Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: How does Alamo (sculpture) explain its History?

Installed in 1967 as part of "Sculpture and the Environment", organized by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the cube was one of 25 temporary art installations that were intended to remain for a six-month period; however, local residents successfully petitioned the city to keep Alamo. It has since become a popular meeting place in the East Village. It stands in an intersection, across the street from two entrances to the Astor Place subway station, as well as the Cooper Union Foundation Building.The cube rotates around a hidden pole in its center. The cube's sculptor Tony Rosenthal never intended for Alamo to spin, saying in 2005: "I actually thought we would put it on this post and we’d turn it to the position we wanted it and then stick it like that." However, the cube was never locked in place. One observer described spinning the cube as "part of the New York experience".On March 10, 2005, the Parks Department removed the Cube for maintenance. The original artist and crew replaced a missing bolt, and made a few other minor repairs.  A makeshift replica made of polyvinyl chloride tubes, named the Jello Cube in honor of Peter Cooper, was placed in its stead.  In November 2005, the Cube returned with a fresh coat of black paint, still able to spin. In October 2015, the sculpture was covered in a protective wooden box because of the redevelopment of Astor Place, but was eventually removed off-site again for "restoration and repainting" and to keep it "out of harm's way," according to a representative of the New York City Parks Department. On November 1, 2016, the sculpture returned to Astor Place after a $180,000 reconstruction and rust removal. In November 2017, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation celebrated the sculpture's 50th year anniversary of its installation.By May 2022, the New York City Department of Transportation, which was responsible for the sculpture's maintenance, determined that problems with spinning the structure could cause further damage. According to city engineers, the cube was in danger of tipping over if it continued to spin. The city locked it in place with metal braces until additional work on the pivot could eventually prove sufficient to permit it to spin freely again. In May 2023, the DOT announced the cube had been removed and would be refurbished offsite at a Connecticut foundry. The sculpture was returned to Astor Place as in August 2023.

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: In Alamo (sculpture), how is the History discussed?

Installed in 1967 as part of "Sculpture and the Environment", organized by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the cube was one of 25 temporary art installations that were intended to remain for a six-month period; however, local residents successfully petitioned the city to keep Alamo. It has since become a popular meeting place in the East Village. It stands in an intersection, across the street from two entrances to the Astor Place subway station, as well as the Cooper Union Foundation Building.The cube rotates around a hidden pole in its center. The cube's sculptor Tony Rosenthal never intended for Alamo to spin, saying in 2005: "I actually thought we would put it on this post and we’d turn it to the position we wanted it and then stick it like that." However, the cube was never locked in place. One observer described spinning the cube as "part of the New York experience".On March 10, 2005, the Parks Department removed the Cube for maintenance. The original artist and crew replaced a missing bolt, and made a few other minor repairs.  A makeshift replica made of polyvinyl chloride tubes, named the Jello Cube in honor of Peter Cooper, was placed in its stead.  In November 2005, the Cube returned with a fresh coat of black paint, still able to spin. In October 2015, the sculpture was covered in a protective wooden box because of the redevelopment of Astor Place, but was eventually removed off-site again for "restoration and repainting" and to keep it "out of harm's way," according to a representative of the New York City Parks Department. On November 1, 2016, the sculpture returned to Astor Place after a $180,000 reconstruction and rust removal. In November 2017, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation celebrated the sculpture's 50th year anniversary of its installation.By May 2022, the New York City Department of Transportation, which was responsible for the sculpture's maintenance, determined that problems with spinning the structure could cause further damage. According to city engineers, the cube was in danger of tipping over if it continued to spin. The city locked it in place with metal braces until additional work on the pivot could eventually prove sufficient to permit it to spin freely again. In May 2023, the DOT announced the cube had been removed and would be refurbished offsite at a Connecticut foundry. The sculpture was returned to Astor Place as in August 2023.

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: Focus on Alamo (sculpture) and explain the Similar cubes.

Alamo is one of seven similar cubes created by Rosenthal. The identical Endover stands on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Rosenthal earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. The cube was donated by the class of 1965 and was installed in 1968. The Endover cube also rotates but its pivot is sunken into the ground, as opposed to the pivot of the Alamo, which is on a separate platform.

New York City Department of Transportation

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: Explain the Similar cubes of this artwork, Alamo (sculpture).

Alamo is one of seven similar cubes created by Rosenthal. The identical Endover stands on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Rosenthal earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. The cube was donated by the class of 1965 and was installed in 1968. The Endover cube also rotates but its pivot is sunken into the ground, as opposed to the pivot of the Alamo, which is on a separate platform.

New York City Department of Transportation

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: How does Alamo (sculpture) explain its Similar cubes?

Alamo is one of seven similar cubes created by Rosenthal. The identical Endover stands on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Rosenthal earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. The cube was donated by the class of 1965 and was installed in 1968. The Endover cube also rotates but its pivot is sunken into the ground, as opposed to the pivot of the Alamo, which is on a separate platform.

New York City Department of Transportation

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: In Alamo (sculpture), how is the Similar cubes discussed?

Alamo is one of seven similar cubes created by Rosenthal. The identical Endover stands on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Rosenthal earned a bachelor of fine arts degree. The cube was donated by the class of 1965 and was installed in 1968. The Endover cube also rotates but its pivot is sunken into the ground, as opposed to the pivot of the Alamo, which is on a separate platform.

New York City Department of Transportation

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: Focus on Alamo (sculpture) and explain the Pranks.

In June 2003, the Cube was the subject of a prank played by the ATF squad (All Too Flat) in which it was turned into a giant Rubik's Cube. The cube stayed up for about 24 hours before NYC maintenance removed the painted cardboard panels from the sculpture.In March 2006, the Graffiti Research Lab distributed LED throwies to a group of people to throw onto and decorate the Cube.In April 2006, a tub of chalk was left by the Cube and passersby began to draw on it.  Seven individuals were later arrested for vandalism.  The chalk was washed off by NYC maintenance the following morning.In October 2011, the visual artist Olek (Agata Oleksiak) made a crochet covering with their signature camouflage pattern over the cube.On December 14, 2011, Caltech students covered the cube in a fitted cloth, making it resemble the Weighted Companion Cube from the video game Portal.In October 2013, a fake documentary video went viral claiming to show that a man lived inside the cube.For Halloween 2015, a man dressed up as The Cube and stood in its place. At the time Alamo was temporarily off-site because Astor Place was being rebuilt.

New York City Department of Transportation

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: Explain the Pranks of this artwork, Alamo (sculpture).

In June 2003, the Cube was the subject of a prank played by the ATF squad (All Too Flat) in which it was turned into a giant Rubik's Cube. The cube stayed up for about 24 hours before NYC maintenance removed the painted cardboard panels from the sculpture.In March 2006, the Graffiti Research Lab distributed LED throwies to a group of people to throw onto and decorate the Cube.In April 2006, a tub of chalk was left by the Cube and passersby began to draw on it.  Seven individuals were later arrested for vandalism.  The chalk was washed off by NYC maintenance the following morning.In October 2011, the visual artist Olek (Agata Oleksiak) made a crochet covering with their signature camouflage pattern over the cube.On December 14, 2011, Caltech students covered the cube in a fitted cloth, making it resemble the Weighted Companion Cube from the video game Portal.In October 2013, a fake documentary video went viral claiming to show that a man lived inside the cube.For Halloween 2015, a man dressed up as The Cube and stood in its place. At the time Alamo was temporarily off-site because Astor Place was being rebuilt.

New York City Department of Transportation

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: How does Alamo (sculpture) explain its Pranks?

