring (18th Dynasty, Amarna Period, 14th century BCE).

The Ancient Egyptians were known for their love of faience. Although other civilizations, such as those in Mesopotamia knew of faience, it was the Ancient Egyptians that were most famous for their fabulous blue faience. It ranged in color from deep blue to sky blue to green. It was the first syntheically made color as it did not come from ground turquoise or lapis.The Egyptians would super heat a combination of quartz sand crystals with sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and copper oxide (itself a way to produce blue), so that the substance could be used to form objects or to coat the inside or the outside of other objects. Faience itself is a type of glass, so its surface is shiney. That shine reminded the Ancient Egyptians of the sun, and the permanent glimmer of the objects was looked upon as magical and as a sign of rebirth in the afterlife.

Burial Necklace of Wah, 12th Dynasty worker in the time of Amenemhat I, 1981-1975 BCE

The necklace above shows the fine work that even a humble person might acquire in order to add to his burial goods. The tomb of Wah is a simple one, and seemingly none of the archeologists expected to find any treasures to speak of when they discovered it. However, when the mummy was unwrapped in 1940, a number of beautiful faience jewelry items were found along with the necklace above, which adorned the chest of the mummy. This indicates how popular and accessible blue faience was in that ancient culture. (For a better picture and an article see metmuseum.org.)

Blue faience was also often used to make Ushabtis, the little figures who were assigned to work in the afterlife on behalf of their mummified owner. The alabaster sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I had figures cut into it that were colored with blue infill and the interior was treated with a blue made from copper. In 1817, Giovanni Belzoni, who uncovered the tomb (sadly, robbed in ancient times), found the bottom of the sarcophagus to be pure translucent white with the blue lining still apparent. The transfer of the sarcophagus to London and almost 200 years of humidity and air pollution has turned it a buff color with the blue lining gone. Even the blue infill on the figures is now a dirty gray because of failed attempts to recreate the ancient color in the 1800s. collections.soanes.org

The history of blue runs deep among the Ancient Egyptians, as lapis lazuli was another of their favorites. Imported from Afghanistan, its long journey and the beauty of the stone made it an expensive prize. Legend has it that pharaohs made their top advisors wear necklaces of lapis lazuli, because it was believed that he who wore lapis lazuli could not lie. Though blue flowers are rare, the Ancient Egyptians even had that in the blue lotus. Often depicted on the walls of their tombs with both men and women sniffing the fragrance of the flower, it supposedly produced a feeling of well-being and aroused sexual desire.

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18th Dynasty figure from the tomb of Pharaoh Horemheb holds a blue lotus. Even the walls of the tomb are in a bluish color. Next to it, a jewel with a lapiz scarab from the Treasures of Tutankhamen

Not unlike the secret of how to make Egyptian Blue which was lost for a while (one of the discoverers of the formula was Dr. George Washington Carver, who studied a lot more than how to rotate cotton crops with those of peanuts), another fabulous blue that was also lost is Mayan Blue. Its rediscovery in 1931 came about because of scientific advances that allowed researchers to discover the key ingredient, a rare type of clay found in southern Mexico called “polygorskite.” This blue was developed between the 6th and 8th centuries CE, though there is evidence that it existed as early as 300 CE. It is not affected by erosion, the passage of time, biodegradation or even modern solvents! (“Origins of Maya Blue in Mexico” sciencedaily.com.) The famous 8th century murals of Bonampak on the Yucatan peninsula (see OfArtandWine.com “Bonampak’s Temple of the Murals”) were also known for the sparkle in the heavenly blue paint. Scientists have found that it comes from the use of azurite, a stone imported to the Maya lands from Arizona, which just shows that the desire for blue can reach to products from far distant lands. (For more on Mayan Blue and the meaning of the color for the Maya, see Production of Maya Blue youtube.com)

A pot of recreated Mayan Blue, a head from Jaina Island, Mexico, and a figure from The Mural of the Battles in Cacaxtla, near Tlaxcala, Mexico.

While the Chinese favored red as the color of good luck, they were known for making their fine porcelain in blue and white. Blue and white Chinese porcelain first appeared in the Tang dynasty (7th to early 10th centuries). However, some of the most famous blue and white Chinese porcelain appears in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).(For more see “Chinese Blue and White Porcelain,” Victoria and Albert Museum, London vam.ac.uk.) It was this porcelain that was imported into the royal art collection of Persia, modern Iran, and caught the eye of the Dutch traders, who brought it to Europe. Though the national color of the Dutch is orange, so popular was this blue in Holland that they decided to begin to make their own, called Delft Blue.

Certified Ming Dynasty porceilain vase; Dutch handmade Delft Blue porcelain; and a Dutch silver topped Chinese container.

When it comes to paintings in Occidental art, blue takes on a whole new life, moving from hot to cool and from a detail to being the subject of the painting itself (see the Lewis painting at the top of the page). Paintings of the Virgin Mary in the middle ages normally show her wearing what was then a hot color, blue, while Mary Magdalene was most often pictured wearing red, a cool color. Perhaps the Virgin Mary was thought to be closer to divinity, so she was dressed in a hot color, while Mary Magdalene was a former sinner (or so they say) and thus farther from god and dressed in a cool color. At any rate over the years things began to change and blue cooled off quite a bit. Next time we will take a look at some famous blue paintings.

Images used in this post are either in Public Domain or used in accordance with Fair Use Policy.

Resources used for this post are linked in the text of the article. However, two other sources were used:

Seithy the First, King of Egypt: Life and Afterlife by Aiden Dodson

Bleu: Histoire d’une coulour by Michel Pastoureau

For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle or go to the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com. For my original art goods see etsy.com/shop/VernelleArtStudio.

