Free Republic

SALT LAKE CITY — A Minerva Teichert painting known as "The Law on the Plates of Brass" is at the heart of a legal dispute pitting a downtown art gallery against the painting's one-time owner, and the LDS Church . Thomas Alder, owner of Williams Fine Art Gallery, contends two unnamed representatives from the Church History Museum showed up with paperwork to "borrow" the painting from his business and never returned it. Instead, his lawsuit alleges the painting's owner breached their consignment contract and sold the painting to a member of the museum's acquisition committee without Alder's knowledge. A Dec....

There are few images as enduring in American history as the one of General George Washington standing tall, next to the Stars and Stripes, in a rowboat gliding past mini-icebergs as he leads his troops across the Delaware River on Christmas Day 1776 to start a surprise attack on Hessian forces during the Battle of Trenton. In his 1851 portrait, “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” among the best-known of American paintings, the artist, Emanuel Leutze, did not shy away from imbuing the scene with a dose of glory, inspiration and heroism. He also did not let the facts get in the...

A New York artist believes he's "cracked the code" of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" painting. Ron Piccirillo stated on his blog that the painting is an optical illusion with one painting hidden within another. He refers to a "secret that has been hiding for five hundred years" as he claims to have found a lion's head, an ape head and a buffalo head in the painting while turning it around. "I had first Googled this, but could not find anything on it," he stated. "How could something like this have gone unnoticed for five hundred years?" The key to...

"Saturn Devouring His Son is the name given to a painting by Spanish artist Francisco Goya. It depicts the Greek myth of the Titan Cronus (in the title Romanised to Saturn), who, fearing that he would be overthrown by his children, ate each one upon their birth." My wife and I saw the real canvas transfer of the painting by Goya (1746-1828) in the Museo del Prado in Madrid several years ago. I do know how to hotlink graphics, however this painting is highly disturbing, and possibly the product of a disturbed mind. Click the reference links below to view...

Italian art experts who restored a cryptic medieval fresco depicting a tree of fertility have been accused of censoring the work by painting over the numerous phalluses which dangle from its boughs. The unusual 13th century Tree of Fertility fresco was discovered by chance a decade ago in the Tuscan town of Massa Marittima and has recently been subjected to a three-year restoration. The experts who carried out the restoration have been accused of sanitizing the mural by scrubbing out or altering some of the testicles, which hang from the tree's branches along with around 25 phalluses. "Many parts of...

A Rembrandt drawing, valued at $250,000 (£153,625), has been taken from a hotel in California in a "well thought-out, well-executed theft", police have said. The piece, called The Judgement, was taken from an exhibition at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey, a Los Angeles County Sheriff spokesman said. It was stolen on Saturday between 22:20 and 22:35 local time when a curator was distracted by a guest, he added. Police are studying surveillance video from the hotel. The Dutch master's quill pen and black ink drawing, which dates back to about 1655, was part of an exhibition at the hotel...

A painting of Christ’s crucifixion believed to be the work of Michelangelo has been hanging in the residence of a small Jesuit community at Oxford for more than 70 years.Purchased at auction by the Campion Hall community in the 1930s, the painting was believed to be the work of Marcello Venusti, one of Michelangelo’s 16th-century contemporaries. But recent tests revealed that the work was indeed created by the Renaissance painter, reports the National Jesuit News.The discovery was made by historian and conservationist Antonio Forcellino, who used infrared technology to uncover who he believes is the true creator of the painting.BBC...

Here's the direct link. Check it out and let me know what you think. I posted this one other time and think I have improved it a bit since then.

The Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina) is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and frescoes by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Sandro Botticelli... The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored the old Cappella Magna between 1477 and 1480. Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet of the chapel ceiling in the four years between 1508 and 1512. Today the ceiling of the chapel -and in-particular The Last Judgement- is widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievement....

