Symbols of Lute Player by Caravaggio (29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610)

Symbols of Lute Player by Caravaggio
Caravaggio painted The Lute Player for Cardinal del Monte, an important patron during the earlier part of the painter’s career. The play of light and shade, with the use of a shaft of light to illumine the painting from the left, is characteristic of his mature work. (Hermitage, St. Petersburg)

First, commissioned by Cardinal Francesco del Monte painting “The Lute Player” (around 1595) was later bought another Del Monte – an art dealer and art lover Vincenzo Giustiniani. However, by the XIX century the family of Giustiniani became so poor that the collection kept for centuries went under the hammer in 1808. Even before the start of trading Russian emperor Alexander I personally asked the director of the Louvre Baron Dominique Vivant Denon to buy “Lute-Player” for the Hermitage of St. Petersburg. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the most original and influential Italian painter of the 17th century. Noteworthy, his early works were usually small pictures of non-dramatic subjects, with half-length figures, a preponderance of still-life details (which Caravaggio painted superbly), and a frankly homo-erotic character.
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Troika. Russian Matryoshka art

First of all, Russian Matryoshka art is a tribute to the Russian culture. Indeed, handpainted doll with a Russian soul is the great cultural heritage of the country. However, Wooden Matryoshka dolls are famous not only because they can be put into each other like boxes for gifts. Each Matryoshka doll has a unique face and even character. According to one legend, these dolls appeared two thousand years ago, and are mentioned in the ancient Indian epic. And, then, to paint the dolls manually started during the time of the Trojan War. According to another legend, if you put a wish note into it, it will come true.
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Still life. Luigi Benedicenti delicious realism

Italian artist Luigi Benedicenti has created hyper realistic paintings of delicious food – from cakes and berries to fruits and ice-cream. Luigi was born in 1948 and since the late 60s completely devoted his life to the movement of “realism.” For his work, he chose the theme of food. Looking at the colorful still life works of the artist, hard to believe that they are actually drawn, not photographed. Luigi Benedicenti graduated from Turin art school. The viewers were delighted with his first shown works, and his first exhibitions were a great success.
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Costumed characters in the interiors of different eras, unique painting by Russian artist Olga Suvorova

Russian artist Olga Suvorova was born in 1966 in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad). Olga Suvorova has created her own style of painting – lifestyle portraits of costumed characters in the interiors of different epochs. Her work is a nostalgia for the St. Petersburg “World of Art” movement with its retrospective and love of the 18th century. Olga is the daughter of the Honored Artist of the RSFSR Igor Suvorov. She graduated from the Academy of Arts of Ilya Repin in 1988. Olga Suvorova is the constant participant of art exhibitions in Russia and abroad. Her works are in private collections in England, America, Germany, China and other countries.
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Air. Forgotten genius Giuseppe Arcimboldo

Forgotten genius Giuseppe Arcimboldo
In fact, almost all the works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527 – July 11, 1593) are permeated with the spirit of innovation and rebellion against the existing laws of art and life. Infinitely gifted, brilliant Arcimboldo spent all his entire short life doing all available at the time creative activities. Undoubtedly, he was a great artist, engineer, scientist and designer. Besides, Arcimboldo huge personality is comparable with the great Leonardo Da Vinci. After the death, Giuseppe Arcimboldo was forgotten for a long four centuries, but revived by the efforts of the surrealists in the early twentieth century. And he immediately stood by the great Leonardo da Vinci, not inferior to him neither in the breadth of erudition, nor the universality of talent of genius.
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Red landscape. Min Klementiev stone painting

Min Klementiev stone painting
By cutting and polishing variegated stones, such as jasper, marble, porphyry, and layered chalcedony or agate, master stone-cutters reveal the amazing world inhabited by real and fantastic images of bizarre lines and spots. Lilac winter morning and red autumn sunset, blue silhouettes of snow-capped mountains and olive expanses of the steppes. Russian artist Min Klementiev from an early age loved the beauty of a polished stone. Original compositions, images, stories were constantly before his eyes. Gradually, the idea to create a painting of the stone from the beginning to the end by himself captivated him.
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Hermann Hesse landscape watercolors

Hermann Hesse landscape watercolors

Nobel laureate 1946, Hermann Hesse – one of the most widely read authors of the XX century. According to him, all his art was a “protracted attempt to tell the story of my spiritual development”, and “a biography of the soul.” And one of the main themes of the writer – the fate of an artist in a hostile society, and a place of true art in the world. Hermann Hesse began painting with great enthusiasm since the First World War. Meanwhile, being self-taught, the artist dabbled in different styles: from the naive art and modernism to the graphics. However, the main theme – landscape motifs in lush iridescent colors. Indeed, nature inspired Hesse and helped restore internal balance. Rich colors and soft light emanate from the pictures. As a result, longing for harmony and happiness, Hermann Hesse has created the most significant legacy of 3000 watercolors. His paintings transfer the rainbow colors and beauty of Ticino – his chosen dwelling place on earth where he lived from 1919 and until his death in 1962.
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