The Sweeter the Berry: Berry Wines

Elderberries for the classic fruit wine favorite, Elderberry wine.

Berry wines have a rather mixed reputation. Since they are by nature sweet – very sweet, they have often been used to flavor that favorite of the 1980s, wine coolers. Elderberry wine, a supposed favorite of old ladies of a certain era, was of course, the poisoning method used in Arsenic and Old Lace. (Of Art and Wine does not recommend trying this.) Berry wines, though often do bring to mind great-grandma in her kitchen making use of an overflow harvest of berries. What couldn’t be eaten outright went into pies, canning jars, and wine bottles. In fact, making berry wines is often done in just such a low key manner that it may be one of the most accessible forms of alcoholic beverages around the world, as it can be made from bananas, pineapples, lichee fruit, oranges, and a variety of other sweet fruits not normally associated with wine. While we venerate “real wine,” i.e. that which is made from grapes, we do have to remember that grapes are a fruit, too. So let’s take our noses out of the air and really look at what is going on with berry wines.

Bluet, a sparkling wine made from Maine blueberries, Obsidean Wine Company, Bluet (see the article on vinepair.com).

Sometimes when one is dealing with a well-established idea of what a product must be, rather than compare the new creation to that which is established, it is better to start a new category. That is what Michael Terrien did when he decided to take advantage of the blueberry growing industry in Maine. Basically he decided to make a blueberry wine without adding anything extra, which meant that he had to use champagne making techniques or “bubble it.” By doing so he sought to create a special category of wine rather than have his sparkling blueberry wine compared to the sparkling grape wines. He also sought to help the blueberry industry in Maine as the natural Maine blueberry is the source of all the hybrid blueberries grown around the world. The fact that the fruit is high in antioxidents could also be a helping factor in creating a wider market for the wine. It is now sold on the East Coast and Southern California, as well as on the website, where you can find out more and meet the Bluet team (bluet.me)

Black Currants. Photo credit to Anton on Unsplash.com

Talk about great-granny in the kitchen, black current wine seems to be quite popular as a homemade wine, judging by the number of websites with recipes for making your own homebrew. I’ll let you do the research on that one; the recipes are easy to find. However, I did find that Southern Homebrew offers a black currant wine base to help get you started should you decide to go pioneer and make your own black currant wine (southernhomebrew.com).

Bottled berry wines are easier to find, with Stella Rosa Blackberry being made from Italian red grape varieties and vine-ripened blackberry purée. Cara Mello makes both an interesting blueberry wine (Cara Mello Blueberry), which is a sweet treat to serve with nuts and cheeses or with a dessert. The best is over ice, but you can mix it with your favorite cocktail. Also interesting is Cara Mello Peach, which comes in a delicate pale pink color and works fabulously well over ice. It is full of flavorful juicy peaches with a hint of the peach blossom, as well. Arbor Mist makes a blackberry and merlot wine that combines the best of both worlds in an unexpected way described as “ripe and delicious.”

While Apothic Wines, Modesto, California, makes red wine blends from grapes, there is one of their wines that draws attention, Apothic Brew. Its tasting notes are “Bold, Blackberry, Mocha,” but the really interesting part is that the wine is infused with cold brew coffee. It is full bodied blend of reds with concentrated blackberry notes with subtle chocolate and mocha traits of cold brew. apothic.com.

Homemade Berry Spritzer from cookthestory.com

Of course, we have the spritzers, with fruit. The one above is made from dry white wine, soda, and a squeeze of lemon or lime. Christine at cookthestory.com shares a neat trick to not water the spritzer down with melting ice. She uses frozen berries, which add to the taste. Berries are also a nice companion to sparkling wines, especially a nice rosé sparkler with a strawberry or two to add both flavor and flair. I shall end where we began with the bottled wine cooler. Yes. they are with us, and Seagram’s leads the pack with its Seagram’s Escapes: Jamaican Me Happy! Lemons, strawberries, watermelon and guava. Get one ready for a trip (if even imaginary) to the Caribbean. Bon voyage!

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and   CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022

Coming Soon: Painting’s Curious Color – Blue (continued), and Wines of Noble Rot.

The Blue Boy by Gainesborough, 1770.

Well, there he is The Blue Boy, the painting that became the most famous of its day and one that set out to prove that blue could hold its own by itself. Of course, other painters found out the value of a blue palette. Of Art and Wine looks at Vermeer, Van Gogh, Picasso and Matisse as well and offers a bit of insight into the term Noble Rot.

Masters of the Flowers, plus Napa Valley Vineyards in Spring.

Spring is here or at least mostly here, and the idea of flowers everywhere to herald the return of good weather, sunshine, and happiness comes naturally with the season. With that in mind, Of Art and Wine takes a look at some of the more famous painters of flowers, along with a short tour of springtime as celebrated in the vineyards of the Napa Valley. Let’s go, shall we?

Master Painters and Their Flowers

Nympheas by Claude Monet, 1916. Hover over the image to magnify.

Behind his back, the six local gardeners whom Claude Monet hired to keep his gardens at Giverney called him “le marquis.” If he didn’t in fact have a royal title, he most certainly became art world royalty as leader of the French Impressionists and the creator of the national treasure of his gardens filled with waterlily ponds. In fact, Monet said, “My finest masterpiece is my garden.”

Monet was already quite rich and successful by the time he started working on the gardens and painting the waterlilies. He developed those paintings over the last 30 years of his life, roughly 1896-1926. He displayed some of them in 1900 and again in 1908 at Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris; however, their reception was not well taken, with some wondering about the old artist’s perception of things. Not wanting to deal with misguided commentary, Monet withheld the paintings and just continued to work. It wasn’t until 1927, a year after his death, that the paintings appeared in the especially made setting of the Orangerie. They were the artist’s gift of peace to the nation after the Great War (1914-1918), the canons of which he often heard from his peaceful gardens at Giverney.

