The Marketing Environment

No business exists and operates in a vacuum, but as a part and parcel of the environment in which it finds itself. Efficient and effective marketing strategy is a function of the marketing manager's ability to understand the environment in which the business operates.

The marketing environment consists of a set of factors or forces that operate or influence a company's performance in its chosen target market.

Jain (1981:69) defined the marketing environment to include all those factors that may affect the organization directly or indirectly in any perceptible way. Marketing environment factors affects the organization by the way of input and the organizations also affect the environment by output. The relationship between the organization and the marketing environment is often referred to as "inseparable" the organization and it environment are constantly in a state of: give and take" or homeostasis.

The marketing environment consist of those forces or element that impacts on the company's capability to operate effectively in its chosen target market.

The marketing environment is divided into two major components. The elements are,

Internal environment: the internal environment is concerned with the controllable variables. Controllable variables are categorized into two groups, they are; the strategy variables and unmarketable variables. External environment: the external environment is concerned with the uncontrollable variables. These variables are called uncontrollable because the marketing manager cannot directly control any of the elements. The marketing manager is left with the option of adapting to the environment by prompt observation, analysis and forecasting of these environmental factors. The external environment can further be divided into two components, the micro environment and the macro environment.

Micro environment:

The elements that fall under the micro environment consist of forces or factors in the firm's immediate environment that affect the firm's capability to perform effectively in the market place. These forces are suppliers, distributors, customers and competitors. Let us discuss each of the variables in details.

Suppliers:

Suppliers are business customers who provide goods and services to other business organizations for resale or for productions of other goods. The behavior of certain forces in the suppliers can affect the performance of the buying organization positively or negatively. The critical factors here are the number of suppliers and the volume of suppliers to the industry. An audit of the suppliers will enable us to appreciate their strength and bargaining power, which the suppliers hold over the industry as a whole. The answers to the issues concerned have the potentials to affect the capability of firms in the industry to effectively deliver need-satisfying goods and/ or services. The trend today is that buyers attempt to persuade the supplier to provide exactly what the firms want. This process is known as "reverse marketing".

Customers:

Customers are those who buy goods and/ or services produced by the company. In a purchase chain, different people play significant roles before a purchase decision is made. The various influences must be understood. The customer may be the consumer of the products where he/she is the user. The critical factor here is that needs and wants of consumers are not static. They are fast changing. The changes in the preferences of the consumer create opportunities and threats in the market. The changes called for the marshaling of separate strategy to either fit into windows of opportunities or survive the threats in the market. A good knowledge of consumers' behavior will facilitate the design and production of goods and services that the customers need and want, and not what they are able to produce.

Healthy Environment, Healthy Business

What is the difference between living healthy and not living healthy? More importantly, in business, what is the difference between a healthy, productive company and an unhealthy, unproductive company? There actually isn't a very drastic difference in action. There IS a very drastic difference in results. The difference is goals. Small steps in action make a big difference in results.

We've discussed setting goals in the past, but let's go deeper with it to see how small changes lead to big results. It starts with the difference between goals that are supported and goals that are not. As you may be able to tell (by logic or personal experience) goals that are supported are much more likely to be reached.

As I begin work with each of my clients, I see a clear issue that needs to be addressed before anything else. The issue is the environment. I'm not saying that everywhere I go has an unhealthy environment. I just need to ask the question, how healthy is the environment? Often, when we start the conversation it goes something like this:

Client Company: "I want to save money, so how can you help me get my people healthier?"

Me: "First, let's look at what is causing the current health situation." "What are you doing now to support the health goals of your employees?"

The business owner may or may not already be doing some things. Regardless, the point is to ask the question to get the environment at the top of the priorities list. If we know what the issues are and what employees' goals are, now we can start to change the environment that they work in. As we alter the environment, people are able to make changes within it.

It only makes sense to make sure that goals are supported by the environment. No one woke up this morning wanting to be unhealthy and not feel good. We all want to feel good, so if the environment can support this, we all will.

