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Allegory of Music

Francesco Trevisani (Italian Rococo Era painter, 1656-1746) | An allegory of music

The word Music derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses").
In Greek mythology, the nine Muses were the goddesses who inspired literature, science, and the arts and who were the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, song-lyrics, and myths in the Greek culture.

Jean Delville (Belgian Symbolist painter, 1867-1953) | Allegory of Music

According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the term "music" is derived from "mid-13c., musike, from Old French musique (12c.) and directly from Latin musica "the art of music", also including poetry (also [the] source of Spanish música, Italian musica, Old High German mosica, German Musik, Dutch muziek, Danish musik)".
This is derived from the "...Greek mousike (techne) "(art) of the Muses", from fem. of mousikos "pertaining to the Muses," from Mousa "Muse" Modern spelling [dates] from [the] 1630s.
In classical Greece, [the term "music" refers to] any art in which the Muses presided, but especially music and lyric poetry.

Francois Le Moyne (French Rococo Era painter, 1688-1737) | Allegory of Music
Albert Thomas (French 19th Century artist) | Allegory of Music
Laurent de La Hyre (French Baroque Era painter, 1606-1656) | Allegory of Music, 1649 | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Giuseppe Nogari (Italian Rococo Era painter, 1699-1766) | Allegory of Music
Francesco de Mura (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1696-1782) | Allegory of Music
Pietro Paolini (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1603-1681) | Allegory of Music
Simone Cantarini (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1612-1648) | Allegory of Music
Tintoretto (Italian Mannerist painter, 1518-1594) | Allegory of Music
Antoine Coypel (French Baroque Era painter, 1661-1722) | Allegory of Music
Caravaggio (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1571-1610) | Allegory of Music
Franco-Flemish School mid-16th century | Allegory of Music
Florentine School 18th Century | Allegory of Music

La Musica (dal sostantivo greco μουσική) è il prodotto dell'arte di ideare e produrre, mediante l'uso di strumenti appositi o della voce, una successione organizzata di suoni che risultino piacevoli all'orecchio.
Più tecnicamente la musica consiste nell'organizzazione dei suoni, dei rumori e dei silenzi nel corso del tempo e nello spazio.
Si tratta di arte in quanto complesso di norme pratiche adatte a conseguire determinati effetti sonori, che riescono ad esprimere l'interiorità dell'individuo che produce la musica e dell'ascoltatore; si tratta di scienza in quanto studio della nascita, dell'evoluzione e dell'analisi dell'intima struttura della musica.
Il generare suoni avviene mediante il canto o mediante l'utilizzo di strumenti musicali che, attraverso i principi dell'acustica, provocano la percezione uditiva e l'esperienza emotiva voluta dall'artista.

Filippino Lippi (Italian Renaissance painter, 1457-1504) | Allegory of Music, 1500 (detail)
Filippino Lippi (Italian Renaissance painter, 1457-1504) | Allegory of Music, 1500

Il significato del termine musica non è comunque univoco ed è molto dibattuto tra gli studiosi per via delle diverse accezioni utilizzate nei vari periodi storici.
Etimologicamente il termine musica deriva dall'aggettivo greco μουσικός/musikòs, relativo alle Muse, figure della mitologia greca e romana, riferito in modo sottinteso a tecnica, anch'esso derivante dal greco τέχνη/techne.
In origine il termine non indicava una particolare arte, bensì tutte le arti delle Muse, e si riferiva a qualcosa di "perfetto".
Le macro-categorie della colta, leggera ed etnica si articolano in diversi generi e forme musicali che utilizzano sistemi quali armonia, melodia, tonalità e polifonia.
Nell'antica Grecia nacque una materia, una scienza, che estraeva anch'essa queste ultime due, la matematica, che è parte fondamentale della musica, come Pitagora capì, per la relazione tra rapporti frazionari e suono.
Platone affermò che, come la ginnastica serviva ad irrobustire il corpo, la musica doveva arricchire l'animo.
Attribuiva alla musica una funzione educativa, come la matematica: secondo lui bisognava saper scegliere fra tanto e poco, fra più o meno, fra bene o male, per arrivare all'obiettivo finale.

James Longacre Wood (American painter, 1863-1938) | Allegory of Music
François Boucher (French Rococo Era painter, 1703-1770) | Allegory of Music
François Boucher (French Rococo Era painter, 1703-1770) | Allegory of Music

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Sebastiano del Piombo | Mannerist painter


According to Vasari, the painter Sebastiano Luciani (1485-1547), known as Sebastiano del Piombo, was born in Venice.
A musician before becoming a painter, Vasari also states that he trained with Giovanni Bellini. His early works are influenced by the style of Giorgione, as is evident in his painting of Salome (National Gallery, London).
After the premature death of Giorgione, Sebastiano moved to Rome in 1511 on the suggestion of the banker Agostino Chigi, for whom he undertook the fresco decoration of the Villa Farnesina.