Waterlilies by Claude Monet, 1906. Art Institute of Chicago artic.edu Hover over the image to magnify.

Everything about the gardens and their ponds of lilies was a fantasy. The waters of a nearby river had been diverted to create the ponds. The lilies were not native to France, but imports from South America and Egypt. Ross King in his book Mad Enchantment, represents Monet’s gardens this way. “In short, the fabled waterlily location at Giverny, far from being a natural outcrop of rural France, was a laboratory in which Monet carefully assembled the colours and shapes to which he required access at a moment’s notice.”

Monet was not just interested in the beauty of the specific mixes of color, which he had crafted in his orders to the gardeners about what to plant and where, but in reforming the whole idea of landscape painting. His work in the latter days of his career moved towards decentralizing the standard imagery of landscape, taking away the normal boundaries that mark a scene and just putting the viewer somewhere out there among the lilies. Some have wanted to say that it was a process related to the slow development of cataracts, but if one looks at his work, one can see this removal of boundaries happening before his eye troubles. Of Art and Wine looks at this aspect of Monet’s work with the lily ponds in “Monet’s Lily Pond and the Last of the Summer Wine,” where art critic Stephane Lambert’s theories in Adieu a la Paysage (Goodbye to the Landscape) are examined (August 30, 2019 post). Above and beyond the beauty of the flowers in their watery existence were the theories of painting light and light reflected off of water, which the artist wanted to address, and in doing so open our eyes to a new reality.

Bouquet of Violets by Edouard Manet, 1872. Hover over image to magnify.

The previous post on Of Art and Wine dealt with the whether or not of an affair between Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet. Violets seemed to be the flower that he most associated with her. Manet famously said, “It is not enough to know your craft; you have to have feeling.” This painting is often seen as a private love message in what was on the surface a very proper relationship between the married artist, Manet, and one of his favorite models, Berthe Morisot, who ultimately became his sister-in-law. The red fan is something she carries in his portrait of her in The Balcony. The letter only shows it was addressed to Mlle Morisot and signed by Edouard Manet; however, the combination of the three symbols of romance from the Victorian Era, violets, a fan, and a letter, would possibly indicate a hidden love message.

Here we see Manet’s skill with a simple vase of Tulips and Roses (1882). Toward the end of his life, illness limited Manet’s mobility. He was only able to paint the flowers that people brought to him. However, his skill came to the fore with dramatic but simple settings like we have here. The stark whitish table with the abstract patterns of the bouquet’s shadows has a background of deep brownish black, which serves to highlight the color of the flowers. The real magic happens inside the crystal vase where a wild tangle of stems, leaves, and water play with our imaginations.

Irises by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889 J. Paul Getty Museum, California. Hover over image to magnify.

To say that Vincent Van Gogh had a special relationship with irises is putting it mildly. While, yes, he also painted sunflowers and those lovely spring almond blossoms gifted to his brother upon the birth of Theo’s son, Van Gogh’s irises are amazements to behold. The ones above were done within a week of his entry into the asylum in Saint Remy de Provence from flowers in the gardens of the asylum. He referred to them as the “lightening conductor for my illness,” a type of inspirational subject that let him hold on to sanity. Painting and perhaps in particular these rather close up paintings, as opposed to larger landscapes, seemed to focus his attention in ways that calmed his nerves (Van Gogh Close-up, catalog edited by Cornelia Homburg, Yale University Press, 2012).

Van Gogh’s irises are noted for their magnificent blues; however, there are some paintings in which the blues are just the remains of vibrant purples that have faded away. Somehow in his first weeks within the asylum, he focused intensely on the flowers’ rich purples, as it is a mix of peaceful blue and deep blood red. That volatile mix presents a color long associated with royalty, power, and wealth. Van Gogh suffered from poverty his whole life, with his paintings not selling until after his death. Irises are associated with death, as they were often used to decorate graves to help with that passage across the bridge made of rainbows represented by the Greek goddess Iris. This may also have been on his mind, especially since his own death, supposedly of suicide, happened the very next year, 1890.

Irises by Vincent Van Gogh, 1889. From his stay in the asylum at St. Remy de Provence.

The painting above was one that Van Gogh focused on in those early days at the asylum as he tried to regain health and mental stability while being surrounded with the mentally unstable. He focused on the color (originally deep purple but here faded to the blues) as a way to hold on to his own sanity. This painting was purchased after the artist’s death by an art critic who noted how well Van Gogh “understood the exquisite nature of flowers” (Octave Mirbeau).

Amaryllis by Piet Mondrian, 1910. wikiart.org

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), a Dutch artist, lived by a rather repressive theology which informed his philosophy of painting. It dealt with a purity of vision that only allowed for red, yellow, blue, and white and black, as well as straight or perpendicular joined lines (no diagonals, please).Yet, he also painted flowers. The watercolor above keeps to a lot of that basic philosophy about what the pure colors are, though he hedges a bit with the shadings of blue and white to create the bottle and the stamen of the flowers. Mondrian’s world of the abstract, represented by his more commonly known geometric works (see below) was the art to which the flowers were a counterpoint. He sometimes indicated that he did not like doing flowers because they were just the way he paid his bills when his “real art” was not being purchased. However, it does seem that he did flowers even after his artistic philosophy based on Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophy was fully entrenched. Perhaps in order to keep the more messy details of life arranged, he re-dated many of those flowers to an earlier period in his career before his ideas on art cemented themselves.