In June 2003, the Cube was the subject of a prank played by the ATF squad (All Too Flat) in which it was turned into a giant Rubik's Cube. The cube stayed up for about 24 hours before NYC maintenance removed the painted cardboard panels from the sculpture.In March 2006, the Graffiti Research Lab distributed LED throwies to a group of people to throw onto and decorate the Cube.In April 2006, a tub of chalk was left by the Cube and passersby began to draw on it.  Seven individuals were later arrested for vandalism.  The chalk was washed off by NYC maintenance the following morning.In October 2011, the visual artist Olek (Agata Oleksiak) made a crochet covering with their signature camouflage pattern over the cube.On December 14, 2011, Caltech students covered the cube in a fitted cloth, making it resemble the Weighted Companion Cube from the video game Portal.In October 2013, a fake documentary video went viral claiming to show that a man lived inside the cube.For Halloween 2015, a man dressed up as The Cube and stood in its place. At the time Alamo was temporarily off-site because Astor Place was being rebuilt.

New York City Department of Transportation

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


Alamo (sculpture)

Prompt: In Alamo (sculpture), how is the Pranks discussed?

In June 2003, the Cube was the subject of a prank played by the ATF squad (All Too Flat) in which it was turned into a giant Rubik's Cube. The cube stayed up for about 24 hours before NYC maintenance removed the painted cardboard panels from the sculpture.In March 2006, the Graffiti Research Lab distributed LED throwies to a group of people to throw onto and decorate the Cube.In April 2006, a tub of chalk was left by the Cube and passersby began to draw on it.  Seven individuals were later arrested for vandalism.  The chalk was washed off by NYC maintenance the following morning.In October 2011, the visual artist Olek (Agata Oleksiak) made a crochet covering with their signature camouflage pattern over the cube.On December 14, 2011, Caltech students covered the cube in a fitted cloth, making it resemble the Weighted Companion Cube from the video game Portal.In October 2013, a fake documentary video went viral claiming to show that a man lived inside the cube.For Halloween 2015, a man dressed up as The Cube and stood in its place. At the time Alamo was temporarily off-site because Astor Place was being rebuilt.

New York City Department of Transportation

The ''Alamo'' in front of an outdoor [[café

Category:Outdoor sculptures in Manhattan

New York City Department of Cultural Affairs

Category:1967 establishments in New York City

New York City Department of Parks and Recreation

Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

Category:Steel sculptures in New York City


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Focus on The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and explain the abstract.

The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis (Dutch: De samenzwering van de Bataven onder Claudius Civilis) is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt, c. 1661–62, which was originally the largest he ever painted, at about five by five metres in the shape of a lunette. The painting was commissioned by the Amsterdam city council for the Town Hall.  After the work had been in place briefly, it was returned to Rembrandt, who may have never been paid. Rembrandt drastically cut down the painting to a quarter of the original size to be sold. It is the last secular history painting he finished.The painting is on exhibition at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Explain the abstract of this artwork, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis.

The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis (Dutch: De samenzwering van de Bataven onder Claudius Civilis) is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt, c. 1661–62, which was originally the largest he ever painted, at about five by five metres in the shape of a lunette. The painting was commissioned by the Amsterdam city council for the Town Hall.  After the work had been in place briefly, it was returned to Rembrandt, who may have never been paid. Rembrandt drastically cut down the painting to a quarter of the original size to be sold. It is the last secular history painting he finished.The painting is on exhibition at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: How does The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis explain its abstract?

The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis (Dutch: De samenzwering van de Bataven onder Claudius Civilis) is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt, c. 1661–62, which was originally the largest he ever painted, at about five by five metres in the shape of a lunette. The painting was commissioned by the Amsterdam city council for the Town Hall.  After the work had been in place briefly, it was returned to Rembrandt, who may have never been paid. Rembrandt drastically cut down the painting to a quarter of the original size to be sold. It is the last secular history painting he finished.The painting is on exhibition at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: In The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, how is the abstract discussed?

The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis (Dutch: De samenzwering van de Bataven onder Claudius Civilis) is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt, c. 1661–62, which was originally the largest he ever painted, at about five by five metres in the shape of a lunette. The painting was commissioned by the Amsterdam city council for the Town Hall.  After the work had been in place briefly, it was returned to Rembrandt, who may have never been paid. Rembrandt drastically cut down the painting to a quarter of the original size to be sold. It is the last secular history painting he finished.The painting is on exhibition at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Focus on The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and explain the Depiction.

The painting follows Tacitus's Histories in depicting an episode from the Batavian rebellion (69–70 AD), led by the one-eyed chieftain Claudius Civilis (actually called Julius Civilis by Tacitus, though but once, Claudius Civilis has since become entrenched in art history), in which he "collected at one of the sacred groves, ostensibly for a banquet, the chiefs of the nation and the boldest spirits of the lower class", convinced them to join his rebellion, and then "bound the whole assembly with barbarous rites and strange forms of oath."Civilis, Tacitus writes, "was unusually intelligent for a native, and passed himself off as a second Sertorius or Hannibal, whose facial disfigurement he shared"—that is to say, the loss of one eye. He feigned friendship with Emperor Vespasian in order to regain his freedom. When he returned to his tribal grounds in the marshes of the Betuwe, he organized the revolt he had long been planning.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Explain the Depiction of this artwork, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis.

The painting follows Tacitus's Histories in depicting an episode from the Batavian rebellion (69–70 AD), led by the one-eyed chieftain Claudius Civilis (actually called Julius Civilis by Tacitus, though but once, Claudius Civilis has since become entrenched in art history), in which he "collected at one of the sacred groves, ostensibly for a banquet, the chiefs of the nation and the boldest spirits of the lower class", convinced them to join his rebellion, and then "bound the whole assembly with barbarous rites and strange forms of oath."Civilis, Tacitus writes, "was unusually intelligent for a native, and passed himself off as a second Sertorius or Hannibal, whose facial disfigurement he shared"—that is to say, the loss of one eye. He feigned friendship with Emperor Vespasian in order to regain his freedom. When he returned to his tribal grounds in the marshes of the Betuwe, he organized the revolt he had long been planning.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: How does The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis explain its Depiction?

The painting follows Tacitus's Histories in depicting an episode from the Batavian rebellion (69–70 AD), led by the one-eyed chieftain Claudius Civilis (actually called Julius Civilis by Tacitus, though but once, Claudius Civilis has since become entrenched in art history), in which he "collected at one of the sacred groves, ostensibly for a banquet, the chiefs of the nation and the boldest spirits of the lower class", convinced them to join his rebellion, and then "bound the whole assembly with barbarous rites and strange forms of oath."Civilis, Tacitus writes, "was unusually intelligent for a native, and passed himself off as a second Sertorius or Hannibal, whose facial disfigurement he shared"—that is to say, the loss of one eye. He feigned friendship with Emperor Vespasian in order to regain his freedom. When he returned to his tribal grounds in the marshes of the Betuwe, he organized the revolt he had long been planning.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: In The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, how is the Depiction discussed?

The painting follows Tacitus's Histories in depicting an episode from the Batavian rebellion (69–70 AD), led by the one-eyed chieftain Claudius Civilis (actually called Julius Civilis by Tacitus, though but once, Claudius Civilis has since become entrenched in art history), in which he "collected at one of the sacred groves, ostensibly for a banquet, the chiefs of the nation and the boldest spirits of the lower class", convinced them to join his rebellion, and then "bound the whole assembly with barbarous rites and strange forms of oath."Civilis, Tacitus writes, "was unusually intelligent for a native, and passed himself off as a second Sertorius or Hannibal, whose facial disfigurement he shared"—that is to say, the loss of one eye. He feigned friendship with Emperor Vespasian in order to regain his freedom. When he returned to his tribal grounds in the marshes of the Betuwe, he organized the revolt he had long been planning.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Focus on The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and explain the Commission.

