Caravaggio at the Kimbell

Art History 2/History of Art & Design II students might be interested in the Kimbell Art Museum's new blockbuster show, Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome, which started yesterday.

Caravaggio was an absolute master at manipulating light and shadow, as well as creating the most dramatic of all possible interpretations of any biblical passage that inspired him--such as the Sacrifice of Isaac, above (1594-96), now usually housed in Florence's Uffizi Gallery.

For a review of the exhibition, see Scott Cantrell's article in the Dallas Morning News from last Sunday.

The upcoming formal analysis essay assignment provides as good an excuse as any to head to Fort Worth for this chance to see Caravaggio's work, and that of his contemporaries. His enormous influence is well represented in this show.

Paleolithic Children's Art

On my way home from work during the break, I heard about this cave, and these "finger flutings" on PRI's The World. Marco Werman interviewed an archaeologist (Jessica Cooney) who's been working in the "Cave of the Hundred Mammoths" in Rouffignac, Dordogne region, France--in the same general area as Lascaux Cave.

One of the things old folks like me actually enjoy is learning stuff we don't already know--and this was certainly a new one on me! I had never heard of Rouffignac, let alone the Mammoth drawings--nor anything called finger flutings (trailing fingers in damp clay to make designs).

I'll be bringing this up in the Art & Design I and Art History I classes this week, but thought some of you who are already beyond these classes might also enjoy learning something new.