Every Thursday, as part of my personal “enriched environment” initiative, I post a piece of art, usually from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which recently released online some 400,000 high-resolution images of its collection. All artwork will show a sun (or sunlight) somewhere.
I won’t name the piece or the artist, but instead invite you to study the art and post a comment addressing one or more of these questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
If you have another idea, run with it.
Special Update! The New York Times website does this same exercise every Monday with a news photo that is uncaptioned and contains no text (click!). The Times asks viewers the same three questions:
- What is going on in this picture?
- What do you see that makes you say that?
- What more can you find?
However, at the end of the week, the Times posts the background information on the picture. So, I’ve decided to do the same. I’ll still post an unlabeled piece of art on Thursday. But return on Sunday (for the Sunny Sundays post!) and you’ll find an update on the artwork here.
Note: To embiggen the image, click on it!
Ponte San Rocco and Waterfalls, Tivoli
Artist: François Marius Granet (French, Aix-en-Provence 1775–1849 Aix-en-Provence)
Date: ca. 1810–20
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 14 7/8 x 11 1/8 in. (37.8 x 28.3 cm)
Classification: Paintings
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 805
This painting perfectly illustrates Granet’s achievement as a master of small Roman views. The arch of the Ponte San Rocco provides the frame for a carefully structured glimpse of the Aniene River as it hurtles through the hilltop village of Tivoli, a half day’s ride east of Rome. This is a finished painting intended for a private collector. It was created in Granet’s studio from an oil sketch (Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence) that was executed outdoors at the site.
A student of Jacques-Louis David, Granet first visited Italy in 1802 and returned the next year to stay until 1824.
There’s a second person in the painting, up on the bridge.
The man down in front appears to be holding a top hat.
It must have been quite an engineering marvel to construct the bridge like that over such a deep and steep ravine.
The man down in front looks like he’s spearing garbage with his stick, picking up trash.
WHere is this place ???
If you squint your eyes you’ll see this is a kind of triptych: dark on the left, light on the right, and super light in the middle.
Another threesome is the man down in front, the man up on the bridge, and the tree in the distance almost squarely in the middle of the arch.
Is this a real place or someplace imaginary? The spectacular waterfalls in the background make me think this is a fantasy land.
A man down in front of the picture is standing with his back to the viewer, legs akimbo, poking something with a stick in his right hand, and holding what could be a top hat or some other object in his left hand. His hair is gray and I would guess his clothes are not in great shape, although that’s a guess.
At the top of the picture, staring through an opening in the bridge over the ravine, is another man who is so featureless he could be a space alien.
The fantastic buildings have an air of antiquity to them as plants are growing out of the cracks in the wall. Still, the buildings look solid.
I agree with the question Valerie asked, as the setting seems both dreamlike and ultra realistic. Is there a story that this painting is illustrating?