Orazio Riminaldi, two paintings

Daedalus and Icarus, circa 1620.

Amor Vincitore, 1624.

Orazio Riminaldi (5 September1593, Pisa - 10 December1630, Pisa), Italian painter of the Baroque period.  In Rome he studied with Orazio Gentileschi, under whose influence he painted in a Caravaggist style, but after his return to Pisa, his style became more muted.  He died of the plague at the age of thirty-seven.

Portraits of Leopold I and Margarita Teresa in theatrical costume, by Jan Thomas, 1667

Costumed as Acis for the play "La Galatea".

Leopold I (9 June 1640, Vienna – 5 May 1705, Vienna), Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, the second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor.  Originally intended for the church, Leopold became heir apparent in 1654 by the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV. Elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1658, Leopold would rule as such until his death in 1705.  Leopold's reign is known for the conflicts with the Ottoman Empire in the east, and the rivalry with Louis XIV, a first cousin, in the west.  He was a great patron of music, and was an accomplished composer, himself.  His first marriage, to his niece and cousin Margarita Teresa of Spain, was quite happy and though he, by necessity, married twice more, he was heartbroken at her premature death.

The distinctive Habsburg facial features, the result of rampant inbreeding, are evident in both portraits.

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Costumed for the play "La Galatea".

Margarita Teresa of Spain (12 July 1651, Madrid – 12 March 1673, Vienna), wife of Leopold I, Holy Roman Empress, Queen consort of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. She was the daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, and the elder sister of Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs. She is the central figure in the celebrated Las Meninas by Velázquez, and the subject of many of his later paintings.  She married Leopold - her maternal uncle and paternal cousin - at the age of fifteen.  It appears they were very happy together, sharing a number of interests, especially theatre and music.  But after giving birth to four children - only one of whom survived infancy - and weakened by many miscarriages, Margarita Teresa died at the age of twenty-one.

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Jan Thomas van Ieperen (5 February 1617, Ypres – 6 September 1673, Vienna), Flemish Baroque painter and engraver active in Antwerp and at the Habsburg court in Vienna. Much of his work translates the monumental Baroque style of Peter Paul Rubens into the small format of cabinet painting.  He also made large-scale paintings and mezzotints.

George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover, by Thomas Lawrence, 1823-24

George James Welbore Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover (14 January 1797 – 10 July 1833), only son of the 2nd Viscount Clifden, was a British politician and man of letters.  He served in Parliament between 1818 and 1831, consistently supporting liberal principles.  And he was president of the Royal Society of Literature in 1832, a trustee of the British Museum and of the National Gallery, and a commissioner of public records.  In 1822, he married Lady Georgiana Howard, daughter of the 6th Earl of Carlisle. They had two sons, who became respectively the 3rd Viscount and 5th Viscount Clifden, and two daughters.  Lord Dover predeceased his father, dying at the age of thirty-six.

Garbo and orchids, Mata Hari, 1931

(Two screen captures.)

Saint Sébastien, by Alcide-Joseph Lorentz

Saint Sebastian is one of the most frequently depicted religious/mythological subjects in classical painting - really makes you wonder, doesn't it?  In fact, arrow-riddled, alluringly nekkid Sebastians are so common, that they all start to run together after a while.  But I rather like this one.  Not actually terribly attractive, he looks like a real person, someone who might might make the supreme sacrifice for his beliefs.  The detail of his scattered Centurion's armor and clothing is great, and I love the bleak landscape, especially the toxic sky and the sunset/sunrise's creeping acid light.

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Alcide-Joseph Lorentz (1813-1891?), French painter and lithographer.  He exhibited at the Salon from 1841 to 1850 as a history painter, but is perhaps better remembered as a cartoonist for Parisian periodicals.  (Sadly, I was only able to find this tiny bit of information on the painter.  And only from one source.)

The 3rd and 4th Earls of Dorset, by William Larkin, 1613

Richard Sackville, 3rd Earl of Dorset (18 March 1589, London – 28 March 1624, London), eldest son of Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset. The 3rd Earl is perhaps best remembered as the first husband of Lady Anne Clifford. The marriage was far from successful, not least because of Sackville's repeated infidelities, and his extravagance and indebtedness; he was called "one of the seventeenth century’s most accomplished gamblers and wastrels". None of his three legitimate sons survived their father, and when he died at the age of thirty-six, he was succeeded by his younger brother.

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Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset (1591 - 17 July 1652, London), second son of Robert Sackville, 2nd Earl of Dorset. Notorious in his youth for a a duel in which, though gravely wounded himself, he killed Edward Bruce, 2nd Lord Kinloss. Considered one of the handsomest men of his day, he was an energetic and successful politician and courtier. He was directly involved in the early colonization of North America and, later, he supported the Royalist cause during the English Civil War. After the execution of the King in 1649, the Earl is said to have never again left his home, Salisbury Court, where he died at the age sixty-one. His eldest son, Richard, succeeded him as 5th Earl.