One way to illustrate this is by looking at goals strictly from a business viewpoint. If I ask the question: "What are you doing to support the performance goals of your employees?" it is much clearer for most employers.

The following scenario will illustrate this, but also show how to use what is common practice in business to create new possibilities.

Sales Goals- your company requires each sales rep to close 20 clients per month. You don't care how they do it, between calls, in person meetings, networking, or otherwise, but their goal is twenty clients by month end. If this is to be realistic, you have to look at the time they will be spending and how they will be spending it. If they have 30 hours of internal meetings, it will be difficult for them to devote much time to external communications that will lead to sales. Therefore, this would not be an environment that supported 20 clients for the sales rep. As an owner/manager, you would not set this up because the conflict would be clear.

Health goals are not quite as clear to see in business. That is where I come in! It is easy to say: "Get healthy." It is more challenging to set up an environment that will create and support health. Challenging, yes, but impossible? No. It starts with that simple question:

What can I do to support the health of my employees?

This may lead to more questions, but the answers reveal themselves quickly and clearly. You know your business needs and what each employee needs to do in order to keep things going. The health of your employees is no different. They each have goals and a certain amount of time and energy to devote to them. By creating a realistic sales goal, your sales team is able to work toward it, accomplish it and your company sees the benefit. In order to do this, you need an environment that can support these goals. If your environment doesn't support the goals, your company and everyone in it will suffer.

By creating realistic health goals and an environment that supports them, your employees will be able to work toward these goals and of course, your company sees the benefit. Best of all, your sales goals will improve as well. (See my article: Health Strategy, Appearance and Performance)

How does this happen? Goal setting is a habit. Success is a habit. Anyone that can be successful in one area can also be successful in another. By creating the environment that supports success, your employees and of course, your company will achieve more success. A healthy environment helps you create a healthy business and clearly a healthy business is a successful business.

What Are Your Environments Costing You?

One of the fastest ways to reach your dreams is to change your environment. What are environments? There are many different kind of environments. Physical environment would constitute clearing your physical space. Cluttered space creates clutter thinking.

Spiritual Environment are the envioronments you create to connect with your spiritual side. Some people do it in nature, surrounding themselves with beauty and others do it through meditation and slowing down to listen to the whisper of their souls.

Environments are also the people we spend time with. We look at what we are working on in our lives and then surround ourselves with others who are creating the environments to reach similar goals and intentions. We then have them support us and we support them in order to create harmony and success for both involved.

A couple of examples … If better health is one of your goals, it would make sense to surround yourself with people who value health. Or, if growth and prosperity in your business is your focus, it would be smart to surround yourself with winners—people who are moving forward, inspiring each other and making a difference.

But before you make a decision to change your environment, you need to take certain steps to attract that new environment.

The first step is internal research. Ask yourself, What do I need? What kinds of changes do I need to make in my life?

Let's assume again that one of your goals is to make more money in your business while at the same time making a difference. In that case, look for an environment that can support you in achieving that dream.

The second step is to develop those qualities in yourself that will attract, effortlessly, the environment you are looking for.

For example, to create an environment where you can ask for support, you must be willing to be vulnerable so that others can support you.

Ask yourself, If I put myself in that environment, am I ready to receive support? So many times I have noticed a pattern in women who come to my coaching practice and experience being vulnerable in a safe environment. They are able to take that energy and acceptance and begin creating those same authentic and honest relationships in their other world.

The third step, once you have created the inner qualities that allow you to attract and be in that environment, is to be willing to take a risk.

Yes, making new decisions, meeting new people, stepping up big in your life, are risky! They all require stepping out of your comfort zone. But if your desire is strong enough, you will do what it takes to leap forward toward your big life. When the pain of remaining small becomes too much, you will have no choice. The leap you take doesn't have to be big and scary. It can be small, such as investing in a mastermind group or entering into a relationship with a coach who can support you in creating environments for success. And you don't have to do any of it alone. With a support system in place, you can create new environments easily.