The painting was commissioned for the gallery of the new city hall on the Dam, finished in 1655 (now the Royal Palace). History paintings were regarded as the highest in the hierarchy of genres in the 17th century (a view Rembrandt shared), and the Batavian revolt was regarded, and romanticised, as a precursor of the recently ended war against the Spanish. In 1659, when John Maurice of Nassau, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, her two daughters and two daughters-in-law came to see the new building, the council commissioned twelve paintings from Rembrandt's ex-pupil Govert Flinck to fill all the large spaces using a programme drawn up by the poet Joost van den Vondel, but Flink  died in 1660 before completing any of the works. The work was then shared out by the burgomasters Joan Huydecoper and Andries de Graeff, who were certainly decisive, between a number of painters including Jacob Jordaens and Jan Lievens. The council provided the canvas to the artist. Rembrandt was commissioned to do the scene from Tacitus, one of eight intended to cover the revolt in the original scheme.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Explain the Commission of this artwork, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis.

The painting was commissioned for the gallery of the new city hall on the Dam, finished in 1655 (now the Royal Palace). History paintings were regarded as the highest in the hierarchy of genres in the 17th century (a view Rembrandt shared), and the Batavian revolt was regarded, and romanticised, as a precursor of the recently ended war against the Spanish. In 1659, when John Maurice of Nassau, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, her two daughters and two daughters-in-law came to see the new building, the council commissioned twelve paintings from Rembrandt's ex-pupil Govert Flinck to fill all the large spaces using a programme drawn up by the poet Joost van den Vondel, but Flink  died in 1660 before completing any of the works. The work was then shared out by the burgomasters Joan Huydecoper and Andries de Graeff, who were certainly decisive, between a number of painters including Jacob Jordaens and Jan Lievens. The council provided the canvas to the artist. Rembrandt was commissioned to do the scene from Tacitus, one of eight intended to cover the revolt in the original scheme.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: How does The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis explain its Commission?

The painting was commissioned for the gallery of the new city hall on the Dam, finished in 1655 (now the Royal Palace). History paintings were regarded as the highest in the hierarchy of genres in the 17th century (a view Rembrandt shared), and the Batavian revolt was regarded, and romanticised, as a precursor of the recently ended war against the Spanish. In 1659, when John Maurice of Nassau, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, her two daughters and two daughters-in-law came to see the new building, the council commissioned twelve paintings from Rembrandt's ex-pupil Govert Flinck to fill all the large spaces using a programme drawn up by the poet Joost van den Vondel, but Flink  died in 1660 before completing any of the works. The work was then shared out by the burgomasters Joan Huydecoper and Andries de Graeff, who were certainly decisive, between a number of painters including Jacob Jordaens and Jan Lievens. The council provided the canvas to the artist. Rembrandt was commissioned to do the scene from Tacitus, one of eight intended to cover the revolt in the original scheme.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: In The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, how is the Commission discussed?

The painting was commissioned for the gallery of the new city hall on the Dam, finished in 1655 (now the Royal Palace). History paintings were regarded as the highest in the hierarchy of genres in the 17th century (a view Rembrandt shared), and the Batavian revolt was regarded, and romanticised, as a precursor of the recently ended war against the Spanish. In 1659, when John Maurice of Nassau, Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, her two daughters and two daughters-in-law came to see the new building, the council commissioned twelve paintings from Rembrandt's ex-pupil Govert Flinck to fill all the large spaces using a programme drawn up by the poet Joost van den Vondel, but Flink  died in 1660 before completing any of the works. The work was then shared out by the burgomasters Joan Huydecoper and Andries de Graeff, who were certainly decisive, between a number of painters including Jacob Jordaens and Jan Lievens. The council provided the canvas to the artist. Rembrandt was commissioned to do the scene from Tacitus, one of eight intended to cover the revolt in the original scheme.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Focus on The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and explain the Treatment and reception.

The sword-oath was invented by Rembrandt. There is one sword more in the painting – the one touching the front of the leader's blade – than Batavians holding them; other depictions of the event show handshakes, especially that engraved in 1612 by Antonio Tempesta as one of a set of thirty-six illustrations to designs by Otto van Veen in the book Batavorum cum Romanis bellum on the revolt. In the following year, the States General had commissioned a set of twelve paintings by Van Veen on the same subject for The Hague.  These baroque works had entered the popular imagination as depictions of the revolt, and Flinck's design drew on the engraving of this scene. Van Veen followed baroque ideas of decorum by always showing Civilis in profile, with only his good eye visible.A sketch survives (on the back of a funeral ticket dated October 1661) that shows that he had transferred the scene from Tacitus's "sacred grove" to a large vaulted hall with open arches.  After delivery, which was by July 1662, the painting hung in place for a short period before being returned to him for reasons that are undocumented, but may have involved perceptions of a lack of the decorum felt necessary for history painting, lack of finish and an insufficiently heroic approach to the story. When all four paintings were in place, the discrepancy was evident.  The council probably expected something similar in style, rather than the ominous grandeur of Rembrandt's conception.  The chiaroscuro is typical of Rembrandt's late works, but the "eerie light and shadow and the iridescent greyish blues and pale yellows" are not.In August 1662, when the painting was still there, Rembrandt signed an agreement giving a "quarter-share of his profits accruing from the piece for the City Hall and his prospective earnings from it." By 24 September 1662, however, when the archbishop and elector of Cologne Maximilian Henry of Bavaria was received in the town hall, Rembrandt's painting was gone.   One objection may well have been the incongruous crown that Rembrandt had set upon Claudius Civilis's head and his dominating the scene, hardly features of a consultative, republican attitude.  Blankert suggested that the painting had too much dark, unused space, compared with the others who had filled the image space with figures in a more conventional manner.For Kenneth Clark: "one need only look at the surviving fragment to see why official opinion could not accept it.... It is a most marvellous picture, but in places it borders on the absurd.  The word Shakespearean is, for once, justifiable.  Rembrandt has evoked the kind of quasi-mythical, heroic-magical past that is the setting for King Lear and Cymbeline, and, as with Shakespeare, this remoteness has allowed him to insert into an episode of primitive grandeur the life-giving roughage of the grotesque [the figures at the extreme sides]".Crenshaw writes that Rembrandt was away for a couple of months, and "... he did not have enough supporters in the right places when obstacles arose."  Instead, Flinck's unfinished work was retrieved and rapidly finished off by the German painter Jürgen Ovens in four days. Ovens, then living in the house and using the studio formerly owned by Flinck, got paid 48 guilders for his work, whereas Flinck was promised 12,000 guilders for the series of twelve paintings.  Jordaens and Lievens received 1,200 guilders for each of their works.  In financial difficulties, Rembrandt was forced to cut it down drastically for easier sale and partly repainted it.  The table was elongated, and he added the man on the left.  In the next few months, Rembrandt was forced to sell the grave of his wife, Saskia.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Explain the Treatment and reception of this artwork, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis.