The beauty of his flowers with sometimes their starkly shocking colors or even unnatural colors were obviously items he may have enjoyed the painting of, even if he did not like the financial reasons for which he had to paint them. Often representing just one stem of flowers, like in Japanese painting, the spareness in the representation allows for the color to have greater impact. For more on Mondrian’s work look at this article “Piet Mondrian Did What? Flowers!” in the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com

A Mondrian Chrysanthemum and a Mondrian Geometric.

Perhaps when looking at the duality represented in Mondrian’s geometric abstractions and the nature shown in his floral paintings, it is best just to enjoy them rather than fathom the dualities and conflicts in the complexity of the artist’s personality. However, just to really tickle our minds’ fancy, I will leave you with one of his trees.

Tree Study by Piet Mondrian, 1908

Paintings used in this article are in Public Domain

Reference works used are as follows:

Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies by Ross King

“Life as Myth: A Bouquet of Violets” lifeasmyth.com

Van Gogh Close Up, the catalog for the art exhibition, Philadelphia Museum of Art, edited by Cornelia Homberg, 2012.

“Piet Mondrian’s Flowers” on ideasurges ideasurges.tumblr.com

For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle or go to the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com.

Springtime in the Valley – the Napa Valley, Of Course.

Vineyards in the Napa Valley. Photo from pixabay.com

Spring turns out to be one of the very best times to take a visit to the Napa Valley wine country. The weather is delightful, as the heavy heat of summer has not arrived. April is sparse when it comes to major holidays with vacations, as spring break has come and gone, and Easter does not create the traffic that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s do. That all means many fewer tourists. However, it does not mean that the valley is dead.

The arts are definitely alive in the valley. The Arts Council Napa Valley has a calendar of events that range from poetry, to theater, to music, to plein air painting. The downtown districts of towns like St. Helena, Calistoga, Yountville, and Napa all take part. The Arts Council presents abstract art at the Guild Studio in the city of Napa, April 25 through the 30th as part of their April in the Arts program.

The Nichelini Family Winery hosts a plein air event on the 23rd and 24th of April, starting around 10:00. Artists come to work on their plein air pieces out on the grounds of the winery, while those who have wine tasting appointments are able to enjoy the wine and the artistic ambience. Artists who participate receive their own snack pack and complimentary wine tasting. The artists must sign up in advance, but there is no fee. Those who want to taste wine must make a tasting appointment, with tastings from 11:00 a.m until 5:00 p.m. For more information contact mail@nicheliniwinery.com

For music lovers, there is SIP Napa Valley (Songwriters in Paradise), the creation of Patrick Davis, a song-writer from Nashville who first tried this idea in the Bahamas and has since added Cabo San Lucas and the Napa Valley to his list. SIP is happening this year between April 21st and 24th in a variety of venues, see sftourism.com. If jazz is your thing, then head to the Blue Note on the first floor of the Napa Valley Opera House, for music every night of the week and of course wine to taste and samples of food.

For food events, this was the 11th year for the Appellation St Helena Wine Tasting and Food Pairing Competition. Yes, this is a competitive event, which brings out the best of the Valley’s wines and gourmet food items. Normally held either in March or April, mark you calendars in advance by contacting https://appellationsthelena.com.

You can Hike in the Vineyards at Pine Ridge Vineyards or find out more about viticulture at Stag’s Leap. Attend a Rose Garden Party April 16th at Silverado Vineyards, which comes complete with tea sandwiches, scones, savory bites and lawn bowling. Celebrate Easter Sunday at the Silverado Resort. Activities cover both the 16th and the 17th, with events for everyone in the family, including decorating Easter eggs, and dining well either at a lunch buffet or a prix-fixe three course meal for dinner.

For those wanting romance, on April 16 at sunset one can take the Napa Valley Wine Train for a marvelous meal and a romantic ride through the valley. It’s huge vistadome provides marvelous views and a nighttime of beautiful moonlight and stars. For more on the Wine Train, contact winetrain.com and find out about their many other romantic packages.

Spring in the Napa Valley. pixabay.com

So, whether it is painting, wine tasting, musical entertainment, or just enjoying the scenery, it is all going on in the Napa Valley this spring, and it is still just April!

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and     CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022

Coming Soon: The Curious Past of the Color Blue, plus Berry Wines.

Part Vision by Norman Lewis, 1971.

We see it everyday, but have we really considered that Blue is a color with a past? In the Middle Ages it was a hot color; in our day it is cool calm and collected. Egyptian blue was used in ancient times, lost and rediscovered. The Maya blue found in the temples of Bonampak in the Yucatan has traces of azurite from Arizona! This color has had quite a life, so let’s explore it.

An Art History C.S.I.: Morisot and Manet. Love? But No Letters! Plus Veuve Clicquot.

Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets by Edouard Manet, 1872. Hover over image to magnify.

The woman who looks out at us with those intense dark eyes is Berthe Morisot, one of the few female impressionists, and a painter of such distinction that she is actually remembered as such. The rich skin tones of her face stand out from a surround of black clothing. The lips are bow-shaped and held as though she is appropriately suppressing a smile. The eyes are so very intense, warm, and focused that one wonders what effect they had on the artist who was painting the portrait. For that artist must certainly have been much in the mind of this, his subject, as her large eyes gazed warmly in his direction. A sweet, sad tenderness is at the heart of this painting, represented subtly by the bouquet of violets almost hidden in the center of Morisot’s black cape.

Edouard Manet painted 17 portraits of Berthe Morisot, making her his favorite muse. Other models, Victorine Meurent, who modeled nude for Olympia but who also became a painter, and Eva Gonzalès, who was Manet’s one student and whose praises he sang to Morisot, were in paintings showing action or representing different characters. The portrait of Gonzalès, for example, shows her at the easel, palette and brush in hand, as she dashes off a painting. Meurent modeled not as herself, but as characters in some of Manet’s most controversial paintings (Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass). The difference is that the paintings of Morisot were only about Morisot.