A still life of sunflowers by Paul Gauguin, painted in tribute to his friend Vincent Van Gogh, is expected to fetch up to £10 million at auction. Gauguin painted the work, Nature morte à L'Espérance, in 1901 while he was living in Tahiti. It is the highlight of an Impressionist and Modern Art sale at Christie's in London on February 9. The depiction of sunflowers was a fitting tribute to Van Gogh and a reference to the months in 1888 when the two artists shared a home, a period that ended in tragedy. The pair lived together in Arles, France,...

Retired billboard painter is working to capture on canvas the face of every fallen service member from Texas — 500 and counting. Ken Pridgeon calls them his "boys." The 75-year-old artist shares his small home in Baytown with two dozen portraits he's painted of fallen Houston-area service members, each one centered on an American flag background with an eagle in the top right-hand corner. The canvases, measuring 3 feet by 4 feet, line the walls of a converted garage. A few rest near the front door, others in a den-turned- studio. This soldier was a bull rider and football player,...

A Van Gogh painting worth $50 million stolen from a Cairo museum is still missing, Egypt's culture minister says. Earlier Farouk Hosni had said two Italians had been arrested at Cairo airport, and the small canvas found. But later he said he had been given "inaccurate" information, and the painting was still missing. The painting - known as both Poppy Flowers and Vase And Flowers - was "cut from its frame" at the Mahmoud Khalil Museum on Saturday, Mr Hosni said. Two Italians had been arrested at Cairo airport later in the day, after earlier visiting the museum. The state...

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia - An amateur artist is drawing attention to herself because of the unusual way she paints...using her breasts. Victoria started her unsual way of painting about a year ago. She says one night she had a dream of painting a beautiful flower using her breast and decided to try it. He work is being shown at a St. Petersburg art gallery. She also has admirers who view her new paintings and order them online.

The painter of light is having a dark period. Thomas Kinkade, the Placerville native who became one of the world's wealthiest artists with his sentimental landscapes and Christian motifs, has had a string of legal troubles. His company owes millions of dollars to art gallery owners who successfully pressed fraud claims. Earlier this month the firm filed for bankruptcy protection from those gallery owners and hundreds of other creditors. And on Friday, the 52-year-old Kinkade, who calls himself "the painter of light," was arrested on a DUI charge outside Carmel, where he owns a home.

His 1932 portrait 'Nude, Green Leaves and Bust' fetches $106.5 million. Some mistresses are more valuable than others. On Tuesday night, Christie's New York sold Pablo Picasso's bold 1932 portrait of his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust," for $106.5 million, making it the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. "I think the Picasso illustrates what has been true in good and bad economic times — the very best works of art continue to sell at a premium," said Marc Porter, chairman of Christie's Americas. He said the nine bidders active after the opening bid of $58...

NEW ORLEANS, April 7, 2010 – Between weekend drills, overseas deployments, the work in communities during peacekeeping and natural disaster missions, full-time jobs and school, National Guardsmen often find themselves too busy making a difference to find time for their hobbies. Army 1st Lt. Heather S. Englehart of the Louisiana National Guard paints a scene from her military experiences at her home in New Orleans, March 31, 2010. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. One soldier has found a way to combine the two. For 31-year-old Army 1st Lt. Heather S. Englehart of the Louisiana National Guard, her...

Universite de Montreal researchers decode food served in legendary painting Montreal, March 30, 2010 – The Last Supper – relentlessly studied, scrutinized, satirized and one the world's most famous paintings – is still revealing secrets. Researchers Olivier Bauer, Nancy Labonté, Jonas Saint-Martin and Sébastien Fillion of the Université de Montréal Faculty of Theology have found new meaning to the food depicted by Leonardo Da Vinci's famous artwork. "We asked ourselves why Da Vinci chose those particular foods, because they don't correspond to what the Evangelists described," says Bauer. "Why bread, fish, salt, citrus and wine? Why is the saltshaker tipped...