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Istvan Sàndorfi | Hyper-Surrealist painter

István Sándorfi (1948-2007) also known as Étienne Sandorfi, was a naturalised French painter of Hungarian origin.
He received his formal art education at École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and at École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris.
He mastered what art critics now term hyperrealism. But he did so with his very own blend of Surreal elements.


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Camille Pissarro | Impressionist / Post-Impressionist painter

Camille Pissarro, in full Jacob-Abraham-Camille Pissarro (born July 10, 1830, St. Thomas, Danish West Indies-died Nov. 13, 1903, Paris, France), painter and printmaker who was a key figure in the history of Impressionism.
Pissarro was the only artist to show his work in all eight Impressionist group exhibitions; throughout his career he remained dedicated to the idea of such alternative forums of exhibition. He experimented with many styles, including a period when he adopted Georges Seurat’s "pointillist" approach.
A supportive friend and mentor to influential artists such as Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin, he was described by many who knew him as "Father Pissarro".


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Simone Cantarini (1612-1648) | Baroque painter


Simone Cantarini was born in Pesaro, in the Marches, a region which was a crossroads for artists from many parts of Italy.
Cantarini began his artistic training quite young, probably 1623-1625, in the studio of Giovanni Giacomo Pandolfi (?1570-1640?), a painter of religious works who combined the local naturalism with the mannerist style of the late sixteenth century.
After a brief trip to Venice, Cantarini moved to the shop of Claudio Ridolfi (?1570-1644), a student of Paolo Veronese🎨 (1528-1588).

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Guido Cagnacci | The Death of Cleopatra, 1645-55

Artist: Guido Cagnacci (Italian, Santarcangelo di Romagna 1601-1663 Vienna)
Date: ca. 1645-55
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 37 3/8 × 29 1/2 in. (95 × 75 cm)
Current location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue in Gallery 637

The subject, from Plutarch's Lives (1st century A.D.), is Cleopatra's suicide by an asp bite following the defeat of her beloved Mark Antony at the battle of Actium.


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Allegory of painting

Artemisia Gentileschi🎨 (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1593-1652) | Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638 (detail) | Royal Collection

First attested in English in 1382, the word allegory comes from Latin allegoria, the latinisation of the Greek ἀλληγορία (allegoría), "veiled language, figurative", which in turn comes from both ἄλλος (allos), "another, different" and ἀγορεύω (agoreuo), "to harangue, to speak in the assembly", which originates from ἀγορά (agora), "assembly".

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini (Italian Rococo Era painter, 1675-1741) | Allegory of Painting

As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor in which a character, place or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences.
Allegory (in the sense of the practice and use of allegorical devices and works) has occurred widely throughout history in all forms of art, largely because it can readily illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.
Writers or speakers typically use allegories as literary devices or as rhetorical devices that convey (semi-)hidden or complex meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.
Many allegories use personifications of abstract concepts.

François Boucher (French Rococo Era painter, 1703-1770) | Cupids Allegory of Painting

Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1593-1652) | Allegory of Painting

Domenico Corvi (Italian Rococo painter, 1721-1803) | Allegory of Painting

Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1593-1652) | Self Portrait as an Allegory of Painting, 1635

Johannes Vermeer🎨 (Dutch Baroque Era painter, 1632-1675) | The Allegory of Painting, 1666

Johannes Vermeer (Dutch Baroque Era painter, 1632-1675) | The Allegory of Painting, 1666 (detail)

Johannes Vermeer (Dutch Baroque Era painter, 1632-1675) | The Allegory of Painting, 1666 (detail)

Johannes Vermeer (Dutch Baroque Era painter, 1632-1675) | The Allegory of Painting, 1666 (detail)

Johannes Vermeer (Dutch Baroque Era painter, 1632-1675) | The Allegory of Painting, 1666 (detail)

François Boucher (French Rococo Era painter, 1703-1770) | Allegory of Painting

Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch Baroque Era painter, ca.1590-1656) | Allegory of painting

Rosalba Carriera (Italian Rococo Era painter, 1675-1757) | Allegory of Painting | National Gallery of Art

Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1593-1652) | Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638 | Royal Collection (detail)

Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1593-1652) | Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638 | Royal Collection

Frans van Mieris the elder (Dutch Golden Age painter, 1635-1681) | Allegory of Painting, 1661 | The Getty Museum

Frans van Mieris the elder (Dutch Golden Age painter, 1635-1681) | Allegory of Painting, 1661 (detail) | The Getty Museum

Frans van Mieris the elder (Dutch Golden Age painter, 1635-1681) | Allegory of Painting, 1661 (detail) | The Getty Museum

Francesco Trevisani (Italian Rococo Era painter, 1656-1746) | An allegory of painting

La parola allegorìa deriva dal greco antico αλληγορία, composto da ἀλλή + ἀγορεύω, letteralmente "un altro" + "parlare", vale a dire: parlare d'altro, leggere tra le righe, sottintendere qualcosa che non è espressamente indicato in un contesto determinato.
L'allegoria è quella figura retorica che esprime un concetto in altro modo (attraverso simboli).
L'allegoria è una figura retorica per cui, in letteratura, qualcosa di astratto viene espresso attraverso un'immagine concreta.
L'allegoria è spesso usata anche in altri campi artistici, dalla pittura alla scultura alle altre arti figurative.

Carlo Maratta (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1625-1713) | An allegory of Painting

Giovanni Martinelli (Italian Baroque Era painter, ca.1610-1659) | Allegory of painting | Uffizi

Simone Cantarini detto il Pesarese (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1612-1648) | Allegoria della Pittura

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Lucien Abrams (1870-1941) | Impressionist painter


A native Kansan, Lucien Abrams moved to Dallas with his family in 1873. He studied at Princeton, the Art Students League of New York, and the Académie Julian in Paris, living and traveling in Europe and Algeria from 1894-1914.
While Abrams’ style is diverse, the works he exhibited annually in Paris, and at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the National Academy of Design showed the influences of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Fauvism.


An admirer of Pierre-Auguste Renoir🎨, Abrams pays homage to the Impressionist master in his painting, Déjeuner en Provence, ca. 1910🎨 (on loan from the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas).
The depiction of a female figure in a casual patio setting thinly painted and sketchily defined by short brushstrokes, and using a high-keyed palette, distinguish it as an Impressionist painting. | © Florence Griswold Museum.






Nato nel Kansan, Lucien Abrams si trasferì a Dallas con la sua famiglia nel 1873. Studiò a Princeton, alla Art Students League di New York e all'Académie Julian a Parigi, vivendo e viaggiando in Europa e Algeria dal 1894-1914.
Mentre lo stile Abrams è vario, le opere che espone ogni anno a Parigi e all'Art Institute of Chicago, alla Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts e alla National Academy of Design mostrano le influenze dell'impressionismo, del post-impressionismo e del fauvismo.
Ammiratore di Pierre-Auguste Renoir🎨, Abrams rende omaggio al maestro impressionista nel suo dipinto, Déjeuner en Provence, ca. 1910🎨 (in prestito dal McNay Art Museum di San Antonio, in Texas).
La raffigurazione di una figura femminile in un patio informale dipinta sottilmente e definita in modo abbozzato da brevi pennellate, e usando una tavolozza dai tasti alti, la distingue come un quadro impressionista. | © Florence Griswold Museum.


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Maxime Maufra | Impressionist painter

Maxime Maufra (1861-1918) was a French landscape and marine painter, etcher and lithographer.
Maufra first began painting at 18.
He was encouraged to do so by two artists from Nantes such as the brothers Charles Leduc and Alfred Leduc and the landscape painter Charles Le Roux.


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Simon Glücklich | Pittore di genere

Simon Glücklich (27 marzo 1863, Bielsko-Biała, Polonia - 29 marzo 1943 a Monaco di Baviera, Germania) - pittore Tedesco a cavallo tra l'Otto ed il Novecento.
È nato a Bielsko (oggi Bielsko-Biała) nella Slesia austriaca, figlio del pittore decoratore Leo Glücklich.
Negli anni 1880-1890 studiò all'Accademia di Belle Arti di Vienna, sotto la direzione di Leopold Carl Müller (1834-1892).


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Pellizza da Volpedo | Il Quarto Stato / The Fourth Estate, 1901

The monumental painting Il Quarto Stato /The Fourth Estate by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907) portrays a group of workers on strike.
It symbolises the social protest at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the emergence of a new social class - the proletariat - which becomes aware of its rights within the new industrial society.

Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo | Il Quarto Stato / The Fourth Estate, 1901 (detail) | GAM - Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Milano, Milano