http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/?service=Rss http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-landscape-with-ascanius-shooting-the-stag-of-sylvia-1682-claude-lorrain-1815310.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-landscape-with-ascanius-shooting-the-stag-of-sylvia-1682-claude-lorrain-1815310.html ]]> <p>What's the role of the figure in landscape? Gainsborough had no doubt. It is to "fill a place (I won't say stop a gap) or create a little business, for the eye to be drawn from the trees, in order to return to them with more glee". It's strictly an extra, not a lead.</p> Great Works Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-silence-17991801-henry-fuseli-1811332.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-silence-17991801-henry-fuseli-1811332.html ]]> <p>The psychology of shapes is good business. Find out your shape-personality type and you'll know yourself, both well and profitably. The square? Your colleagues will come to you for help. The circle? People will bring you their personal problems. But the rectangle? It seems you are always the last to know. And the squiggle? Why do you embarrass your friends?</p> Great Works Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0000 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-judith-beheading-holofernes-161213-artemisia-gentileschi-1807173.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-judith-beheading-holofernes-161213-artemisia-gentileschi-1807173.html ]]> <p>It is a generalisation but people who get their pleasures from visiting old master galleries are generally not the sort of people who go to films in which heads are sliced off and blood goes everywhere. Perhaps it's because they have finer sensibilities. Or perhaps it's because they simply don't need to. They can get these things in old master galleries, too. </p> Great Works Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-mr-and-mrs-clark-and-percy-197071-1803272.html http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-mr-and-mrs-clark-and-percy-197071-1803272.html ]]> <p>Imagine two ways of setting a scene. Think first of the stage directions of a play, describing a room, its furnishings and possessions. This isn't done for its own sake. These things are clues. They tell us about the characters who occupy the room, their personalities, tastes, status, aspirations. </p> Great Works Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0100