Met Visitor's Picasso Stumble is $65 Million Oops: ExpertBy CAITLIN MILLAT Updated 4:30 PM EST, Tue, Jan 26, 2010 This may be the most expensive stumble ever. A Metropolitan Museum of Art visitor who lost her balance and tore a hole in a Picasso work Monday slashed the painting's $130 million value in half, an expert told the New York Post. The 6-inch tear in Picasso's "The Actor" happened after a woman stumbled into the Met work, leaving it with a mark that could mean the painting could never be restored to its original condition, appraiser Gerard van Weyenbergh said....

TUXEDO — Barbara Allen and her four young boys climbed the stairs onto the stage. More than fours years have passed since Barbara's husband, 1st Lt. Lou Allen, died in Tikrit, Iraq. The boys looked like him. Their hair is blond like Barbara's but just a tad unruly even when they're dressed up like they were this night. That must be Lou. More It's the Lou of the stories told by his friends, relatives and former colleagues at George F. Baker High School — the science teacher Lou who kept the electrodes for demonstrations strictly color-coded in his classroom but...

He paints six pictures a week and his last exhibition sold out in 14 minutes...Kieron Williamson kneels on the wooden bench in his small kitchen, takes a pastel from the box by his side and rubs it onto a piece of paper. 'Have you got a picture in your head of what you're going to do?' asks his mother, Michelle. 'Yep,' Kieron nods. 'A snow scene.' I ask: because it is winter at the moment? 'Yep.' Do you know how you want it to come out? 'Yep.' And does it come out how you want it? 'Sometimes it does.'

.SNIPARTnews has reported that the White House has quietly de-listed a painting by Alma W. Thomas that it chose last month, among some 45 pieces borrowed from several Washington museums, to decorate the private White House residence and the West and East Wings. Titled, “Watusi (Hard Edge)” from 1963, the work takes a Matisse collage and, as Holland Cotter wrote in The New York Times, praising the selection, “shifts the pieces around, cools the colors down, and adds a title that refers to a Chubby Checker song.” “But through copying Matisse,” Mr. Cotter added, “she began to work out a...

A painting from 1617 appears to show a type of telescope thought not to have been built until much later. It's hard to find an invention more emblematic of the birth of modern science than the telescope. And yet surprisingly little is known about its early development. The inventor of the telescope remains unknown to this day. Now a study of the paintings of Jan Brueghel the Elder, a Flemish painter of the Baroque era who was working in Amsterdam at the beginning of the 17th century, is throwing some light on the early development of the telescope. It has...

Interactive painting that symbolizes our country today

Bob Dylan has shape-shifted more times in his career than any other pop musician. His music has always reflected that need to seek out new forms of self-expression. What's less known is that his paintings function in the same way -- providing virtual chapter markings and sign posts in a lifetime filled with twists and turns. In a museum show that's scheduled to open in Europe in 2010, Dylan will exhibit nearly 100 of his works, including the world premiere of 30 large-format paintings from the artist's upcoming "Brazil" series. The show will also feature original paintings from Dylan's "The...

A stunning collection of photographs taken by a 19th century globetrotter has caused a stir - because he meticulously painted the colours in himself. The amazing images shed new light on the world as it was more than 100 years ago, with vivid images of snake charmers, ships on the Suez Canal and fighting Sikhs, among others.Henry Harrison, a Royal Navy Paymaster General, took the black and white  pictures on his voyages around the globe and, because he was a talented artist, was able to painstakingly colour them in. Stunning imagery: One of Henry Harrison's photographs shows prisoners in China...

In 1939 Lilly Cassirer Neubauer was desperate to escape Germany. She was a member of a prominent Jewish family of publishers and gallery owners, and as the Nazi oppression escalated, it was clear they would have to leave or die. Lilly was told there was only one way for her to obtain an exit visa. The family would have to hand over one of their most prized possessions: a Parisian street scene painted by Camille Pissarro. The work, an atmosphere depiction of a rain-soaked Paris boulevard, had hung on the walls of the family's Berlin and Munich homes since the...

