A small selection of favourites from its huge and eclectic collection, from Duccio in about 1310 to Joseph Wright of Derby and a gem from Thomas Jones.
van Eyck
Paintings by Jan van Eyck, Masaccio, Tintoretto and Delacroix with detailed explanations of their reading and background.
Huge divans, closed wooden cabinets, and iron bedsteads. In love, marriage, adultery, problem pictures, and the erotic.
From depth cues used by painters in ancient times, through the many advances in the Northern Renaissance, to modern photographic projections.
Optical principles are straightforward, but can become extremely complex in practice. Examples from Jan van Eyck to Hodler and Signac.
Before photography, the only opportunity to see your face, painters took advantage of the Venus Effect to break optical rules and show faces that couldn’t have been seen in the mirror.
Key factors making oil paint most suitable include its slow drying, wide range of viscosity, and robust paint layer. But it has its rules too.
Cameo views of landscapes were common practice during the Renaissance, and also had value in locating the primary view.
Full contents for this series, with lists of artists considered in each of its articles, and links to the articles.
Starting from Egyptian blue in ancient times, pigments preferred by painters for sky blue have changed repeatedly. Here’s a brief history.
The Eclectic Light Company 