The sword-oath was invented by Rembrandt. There is one sword more in the painting – the one touching the front of the leader's blade – than Batavians holding them; other depictions of the event show handshakes, especially that engraved in 1612 by Antonio Tempesta as one of a set of thirty-six illustrations to designs by Otto van Veen in the book Batavorum cum Romanis bellum on the revolt. In the following year, the States General had commissioned a set of twelve paintings by Van Veen on the same subject for The Hague.  These baroque works had entered the popular imagination as depictions of the revolt, and Flinck's design drew on the engraving of this scene. Van Veen followed baroque ideas of decorum by always showing Civilis in profile, with only his good eye visible.A sketch survives (on the back of a funeral ticket dated October 1661) that shows that he had transferred the scene from Tacitus's "sacred grove" to a large vaulted hall with open arches.  After delivery, which was by July 1662, the painting hung in place for a short period before being returned to him for reasons that are undocumented, but may have involved perceptions of a lack of the decorum felt necessary for history painting, lack of finish and an insufficiently heroic approach to the story. When all four paintings were in place, the discrepancy was evident.  The council probably expected something similar in style, rather than the ominous grandeur of Rembrandt's conception.  The chiaroscuro is typical of Rembrandt's late works, but the "eerie light and shadow and the iridescent greyish blues and pale yellows" are not.In August 1662, when the painting was still there, Rembrandt signed an agreement giving a "quarter-share of his profits accruing from the piece for the City Hall and his prospective earnings from it." By 24 September 1662, however, when the archbishop and elector of Cologne Maximilian Henry of Bavaria was received in the town hall, Rembrandt's painting was gone.   One objection may well have been the incongruous crown that Rembrandt had set upon Claudius Civilis's head and his dominating the scene, hardly features of a consultative, republican attitude.  Blankert suggested that the painting had too much dark, unused space, compared with the others who had filled the image space with figures in a more conventional manner.For Kenneth Clark: "one need only look at the surviving fragment to see why official opinion could not accept it.... It is a most marvellous picture, but in places it borders on the absurd.  The word Shakespearean is, for once, justifiable.  Rembrandt has evoked the kind of quasi-mythical, heroic-magical past that is the setting for King Lear and Cymbeline, and, as with Shakespeare, this remoteness has allowed him to insert into an episode of primitive grandeur the life-giving roughage of the grotesque [the figures at the extreme sides]".Crenshaw writes that Rembrandt was away for a couple of months, and "... he did not have enough supporters in the right places when obstacles arose."  Instead, Flinck's unfinished work was retrieved and rapidly finished off by the German painter Jürgen Ovens in four days. Ovens, then living in the house and using the studio formerly owned by Flinck, got paid 48 guilders for his work, whereas Flinck was promised 12,000 guilders for the series of twelve paintings.  Jordaens and Lievens received 1,200 guilders for each of their works.  In financial difficulties, Rembrandt was forced to cut it down drastically for easier sale and partly repainted it.  The table was elongated, and he added the man on the left.  In the next few months, Rembrandt was forced to sell the grave of his wife, Saskia.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: How does The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis explain its Treatment and reception?

The sword-oath was invented by Rembrandt. There is one sword more in the painting – the one touching the front of the leader's blade – than Batavians holding them; other depictions of the event show handshakes, especially that engraved in 1612 by Antonio Tempesta as one of a set of thirty-six illustrations to designs by Otto van Veen in the book Batavorum cum Romanis bellum on the revolt. In the following year, the States General had commissioned a set of twelve paintings by Van Veen on the same subject for The Hague.  These baroque works had entered the popular imagination as depictions of the revolt, and Flinck's design drew on the engraving of this scene. Van Veen followed baroque ideas of decorum by always showing Civilis in profile, with only his good eye visible.A sketch survives (on the back of a funeral ticket dated October 1661) that shows that he had transferred the scene from Tacitus's "sacred grove" to a large vaulted hall with open arches.  After delivery, which was by July 1662, the painting hung in place for a short period before being returned to him for reasons that are undocumented, but may have involved perceptions of a lack of the decorum felt necessary for history painting, lack of finish and an insufficiently heroic approach to the story. When all four paintings were in place, the discrepancy was evident.  The council probably expected something similar in style, rather than the ominous grandeur of Rembrandt's conception.  The chiaroscuro is typical of Rembrandt's late works, but the "eerie light and shadow and the iridescent greyish blues and pale yellows" are not.In August 1662, when the painting was still there, Rembrandt signed an agreement giving a "quarter-share of his profits accruing from the piece for the City Hall and his prospective earnings from it." By 24 September 1662, however, when the archbishop and elector of Cologne Maximilian Henry of Bavaria was received in the town hall, Rembrandt's painting was gone.   One objection may well have been the incongruous crown that Rembrandt had set upon Claudius Civilis's head and his dominating the scene, hardly features of a consultative, republican attitude.  Blankert suggested that the painting had too much dark, unused space, compared with the others who had filled the image space with figures in a more conventional manner.For Kenneth Clark: "one need only look at the surviving fragment to see why official opinion could not accept it.... It is a most marvellous picture, but in places it borders on the absurd.  The word Shakespearean is, for once, justifiable.  Rembrandt has evoked the kind of quasi-mythical, heroic-magical past that is the setting for King Lear and Cymbeline, and, as with Shakespeare, this remoteness has allowed him to insert into an episode of primitive grandeur the life-giving roughage of the grotesque [the figures at the extreme sides]".Crenshaw writes that Rembrandt was away for a couple of months, and "... he did not have enough supporters in the right places when obstacles arose."  Instead, Flinck's unfinished work was retrieved and rapidly finished off by the German painter Jürgen Ovens in four days. Ovens, then living in the house and using the studio formerly owned by Flinck, got paid 48 guilders for his work, whereas Flinck was promised 12,000 guilders for the series of twelve paintings.  Jordaens and Lievens received 1,200 guilders for each of their works.  In financial difficulties, Rembrandt was forced to cut it down drastically for easier sale and partly repainted it.  The table was elongated, and he added the man on the left.  In the next few months, Rembrandt was forced to sell the grave of his wife, Saskia.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: In The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, how is the Treatment and reception discussed?

The sword-oath was invented by Rembrandt. There is one sword more in the painting – the one touching the front of the leader's blade – than Batavians holding them; other depictions of the event show handshakes, especially that engraved in 1612 by Antonio Tempesta as one of a set of thirty-six illustrations to designs by Otto van Veen in the book Batavorum cum Romanis bellum on the revolt. In the following year, the States General had commissioned a set of twelve paintings by Van Veen on the same subject for The Hague.  These baroque works had entered the popular imagination as depictions of the revolt, and Flinck's design drew on the engraving of this scene. Van Veen followed baroque ideas of decorum by always showing Civilis in profile, with only his good eye visible.A sketch survives (on the back of a funeral ticket dated October 1661) that shows that he had transferred the scene from Tacitus's "sacred grove" to a large vaulted hall with open arches.  After delivery, which was by July 1662, the painting hung in place for a short period before being returned to him for reasons that are undocumented, but may have involved perceptions of a lack of the decorum felt necessary for history painting, lack of finish and an insufficiently heroic approach to the story. When all four paintings were in place, the discrepancy was evident.  The council probably expected something similar in style, rather than the ominous grandeur of Rembrandt's conception.  The chiaroscuro is typical of Rembrandt's late works, but the "eerie light and shadow and the iridescent greyish blues and pale yellows" are not.In August 1662, when the painting was still there, Rembrandt signed an agreement giving a "quarter-share of his profits accruing from the piece for the City Hall and his prospective earnings from it." By 24 September 1662, however, when the archbishop and elector of Cologne Maximilian Henry of Bavaria was received in the town hall, Rembrandt's painting was gone.   One objection may well have been the incongruous crown that Rembrandt had set upon Claudius Civilis's head and his dominating the scene, hardly features of a consultative, republican attitude.  Blankert suggested that the painting had too much dark, unused space, compared with the others who had filled the image space with figures in a more conventional manner.For Kenneth Clark: "one need only look at the surviving fragment to see why official opinion could not accept it.... It is a most marvellous picture, but in places it borders on the absurd.  The word Shakespearean is, for once, justifiable.  Rembrandt has evoked the kind of quasi-mythical, heroic-magical past that is the setting for King Lear and Cymbeline, and, as with Shakespeare, this remoteness has allowed him to insert into an episode of primitive grandeur the life-giving roughage of the grotesque [the figures at the extreme sides]".Crenshaw writes that Rembrandt was away for a couple of months, and "... he did not have enough supporters in the right places when obstacles arose."  Instead, Flinck's unfinished work was retrieved and rapidly finished off by the German painter Jürgen Ovens in four days. Ovens, then living in the house and using the studio formerly owned by Flinck, got paid 48 guilders for his work, whereas Flinck was promised 12,000 guilders for the series of twelve paintings.  Jordaens and Lievens received 1,200 guilders for each of their works.  In financial difficulties, Rembrandt was forced to cut it down drastically for easier sale and partly repainted it.  The table was elongated, and he added the man on the left.  In the next few months, Rembrandt was forced to sell the grave of his wife, Saskia.