Here is video of President Obama and First Lady Michelle this afternoon helping out at a Habitat for Humanity project in Washington, D.C. Obama declared today to be a "National Day of Service" as well as a day to remember September 11. Obama helped by doing some painting - in his dress pants . . . . (VIDEO)

My wife is Catholic. Though not active in the church, I would describe her as spiritual, and without a doubt, faithful. Like millions of people this morning, while perusing Yahoo News, she and I saw the image of Michael D'Antuono’s “The Truth”. In case you haven’t seen “The Truth”, it is a painting essentially depicting Barack Obama as the Messiah in a “presidential” motif. At first, we dismissed it like the rest of the fawning media imagery of Obama. Remember that AP photo of Obama framed in front of the Presidential Seal as though it was a halo? We rolled...

Art as Propaganda for Evolution April 10, 2009 — Should a scientific theory be propagated by appeal to scientific evidence, or by appeal to emotions through visualization?  Nature this week contained two articles that shamelessly praised art as propaganda for evolution.  Surprisingly, one of them mentioned Charles Darwin as someone “at the cutting edge of visualization.” Endless Forms:  Carl Zimmer reviewed an exhibit currently at the Yale Center for British Art, Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts.1  The title is taken from the last sentence in the Origin where Darwin said that endless forms most beautiful...

A painter who first made his mark through unromanticized views of Western landscapes, Maynard Dixon turned his attention to stark scenes of social protest during the Great Depression. More than 60 years after the artist's death, those struggling against the economic tide stand to benefit from Dixon's work once again. That's because of a gift to a California branch of Goodwill Industries, which has started an online bidding war for what is believed to be "Blackfoot Indian," a painting created by Dixon in 1917. After the painting was posted for auction on Goodwill's Web site early this week, bids jumped...

A medieval historian in Italy found what is believed to be a portrait, hidden beneath another painting, of Leonardo da Vinci.

An important 19th century painting has been brought back to public view after languishing for decades, forgotten beneath a pile of reproductions in a church closet. The Rev. Steven Olson of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Dassel approached the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 2007, looking for advice on how to preserve a painting he had found in a janitor's closet.

New life has been breathed into Dutch master painter Rembrandt's 'Night Watch', the famous dark-toned 17th-century painting of city guards gathering to march For more than three centuries, the identity of the men depicted in the massive portrait hanging in Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum have been unknown, but a Dutch historian now claims to have identified them all. The painting, some 363 cm by 437 cm, is considered the Rijksmuseum's most famous painting. The Rijksmuseum said on Wednesday retired historian Bas Dudok van Heel has identified the men after years of research. "It is great for both the museum and the public...

Some time ago I posted an entry on a new painting of the Little Flower by our friend Leonard Porter. Porter is at the forefront of the renewal of classical painting, and his image of Therese has garnered a lot of attention for its combination of Western naturalism and the transcendence of the Eastern tradition. So many people have been asking about the possibility of ordering a print that Leonard has made signed high-quality 11"x14" prints available on eBay by clicking here. Help support high quality sacred art!

A great painting of some of our greatest Presidents.

Finding an Aladdin's cave Cory Holliday almost didn't see the stick figure painted on the sandstone. His first impression was that it was a clever fake. A cave specialist for the Tennessee chapter of The Nature Conservancy, Holliday was searching for caves on a 4,200-acre tract in a remote part of Fentress County on the Cumberland Plateau. It was winter, and he heard water. Thinking there might be a cave nearby, he hiked down to the base of a bluff, where he discovered a rocky alcove bisected by a 10-foot waterfall. On the roof of a nearby south-facing rock shelter...

Putin’s painting sold for over $1 MLN A painting by the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, has been sold for over one million dollars at a yearly charity auction in St. Petersburg. All paintings at the auction were created by famous Russian people: actors, singers, but no professional artists. Each aspiring painter chose a theme beginning with a letter – for each of the 33 letters of the Russian alphabet. The money raised will help children suffering from cancer. “I remember my hands were freezing while I was painting it. But still it was fun and I was constantly aware...

Ilya Repin. Job and His Friends. 1869. Oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

.........Rod Blagojevich has now also been stripped of his clothes.............. A nude portrait of the governor, by artist Bruce Elliott, is nearly complete and will hang on the wall of Elliott's wife's bar, the Old Town Ale House....

