Correggio Commission

See the previous post here. 

This is the start of the underpainting. I will be doing this as a series, so stay posted. This is oil on linen on panel. At this stage it is about 1 minute into the process. This is burnt umber thinned with turpenoid.  You can see the remains of some construction lines behind the masses of paint.

New Correggio Commission

I have recently received a commission to paint a copy of Correggio's Head of Christ, which is owned by the J. Paul Getty Museum.  It was painted about 1525 - 1530.  It is an extremely delicate and sensitive portrait, and I am looking forward to attempting it.  I will be doing a series on my painting process once I get a little further along with it.

Head of Christ, Correggio, J. Paul Getty Museum

According to the Getty Museum:
As Christ stumbled under the weight of the cross he bore on the way to his crucifixion, Saint Veronica comforted him and wiped his face with her veil. According to legend, Christ's features were miraculously imprinted on the fabric. In this haunting depiction, Correggio painted Veronica's veil as the white cloth in the background. Christ faces the viewer and parts his lips as if to speak.
Through the use of strong light and shadow as seen in the defined cheekbones, line of the nose, and hollow of the neck, Correggio gave his forms a sense of volume. He further used light to emphasize the image's poignancy, placing the left half of Christ's face in shadow while the right side receives light. The subject matter and small size of the Head of Christ probably indicate that it was made for private devotional use.

Saturated Color

One of my students is doing a master copy of Millais' Ophelia.  She is working from an image on my computer and I desaturated it to gray scale so she could clearly see the value structure as she is working on the underpainting.  I liked the black and white version much better.  I thought the greens in the image we were painting from were too saturated.  I have never seen the original in person, so I am not sure how it compares.  We were discussing this and my student said she liked the vibrant greens.  I partially desaturated the image, and she was right!  I like the vibrant greens better too, when compared to a slightly desaturated version.  I love teaching, as I think sometimes I learn more than my students.  I think the vibrant greens make the painting a bit more arresting, and contrast with the subject matter.  Dead Ophelia surrounded by all that vibrant green life.  This is a lesson in how important color studies are.

Millais' Ophelia, Tate Britain, grayscale

Millais' Ophelia, Tate Britain, desaturated

Millais' Ophelia, Tate Britain, original