Different Moods Morisot 1872 Close-up from The Balcony, 1868, and Morisot in 1873 all by Edouard Manet

Berthe Morisot (1841-1895) came from a bourgeois family where the young women of the family were expected to be educated in the arts. In fact, of the four children, it was she and her sister Edma who trained with Camille Corot, the famous French landscape artist. While Edma’s career ended with her marriage and motherhood, Berthe’s career continued. Morisot’s beauty was often commented upon. She was known to have such gracious

manners that she made others feel self-conscious. As she was from a well-off family, being restrained and respectable was the hallmark of a young woman of her position, as being a gentleman was for Edouard Manet.

This is Edouard Manet (1832-1883) as he was in 1867 (portrait by Fantin-LaTour). He was very much the stylish bourgeois man about town, conservative in many ways but outlandish for his time in terms of his paintings. This last trait caused him to be the source of unwanted controversy but also to be the artist most respected by the likes of the young Impressionists like Monet. Thus Manet became the leader of the avant-garde painters of his day. He was like this in 1868 when he met Morisot as she sketched in the Louvre.

Ah, two artists meeting in the Louvre in the city of love and romance, Paris, would seem to fulfill all the necessary qualities for a Hollywood film. Au contraire! Manet was married, but under rather odd circumstances, involving most probably the cover-up of an illegitimate child – not his own. The Manet family had hired a Dutch-born music teacher, Suzanne Leenhoff, who after a while in the employ of the Manet family produced a “little brother” named Leon. While some art historians claim this was a son of Edouard Manet, most have decided that it was his father’s child and thus Edourd’s half-brother. Long-story short, Manet married Suzanne to hush the scandal. Using the invented last name of Koelia, Leon Leenhoff Koelia over the years seems to have been taken as their son, though the couple never produced any other children.

Meanwhile, another curiosity in this relationship between Manet and Morisot is that their families moved in the same social circles which corresponded with one another through letters, invitations, and greetings of various kinds, but there are no letters between Morisot and Manet, not even invitations to come model in his studio, despite that she sat for 17 portraits. Is this lack of evidence, actually evidence of something much deeper?

Morisot did write to her sister, Edma, who painted this portrait of Berthe in 1865, about her frustrations and sadness over the barriers between her and Manet. Morisot’s mother, whether to help shake her out of it or pour vinegar in the wound, pointed out to her daughter that Manet had taken up with Eva Gonzalès who was so much more “accomplished” than Berthe. (Thanks, Mom.) Berthe did indicate a jealous satisfaction to her sister when Manet expressed his frustrations working with the strong-willed Gonzalès. So some of her feelings for Manet were known.

Berthe Morisot with a Fan by Edouard Manet, 1872. Hover over image to magnify.

In this piece by Manet, Morisot poses coyly holding a fan over her face, once again dressed in black. By the way, Manet was much in love with Spanish painting where figures were customarily dressed in traditional Spanish black. Morisot increases the mystery by wearing pink slippers. Having one leg crossed over the other allows for one of these dainty pink items to project out. Like a geisha enfolded in layers of kimono, offering a view of a little patch of skin at the nape of the neck as an enticement, Morisot dangles before the painter this tiny shoe with an ornamental flower on its toe.

Berthe Morisot, Le Repos by Edouard Manet, 1873. Hover over image to magnify.

Here Morisot rests in a languid pose, gazing off into the distance, one beautiful long-fingered hand resting on a red-violet cushioned sofa. Her gaze seems distant and distracted, though the painting above her of a stormy sea may hold some indication of what may have been going on between them. Near her right arm is what looks like a clump of violets, the flower that wanders like a musical refrain through these portraits. The portraits came to an end in 1874 when Morisot married Edouard Manet’s brother, Eugène. Her mother objected, as Eugène seemed not to have a profession. However, the marriage worked well, with Eugène promoting his wife’s art. The couple had a daughter, Julie, which was the light of her mother’s life.

However, back to the relationship, such as it was, or whatever it was, and the lack of letters. There is some dispute over how much access Berthe and Edouard had to one another. Yes, there were 17 portraits and the sittings that went with making them. As Jeffrey Myers purports in “Morisot & Manet”(newcriterion.com), with all the time they spent together in his studio, even with societal prohibitions, something must have boiled over. However, other historians point out that Mme. Morisot, Berthe’s mother, was always with her when she went to visit Manet. I tend to believe the latter as Manet suffered from syphillis, though Morisot never manifested that, hence perhaps no intimate contact. On the other hand, some indicate that Manet and Morisot mutually burned their love letters before her marriage to Eugène. As dramatic and oscar-winning as that might have been, I suggest that given the social constraints of the time, as well as Manet’s marriage and Morisot’s mother, there may never have been such letters. Communications could have easily happened in person at the many weekly gatherings that included both families.

Finally there is Morisot’s beautiful daughter, Julie, whose parents were both dead by the time she reached her late teens. The curmudgeonly family friend, Edgar Degas, noting this situation, took it upon himself to find for Julie and a close cousin of hers a handsome pair of young

men from good families, both with promising careers as military officers. He had them introduced. Et voilà! Nature took its course, and there wound up being a double-marriage ceremony. Julie went on to have a happy marriage and ultimately a son. It was the son, Berthe’s grandson, who years after her death, edited the letters of his grandmother. Perhaps it was his hand that destroyed, as inappropriate to his grandmother’s memory, any record of a passion between Manet and Morisot. And so ends what is known and what is assumed about this relationship that seemed so fraught with passion, whether equally felt or not, and filled with disappointment on many fronts. Love, but no letters, and some wonderful paintings. But wait, there is one last thing.