For decades, North Jersey historians, art experts and naturalists had been stumped. Geoff Welch helped determine that an 1846 painting labeled "Janetta Falls, Passaic County" was really Clinton Falls. Where was Janetta Falls, Passaic County? Was there a Janetta Falls in Passaic County? Art experts wanted to know because Jasper F. Cropsey, a celebrated Hudson River School artist, painted several waterfall scenes in 1846 and identified them as Janetta Falls. "It's been a mystery for decades," said Kenneth W. Maddox, art historian at the Newington-Cropsey Foundation, in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. Finally, thanks in part to an old magazine article, a local...

We have had several threads on music and food but not art I thought tonight we could discuss what works of art you enjoy. Art can be very subjective what some people love other hate, what some consider a scribble a daub on a paper other consider a masterpiece. Then there are certain pieces of art that are universally accepted and admired. What are your favourite works of art or type of art? Maybe it is a sculpture or some fine art? On the other hand maybe architecture is your bent? Tonight's questions What is your favourite painting? What is...

When I said I would give a pleasant surprise to Brityank, I meant I would like to paint a painting for him. Because I would like to thank him for his kindness towards me. Maybe he doesn’t think its anything, But I really care. Because I think I must keep my promise, and do my best, I will do it, and I’m free now. I hope Brityank feels free about this too. Because it is just a painting, and I just need an excuse to exercise my drawing skills. I am so lazy sometimes you know, I like to relax...

BAGHDAD, April 9, 2008 – Soldiers at Forward Operating Base War Eagle here invited a group of Iraqi children to showcase their artistic skills and creativity March 29 by painting the concrete walls used to protect citizens in their neighborhood. Young Iraqi artists pose in front of their artwork after a day spent painting a T-wall at Forward Operating Base War Eagle in northern Baghdad, March 29, 2008. The children of the village next to the base painted the T-walls that line their route to school. Photo by Army Spc. Joseph Rivera Rebolledo, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry...

<p>A new storm is brewing in the world of Da Vinci theorists after a mysterious group claimed it has used mirrors to uncover hidden biblical images in some of the great master’s most famous works.</p> <p>The Mirror of the Sacred Scriptures and Paintings In recent years, art history scholars have unveiled Templar knights, Mary Magdalene, a child and a musical script hidden in the Italian’s paintings.</p>

NEW YORK — An abstract masterpiece by a Mexican artist that was found in the trash by a woman who knew little about modern art has been sold for more than $1 million. The painting "Tres Personajes" by Rufino Tamayo was discovered in 2003 by Elizabeth Gibson, who spotted it on her morning walk on Manhattan's Upper West Side. She said she took it home because "even though I didn't understand it, I knew it had power." The brightly colored abstract work was purchased for $1,049,000 by an unidentified private American collector bidding by phone at Sotheby's Latin American Art...

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The "Mona Lisa" has long been shrouded in mystery, including one long-standing question about the famous lady: What happened to her eyebrows and eyelashes? Now, a French engineer and inventor says he's uncovered part of the enigma.

New movie out in October. From the site: Synopsis: within a few months 4yr old Marla Olmstead sold over $300K worth of paintings. Compared to Kandinsky and Pollock.... Michael Kimmelman Quotes: "people don't seem to feel there's really some way of judging what's good, what's bad. There's this large idea out there that abstract art has no standards, no truths.." .."pulls the veil off this con game...."

'Oldest' wall painting looks like modern art By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:56pm BST 11/10/2007 French archaeologists have discovered an 11,000-year-old work of art in northern Syria which is the oldest known wall painting, even though it looks like a work by a modernist. The painting resembles the work of Paul Klee The two square-metre painting, in red, black and white, was found at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo. "It looks like a modernist painting," said Eric Coqueugniot, the team leader. "Some of those who saw it have...

A disputed portrait of Jesus Christ will remain at the Slidell city courthouse in Louisiana after a federal judge refused to grant a demand by the American Civil Liberties Union to have the painting removed.