Rosa Bonheur

French painter Rosa Bonheur (1822-99) was "the most internationally renowned woman painter of the mid-nineteenth century."1

Bonheur was one of the most talented and successful painters in the 19th century, she began showing her work in the Paris Salon in 1841 and quickly made a name for herself as a painter of animals with a focus on the domesticated animals of France.  In the 19th century a greater number of women were pursuing art as a career and studying in the École des Beaux-Arts.  Yet it wasn't usually possible for women to draw and paint from the nude model where students would learn anatomy as it was considered morally corrupt. Due to this, female painters of the time often turned to subjects other than figurative history paintings. Mary Cassatt famously painted mothers and children, Cecilia Beaux painted portraits, Berthe Morisot painted scenes of modern Parisian life and Rosa Bonheur focused on painting animals.

While the move away from history painting put limitations on paintings and commissions for women artists, Rosa Bonheur was so skilled at painting animals that she attracted attention at an early age.  By age 26 she received an important commission from the French government to paint her work Plowing in the Nivernais.  Bonheur traveled to the Nivernais region so that she could paint the landscape and oxen accurately.  

Ploughing in Nivernais, Rosa Bonheur, 1849, Musee D'Orsay

The work shows a typical French rural farming theme of the fields being tilled in the autumn.  While her work is part of the Realist movement of Millet, Breton and Courbet, in a sense this rural scene is rather romanticized.  There is a nobility given to both the animals and cowherds.  When she was painting this the influences of the industrial revolution were spreading throughout France and Europe, and this scene pays homage to traditional methods of labor.  

Rosa Bonheur "based the work on a description of oxen in George Sand's celebrated pastoral novel of 1846, La Mare au Diable (The Devil's Pod), on her long study of animals in nature, and on the paintings of Paulus Potter, a Dutch seventeenth-century painter of cows whose work she admired."2  Below is an example of Potter's work; The Bull, Paulus Potter, 1647, The Hague.

Bonheur's painting was widely acclaimed and after it was shown in the 1849 Salon she received numerous other commissions.  She went on to have many well known and influential patrons such as Britain's Queen Victoria and the American millionaire and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt.

The Horse Fair, Rosa Bonheur, 1852-55, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bonheur's most well known work may be her later painting, The Horse Fair, painted from 1852-55.  The painting is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the museum website says of the painting The Horse Fair, "The artist drew inspiration from George Stubbs, Théodore Gericault, Eugène Delacroix, and ancient Greek sculpture: she referred to The Horse Fair as her own "Parthenon frieze."3

More than one version of The Horse Fair exists, after it was exhibited Bonheur painted another version and prior to the finished work she painted several smaller studies.  After exhibiting the work she traveled to England for a while where she enjoyed further success.  She was represented by gallery owner Ernest Gambart who had many of her popular paintings turned into lithographs and published.
 

Bonheur did much of her drawing and painting outdoors (rather than solely in her art studio) and preferred wearing pants to the elaborate dresses that were popular in the mid-19th century, at that time it was necessary to obtain a permit in order for a woman to wear pants in public.  Rosa Bonheur obtained one and was able to move about with ease painting her subjects in their natural setting while wearing pants to do so.  She was considered "radical in her personal life, but artistically and politically conservative, a confirmed monarchist and a realist."4

Rosa Bonheur, André Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, 1861-64, Getty Museum

Rosa Bonheur enjoyed a successful lifelong career, and lived to be 77.  Her work was popular among all classes in society and during her career she became the first woman officer in the Legion of Honor.  It would be no exaggeration to say that most artists painting animals in the 20th century would have been influenced by Bonheur's work.



1 Rosenblum, Robert and H.W. Janson. 19th Century Art. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1984. p. 223.
2 Chadwick, Whitney. Women, Art, and Society. NY: Thames and Hudson Inc. 1990. p. 180.
3 Metropolitan Museum of Art website- http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/435702
4 Chadwick. p. 180.