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Focus on The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and explain the Later history.

On 10 August 1734, the painting was bought at auction in Amsterdam by the merchant Nicolaas Kohl from Arensborg (1675–1751). Supposedly it came to Sweden as inheritance from Kohl's widow, Sophia Grill, who died in 1766 in Zwammerdam (Netherlands).  It was acquired by Anna Johanna Grill, the sole daughter of the wealthy Claes Grill. Anna Johanna (1745–1801) was married to the Stockholm merchant Henrik Wilhelm Peill (1730–1797). Probably on the advice of artist friends, perhaps because of its size, Peill deposited the painting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. It can be seen hanging on the wall in the background of a painting by Elias Martin of the visit of King Gustav III to the Academy in 1782. In 1785 the painting was transferred to the Stockholm Palace. In 1798, the work was donated to the Academy of Fine Arts by Anna Johanna Grill, the widow of Peill and the sister of Adolf Ulric Grill, who was a member and for a while president of the Academy.Peill, who had previously supported the King financially in his coup d'état in 1772, complied, and a plan of the royal collection shows the painting in a central position in one of the galleries. Around 1782, the painting was restored by conservator Erik Hallblad. Hallblad (1720–1814), who had developed or learnt a method for transferring an oil painting from one canvas to another, removed the paint layer from Rembrandt's original canvas and attached it to a new one. Some damage appears to have occurred during this risky process; the extra sword now seen on the painting was probably added by Hallblad to mask this. The painting is still owned by the Academy of Arts but has been deposited since 1864 in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.In the beginning of the twentieth century, a Danish author, Karl Madsen, noticed the sketch from Munich and assumed that Rembrandt—after his bankruptcy—fled to Sweden. He suggested that Rembrandt had painted the one-eyed Northern god, king and priest Odin. In fact, Rembrandt's burial in Westerkerk was discovered in 1866, and the true history of the painting had been published in 1891.In March 2008, the Academy valued the painting at 750 million kronor (£61m, or $123m), but then put it on sale at 300 million kronor (£24m, or $49m—that is, at a 60% discount), on the condition that it be deposited straight back to the museum, and shown there as before, after purchase.  This unusual measure was taken in order to raise money for exhibitions and other activities. Ultimately the painting did not find a buyer, and the Academy retained ownership.[1]The painting later traveled to Amsterdam  for an exhibition on Late Rembrandt, and was on display at the Rijksmuseum next to The Night Watch.From May 2017 till September 2018, the painting was the centerpiece of a special Rembrandt exhibit at the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Gothenburg, Sweden.Thereafter it returned to the National Museum, which pays the Academy SEK400,000 per annum to display it. In 2023 an anonymous donor provided funding to allow the arrangement to continue.[2]

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: Explain the Later history of this artwork, The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis.

On 10 August 1734, the painting was bought at auction in Amsterdam by the merchant Nicolaas Kohl from Arensborg (1675–1751). Supposedly it came to Sweden as inheritance from Kohl's widow, Sophia Grill, who died in 1766 in Zwammerdam (Netherlands).  It was acquired by Anna Johanna Grill, the sole daughter of the wealthy Claes Grill. Anna Johanna (1745–1801) was married to the Stockholm merchant Henrik Wilhelm Peill (1730–1797). Probably on the advice of artist friends, perhaps because of its size, Peill deposited the painting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. It can be seen hanging on the wall in the background of a painting by Elias Martin of the visit of King Gustav III to the Academy in 1782. In 1785 the painting was transferred to the Stockholm Palace. In 1798, the work was donated to the Academy of Fine Arts by Anna Johanna Grill, the widow of Peill and the sister of Adolf Ulric Grill, who was a member and for a while president of the Academy.Peill, who had previously supported the King financially in his coup d'état in 1772, complied, and a plan of the royal collection shows the painting in a central position in one of the galleries. Around 1782, the painting was restored by conservator Erik Hallblad. Hallblad (1720–1814), who had developed or learnt a method for transferring an oil painting from one canvas to another, removed the paint layer from Rembrandt's original canvas and attached it to a new one. Some damage appears to have occurred during this risky process; the extra sword now seen on the painting was probably added by Hallblad to mask this. The painting is still owned by the Academy of Arts but has been deposited since 1864 in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.In the beginning of the twentieth century, a Danish author, Karl Madsen, noticed the sketch from Munich and assumed that Rembrandt—after his bankruptcy—fled to Sweden. He suggested that Rembrandt had painted the one-eyed Northern god, king and priest Odin. In fact, Rembrandt's burial in Westerkerk was discovered in 1866, and the true history of the painting had been published in 1891.In March 2008, the Academy valued the painting at 750 million kronor (£61m, or $123m), but then put it on sale at 300 million kronor (£24m, or $49m—that is, at a 60% discount), on the condition that it be deposited straight back to the museum, and shown there as before, after purchase.  This unusual measure was taken in order to raise money for exhibitions and other activities. Ultimately the painting did not find a buyer, and the Academy retained ownership.[1]The painting later traveled to Amsterdam  for an exhibition on Late Rembrandt, and was on display at the Rijksmuseum next to The Night Watch.From May 2017 till September 2018, the painting was the centerpiece of a special Rembrandt exhibit at the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Gothenburg, Sweden.Thereafter it returned to the National Museum, which pays the Academy SEK400,000 per annum to display it. In 2023 an anonymous donor provided funding to allow the arrangement to continue.[2]

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: How does The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis explain its Later history?

