Last week I was looking for some art in the public domain to print at a local shop. You know how it goes – one minute you're browsing for something specific, the next an Instagram ad for an online art print seller pops up. What started as a simple search quickly turned into an art history journey, leading me to some interesting works. I put them all in a database which I'll keep adding to and will write about here.
Hermann Corrodi's Monks Walk to the Mountain Monastery of Athos captures a serene, almost mystical journey that reminds me of Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose.
Mount Athos is a self-governed monastic state in Greece with a history spanning over a thousand years. It's famous for its strict adherence to ancient monastic traditions. Its most well-known rule is the Avaton, which forbids access to any female, human or animal, to preserve the monastic purity and tranquility. Kaloka.
The painting captures Dresden bathed in ethereal moonlight, creating a contemplative mood that sorta shares a similar meditative quality with Corrodi's Monks Walk to the Mountain Monastery of Athos. This work holds a bit of historical significance because it documents Dresden's skyline a hundred years or so before the devastating bombings of World War II.
Starry Night Over the Rhone predates van Gogh's more famous The Starry Night by about a year and I think I like this more. It's part of the permanent collection of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
J.M.W. Turner reportedly tied himself to a ship's mast during storms to experience their intensity. Looking at this work, I can believe that.
I'll end this set with something a bit lighter.
A Classic with Cheese is a reimagining of Edward Hopper's iconic Nighthawks featuring Bobs Burgers characters. We have a print of this in our apartment.
That's the gallery. Thank you for walking through.