 

2015-16 Art History Lecture series at Gage

Beginning in Fall, 2015, Gage Academy of Art is proud to present a new series of lectures on art history.  Featuring Gage teaching artists as well as art historians from the Seattle art community, these lectures feature an intimate look inside the artists and movements that helped shape art from the Renaissance through the 20th Century. 

The Creation of Adam, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel Ceiling, 1511-12

I am giving the first lecture on one of my favorite subjects the Sistine Chapel Frescos.  This will include both Michelangelo's ceiling frescos as well as the earlier wall frescos painted by Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Signarelli. 

The Last Supper, Tintoretto, San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, 1592-94

I plan to attend all of the others as I scheduled this new series and am very excited about it.  The artists and art historians who will be speaking are all very knowledgeable and engaging.  I have included links to their websites for many of the presenters.

Here is the schedule, if you live in the Seattle area maybe I will see you there!


Fall 2015
RENAISSANCE & BAROQUE ART
Wednesday
7:00pm-8:00pm

 Oct 21 - CAROL HENDRICKS: The Sistine Chapel Frescos
I will be talking on all three of the fresco cycles, the older wall frescos from the 1480's by painters such as Botticelli, Perugino and Ghirlandaio as well as Michelangelo's famous ceiling frescos and his later Last Judgment on the wall behind the altar.

 Oct 28 - HAMID ZAVAREEI: Venetian High Renaissance Painting: Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto & Veronese
Hamid has taught painting for years at Gage and he has been researching various historic pigments and techniques of the of the Renaissance.

 Nov 4 - GARY FAIGIN: Caravaggio & His Influence
Gage Artistic Director and Co-Founder Gary Faigin is an extremely knowledgeable art historian.  The Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio is one of his favorite topics.



 Nov 18 - REBECCA ALBIANI: Rembrandt: Portrait & Self-Portrait
Rebecca has been lecturing at the Frye Art Museum for years in a very popular sold out lecture series. She was a Graduate Lecturing Fellow at Washington’s National Gallery and a Fulbright Scholar in Venice. She received an MA from Stanford University and a BA from the University of California, Berkeley.

The Conversion of St. Paul, Caravaggio, Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, 1601

Winter 2015
19th TO EARLY 20TH CENTURY ART
Wednesday
7:00pm-8:00pm

 Feb 24 - MIKE MAGRATH: The Sculpture of Lorenzo Bartolini; the Rediscovery of Nature
Mike teaches a variety of sculpting classes at Gage, including the Sculpting Atelier.  He has an MFA from the University of WA and has been creating his own figurative sculptures for years.  I was unfamiliar with the artist Bartolini and after looking into his art I am very excited to personally attend this lecture.



 Mar 2 - RICHARD WEST: Fitz Hugh Lane & the Case for Luminism
Richard West is an expert on 19th Century American painting, he was a long time Gage Trustee and was the Director of the Frye Art Museum from 1994-2003.  Before that West was a scholar and former director of Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Maine; the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; the Newport Art Museum, Rhode Island; and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

 Mar 16 - CHARLES EMERSON: Bonnard & Vuillard
Charles studied with Josef Albers and has been a popular painting instructor at Gage for years.  His lectures are not to be missed!

 Mar 23 - KIMBERLY TROWBRIDGE: Matisse
Kimberly earned her MFA in painting from the University of WA and launched her own Atelier at Gage this fall.  She is one of the most engaging and dynamic speakers.  She says of teaching-
“It is through my desire to communicate with others that I have developed a meaningful lexicon as an artist; recognizing the relationship between my creative and teaching practices has been profound for me in uncovering the role and importance of my audience.”
-Kimberly Trowbridge

Misia at the Piano. Oil on cardboard, Edouard Vuillard, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 1895

Spring 2015
20TH CENTURY ART
Wednesday
7:00pm-8:00pm 

 April 13 - OLIVIA BEAUFAIT: Paul Klee
Olivia is a painter, instructor and arts administrator.  She received her MFA in painting from the University of WA and has shown her work in local art galleries.  She is very interested in modern, contemporary and abstract art and considers Paul Klee to be one of her favorite modern painters.