This painting is a gift from Manet to Berthe Morisot. Violets, 1872. Hover over image to magnify.

There is a letter here, though perhaps it is only a symbol of what could never be.

Paintings used in this article are in Public Domain.

Articles used for this post are as follows:

“Berthe Morisot” theartstory.org

Berthe Morisot, Woman Impressionist, a book of essays. Published by Rizzoli/Electra, 2019.

“Escaping Social Distancing: Morisot and Manet – An Affair to Remember”by Joan Hart artseverydayliving.com

“Manet and Morisot: A Tale of Love and Sadness in Portraits” ArtVentures art-ventartventures.blogspot.com

“Morisot & Manet” by Jeffrey Meyers newcriterion.com

For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle or go to the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com

Veuve Clicquot: The Widow and Her Champagne.

Portrait of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot

Since this is Women’s History Month, one must take a look at the life of and the product/company created by Madame Clicquot, known from her 27th birthday as The Widow Clicquot (Veuve Clicquot). Born in the late 1700s in the Champagne region of France, the times were indeed perilous. Born into an affluent family of textile merchants, she married the boy at the estate next door, François Clicquot, son of another wealthy textile merchant, but one who had taken to dabbling with making wine, including one named for the region, Champagne.

As was mentioned the times were perilous since the French Revolution (1789) and the following Reign of Terror meant that many of the wealthy lost everything, including their heads. The Ponsardin and Clicquot families managed to be shrewd enough politically and at enough of a distance from the capital, Paris, to escape that fate. However, in 1798, Mme. Clicquot’s enthusiastic young husband, who eschewed the textile business for winemaking, died suddenly, leaving his 27-year-old widow behind. What to do? Barbe-Nicole’s family had a tradition of wine making which had been instrumental in the young couple’s joint interest in making and selling wines. Well, with land and good crops, you’ve got a business, and that is just what the Widow focused on, the building of a wine business based upon the making of a stellar champagne, which bore the name used to reference her, Veuve Clicquot.

However, it wasn’t easy. One can tell by the portrait above that the Widow Clicquot was a shrewd and tough businsess woman who could make hard but also creative decisions. With her husband’s death, her father-in-law wanted to close the fledgeling and failing wine business; however, Barbe-Nicole presented him with another proposal, which he accepted as long as she would undergo winemaking training. She did and stuck with the idea of making champagne. In 1811 during Napoleon’s campaign in Russia, she made a Hail Mary decision to supply her champagne to the Russians who loved the drink. She got it through to that Russian clientele by letting the French soldiers who were blockading traffic into Russia but who also loved champagne have some.

Those soldiers had no corkscrews, so they used their sabers to knock off the caps of the bottles, creating that dramatic tradition that is often seen in film, known as sabrage. For instruction in this and a very amusing video, look at Champage Saber Time youtube.com. I suggest that you do this when out on field maneuvers or while camping, but don’t try it at home unless you want a broken window.

The Widow had great success with both Napoleon’s soldiers and the Russians. The Czar only drank Veuve Clicquot and that magical vintage is known as the Legendary Vintage of 1811. The Widow’s inventiveness did not stop there. In 1818, she reimagined rosé champagne by combining Chardonnay with Pinot Noir and Meunier grapes. She also invented the process of riddling or the turning of the bottles of champagne on racks where the bottles were placed at 45 degree angles. This way during the second fermentation, the dead yeast could easily be loosed up from the botton and taken off the top of the bottle rather than pouring the champagne from one bottle to another. Those riddling racks also proved to be a great way to ship the champagne, which expanded her business to the Scandinavian countries and to America.

The cellars at Veuve Clicquot in France.

The Widow Clicquot is credited with making champagne available to people far beyond Europe and in the 20th century the Clicquot empire expanded to its present-day income of 1.3 billion dollars in sales per year. It is now a valuable and highly valued part of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennesey (LVMH) empire of luxury goods. For more of Mme Clicquot’s exploits see Natasha Geiling’s article “The Woman Who Created the Champagne Industry” smithsonianmag.com.

To get the most out of this marvelous champagne, it must be served in the right way and in the right glass. Flutes that close in at the top or as seen here large red wine glasses that again are narrow at the top work well to keep in those valuable bubbles. The long stems are for holding the glass, rather than putting one’s fingers around the bowl which serves to warm the wine which is best served chilled. The best temperature for serving it is between 8-10°C (47-50°F). However, do not store the bottles in the refrigerator as too much refrigeration spoils the taste, so keep in in wine cellar conditions.

As for food pairings, Veuve Clicquot goes extremely well with oysters, white fish, white meat, and with Gouda cheese. As for specific food combinations, no better advice is offered than that at veuveclicquot.com. It boils down to Pairing or Balance. In Pairing, the goal is to match like with like. They give the example of Vintage Rose 2000 with a lamb tajine (spicy with spicy). For Balance, it is a matter of contrasts that balance out one another. Their exmple is acidic/sweet or acidic/fatty, as in Vintage Reserve 1996 and creamy chicken. Their website also offers recipes.

However, you choose to enjoy this most celebrated of champagnes, just remember that it was a woman’s ingenuity that created it and made it thrive. Vive Veuve Clicquot!

Of Art and Wine affiliates with Bluehost.com and      CellarsWineClub.com and may earn from qualifying purchases.

©marjorie vernelle 2022

COMING SOON: Masters of the Flowers and Napa Valley Vineyards in Spring.

