El Greco to Velazquez at the Nasher

I recently went to the El Greco to Velazquez exhibit at Duke's Nasher art museum. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and would definitely recommend it. Duke employees can buy tickets for $5 and can get two tickets per ID. It normally costs $20 per ticket, so now is the time to become friends with Duke employees.

I just picked up my copy of Janson (burning 300 calories) and saw that two of the panintings featured in the exhibit are in my old art history textbook. I always think it's pretty cool to see works of art featured in there, right before my very eyes. While I was going through the exhibit, I was certain in a couple of cases that I was staring at the very paintings that I had studied so thorougly in that heavy tome. I was completely wrong, of course. It was two other paintings that were in there, but I still enjoyed the moment.

If you are an artist or appreciate art, you will love the glorious renditions of fabric in these paintings. I love drawing and painting pictures of fabric with all the folds and shadows. The rich colors used in early 17th century Spain were marvelous. These paintings are feasts for your eyes and are quite literally so when you see the still lifes. I tend to think of them as the equivalent of food photography.

Actually, those two paintings that were in my book are also featured in this slideshow from when the exhibit was at its only other location, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, earlier this year. Also, I did study the other paintings I was sure were in Janson, but I obviously paid more attention to my professor's slides, during class. Yes, I'm sure that was it.