 April 20 - MICHAEL OTTERSEN: Apollo & Dionysus in the Abstract; comparison of two Dutch artists: Piet Mondrian & Willem de Kooning
Ottersen teaches Abstraction in both drawing and painting at Gage and he has taught at a variety of other schools.  In this talk he will compare and contrast two icons of modern art, both were Dutch but their styles were vastly different.

 April 27 - JULIA RICKETTS: Abstract Expressionism: Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner & Joan Mitchell 
Gage teaching artist Julia Ricketts both works in abstract and teaches classes in abstraction. She studied at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and has been in numerous exhibits.  This lecture is a departure from most on the Abstract Expressionist movement in that it focuses on the talented female artists of that group.

 May 4 - KATHLEEN MOORE: Georgia O’Keefe
Kathleen is a painter and educator who loves landscape painting.  Originally from Texas, Moore has lived in the Seattle area since 1990. She received her BA in art from West Texas A&M University, worked as an art conservation technician while in college and later studied painting atBruchion School in Los Angeles, CA and Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, WA. Georgia O'Keefe is a big influence on her work. 

Fish Magic. Oil and watercolor varnished. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1924

Register online for a single lecture, a quarterly series or the entire 2015-16 program, and delve into the techniques, ideologies and personalities that define art in our world!

Pianos in the Parks 2015

Pianos in the Parks 2015 is here!


Pianos in the Parks is a collaborative project in Seattle and King County parks, it uses the power of art and music to get people out to discover parks, connect with people and have fun.  This is a community effort combining the talents of 22 artists and the vision and efforts of 16 different partner organizations.  This is the 2nd year for Pianos in the Parks and we hope that it will be able to continue.  Last year hundreds of people were inspired to sit in the parks and play the piano, the launching event for this was today and by tomorrow the pianos will all be placed in their temporary new homes in the park. 

The artists from Gage Academy of Art worked in a variety of creative ways to create beautiful and unique pianos.  It took each artist about two weeks to paint and decorate their pianos. I don't have room for photos of all 22 pianos, here are some examples, make sure to look at the rest- in person at each park if possible!

Marina Park Piano by Kate Rose Johnson
and Samuel Johnson

Bellevue Downtown Park
Eye-guy from Outer Space by Vikram Madan



Green Lake Piano
by Brittany Carchano

Monster Piano by Queenie Sunshine
at Luther Burbank Park



Riffing Music Pink & Blue- Homage to O'Keefe
by Kathleen Moor at the Sea-Tac International Airport

Sketchbook by George Jennings in Ballard Commons Park

My piano 'Starry, Starry Notes' located at Seacrest Park

I am happy to be a participating artist this year with my painted piano which is influenced by Van Gogh's painting The Starry Night.

My piano is in West Seattle at Seacrest park which is where the Elliot Bay Water Taxi stops.


I have always loved The Starry Night, and was excited to use that as my inspiration for this.  I wrote about Starry Night in an earlier blog post from August 2012, here is an excerpt-

"In the blue depths the stars were sparkling, greenish, yellow, white, pink, more brilliant, more sparklingly gemlike than at home - even in Paris."1

So wrote Vincent Van Gogh while he was in Saint-Rémy during the time when he painted his famous painting, The Starry Night.  Van Gogh created this, one of his most famous works of art and a favorite of mine, in June of 1889 about a month after he moved to the mental asylum in the small town of Saint-Rémy outside of Arles where he had been living.  While Van Gogh was there he painted constantly, taking his inspiration from the views out of his window and the countryside around him. 

The Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, 29 x 36 1/4" (73.7 x 92.1 cm)

Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York

Art Historian Robert Rosenblum wrote of Van Gogh:

"Of the many marvels that make up Van Gogh's genius, one is his uncanny capacity to project his total visual and emotional attention into anything he painted, animate or inanimate, so that a shoe, a sunflower, a chair, a book could carry as much weight as the image of a human being."2

This statement is also true of his landscapes.  Van Gogh's night sky does seem to vibrate and swirl with its own personality and the vivid hues of the stars, sky, moon and cypresses have a near anthropomorphic quality lacking in the landscapes of the French Impressionists whose work influenced his style.

In the town (which is imagined) the only building to rise above everything is the church with its steeple touching the sky.  That same form is echoed in the foreground with the shape of the cypress trees also touching the heavens. Van Gogh trained as a preacher and spent time working as a minister in Belgium before his artistic career. 

 The Starry Night, pen and ink drawing, Vincent Van Gogh, 1889, 18.5 x 24.5"

Museum of Architecture, Moscow

Van Gogh loved to draw also and frequently sketched out drawings first of works he would later paint in oils.  The pen and ink drawing Van Gogh did of this painting is strikingly similar, however he did make a few alterations in his final painted work. 

Yet he managed to create the same feeling of vibrant swirling movement in his drawing and creates a work of art which is far from the quiet and serene landscape one would imagine when picturing a starry night in a small rural town.

While Van Gogh's The Starry Night is a unique style of landscape painting, he included the night sky in a few of his other works.  Vincent Van Gogh was known to have painted outside with candles placed in his hat so that he could see to work at night.  In a letter to his sister during the same month that he painted this view of the Rhône at night, Vincent wrote:


"Often it seems to me night is even more richly coloured than day."3


Never does this statement seems to be more true then when viewing Van Gogh's nighttime landscape paintings. 

1 Feaver, William. Van Gogh, The Masterworks. New York: Portland House. (1990) p. 41. 
2 Rosenblum, Robert and H.W. Janson. 19th-Century Art. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (1984) p. 414.
3 Musée d'Orsay website, La nuit étoilée.

10 Hidden Self Portraits

A tradition emerged in the Renaissance for the painter to hide a self portrait of themselves in the background of the painting.  Let's look at ten examples of this.

#1- Raphael in The School of Athens

Raphael painted this fresco in the papal apartments at the Vatican at the same time that Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel.  The pope at the time was Pope Julius II and he was having Raphael paint a series of large paintings in all the Papal apartments.

Raphael, School of Athens, 1509-10, Stanza della Segnatura, Papal Apartments, Vatican Museum

The fresco, now known as The School of Athens, shows a variety of famous figures in a classical setting.  Raphael used several of his contemporaries who were artists to represent famous ancient Greek scholars, philosophers, scientists and mathematicians. Among them (circled in red below) are Leonardo da Vinci in the center, Michelangelo seated and a self portrait of Raphael at the far right.

Raphael is looking out at the viewer in a hidden self-portrait, a style that already had a long history in the Renaissance as we can see in some earlier examples.

#2- Lorenzo Ghiberti in The Gates of Paradise

Lorenzo Ghiberti's beautiful bronze set of doors, his second set for the Baptistery of Florence which hung on the east side were dubbed 'The Gates of Paradise' by fellow Florentine Michelangelo.  The viewer would primarily be paying attention to any of the ten large biblical scenes portrayed on the doors.  However Ghiberti actually hid two small self-portraits of himself in the decoration between the large panels. 



The first was a portrait of himself as he looked at the current time, and the second was of him as a young boy looking towards a small portrait of his mother.

Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, Florence Baptistery, 1425-52

Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, Florence Baptistery, 1425-52

Andrea Mantegna, The Meeting, Camera degli Sposi, Mantua, 1465-74

Detail with Self-Portrait

#3- Andrea Mantegna in the Camera degli Sposi

Andrea Mantegna is perhaps best known for his 'Camera degli Sposi' (Wedding Chamber) also known as the 'Camera Picta' (Painted Room) in the Ducal Palace in Mantua.  The rooms has frescos along the walls and the ceiling.  Just as Ghiberti did, Mantegna hid a small self portrait among the decorative bands.  Both the painted wall showing the well known meeting scene and a detail of the decorative band are shown above.


#4-  Botticelli in The Adoration of the Magi

Botticelli painted more than one version of the Adoration of the Magi, this one was painted in 1475.

Botticelli, Adoration of the Magi, Uffizi Museum, 1475

Botticelli is thought to be the figure at the far right, looking out at the viewer as seen in the detail below.  Just as in the later Raphael painting the figure is at the far right, and rather than taking part in the action of the painting he is staring out to the viewer's space.  This is a style that would be repeated by other Italian Renaissance painters.

Detail of Botticelli's Self-Portrait in the Adoration of the Magi

#5- Fillipino Lippi in The Dispute with Simon Magus

Lippi, The Dispute with Simon Magus (1481–1482) Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence

The Dispute with Simon Magus (1481–1482) is a fresco in the Brancacci Chapel in the Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, Italy.  The Brancacci Chapel is famous for being the chapel where Masaccio and Masolino first used one point perspective in painting.  The frescos all show scenes from the life of St. Peter.  Lippi studied under Botticelli and this self-portrait has several similarities in the way it is portrayed as Botticelli's in the Adoration of the Magi.

Detail of Lippi self-portrait in The Dispute with Simon Magus in the Brancacci Chapel

#6- Michelangelo in The Last Judgement 

The Last Judgement was painted in 1537-41, he started painting it in the Sistine Chapel 25 years after he had finished painting his famous ceiling frescos.  The act of painting in fresco, especially at the enormous scale of the Sistine Chapel left the artist feeling worn out and drained.  He lets the viewer know as much by including a hidden, and rather grotesque, self-portrait as the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew.  St. Bartholomew is sitting on a cloud just below and to the right of Christ and is holding his flayed skin as a symbol of his own martyrdom. 

Michelangelo, The Last Judgement, 1537-41, Sistine Chapel, Vatican

#7- Sofonisba Anguissola in Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola 

This work dates from the late 1550's and is less a hidden self-portrait than a unique variant on other self portraits.  This painting both showed her own self-portrait and showed the fact that a well known artist had painted her.  However it was extremely clever as it wasn't presented as a straight self-portrait.  The artist even convincingly uses two painting styles to differentiate a person from a painted person.

Anguissola, Bernardino Campi Painting Sofonisba Anguissola, 1550's,

#8- Pontormo in the Deposition of Christ from the Cross

Pontormo, Deposition of Christ, 1525-28, Santa Felicita, Florence

What is interesting about Pontormo is that he used his own face to model the majority of his faces on, so there are echos of his features in several figures in both this work and others.  Just as in several of his Florentine Renaissance predecessors he paints himself at the far right and looking out at the viewer. 

This painting is from 1525-28 and was painted in the new style of Mannerism which followed the Italian High Renaissance and was inspired by Michelangelo. 

9- Caravaggio in David with the Head of Goliath 

This painting done in 1609–1610 has another type of grotesque hidden self-portrait.  Caravaggio painted in his own features as those of the severed head of the giant Goliath.  We know that Caravaggio, whose given name was Michelangelo Merisi, was inspired by Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling since the famous gesture of Adam in the ceiling fresco show up in his Calling of St. Matthew.  Perhaps he was also influenced by his macabre self-portrait from the Last Judgement when he painted this hidden self-portrait.

