Fascinating, thank you so much!❤

It makes me think of lack of bathing.

So people can wonder through the ages.

His art is better than da Vinci Rembrandt or any of the other big name artist. He seems like a once jn a 100 year artist

So, the question is: is the fly in the head-dress or is the fly on the painting?

I think the same artist painted “1480 Anonymous German artist active in Swabia, portrait of a woman” from the art gallery in Madrid. The same head dress too. Her eyelashes painted in the exact way. I was thinking maybe be a fly was artist’s signature. The other portrait was cut down in the past. May be I had a fly too. And if you zoom in on the fly, you will see that shadows look like it is sitting on the glass or mirror. Both were rare in 15 century though.

Thank you 🎉

Maybe it’s my limited experience with flies, but that fly seems unnaturally huge. Are flies really that big in Europe, or is it a clue from the artist?

good lecture, however there could have been some comments on the technique; egg tempera that requires some swift painting due to rapid drying. One particular feature of Botticelli is to include contours in the picture

She had a fly on her head instead of a cantaloupe. They were out of season. Obvious explanation. Any other questions?

No mention of the use of optical aids, like concave mirror projections, that were readily available during the Renaissance. Wasn’t Botticelli aware of these techniques and if he was, why wouldn’t he use them?

Could it just be a skillful artist showing off the great detail he or she is able to achieve? It’s a lovely piece, indeed.🪰

She looks tired -- try having 15 children! and then the Madness of King George, the misbehavior of her oldest son who would become King geo. 4th...

I would not have been able to like this as a young man myself, but now I think there are few better portraits.

This is a very riveting high-level discussion. I'm going to look at attribution material, because I have a suspicion that the portrait of Caravaggio is interpolated onto the canvas to make us believe the work is his.

What a clear, concise, insightful talk! I enjoyed it immensely.

Cezanne said if you would be a painter, you must avoid the literary spirit. Just from the start, you are getting a bunch of story lines being expressed as if he never said this. Just look and recieve without thought. You will begin to experience the music...

Thank you , it was very interesting.

Amazing curator for art 🙂, thank you. I love art history. Greetings from CZ.🌞

Excellent Well explained Enjoyed God bless

Artists who plant very realistic flies in their paintings continue the challenge launched not even by Giotto, but by the ancient Greek painters Zeuxis and Parrhasius. Their works have not reached us, but the legend of the competition that made them the kings of the trompe l’oeil genre (in other words, pictorial trompe l’oeil) is alive. The most famous in painting were two pairs of rivals: in the 5th century Zeuxis and Parrasius, in the 4th century Apelles and Protogenes. Zeuxis and Parrhasius argued about who would paint the picture better. People gathered, two rivals came out, each holding a painting under a blanket. Zeuxis pulled back the cover - in the picture there was a bunch of grapes, so similar that birds flocked to peck at it. The people applauded. “Now you pull back the covers!” - Zeuxis said to Parrhasius. “I can’t,” replied Parrhasius, “that’s what I drew.” Zeuxis bowed his head. “You’ve won! - he said. “I deceived the eyes of the birds, and you deceived the eye of the painter.” It was not for nothing that Zeuxis chose a bunch of grapes as the subject for his painting: he knew how to depict this like no one else. One day he painted a boy with a grape in his hands, and again the birds flew in and pecked at the berries, and the people applauded. Only Zeuxis himself was dissatisfied. He said: “So I wrote the boy poorly: if the boy were as good, the birds would be afraid to fly up to the berries.” (Mikhail Gasparov. Entertaining Greece)

Excellent. Very interesting and engaging. Thank you!

I think it looks very French.

Botticelli is better than any anti depressant! His lines are so comforting. Thank you for these wonderful insights to the revolutionary effects conjurred for engagement with this portrait. Wonderful talk🎉🎉🎉

Some English person once wrote Frans Hal's.

I love this commentary, and I'm not even an art person.

It is nice, but here is nothing special about the pond at Monet's home in Giverny. You have flowers, a little bridge, and an old rowboat in your town, too. You have a buggy, lily-choked pond somewhere near you from which mist rises early in the morning and across which shadows change all day. What you do not have is Monet, who left us beautiful, colorful paintings of the potential in the simple sights around us.

Perhaps if there was more of a color hue in her clothing, she might have seen herself more in a better attitude?

Without being facetious Constable's oeuvre best illustrates the findings of Komar and Melamid's mid-ninties findings of public taste, "Painting by Numbers: Komar and Melamid's scientific guide to art". One of the reasons I am "drawn" to Constable.

A very forward thinking... His own niche. Collectable.

Great art history

WHEN is it in London??

Outstanding and thought-provoking. I look forward to working my way through all of this video series. The presenter was divine. (Couldn’t resist the humor)

I’ve always wondered how the lapis lazuli was processed to get such a strong blue pigment as ultramarine, given the frequent impurities in the stone. Also, I never knew of the origins of the term “French Ultramarine.” Today painters often say that the difference between the French Ultramarine and Ultramarine paints has to do with the warmth of the hue; that is, one version is more reddish and the other is a bit cooler and perhaps less deep. I wonder if those are secondary characteristics from when synthetic ultramarine was invented, and thus are historical correlation rather than “French.” Certainly there are variations from brand to brand, and brand names for paint have sometimes been more about romantic marketing than scientific realities. Anyway, sorry to go on, but I hope a focus on pigments’ history will continue in NG videos. Thank you, and very well done!

she has endearing qualities - I like her

Excellent. Actually learned something about the painting. Well done, presenter.

Oh wow, i first saw the skull subconsciously until comments pointed out for real. 👀 very creepy

20C modern with acid greens, but completely accessible to anyone. Thank you so very much for introducing us to a masterpiece which many of us have never seen before. Absolutely wonderful. ❤

I love 18C French pastel portraits! I enjoyed the introduction to the makers, but I wish more time was spent on the pastel painting, the artist and the family portrayed. I want to learn more, but as I live in the US Midwest, I will not be able to see this in person.

This was a most interesting talk about the painting. Very well done by the presenter, Nicholas Flory. Such a beautiful painting, exquisite.

I love not just the rich materials and craftsmanship, but the subject: the sweetness of the angels and Mary as they “endorse” this young slender king, who amazingly is backed by old stalwarts of the church. The viewer is easily compelled to also admire this king, which is rather good politics, of course. Imagine the thoughts of Richard II as he might contemplate himself portrayed as only one small step away from the holy personages. That’s such a different mindset from our contemporary one. Thank you for your discussion of the materials and the enormous care taken to make this devotional artwork.

Amazing skill sets. I assume it was done by multiple craftsmen. These were produced in workshops where multiple different journeymen, masters, and apprentices worked. As a craftsman I am humbled. The anonymity of such a workshop reminds me of the cabinet shops I learned in. It would be wonderful to produce work with such artisans.

45 was old at that time, she looks beautiful for her age and the painting is indeed a master piece.

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing this history!! I had no idea. Sir Thomas Lawrence a national Treasure!

🐝

I am partial to the Benjamin West's 1776 portrait. It was touched up to hide how worried she was about her husband's well being.

The painting is a work of art,it shows the skilled painter ,I think is just beautiful !

It washes her out.

Why not?

I do hope they put this unique piece of art behind some kind of glass panel - there are too any idiots destroying priceless art works - the Ashmoleum cannot take any chances here.