Response to 9/24 Class

I thought the last class was extremely interesting. Rococo portraits happen to be my favorite paintings, especially French rococo. I'm obsessed with Marie Antoinette, so I found my assignment of researching Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun to be very exciting! What I found the most intriguing part of the whole lesson though was that there simply is more to portraits than meets the eye. Of the few portraits I've actually seen in museums, I never really stopped and thought about the person being painted, much less the artist's relationship with that person. I merely looked at the technique, color, etc. But after this class, my eyes are completely opened to what I never saw before. There is so much more to portraiture than the aesthetics.

The Belmont Mansion

I really enjoyed the tour of the Belmont Mansion. It was my first time inside of it, and it was not what I expected at all... The art inside the mansion was incredible. I never expected there to be so many famous works (not necessarily famous to US, but famous in the 17th century). For example. in the ladies' parlor (the first room we went in) there was the painting portraying the woman whose father had raped her, and she was awaiting execution for killing him. When the tour guide told us that that painting was as famous in the 17th century as the Mona Lisa is now, I was stunned. I felt so special just being able to see the piece in real life.. Another part of the mansion I thoroughly enjoyed was the painting of Napoleon in the library. This too, was an original piece and it felt so honored the be able to see it in person. What really stuck out to me about this painting though wasn't it's originality, but the reason why it was there. Joseph Acklen apparently idolized Napoleon, and that's just not something you hear nowadays. He's looked at now as a villian, but in the 17th century he was considered an idol. I found that very shocking.