Caravaggio, David with the Head of Goliath, 1609-10, Borghese Gallery, Rome

 

10- Velázquez in Las Meninas

Diego Velázquez, Las Meninas, 1656, The Prado, Madrid

Velázquez painted Las Meninas in 1656 while he was the royal court painter for the King of Spain, King Philip IV.  This is one of the best known and most analyzed paintings in art history.  The subject of the work is the princess, Infanta Margarita Teresa and her attendants.  However there are several figures hidden in the painting and the most prominent of those is the painter himself, in partial shadow working at his easel to the left.

The reason that he has included himself in this work has been often discussed, is this a type of artistic calling card, a way to show his importance at court, does he feel he is part of the royal family or is he simply painting a realistic version of all that goes on in the day to day life in the royal court?  Maybe he knows he is creating a slight illusion for the viewer and is giving us a puzzle to sort out.

There are many more hidden self portraits in art history, a clever way for the painter to leave their mark upon their work and include themselves in the interesting scenes they portray.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace

One of the most majestic sculptures ever created is the Winged Victory of Samothrace.  This is truly one of my favorite works of art and I was fortunate enough to have recently seen it when I visited the Louvre while in Paris.


Though the figure is missing both its head and arms it has long been considered to be one of the most moving and inspirational works in the world.

Perhaps the fact that the sculpture is missing key pieces only adds to the Romantic nature of the ancient work, giving it more of a sense of mystery.  The motion of both the wings and the dress billowing in the wind give the work an awe-inspiring element.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, 200-190 BC, marble,  Louvre, Paris

It was discovered in 1863 by French archaeologist, Charles Champoiseau and within 20 years was brought to the Louvre museum in Paris.  It was found on the Greek island of Samothrace, and is thought to have been created around 200-190 BC. The dating is uncertain but the work has many of the characteristics attributed to Hellenism, the period after Alexander the Great ruled. Alexander's military campaign brought Greek influences east and eastern artistic influences to Greece. Some of the hallmarks of the Hellenistic style include art that is dramatic, theatrical and emotional.  Sculptural poses are typically filled with movement, the figures created showed a wide range of real people rather than just focusing on the idealized beauty of the earlier Greek Classical age.

The Winged Victory, or Nike, was created to stand on the prow of a ship, also sculpted in marble.  The Nike is in an off-white parian marble and the ship in a darker gray lartos marble which came from Rhodes.  The Nike herself is just over 8 feet tall and her place on the ship's prow adds to the height of the work.

In Greek and Roman mythology, the Nike was the Goddess of victory, she was shown as being a winged figure who would fly down from Mount Olympus.  While the Winged Victory of Samothrace is the most well-known depiction, as well as being the largest, many smaller scale figurines and statues of Nike were sculpted in the ancient world.  The main characteristics of the goddess were wings and usually a sense of landing or alighting.

This inspirational work is thought to have commemorated a naval victory, though there are a few theories on which navy and which battle.  One thought was that since the base is from marble found in Rhodes and their army was renowned, it was a Rhodian naval victory. Another theory is that it was related to a Macedonian victory since stylistically it was closer to Macedonian art.

Rather than being in one of the many art galleries in the museum, the Winged Victory sits at the top of a large staircase which provides a perfect vantage point from which to view it.  It is positioned just outside of the Grand Gallery which houses all the Italian Renaissance paintings.  The visitor's view of the work as they climb the staircase only adds to the majestic feeling of the sculpture.

While it is now possible to walk around the sculpture and see it from all sides, it was meant to sit in a niche carved into a hillside which overlooked a temple complex known as the Sanctuary for the Great Gods, and was possibly meant to be seen from one side since the left side is more polished than the right.  Emory University  has done extensive research and excavations of the site at Samothrace including recreating what the Sanctuary would have looked like and how the Winged Victory would have originally been seen. 

During my visit I took several photos to post on my blog, but it is hard to capture the true beauty and monumentality of this work in a photograph. 

The statue has recently been unveiled after a year long conservation process by the museum.

The Winged Victory of Samothrace has inspired countless artists and visitors to the Louvre, much as it must have inspired those who saw it when it was first created in the 2nd century AD.