Le basin aux nymphéas by Claude Monet

Spring and flowers go together, and who doesn’t think of Claude Monet when beautiful flower paintings come to mind? But wait, there is also Edourd Manet, Mary Cassatt, Vincent Van Gogh, and even Gustave Courbet! It is time to take a look at the art of flowers and the masters who painted them. And while we are at it, we can take a trip to the Napa Valley for an off-season treat of wine activities.

Observing the Observed in La Loge, and Women Winemakers.

La loge or In the Loge by Mary Cassatt, 1878. en.wikipedia.org. Hover over image to magnify.

The Paris of the late 19th century was a city full of show. Baron Haussmann’s grand boulevards were great for strolling and viewing fine new buildings and fine new people. This strolling and viewing can be seen in the art, as in Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street, Rainy Day (1877), or at the horseraces at Longchamp, as in Edgar Degas’ The Parade (1868), or a night’s entertainment, as in Edouard Manet’s Bar at the Folies Bergère (1882). Perhaps the grandest place for en masse people-watching was the Palais Garnier Opera House, that fabulous building that seats nearly 2,000 people all in one glorious space. As opposed to the streets of Paris, the racetrack, or the folies, the opera house offered a female the perfect setting to enjoy watching people, often with the aid of opera glasses which could magnify the figures for close-up viewing. Mary Cassatt, an American impressionist painter living in Paris took full advantage of this to offer a number of observed figures, whose inner thoughts we might only guess, in a series of paintings referring to the loges or the box seats.

The interior of the Palais Garnier Opera House showing orchestra seating and the loges or boxes. Photo credit to Wikimedia commons.wikimedia.org. Hover over image to magnify.

The loges in the Palais provided a great venue for viewing. As women were allowed to come to the opera (only with a male companion, of course, in keeping with 19th century mores), the opportunity to see and be seen yielded exciting possibilities to show themselves in evening splendor, see who was with whom, and make connections of their own. Juicy! The woman in black in Cassatt’s painting may have been her sister, Lydia. Regardless, what we see is a woman with her opera glasses trained on someone (or ones) across the cavernous space of the palais. The lights are on in the house, which means nothing is happening on the stage. The woman’s opera glasses are trained not down toward the stage but across to the other side of the theater, where she views intently something or someone of interest.

Meanwhile to her right and just in the bend of the curving gallery of chairs is a man who is viewing this same lady, all dressed in her very demure black. Unlike her binocular opera glasses, his has a single lens, probably expandable like a spyglass, both the style and shape of which are symbolic of a certain interest he may have in what he has spied. However, he is not the only voyeur, because Cassatt has arranged these figures so that the viewer of the painting is also involved. The viewer can look at this woman who does not see that she is being spied upon and silently chuckle at how unaware she is of being admired. We can, of course, expand this by thinking about who in the museum is watching the person who is watching the characters in this painting.

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) grew up near Pittsburgh, studied painting in Philadelphia before going to tour Europe. In 1873 she settled in Paris and became part of the group calling themselves Impressonists. She is one of only three women and the only American to join the French Impressionists. “Cassatt’s painting explores the very act of looking, breaking down the traditional boundaries between the observer and the observed, the audience and the performer.” collections.mfa.org

In the Corner of the Box by Mary Cassatt, 1879. wikiart.org

Here again we have two young women at the opera. The lighting might suggest that the young woman with the binoculars is actually looking at the stage, as the theater behind her is dark. She and the female with her have the front of their bodies lit by a bright light, coming from the direction that the young woman is viewing, once again most probably the stage. Since the viewer of the painting is the secret observer here, that viewer would notice the attire of the young women, the white gloves, the delicate fan, and the off-shoulder dresses decorated with flowers. They are themselves two blossoms being presented in the opera’s springtime.

Dans la loge by Mary Cassatt, 1879. Hover over image to magnify.

In this scene, the house lights are up, and the young woman looks not in the direction of the stage, which would be to her left, but straight across the theater to the loges opposite her. She has no binoculars. Cassastt captures the idea of a full house of attendees in a quick impressionistic style of splotches of color. The rich operatic red of the interior is balanced with the soft yellow-green of spring, which is the dominant color that the young woman wears. With flowers in her hair, and her skin rosed up by the dramatic theater lighting, this young woman leans forward to both see the spectacle of opera goers and show her own lovely countenance. And we, the viewers, get to view her and imagine who might be taking a look at her from some distant balcony.

Woman with a Peal Necklace by Mary Cassatt, 1879. artsandculture.google.com. Hover over image to magnify.

Unlike the more shy young woman who sits in the shadows of an upper loge, leaning forward to be seen, here we have a mature lady who takes center stage in the orchestra-level seating. The model for this and several of Cassatt’s paintings was her sister, Lydia. Cassatt takes full advantage of the dramatic theater lighting to show off this confident beauty who wears a single strand pearl choaker. Cassatt shows the woman’s audience by giving us the scene of the balcony seats just behind and to the right of this woman. They appear as splotches of color above the gold that trims their box seats, while Lydia is all pinks and pale violets, a living Valentine. Cassatt’s observations of the effects of light allow her to make Lydia glow, with bright light on one side that falls into dappled shadows in blues and violets over her face and arms. In contrast, her coppery hair glows in the bright light as if a personal beacon hailing all with a “look at me” signal. We, who are doing our own silent viewing, wonder who else in that theater was captivated by this smiling beauty with a pearl necklace.

Mary Cassatt was as innovative as any of the other impressionists and her work a standout in terms of its subject matter. Her work in her series of loge paintings particulary captures the way that the opera was a cultured way for women to be present and seen in Parisian society. It opened opportunities for them to make connections of many kinds, such as engagements that led to marriage or encounters that led to “patrons” for those women known as Les grandes horizontales. The flowers in the hair and dresses of the women often signaled a variety of things. Most famously, Marie Duplessis, the original Lady of the Camelias, wore red flowers at a certain time of the month to let her patrons know that she was indisposed for a few days.