On 10 August 1734, the painting was bought at auction in Amsterdam by the merchant Nicolaas Kohl from Arensborg (1675–1751). Supposedly it came to Sweden as inheritance from Kohl's widow, Sophia Grill, who died in 1766 in Zwammerdam (Netherlands).  It was acquired by Anna Johanna Grill, the sole daughter of the wealthy Claes Grill. Anna Johanna (1745–1801) was married to the Stockholm merchant Henrik Wilhelm Peill (1730–1797). Probably on the advice of artist friends, perhaps because of its size, Peill deposited the painting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. It can be seen hanging on the wall in the background of a painting by Elias Martin of the visit of King Gustav III to the Academy in 1782. In 1785 the painting was transferred to the Stockholm Palace. In 1798, the work was donated to the Academy of Fine Arts by Anna Johanna Grill, the widow of Peill and the sister of Adolf Ulric Grill, who was a member and for a while president of the Academy.Peill, who had previously supported the King financially in his coup d'état in 1772, complied, and a plan of the royal collection shows the painting in a central position in one of the galleries. Around 1782, the painting was restored by conservator Erik Hallblad. Hallblad (1720–1814), who had developed or learnt a method for transferring an oil painting from one canvas to another, removed the paint layer from Rembrandt's original canvas and attached it to a new one. Some damage appears to have occurred during this risky process; the extra sword now seen on the painting was probably added by Hallblad to mask this. The painting is still owned by the Academy of Arts but has been deposited since 1864 in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.In the beginning of the twentieth century, a Danish author, Karl Madsen, noticed the sketch from Munich and assumed that Rembrandt—after his bankruptcy—fled to Sweden. He suggested that Rembrandt had painted the one-eyed Northern god, king and priest Odin. In fact, Rembrandt's burial in Westerkerk was discovered in 1866, and the true history of the painting had been published in 1891.In March 2008, the Academy valued the painting at 750 million kronor (£61m, or $123m), but then put it on sale at 300 million kronor (£24m, or $49m—that is, at a 60% discount), on the condition that it be deposited straight back to the museum, and shown there as before, after purchase.  This unusual measure was taken in order to raise money for exhibitions and other activities. Ultimately the painting did not find a buyer, and the Academy retained ownership.[1]The painting later traveled to Amsterdam  for an exhibition on Late Rembrandt, and was on display at the Rijksmuseum next to The Night Watch.From May 2017 till September 2018, the painting was the centerpiece of a special Rembrandt exhibit at the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Gothenburg, Sweden.Thereafter it returned to the National Museum, which pays the Academy SEK400,000 per annum to display it. In 2023 an anonymous donor provided funding to allow the arrangement to continue.[2]

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis

Prompt: In The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis, how is the Later history discussed?

On 10 August 1734, the painting was bought at auction in Amsterdam by the merchant Nicolaas Kohl from Arensborg (1675–1751). Supposedly it came to Sweden as inheritance from Kohl's widow, Sophia Grill, who died in 1766 in Zwammerdam (Netherlands).  It was acquired by Anna Johanna Grill, the sole daughter of the wealthy Claes Grill. Anna Johanna (1745–1801) was married to the Stockholm merchant Henrik Wilhelm Peill (1730–1797). Probably on the advice of artist friends, perhaps because of its size, Peill deposited the painting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts. It can be seen hanging on the wall in the background of a painting by Elias Martin of the visit of King Gustav III to the Academy in 1782. In 1785 the painting was transferred to the Stockholm Palace. In 1798, the work was donated to the Academy of Fine Arts by Anna Johanna Grill, the widow of Peill and the sister of Adolf Ulric Grill, who was a member and for a while president of the Academy.Peill, who had previously supported the King financially in his coup d'état in 1772, complied, and a plan of the royal collection shows the painting in a central position in one of the galleries. Around 1782, the painting was restored by conservator Erik Hallblad. Hallblad (1720–1814), who had developed or learnt a method for transferring an oil painting from one canvas to another, removed the paint layer from Rembrandt's original canvas and attached it to a new one. Some damage appears to have occurred during this risky process; the extra sword now seen on the painting was probably added by Hallblad to mask this. The painting is still owned by the Academy of Arts but has been deposited since 1864 in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm.In the beginning of the twentieth century, a Danish author, Karl Madsen, noticed the sketch from Munich and assumed that Rembrandt—after his bankruptcy—fled to Sweden. He suggested that Rembrandt had painted the one-eyed Northern god, king and priest Odin. In fact, Rembrandt's burial in Westerkerk was discovered in 1866, and the true history of the painting had been published in 1891.In March 2008, the Academy valued the painting at 750 million kronor (£61m, or $123m), but then put it on sale at 300 million kronor (£24m, or $49m—that is, at a 60% discount), on the condition that it be deposited straight back to the museum, and shown there as before, after purchase.  This unusual measure was taken in order to raise money for exhibitions and other activities. Ultimately the painting did not find a buyer, and the Academy retained ownership.[1]The painting later traveled to Amsterdam  for an exhibition on Late Rembrandt, and was on display at the Rijksmuseum next to The Night Watch.From May 2017 till September 2018, the painting was the centerpiece of a special Rembrandt exhibit at the Gothenburg Museum of Art in Gothenburg, Sweden.Thereafter it returned to the National Museum, which pays the Academy SEK400,000 per annum to display it. In 2023 an anonymous donor provided funding to allow the arrangement to continue.[2]

Category:Cultural depictions of Dutch people

File:Gustav IIIs visit to the Royal Academy of Arts.jpg

File:De samenzwering van Claudius Civilis met de Bataven in het Schakerbos Rijksmuseum SK-A-422.jpeg

Category:Paintings in the Nationalmuseum Stockholm

''The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis and the Batavians in the Schakerbos'' by Otto van Veen

Funeral ticket sketch (see text), October 1661 or later.

Category:Paintings based on works by Tacitus

Floorplan second floor (1661) Rembrandt's ''Conspiracy'' was in the lower left corner

Inside the palace on the second floor, with one of the lunettes by Jordaens

Category:Ancient Rome in art and culture


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: Focus on Spirit of the Dead Watching and explain the abstract.

Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau) is an 1892 oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a nude Tahitian girl lying on her stomach. An old woman is seated behind her. Gauguin said the title may refer to either the girl imagining the ghost, or the ghost imagining her.

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: Explain the abstract of this artwork, Spirit of the Dead Watching.

Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau) is an 1892 oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a nude Tahitian girl lying on her stomach. An old woman is seated behind her. Gauguin said the title may refer to either the girl imagining the ghost, or the ghost imagining her.

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: How does Spirit of the Dead Watching explain its abstract?

Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau) is an 1892 oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a nude Tahitian girl lying on her stomach. An old woman is seated behind her. Gauguin said the title may refer to either the girl imagining the ghost, or the ghost imagining her.

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: In Spirit of the Dead Watching, how is the abstract discussed?

Spirit of the Dead Watching (Manao tupapau) is an 1892 oil on burlap canvas painting by Paul Gauguin, depicting a nude Tahitian girl lying on her stomach. An old woman is seated behind her. Gauguin said the title may refer to either the girl imagining the ghost, or the ghost imagining her.

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: Focus on Spirit of the Dead Watching and explain the Subject.

The subject of the painting is Gauguin's 13-year-old native "wife" Teha'amana (called Tehura in his letters), who one night, according to Gauguin, was lying in fear when he arrived home late: "immobile, naked, lying face downward flat on the bed with the eyes inordinately large with fear [...] Might she not with my frightened face take me for one of the demons and specters, one of the Tupapaus, with which the legends of her race people sleepless nights?" Gauguin was suffering from advanced venereal disease when he came to Tahiti, and he passed it onto Teha'amana, who was his first sexual partner on the island.Art historian Nancy Mowll Mathews says the painting is a direct descendant of a previous series of "frightened Eves" that Gauguin painted from 1889. His 1889 Breton Eve, shown at the Volpini exhibition of 1889, represented Eve as in fear of the snake, reinterpreting the traditional Christian theme of innocence before the fall. In his letter of 8 December 1892 to his wife Mette (famously neglecting to mention that the girl in question was his lover), he says "I painted a nude of a young girl. In this position she is on the verge of being indecent. But I want it that way: the lines and movement are interesting to me. And so, I give her, in depicting the head, a bit of a fright." He then needed to find a pretext for the girl's emotions. At first (in his letter to Mette) Gauguin made the old woman the subject of her fright, but later in his account in Noa Noa made himself the subject of her fear. Mathews says it is too simple to attribute Tehura's terror to her belief in spirits and irrational fear of the dark; she says, following Sweetman, that Gauguin's sexual predilections should not be ignored when trying to understand the work. Rather, she suggests the girl's fear was a response to Gauguin's aggressive behavior, consistent with his known physical abuse of his wife Mette, the submissive fear in her eyes his erotic reward.Stephen F. Eisenman, professor of Art History at Northwestern University, suggests the painting and its narrative is "a veritable encyclopaedia of colonial racism and misogyny". Eisenman's book Gauguin's Skirt challenges conventional notions of the political and gender content of Gauguin's paintings. In Spirit he sees parallels not only with Manet's Olympia (see below), but also with the Louvre Hermaphrodite in the boyishness of the features and the a tergo posture. The androgynous depiction is in keeping with Polynesian cosmology and its stress on the dual nature of things.Other historians such as Naomi E. Maurer have viewed the narrative as a device to make the indecency of the subject more acceptable to a European audience.The painting appears (as a mirror image) in the background of another Gauguin painting, his Self-portrait with Hat, indicating the importance he attached to it.