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William Larkin (early 1580s – April or May1619), English painter active from 1609 until his death in 1619, known for his iconic portraits of members of the court of James I.  His work is characterized by a fairly frontal, lightly modeled presentation of his subject, set against an unnaturally raked background, and opulently adorned in embroidery, lace, and jewelry, all meticulously described.  He was the last in a line of a particular strain of English portrait painting that included the later Holbein the Younger and Nicholas Hilliard; writing in 1960, Sir David Piper said of his work, "Artistically, they are a dead end, but they have a strange and fascinating splendour."

Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, four autochromes by Charles Chusseau-Flaviens , circa 1910

Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain (24 October 1887, Balmoral Castle – 15 April 1969, Lausanne), born Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena of Battenberg, Queen Consort of Spain as the wife of King Alfonso XIII. Called by her fourth given name, Ena, by her family and by the British public, she was the second child of Prince Henry of Battenburg and Princess Beatrice, the last-born child of Queen Victoria. Princess Beatrice was her mother's constant companion and personal secretary - the Queen had been extremely reluctant that her daughter should even marry - and Ena and her three brothers grew up in her grandmother's household.

In 1905, the nineteen year old king of Spain made an official visit to England. It was known that he was searching for a suitable bride, and even though there were several strikes against the pretty and blond English princess - her father's un-royal birth, her Protestantism, the strain of haemophilia in her family; one of her three brothers was actually afflicted - the young king would not be dissuaded, and they became engaged. After delicate negotiations between Spain and Great Britain, and with her conversion to Roman Catholicism, they were married 31 May, 1906. A glittering royal gathering attended the festivities in Madrid, but the occasion was marred by an assassination attempt made while the procession was returning to the Royal Palace after the ceremony. From a balcony, an anarchist threw a bomb down at the royal carriage; more than thirty people and several horses were killed, and many more spectators were injured. The royal couple were uninjured, but Ena's wedding dress was spattered with blood, an inauspicious beginning to the marriage and to her life in Spain.

Ena and Alfonso had six children. The first, the heir Alfonso, the Prince of Asturias, and the last, Gonzalo, were both afflicted with haemophilia. Although he had been warned of this possibility, Alfonso never came to terms with the situation, and their marriage quickly deteriorated; the king was also lavishly unfaithful, producing several illegitimate offspring. It was small comfort that she was much lauded for her regal beauty and great style; she was called "the best-dressed queen in Europe". And though Ena worked hard to support charitable institutions, education and, particularly, the Spanish Red Cross, she was never popular in her adopted country. In 1931, as Spain descended into civil war, the royal family went into exile, first in France and then Italy. Ena and Alfonso separated and Ena lived in England before settling in Switzerland; she purchased a chateau, the Vieille Fontaine, outside Lausanne.

Alfonso died in Rome in 1941. Ena returned briefly to Spain - still Franco-controlled, but preparing for a re-establishment of the monarchy - in 1968, to stand as godmother at the baptism of her great-grandson, Infante Felipe, who would become the present crown prince of Spain. She died the following year at the age of eighty-one. In 1985, her remains were returned to Spain and were interred in the Royal Vault of the Escorial, next to those of her husband and three of her sons.

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Charles Chusseau-Flaviens (active 1890s - 1910s), French independent photojournalist.   His distribution of other photographer's work for publication created one of the first photo press agencies, but there appears to be no other available biographical information.

Sacred and Profane Love, two versions, by Giovanni Baglione, circa 1602-1603

The first version, painted for his patron, Cardinal Benedetto Giustiniani.

The second version, in which the demon at left has been given a face; a spiteful caricature of Baglione's great enemy Caravaggio.

Giovanni Baglione (1566, Rome – 30 December 1643, Rome), Late Mannerist and Early Baroque Italian painter - mainly of religious and mythological subjects - and art historian. He is perhaps best remembered for his public rivalry with and libel suit against Caravaggio.

View from Grassi's Villa toward the Plauensche Grund near Dresden, by Karl Ludwig Kaaz, 1807

Karl Ludwig Kaaz (22 January 1773, Karlsruhe - 14 July 1810, Dresden), German painter best known for his landscape paintings.  Born poor, he began his career as a bookbinder, but during a trip to Switzerland, he found an opportunity to follow his artistic inclinations.  He trained as an engraver and later finished his studies at the academy in Stuttgart.  He traveled in Italy for some years, and later married the daughter of portrait painter Anton Graff.

Young Man With Hat, by François-Xavier Fabre, circa 1795-1800

The color!  It's all about the color.  Black, red, yellow.  The background color a blend of the black and yellow.  I love the shiny gold buttons, one reflecting the yellow of the vest, the other the red cloak.

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François-Xavier Fabre (1 April 1766, Montpellier - 16 March 1837, Montpellier), French portraitist and history painter.  He studied in the studio of Jacques-Louis David, and won the Prix de Rome in 1787.  Settling in Florence in 1793, he became a member of the academy there, and was prominent in society as an art teacher, art collector, and art dealer. In 1824 his companion - possibly wife - Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, the Countess of Albany, died and left Fabre her fortune.  Returning to France, Fabre founded an art school in his hometown of Montpellier, to which he donated his books, paintings, and drawings.