While both Renoir and Degas did paintings of the Palais Garnier’s loges, Cassatt’s series invoke more mystery, as they make the viewer wonder what is going on in the minds of the people who are so engaged in looking at one another. Her paintings of the loges at the opera allow women to shine but from the point of view of another woman, one who was observing the various scenes that took place in that very public place. Cassatt, while famous for her paintings of women and children, was also a close friend of Edgar Degas and sometimes about his only friend, as Degas had a rather difficult personality. There is some speculation that he had a hand in doing some background work in a few of her paintings, like Little Girl in Blue Armchair. However, that would be a good subject for another blog post.

Note: For those anywhere near Denver, Colorado, before March 13th, the Denver Art Museum is hosting a traveling show of some 100 paintings in an exhibition called Whistler to Cassatt, American Painters in France. If you miss Denver, from April 16 to July 31, 2022, the same show will be at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, VA.

Paintings used in this post are in Public Domain.

Articles used to research this post are as follows:

“France’s Forgotten Impressionist” by Lara Marlowe irishtimes.com

“In the Loge: Mary Cassatt knew that staring was rude” by Jennifer Tucker, sartle.com

Paris: Capital of the 19th Century by Dana Goldstein, Brown University. library.brown.edu

For more on Marjorie Vernelle, see the author page at amazon.com/author/marjorievernelle or go to the Art Blog at vernellestudio.com

Women in Wine: The Female Vintners

The “She Can” collection of wines in a can from the McBride Sisters Wines mcbridesisters.com

Gone are the days when the image of women winemakers was one of barefoot peasant women stomping around in vats of grapes. No. It’s a new day, and time to take a look at what women have been doing to make their mark in this male-dominated industry. The McBride Sisters’ Black Girl Wines was mentioned in the last post on Richard Mayhew and Black-American Vintners. In this case, one of the sisters grew up in New Zealand and the other in Monterey, California. When they found each other in 2005, they realized they had this desire to work with winemaking (click the link above to see their story). Their motto is “Break the rules. Drink the wine.” They have been creating delicious wines in a variety of formats, including the She Can ever since they hooked up in 2005. Their website not only shows the wines, but also does guides on food pairing and has a downloadable e-Cookbook. Just click here or go to their website’s Eat+Drink tab (mcbridesisters.com).

Julia, Karoline, and Elena Walch at their wine estate, Alto Adige. Photo credit Elena Walch (ediblesouthflorida.ediblecommunities.com) Hover over image to magnify.

The mother and two daughters above make some of Italy’s most elite wines in their winery, which was built from an old monastery in Termeno, Italy, a commune not far from Bolzano in the north of Italy. The daughters have studied winemaking in France and Australia and returned to Italy to work with their mother, who believes that “beauty must go with quality.” Jeffrey Wolfe, the author of the article, “Women Who Make Wine” goes on to talk about other female vintners like Kristen Belair of Honig Winery in the Napa Valley, who points out that 15% of the vintners in the Napa Valley are women.

There is some evidence that women have certain qualities that make them superb vintners. Karen McNeil’s blog Wine Speed (winespeed.com) presents evidence that women have superior senses of taste and smell, both of which are critical when it comes to making wine (not to mention the food pairings to go with the wines). The science says that women have 50% more olfactory cells in their brains than men, and that comes from studies done by the University of California, San Franciso, School of Medicine.

Amy Bess Cook founder of Women-Owned Wineries. Photo credit vinepair.com. Hover over image to magnify.

Added to this is the women’s ability to know that they must stick together in order to make an impact. WOW or Women-Owned Wineries is a group of female winemakers started by Amy Bess Cook, a writer and communications consultant, as a way to present the public with the choice of supporting women vintners. A “vote with your dollars” sort of movement, the association has grown to some 50 women winemakers in the Sonoma Valley. See the article by Laura Scholz on vinepair.com

Susana Balbo of Susana Balbo Wines, Argentina. Photo credit Susana Balbo decanter.com. Hover over image to magnify.

From Argentina, to Australia, Austria, Chile, France, New Zealand, Spain, South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S.A, women are showing up as superb winemakers. Decanter’s article “Women in wine: award-winning wines by influential females” gives a run-down on the achievements of female vinters in the countries listed above (click the link under the photo). Each has a story of trial and travail leading to great success, and it is only the beginning.

For more on Women in Wine, take a look at these websites to get a fuller and quite inspiring overview of what is happening in this area of winemaking:

“California’s Next Generation Lead Women Winemakers and the Promise that Accompanies their Success,” grapecollective.com

“11 Best Wines Made by Women,” bestproducts.com

“Five Inspiring Women in the World of Wine,” townandcountrymag.com.

“Women in Wine, Top Female Winemakers” Decant with D video for Women’s History Month on youtube.com

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©marjorie vernelle 2022

COMING SOON: An Art History C.S.I. Berthe Morisot and Edouard Manet – Love? but no Letters, plus Veuve Clicquot, the Widow and Her Champagne.

Le repos (Repose) by Edouard Manet, 1871. Hover over image to magnify.

Lovely, isn’t she? That is Berthe Morisot, a painter in her own right, who was the subject of 17 portraits by Edouard Manet, painted right up until she married his brother. The Morisot family and the Manet family were quite close and had lots of correspondence between them, invitations, social events, and the like. However, despite Manet’s obvious interest in Berthe, as she modeled for all those portraits, there is not one letter between the two of them, an art history mystery.