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: Explain the Subject of this artwork, Spirit of the Dead Watching.

The subject of the painting is Gauguin's 13-year-old native "wife" Teha'amana (called Tehura in his letters), who one night, according to Gauguin, was lying in fear when he arrived home late: "immobile, naked, lying face downward flat on the bed with the eyes inordinately large with fear [...] Might she not with my frightened face take me for one of the demons and specters, one of the Tupapaus, with which the legends of her race people sleepless nights?" Gauguin was suffering from advanced venereal disease when he came to Tahiti, and he passed it onto Teha'amana, who was his first sexual partner on the island.Art historian Nancy Mowll Mathews says the painting is a direct descendant of a previous series of "frightened Eves" that Gauguin painted from 1889. His 1889 Breton Eve, shown at the Volpini exhibition of 1889, represented Eve as in fear of the snake, reinterpreting the traditional Christian theme of innocence before the fall. In his letter of 8 December 1892 to his wife Mette (famously neglecting to mention that the girl in question was his lover), he says "I painted a nude of a young girl. In this position she is on the verge of being indecent. But I want it that way: the lines and movement are interesting to me. And so, I give her, in depicting the head, a bit of a fright." He then needed to find a pretext for the girl's emotions. At first (in his letter to Mette) Gauguin made the old woman the subject of her fright, but later in his account in Noa Noa made himself the subject of her fear. Mathews says it is too simple to attribute Tehura's terror to her belief in spirits and irrational fear of the dark; she says, following Sweetman, that Gauguin's sexual predilections should not be ignored when trying to understand the work. Rather, she suggests the girl's fear was a response to Gauguin's aggressive behavior, consistent with his known physical abuse of his wife Mette, the submissive fear in her eyes his erotic reward.Stephen F. Eisenman, professor of Art History at Northwestern University, suggests the painting and its narrative is "a veritable encyclopaedia of colonial racism and misogyny". Eisenman's book Gauguin's Skirt challenges conventional notions of the political and gender content of Gauguin's paintings. In Spirit he sees parallels not only with Manet's Olympia (see below), but also with the Louvre Hermaphrodite in the boyishness of the features and the a tergo posture. The androgynous depiction is in keeping with Polynesian cosmology and its stress on the dual nature of things.Other historians such as Naomi E. Maurer have viewed the narrative as a device to make the indecency of the subject more acceptable to a European audience.The painting appears (as a mirror image) in the background of another Gauguin painting, his Self-portrait with Hat, indicating the importance he attached to it.

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: How does Spirit of the Dead Watching explain its Subject?

The subject of the painting is Gauguin's 13-year-old native "wife" Teha'amana (called Tehura in his letters), who one night, according to Gauguin, was lying in fear when he arrived home late: "immobile, naked, lying face downward flat on the bed with the eyes inordinately large with fear [...] Might she not with my frightened face take me for one of the demons and specters, one of the Tupapaus, with which the legends of her race people sleepless nights?" Gauguin was suffering from advanced venereal disease when he came to Tahiti, and he passed it onto Teha'amana, who was his first sexual partner on the island.Art historian Nancy Mowll Mathews says the painting is a direct descendant of a previous series of "frightened Eves" that Gauguin painted from 1889. His 1889 Breton Eve, shown at the Volpini exhibition of 1889, represented Eve as in fear of the snake, reinterpreting the traditional Christian theme of innocence before the fall. In his letter of 8 December 1892 to his wife Mette (famously neglecting to mention that the girl in question was his lover), he says "I painted a nude of a young girl. In this position she is on the verge of being indecent. But I want it that way: the lines and movement are interesting to me. And so, I give her, in depicting the head, a bit of a fright." He then needed to find a pretext for the girl's emotions. At first (in his letter to Mette) Gauguin made the old woman the subject of her fright, but later in his account in Noa Noa made himself the subject of her fear. Mathews says it is too simple to attribute Tehura's terror to her belief in spirits and irrational fear of the dark; she says, following Sweetman, that Gauguin's sexual predilections should not be ignored when trying to understand the work. Rather, she suggests the girl's fear was a response to Gauguin's aggressive behavior, consistent with his known physical abuse of his wife Mette, the submissive fear in her eyes his erotic reward.Stephen F. Eisenman, professor of Art History at Northwestern University, suggests the painting and its narrative is "a veritable encyclopaedia of colonial racism and misogyny". Eisenman's book Gauguin's Skirt challenges conventional notions of the political and gender content of Gauguin's paintings. In Spirit he sees parallels not only with Manet's Olympia (see below), but also with the Louvre Hermaphrodite in the boyishness of the features and the a tergo posture. The androgynous depiction is in keeping with Polynesian cosmology and its stress on the dual nature of things.Other historians such as Naomi E. Maurer have viewed the narrative as a device to make the indecency of the subject more acceptable to a European audience.The painting appears (as a mirror image) in the background of another Gauguin painting, his Self-portrait with Hat, indicating the importance he attached to it.

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: In Spirit of the Dead Watching, how is the Subject discussed?

The subject of the painting is Gauguin's 13-year-old native "wife" Teha'amana (called Tehura in his letters), who one night, according to Gauguin, was lying in fear when he arrived home late: "immobile, naked, lying face downward flat on the bed with the eyes inordinately large with fear [...] Might she not with my frightened face take me for one of the demons and specters, one of the Tupapaus, with which the legends of her race people sleepless nights?" Gauguin was suffering from advanced venereal disease when he came to Tahiti, and he passed it onto Teha'amana, who was his first sexual partner on the island.Art historian Nancy Mowll Mathews says the painting is a direct descendant of a previous series of "frightened Eves" that Gauguin painted from 1889. His 1889 Breton Eve, shown at the Volpini exhibition of 1889, represented Eve as in fear of the snake, reinterpreting the traditional Christian theme of innocence before the fall. In his letter of 8 December 1892 to his wife Mette (famously neglecting to mention that the girl in question was his lover), he says "I painted a nude of a young girl. In this position she is on the verge of being indecent. But I want it that way: the lines and movement are interesting to me. And so, I give her, in depicting the head, a bit of a fright." He then needed to find a pretext for the girl's emotions. At first (in his letter to Mette) Gauguin made the old woman the subject of her fright, but later in his account in Noa Noa made himself the subject of her fear. Mathews says it is too simple to attribute Tehura's terror to her belief in spirits and irrational fear of the dark; she says, following Sweetman, that Gauguin's sexual predilections should not be ignored when trying to understand the work. Rather, she suggests the girl's fear was a response to Gauguin's aggressive behavior, consistent with his known physical abuse of his wife Mette, the submissive fear in her eyes his erotic reward.Stephen F. Eisenman, professor of Art History at Northwestern University, suggests the painting and its narrative is "a veritable encyclopaedia of colonial racism and misogyny". Eisenman's book Gauguin's Skirt challenges conventional notions of the political and gender content of Gauguin's paintings. In Spirit he sees parallels not only with Manet's Olympia (see below), but also with the Louvre Hermaphrodite in the boyishness of the features and the a tergo posture. The androgynous depiction is in keeping with Polynesian cosmology and its stress on the dual nature of things.Other historians such as Naomi E. Maurer have viewed the narrative as a device to make the indecency of the subject more acceptable to a European audience.The painting appears (as a mirror image) in the background of another Gauguin painting, his Self-portrait with Hat, indicating the importance he attached to it.

