I really enjoyed our visit to the MET. I was, and still slightly am, unfamiliar with many of the Old Masters, and I had no idea that certain styles and images were common across countries and eras, such as the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. One of my favorite pieces from the Baroque period has to be the last one we all saw: Rubens, his wife Helena Fourment, and their son Peter Paul, by artist Peter Paul Rubens. The image itself is rather large and adds to its eye-catching quality. I like how the tour guide pointed out the triangular format of the figures, all centering around Helena. It is obvious to us how much Rubens loved his wife; the way he uses a luminous white/creamy pearl as her skin tones literally makes her glow and sparkle, making her seen angelic.
Some of the other paintings I enjoyed were also by Rubens, and I realized that his style incorporated animals and nature into settings along with humans. There is also a split contrast between mortal and divine and light and dark, as in Venus and Adonis. The amount of detail he put into painting fabrics and textures is also something to be amazed by.
My favorite painting of the evening however was from an adjacent gallery: Magic Scene with Self-Portrait by Pieter van Laer. It seemed like something that should not fit in..one of these things is not like the other…The artist was not somber and calm faced; he wore a face distorting scream, with stained cheeks and horror stricken eyes you can almost sense the presence of the devil creeping over you. The various spell books and strange bottles lying around aren’t typical objects found in paintings of the era, and I enjoyed seeing it surrounded by paintings of stiff looking ladies and gentlemen and scenes of divine intervention. This is way darker.
-Laura Ayala