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: Focus on Spirit of the Dead Watching and explain the Relation to Édouard Manet's Olympia.

Gauguin was an admirer of  Édouard Manet's 1863 Olympia. He had seen it exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle and commented in a review, "La Belle Olympia, who once caused such a scandal, is esconced there like the pretty woman she is, and draws not a few appreciative glances". After the French state purchased Olympia from Manet's widow, with funds from a public subscription organised by Claude Monet, Gauguin took the opportunity to make a three-quarter size copy when it was exhibited in the Musée du Luxembourg. The copy is not an especially faithful one and it is thought he completed it from a photograph. Edgar Degas later purchased it for 230 francs at Gauguin's 1895 auction of his paintings to raise funds for his return to Tahiti. It is known that Gauguin took a photograph of Manet's Olympia with him on his first visit to Tahiti. Claire Frèches-Thory remarks that Olympia, the modern equivalent of Titian's Venus of Urbino, is a constant presence in Gauguin's great nudes of the South Pacific: Spirit of the Dead Watching, Te arii vahine, and Nevermore.When Gauguin exhibited Spirit of the Dead Watching at his largely unsuccessful 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition (in particular he failed to sell Spirit at the elevated 3,000 francs he had set for it), several critics noted the compositional similarities with Olympia. Thadée Natanson, a founder of La Revue Blanche,  called it the "Olympia of Tahiti", while Alfred Jarry, more pointedly, dubbed it "the brown Olympia".

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: Explain the Relation to Édouard Manet's Olympia of this artwork, Spirit of the Dead Watching.

Gauguin was an admirer of  Édouard Manet's 1863 Olympia. He had seen it exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle and commented in a review, "La Belle Olympia, who once caused such a scandal, is esconced there like the pretty woman she is, and draws not a few appreciative glances". After the French state purchased Olympia from Manet's widow, with funds from a public subscription organised by Claude Monet, Gauguin took the opportunity to make a three-quarter size copy when it was exhibited in the Musée du Luxembourg. The copy is not an especially faithful one and it is thought he completed it from a photograph. Edgar Degas later purchased it for 230 francs at Gauguin's 1895 auction of his paintings to raise funds for his return to Tahiti. It is known that Gauguin took a photograph of Manet's Olympia with him on his first visit to Tahiti. Claire Frèches-Thory remarks that Olympia, the modern equivalent of Titian's Venus of Urbino, is a constant presence in Gauguin's great nudes of the South Pacific: Spirit of the Dead Watching, Te arii vahine, and Nevermore.When Gauguin exhibited Spirit of the Dead Watching at his largely unsuccessful 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition (in particular he failed to sell Spirit at the elevated 3,000 francs he had set for it), several critics noted the compositional similarities with Olympia. Thadée Natanson, a founder of La Revue Blanche,  called it the "Olympia of Tahiti", while Alfred Jarry, more pointedly, dubbed it "the brown Olympia".

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: How does Spirit of the Dead Watching explain its Relation to Édouard Manet's Olympia?

Gauguin was an admirer of  Édouard Manet's 1863 Olympia. He had seen it exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle and commented in a review, "La Belle Olympia, who once caused such a scandal, is esconced there like the pretty woman she is, and draws not a few appreciative glances". After the French state purchased Olympia from Manet's widow, with funds from a public subscription organised by Claude Monet, Gauguin took the opportunity to make a three-quarter size copy when it was exhibited in the Musée du Luxembourg. The copy is not an especially faithful one and it is thought he completed it from a photograph. Edgar Degas later purchased it for 230 francs at Gauguin's 1895 auction of his paintings to raise funds for his return to Tahiti. It is known that Gauguin took a photograph of Manet's Olympia with him on his first visit to Tahiti. Claire Frèches-Thory remarks that Olympia, the modern equivalent of Titian's Venus of Urbino, is a constant presence in Gauguin's great nudes of the South Pacific: Spirit of the Dead Watching, Te arii vahine, and Nevermore.When Gauguin exhibited Spirit of the Dead Watching at his largely unsuccessful 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition (in particular he failed to sell Spirit at the elevated 3,000 francs he had set for it), several critics noted the compositional similarities with Olympia. Thadée Natanson, a founder of La Revue Blanche,  called it the "Olympia of Tahiti", while Alfred Jarry, more pointedly, dubbed it "the brown Olympia".

File:Paul Gauguin - Texte manuscrit illustré avec une femme assise - RF 7259, 70.jpg

''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg


Spirit of the Dead Watching

Prompt: In Spirit of the Dead Watching, how is the Relation to Édouard Manet's Olympia discussed?

Gauguin was an admirer of  Édouard Manet's 1863 Olympia. He had seen it exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle and commented in a review, "La Belle Olympia, who once caused such a scandal, is esconced there like the pretty woman she is, and draws not a few appreciative glances". After the French state purchased Olympia from Manet's widow, with funds from a public subscription organised by Claude Monet, Gauguin took the opportunity to make a three-quarter size copy when it was exhibited in the Musée du Luxembourg. The copy is not an especially faithful one and it is thought he completed it from a photograph. Edgar Degas later purchased it for 230 francs at Gauguin's 1895 auction of his paintings to raise funds for his return to Tahiti. It is known that Gauguin took a photograph of Manet's Olympia with him on his first visit to Tahiti. Claire Frèches-Thory remarks that Olympia, the modern equivalent of Titian's Venus of Urbino, is a constant presence in Gauguin's great nudes of the South Pacific: Spirit of the Dead Watching, Te arii vahine, and Nevermore.When Gauguin exhibited Spirit of the Dead Watching at his largely unsuccessful 1893 Durand-Ruel exhibition (in particular he failed to sell Spirit at the elevated 3,000 francs he had set for it), several critics noted the compositional similarities with Olympia. Thadée Natanson, a founder of La Revue Blanche,  called it the "Olympia of Tahiti", while Alfred Jarry, more pointedly, dubbed it "the brown Olympia".

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''Cahier pour Aline: Genèse d'un tableau'', 1893, Bibliothèque de l'Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris

David Pierre Giottino Humbert de Superville's

File:Paul Gauguin - Cahier pour Aline - Spirit of the Dead Watching.jpg

''Le Conteur Parle'' (Louvre manuscript), 1893–97, [[Louvre

Institut National de l'Histoire de l'Art

unpublished 1902 pamphlet on Catholicism

''Breton Eve'', 1889, ''[[McNay Art Museum

Category:Paintings in the Buffalo AKG Art Museum

File:Paul Gauguin - Copy of Manet's Olympia.jpg

Humbert de Superville, ''Allegory'', 1801, [[Leiden University Library

Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art

File:Humbert de Superville - Allegory.jpg